So, recently, I decided to go back to the roots of the AoE series and play the first Age of Empires, the one that was released by Microsoft way back in 1997. In fact, I also grabbed hold of the expansion pack, Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome. Old school games don't really tick me off like many other players today. The main concern is that the graphics of these old games are terrible, especially since we're spoiled by great graphical achievements such as Crysis. But, as most old school gamers would tell you, it's the gameplay that makes playing these old games worthwhile.

The gameplay of AoE certainly makes the game worthwhile. The real-time strategy feel that the other AoE games are based on marks the foundation for the whole game. The maps aren't terribly large, which is in fact a good thing. The mechanics of the gameplay revolve around the economy and the military. Your economy is determined largely by how much food, wood, gold, and stone your civilization has garnered. You get food from hunting, harvesting, fishing or farming. Getting wood is pretty straightforward: just chop down a ton of trees. You have to mine for stone. Gold is bit more interesting. You have the option to mine gold, but there is generally a very low supply of gold ore. Overseas trade allows a civilization to trade food, wood, or stone for gold.

Miners are carrying gold back to the town center.

The military is vital for victory. Fortunately, different maps require different tactics. On one map, you may want to control the seas before expanding your army. Another level might force you to tactfully use a small infantry force to overcome a larger enemy. And of course, there are those levels where you just have to create the largest army and utterly overpower your opponent. Land troops can be divided into four groups. You have your basic melee infantry, your ranged units, your cavalry, and finally your artillery. Villagers can also be recruited to fight, although it's not recommended. The ships in the game can be classified into four groups: fishing boats, traders, transport, and of course the war ships. Overall, the units are very balanced. If you have the Rise of Rome expansion, it gives you a few more units to play with.

Two armies fire at each other across a river.

Before I move on, I want to cover the different modes you can play on really quick. As a gamer, I usually stick to the campaign modes of most games. I only play multiplayer for a few games (like COD4 or BF2). I refuse to play scenario or freestyle modes. But, these modes are available for AoE, for anyone interested.

Moving on to graphics. The game is 2D and all the animations are pre-rendered. Even so, the visuals are so well put, the game has a very 3D-like atmosphere. Compared to other games of its era, the graphics of AoE has aged fairly well. Sure, the units are pixelated even at the game-maxed 1024x786 resolution, but large amounts of animations make up for it.

The music in the game won't compare to Final Fantasy or anything, but the tunes won't be the worst music you'd have ever listened to. My biggest problem with music, however, is that it's MIDI, so it sounds very rendered and mechanical. The sounds of the game, on the other hand, are decent. Each unit and building has its own sounds.

There is one thing that will really hinder you from completely enjoying this game: the AI. First off, the pathfinding in the game is less than optimal. If you get the latest patch, you'll see that Microsoft has given us a few options to get pathfinding work better. Units are prone to get stuck, especially when you got them all crowded. The enemy AI will also make you frustrated. I wouldn't call the enemy AI stupid; they will give you a good fight, but there are times when enemies simply fail to fight back. Sometimes, enemy villagers are so focused on getting resources that they walk straight into your units.

I didn't cover everything in this post: I haven't wrote about the different factions you play as, buildings and wonders, and the expansion pack. This is partly because I still have to finish playing it. In any case, you can download the trial at the AoE website: www.microsoft.com/games/empires/.