From Empires to Kings

Welcome to Re-Wind

A couple years ago, when the original Age of Empires was released, it had become very apparent that companies other than Blizzard and Westwood were having trouble making good RTS games. A lot of bad pretenders flooded the market, prompting many gaming publications to rant and rave against the wave of clones and "Warcraft/C&C wannabes." RTS players were frustrated as well. Games like Warwind and Enemy Nations promised a lot but just didn't seem to pull through with anything new or compelling that was actually fun. The fact is that players didn't really want Warcraft 2 or Command & Conquer in new clothes - we wanted something new with great gameplay all its own. A small developer called Ensemble Software answered the call with Age of Empires.

A row of mid-eastern houses

A castle and bombard towers - oh my!

At first a lot of people were skeptical, primarily because AOE was packaged with Microsoft's name. Back in those days, the Microsoft Games division was still trying to find its way. AOE would be one of the first to break the trend of sub-par MS games. The first thing you noticed about the original Age of Empires was the graphics. AOE in its time had undoubtedly the most breathtaking graphics of any RTS game. Nothing could touch it. Heck, even the environment seemed pretty dynamic, with wild animals attacking your villagers and fish jumping in the water. To make that even more impressive, you could crank the graphics to high res mode (1024x768) if your computer could handle it!

Trebuchets trade fire with cannon galleons

He's foolishly wedged a trebuchet in the gate

Sci Fi and Fantasy are tired topics

Age of Empires had something else going for it as well. Instead of using the played out fantasy or sci-fi themes for its setting, AOE set itself in a true historical time frame. You weren't playing with dragons, orcs, or mammoth tanks anymore. This time you were using archers, catapults, and swordsmen in an ancient, historical backdrop. Those that bothered to read all the stuff in the campaigns could learn a little history as well. This was even better than the History Channel on cable!

Those rams don't stand a chance

The bombard towers ate them up

As it turned out, AOE was a wildly successful game that spawned a best selling expansion pack (the Rise of Rome). A random map generator and slower gameplay meant less memorizing of "build orders" and less wild clicking in AOE than the other RTS games out there. It's not surprising then that AOE mainly appealed to a slightly older generation compared to the more action oriented gamers who liked Warcraft 2 and C&C Red Alert. You didn't need to skip your daily dose of Ritalin to be good at AOE (although being a fast clicker never hurt).