Age of Empires: The Age of Kings review

Age of Empires for the DS is based, as the box says, on the PC title Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings. It is a turn based strategy game, it looks very pretty, makes good use of the DS tech, and it is huge. It has negative issues here and there, but not many, and none that should stop DS owners from snapping this up.

Playing AoE on the DS is a refreshing trip back into the PC past, but not in a bad way. Indeed, the way the late 1990’s classic has been boiled down and its essence injected into the DS is to be admired and, to be blunt, should be held up as an object lesson for other companies to learn from. I hope the incoming DS version of Settlers follows AoE’s example.

Campaign

Firing up the game in single player, and opting for the Campaign mode, you are presented with the chance to play one of five different civilisations led by five different Heroes – Joan of Arc (the Franks), Minamoto Yoshitsume (the Japanese), Genghis Khan (the Mongols), Saladin (the Saracens) and that famous Frenchman Richard the Lionheart (the Britons). Each gets about half a dozen missions based (very) loosely on actual history.

Technically, Joan of Arc’s missions represent the tutorial and are listed as easy. I admit I was being a little careless, but I got handed my hat on two occasions on the easy level, so this is one game where you can’t take the AI too much for granted at the start. After a while, you’ll learn which units your opponent prioritises in its threat ranks and this can allow you to set traps and get yourself out of nasty scrapes, but that’s part of the joy of these games. There are more than 65 units to get the hang of, so you’ll be there a while.

Huge Challenge

Speaking of which, it was mentioned earlier that this game is huge. The Joan of Arc tutorial took more than a week of two forty minute train journeys a day to get through. The game is so absorbing that I found myself resenting the end of those trips to and from work, and there were a couple of evenings where eight o’clock suddenly became nearly twelve o’clock and my long-suffering wife was already abed. Ooops.

Once through Campaign mode, assuming you don’t go after the may side mission bonuses each main mission presents you with, you’ll be presented with the Empire Maps. There are 35 of these (some 15 of them unlockable using points awarded in other games), but they are a little limited due to their oddly small size.

A Few Problems?

In fact, once you get your head around the fact that AoE is going to last you a very long time, you start to notice the limitations. The resources to be managed in the game number exactly two – gold and grain. Everything takes a day to train, build or to research, taking some of the strategy out of that aspect of the game. There are four Ages to advance through, with each age offering new buildings and units, though most of these are simply slightly tougher versions of ones you’ve already got. Oh, and the AI opponents can take an age to make their decisions. Having said that, the game is still entertaining enough that these can be passed off as niggles rather than outright faults.

The graphics certainly make for a pretty front end to the game. Once into the action, the top screen displays the unit or terrain you’ve highlighted (along with relevant stats) and natty little battle displays where each arrow hit or sword strike really look like they connect. The PC roots of the game extend to the isometric ‘3-D’ look for the lower screen display of the battlefield, and it doesn’t work on the DS.

Confusion on the Battlefield

The main issue I have with the game is that the units, even with their team colours, lack individuality. Put more than two close together (and you will have battles where many units clump together in and around buildings) and you will be hard pressed to tell them apart and to select them with the stylus. Sacrificing the intuitive stylus controls for the clunky keys is an irritation. Accidentally moving the wrong unit and then accidentally finishing their turn instead of taking back the move is very annoying. All of that could have been solved by an overhead viewpoint. Even making it optional would be nice.

Multiplayer options are available both over wireless and even on one console, swapping it back and forward between turns. Up to four players can engage in battles that will see them waiting for ages while their opponents decide what to do. Being able to chat over the wireless link would have made this wait more palatable.

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings feels somehow friendlier than Advance Wars did on the DS. Of the two, I’d have to say that AoE is the better game for those new to the genre or new to the DS. Mind you, there’s enough on offer that separates the playing styles required for each game to make it quite easy to recommend a strategy fan picks up both titles.