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Age of Empires Online is a mix of multiplayer online game and rts (real time strategy) released by Microsoft Studios, which puts the player in the role of the head of an ancient civilization. Game effectively mixes its conventional real-time strategy gameplay with massively multiplayer online game style loot and rpg leveling system. Most of gameplay center on questing, upgrading capital city, and exciting PvP.
AoE – Age of Empires!
Aside from playing with your capital city, most of the gameplay can be played with another gamer, which is adding a lot of fun, during PvE. Playing co-op mode it’s one of the most exciting part of the game and I recommend playing with someone, if it’s possible. However, game has some bugs and can be laggy, complicating this very cool feature. We have 4 resource types to collect, 4 ages to advance through, and quests that range from “collect 250 wood” to “save 2 kids while defeating angry neighbor (computer controlled)”.
The gameplay itself will seem familiar to most; it starts with a massive deal of base building, just like in other multiplayer online games. Secondly getting up a balanced economy has been, for as long as Age of Empire subsists, a significant part of its gameplay and Age of Empire Online is similar to previous AoE games – so we need specific % of villagers. Of the beginning of the map, we need very fast around 10-15, and later max 30. Theoretically to create balanced economy we need around 25% villagers/total population. Maps also have random treasure chests filled with resources you’ll be able to use in your capital city after the game, always guarded, and sometimes in very odd places. Even so, it’s worthy to eliminate guards and take goodies with you!
Quests and items
Each quest is giving us an opportunity to complete a variety of tasks, from beating up enemies, to specific NPC in exchange for capital city rewards, resources, gold and Empire points (currency used in special stores). After playing a lot of mmorpg games, I’m sensitive with the matter of Auction House (or equivalent), when we are playing with other players there is always problem of trade. There is no easy way to trade items with others, because there’s no auction house or anything similar. Its forces players to use chat, but channel doesn’t let us include links of items that we want to sell. I guess developer should add this feature in the future, to improve this part of the game.
Items are very important and are truly unbalancing the game, with premium accounts unlocking most powerful items, our units can get 50% damage bonus, 60% hit points bonus etc, (even villagers can be given better tools to make them more efficient at gathering!). It’s making PvP unbalanced, which is common in most of free online multiplayer games. We’ve seen the rise of the free to play market over years and one element has always stood out: micro-transactions. Age of Empires Online has “premium” account. After buying it, we unlock the entirety of a civilization’s tech tree, powerful magical equipment, unique buildings for our capital cities and more cool features.
(Age of Empires Online official trailer)
Pros
+ Cartoonish graphics
+ Good sound effects & music
+ Some great rpg features – items for units, experience points and more!
+ Basic (free to play) version is large – we can play hours without spending any money
+ Overall quality
+ Good, old Age of Empires is back!
Cons
- Lags in co-op mode
- Quests can be repetitive
Summary
Age of Empires Online is very well done, fun multiplayer online game for free, for casual and strategy enthusiasts. Developers, created exciting and entertaining product, and even if we play in free version, game is large enough to spend more than several hours with it. At the moment there are only 2 civilizations: the Greeks and the Egyptians. If you are PvP seeking player, you should forget about PvP unless you’re ready to dish out at least 20$ for the premium civilization. To unlock full game, you need to pay more and free to play isn’t so free after all. Age of Empire Online is still worth to check out, with cute graphics, overall gaming experience and lot of goodies, available in basic version of the game.
Other information
System requirements
OS – Win XP SP3/Vista/Ultimate/Windows 7
CPU – Dual Core 2Ghz or higher
Graphic card – 128 MB Shader 2 supported card or higher
RAM – Win XP SP3/Vista Home Basic – 1GB; Vista Premium, Ultimate/Windows 7 (32 bit) – 1.5GB; Windows 7 (64 bit) – 2.5GB
HDD – 5 GB free space
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