Graphics and Sound

3 words: Oh. My. God.

AOE2: Age of Kings boasts high resolution graphics, varying anywhere from 800x600 to 1280x1024. If you've got the juice to run the game at 1280 then by all means do so, because at 1280, the game is utterly breathtaking. Like AOE 1, the environment is lovingly detailed seemingly down to the leaves on the trees. Wildlife abounds in the environment, and different kinds of fish flourish in bodies of water. Differences in building architecture between races are obvious; the Germanic and Anglo races have their own look to distinguish them from the Middle Eastern races and the Far Eastern (Asian) nationalities. The developers at Ensemble obviously put a lot of work into making sure each race had an authentic and historically accurate look and feel. As you build the more advanced structures you'll be amazed at all the tiny details put into each of the different buildings. It's games like AOE2 that make me glad I use a Matrox card (for superior picture quality).

Monks dodge a cannon shot

Cannon Galleon gets blitzed by fire ships

Animation

Ensemble certainly pulled out all the stops on unit animations as well. Every organic motion in the game looks as lifelike as if you were watching it happen live (hey you LA people - you've been to Medieval Times before!). Mounted cavalry look dashing as they gallop into fierce battle. Archers aim, pull and fire their deadly hail onto ranks of infantry. Ship sails billow as they move across the water and smoke puffs out of their cannon as they fire on other armadas or rake a salvo at the shoreline. Siege weapons have the most impressive looking animation. I can't help but gawk at the beautifully rendered trebuchet as it heaves boulders all the way across the screen.

Complete ownership

Those trebs have had it

Objects in Mirror…

One of the annoying cosmetic problems with a lot of RTS games is that buildings are not drawn to scale with the units. Even between units there can be problems with scaling in a lot of games. Age of Kings addresses this problem to a great extent; the fact that you play this game in high resolution allows it to make units small relative to buildings (without making them so small that they're impossible to click). Buildings are noticeably larger than units in Age of Kings. This is particularly true for the "wonders," which can take up almost an entire screen. Castles are big enough to dwarf infantry and cavalry units that try to overrun them. Perhaps most impressive of all is that the moveable gates in walls are the perfect size to allow any unit to pass through. The only noticeable error in scale is with ships. Ensemble experimented with larger ships but these were too awkward and clumsy to use.

Charge!

That's gonna leave a mark

Audio pleasures

Age of Kings treats players to above average sound and music. What's impressive is that units will acknowledge you with their real language, whether it's French, English, Japanese, or Chinese. Again, it's not a game breaking thing but it's the attention to little details like this that set the great games apart from the good ones. The sounds of battle are just as impressive as swords meet plate armor and arrows woosh through the air. Cannon fire gives a bass filled rumble, while the healing power of monks emits a light twinkle.