October 15, 1997: Age of Empires released
This year, Age of Empires is officially old enough to drive! This now-prominent and highly successful series of real-time-strategy games by Ensemble Studios and Microsoft, saw first light sixteen years ago. In Age of Empires, players sought to develop and nurture a civilization from primitive stages through more advanced historical ages — Stone, Tool, Bronze, and Iron. It was released at a time when games like Civilization and Warcraft set the stage for online multiplayer games, and it was often compared to the two. It was a fairly large and deep game that offered players the chance to navigate among different campaigns and scenarios revolving around ancient history in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Since its original release, Age of Empires has seen numerous sequels, the latest of which, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, was released earlier this year.
How do you think Age of Empire compares to other RTS games; and what are your experiences with the game? Talk to us about it in the comment section.
I loved the Age of Empires series so much. While it never soaked up as much time as Civilization did, I love its simplicity. If I could just find something in between it and Civ 5 in terms of depth, then I may actually be brave enough to play humans.
I’ve watched one of the Civilization games in play, but not Age of Empires. Been told multiple times that I (or just gamers in general) should try invest in at least one of these world-building games, but they require a decent amount in time investment up front, yes? Someday, maybe.
Age of Empires is a lot simpler, by far, but it is all real time so it takes precision and preplanning. If Civilization is chess, Age of Empires is checkers.
Ah, checkers is definitely more my speed! Good to know.
The first Warcraft i still rate is the best, I really loved that game. Only RTS that I ever finished.
Not the right place, but I found Caesar to be quite good as well. Started off basic and then got progressively complicated as the levels went on. Kick ass game though.
“Caesar?” Is that a game, or part of AoE? Terrible that I don’t know….
It was one of those sierra games as well, where you were working for Caesar and you had build up Rome. The first couple of levels were just getting the city going, setting up water supplies, housing, markets, trade routes, road and then you would have to start defending yourself against barbarians and stuff. I was addicted to that game.
Ah, cool. Sierra had quite the awesome games back in the day!