Simplicity is the key to Age of Empires.
Age of Empires is one of those games thats so addicting and fun on the surface, that you don't realize that there are quite a few problems within. Not at first, anyways. But the overall feel and simplicity of the game is what makes you able to overlook the problems become immersed nonetheless.
As I mentioned before, Simplicity is the key to Age of Empires. The interface is extremely well done and easy to get used to. You'll be creating villagers, gathering resources, constructing buildings, and training an army before you know it, and it is this simple style of gameplay that grows on you and refuses to let you go. But only a few hours into the gameplay, you begin to notice some tiny issues and one very big one.
The first issue is the enemy AI. It is extremely intelligent. In a deathmatch, you can sometimes be attacked before your able to even start creating an army. And while it does make a game challenging and strategic, it leads to a lot of aggravating and unfair gameplay. And that leads us to the biggest issue in the game: The maximum population limit of 50.
That's right. Whether your playing the campaign or deathmatch modes, you can't create any more than 50 units in your population. So lets say you have 24 villagers gathering resources, thats 6 for gold, 6 for stone, 6 for wood, and 6 for food. That only leaves you room for 26 warriors in your army. The population limit along with the extreme enemy AI makes deathmatch nearly impossible to win. Its very frustrating, but it definitely makes you think even more strategically and plan every move you make carefully.
Age of Empires is overall a very fun and rewarding game. It's not the classic it could of been, but when you have gameplay as addictive and complex as this, it hardly matters. You've still got a great game.
