$0.00
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Pros
Free to play. Addicting. Easy to learn. Supports a wide variety of hardware.
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Cons
Paid premiums can accumulate quickly. Limited launch options available. Early levels can be a slog. Won't challenge players of "serious" RTS games. Available only for PC.
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Bottom Line
Being able to play a game as elaborate and detailed as Age of Empires Online for free is tantalizing, and novice gamers especially will find a lot to enjoy in it. But if you want a really in-depth experience, money and patience will be required.
Massively multiplayer online games have certainly changed a lot since World of Warcraft ignited a revolution in 2004, and though that title long ago moved from “phenomenon” to “fact of life,” its effects still ripple across the Internet. Even a game as apparently dissimilar as Age of Empires Online feels like something of an adaptation. World of Warcraft is a hack-and-slash RPG and Age of Empires Online a semi-historical real-time strategy (RTS) romp, but both are aimed at casual-to-low-key players, both have friendly control systems and even friendlier hands guiding you along the initial stages, and both are (to some degree) free to play. Not all of these characteristics are beneficial to Age of Empires Online, the latest chapter in the popular series that began in the late 1990s, and dropping a few bucks on the game is the easiest way to ensure more pleasure and playability. Still, it’s professionally done, fun, and sufficiently addictive, though you shouldn’t expect it to inspire long-lasting gaming cravings.
Installation and Setup
Because Age of Empires Online is only available for the PC, and because it’s being published by Microsoft (Gas Powered Games is the developer), it’s not surprising that you’re expected to acquire the game by using the Games for Windows Marketplace. (You can also buy a boxed copy—with some extras, listed below—for about $20.) Just sign in with your Windows Live ID, install the Marketplace client, and then download the game. I obtained the basic package across a home DSL connection in just a few minutes, though the updating procedure, which occurs when the game is launched, took upwards of an additional half an hour.
View All Once the game is set up, you need to choose which civilization you want to play. At launch, there are only the Greeks and the Egyptians, both offering essentially equivalent game play. You’ll be asked to name your capital city, and then you’re taken directly to it—though at this early point it looks more like a capital village. But that’s okay: This game is all about development and expansion.
Early Explorations
Both of those kick off in earnest once you click on a “Quest Giver.” In the World of Warcraft tradition, these inhabitants of your capital have exclamation points over their heads and are waiting to give you a chance to prove your mettle. Once you accept a quest, you can click on a button in the upper-right corner of your screen to open a Quest Map, which displays the full ancient world in context. Select the quest if it’s associated with your current city, or find the proper city and travel there, then click the Begin Quest button to get going.
Completing a quest typically involves performing one or activities, occasionally within a specific time frame. Combat is the big one: Mow down raiders who are threatening your village, or raze their settlement to the north so yours in the south can prosper. You may be required to build a certain structure or cultivate a certain number of resources before you reach the victory condition. Or your job might be to track down the friendly folks behind enemy lines and guide them back to your borders alive. All in all, this is pretty standard stuff.
But novice players may not have much background with the resource acquisition and allocation elements that are so crucial. You must acquire and/or manage food, wood, gold or stone, and people. The last may be the most complicated. At the start of each quest you’ll be given a small number of villagers you can put to work doing things like chopping lumber or erecting buildings, and you can “create” more by clicking on your Town Center and sacrificing some food and a people point. Each villager uses one point, so your number of subjects can grow quickly—or, perhaps, slowly, as people points are also used up in creating new military units (and these can sometimes use more than one person per unit). Because increasing your number of people points means building new houses, balancing the “human” resources with the “natural” resources becomes one of the game’s most enduring challenges.
