A rather simple TBS game
Woohooo, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings! What the hell is it!?!
Well it's a turn based strategy game for the Nintendo DS. It's a turn based version of the real time Age of Empires II for the PC. If you don't know what a turn based strategy game is, just think of chess. Players take turns moving their units, and that's pretty much it.
So how good is this? Well, it's good. It's not anything extraordinary, it's definitely no Advance Wars. It's also a rather simple game, it's set in medieval times so you don't have the huge assortment of different units like in a TBS set in modern times, rather you get infantry, cavalry, archers, siege, and that's it. Its simplicity is not necessarily a bad point, it makes the learning curve a lot easier to swallow compared to something like Advance Wars, however it hurts the game in the long run. All of the nations have pretty much the same units with a few differences, with the main difference coming in the form of the hero character (Joan of Arc for the french, Genghis Khan for the mongols, etc.) at your disposition, and even then it's not that different from one hero to another. I'd say that this game is great in the beginning, but when you get about halfway through you'll have been using the same units over and over in many similar scenarios, and it just starts to get old. Before that though, it's quite interesting.
From a technical point of view, the graphics do their job but they aren't anything to write home about. The music is good...but there's only one looping song per nation, and it quickly gets on your nerves. And like stated earlier, the gameplay is solid but that's it.
Would I recommend the game? Not sure, it's fun while it lasts but it seems like it would be quite a chore to actually finish this game all the way through. Worth a try if you're fan of history and if you find the game in the discount bin.
