Age Of Empires Online Preview

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After having sold over 25 million titles in the space of 13 years, the famous series of games real time strategy Age of Empires is evolving and changing today MMO. Taking up the heart of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and putting it in a persistent online world with developers of Supreme Commander and Dungeon Siege who attempt to give a fillip to the saga.

The first surprise at the outset: the title takes a cartoon aesthetic to Team Fortress 2! In reality, the choice of developers is not innocent. For besides the fact it is very pleasant, this style is not graphics-intensive resources and should help ensure that the game runs smoothly on any type of computers, including the less powerful. If adventure unfolds so today in a persistent world, the fact remains that the goal is still to build an empire and expand it over time. But before you do this, we must first choose a civilization, Greek or Egyptian (others should be available later), and then create a Capital that represents your HQ. It will live 24 out of 24, even if you are not logged online, since other players can visit at any time to make purchases in your shops and even to trade with you.

This is part of the social aspect as desired by the developers (you can even communicate with other players by sending emails). In reality, the way you develop your capital depends on your progress later in the game and the destiny of your people. This is obviously through it as you develop your economy and your technologies before your influence spread to the world and from its conquest. Moreover, it is important to personalize and customize this capital with multiple pavilions study. These are used to train counselors and to create equipment particularly useful to reinforce your units. Among the pavilions available, we can already identify in September to know the flags of architects, riders, hunting and craftsmen used to develop buildings respectively, mounted units, archers, and finally the villagers, fishing boats and carts. Also among the military academies and engineering relevant to the development of infantry and siege weapon and some boats. Finally, the great temple, in turn, can train priests.

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Available each civilization has a strong background and history in any case requires a slightly different management. Thus, the Greeks, warfare specialists, and philosophy, are in the middle of many conflicts for control of the Mediterranean and thus must maintain their influence. While Egyptians, specialists in medicine, arts and agriculture, whose empire straddles the banks of the Nile, are obliged to conquer the land border to ensure peace and quiet. Each civilization has a common on buildings and units to deploy. Thus, beside buildings, you can have such access to the Barracks (to create the infantry), Houses (to give birth to villagers), Deposits (to shelter your resources) or guard towers (to defend your base).

As for the basic units, we can note the presence of Scouts (for the recognition and elimination of wildlife hostile), military (to defend your positions and attack the enemy), the Village (to build buildings and retrieve natural resources) or Priest (to convert enemies into allies). Obviously, each nation has specific aspects of weapons and armor. For example, the Greeks, the warriors of the sword equipped Ripper inflict additional damage, while a unit of infantry wearing the ram's head called the "Fist of the Kraken" is capable of destroying enemy buildings faster. Similarly, a soldier who wore the precious Breastplate Ares is offered a bonus life. Side of the Egyptians, a warrior wielding the ax golden wings of Ra improves its strength, but also slows the enemy located in its field of vision. While displaying a cavalry combat Gorget Studded receive a big bonus for health and armor, especially against siege weapons. These examples represent only a tiny sample of what the adventure reserve in terms of military equipment .

These are accessible when your people crossed a "Age", are able to benefit your empire surprisingly, for example by providing damage bonuses to certain units or even to build special units of high value . Their presence is also very useful in other areas, because their knowledge is used in particular to improve the speed of collection resources. As a guide, here are two examples in each civilization. The apprentice mason Philo and the maker of arrows Gaiana for the Greeks, respectively used to reduce the cost of building / increase their speed construction and improve the scope of the arrows of the archers and their accuracy. Egyptian side, knowledge of size-defense Hatshepsut and Lieutenant valiant Panhsj respectively serve to strengthen the war elephants against the enemy infantry attacks and increase the hitpoints of all types of towers.

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In the same way as the specific equipment and advisers, you have access throughout the game with hundreds of quests (land, sea ) based on the history of the country you have chosen. Although they are mostly from the imagination of developers, it is not impossible to meet people of the era such as King Agamemnon in Greek. These quests that you get most of the time inside of your capital, offer various rewards, including experience points that allow rising in the level and boost the economy choice is yours, or your army or your technology. Note that 95% of the quests are available online in cooperation with another player but they can also be played solo. This cooperation can add fun to the adventure but also is very useful when it comes to meeting big challenges solo inaccessible or simply to complete certain quests faster. Another important aspect is the multi PvP (player against player). The clashes are clearly possible online on random cards, just to test the power of your troops, humiliate your opponents but also to win valuable experience points.

If there is good news, it is that Age of Empires Online, available only for download, requires no subscription but more remains 100% free! And it is even possible to complete the adventure without spending a euro! Moreover, developers are quite proud of this fact. In fact, if this economic model seems reliable, because the studio is counting on the purchase of additional content for the most addicted players. It must be said that the offer still seems appealing, even if we did not have all the details. Thus, paying the extra content comes in three forms. First, there are packs of decorative pieces that offer architectural themes and unusual objects. Ideal for players wishing to customize their capital in the extreme. Then there are the boosters packs, offering new game modes and bonus stories containing a new series of quests (eg related to Alexander the Great). Finally, there are the premium package inherent to each civilization, who were a little more expensive but which contain a ton of things in PvP bonus features, special advisers, the few pieces of equipment, space inventory expanded number stores rose special boosts for some units . In the words of the developers in acquiring these premium packages that make the adventure course much richer than the simple free game, you're likely to release all of a sudden the entire additional content on a civilization, including the most advanced. And therefore benefit from tens of hours of new gameplay and an improved multiplayer experience. So I bet that this contributes to making the game more attractive and thereby promotes the development of a new community of fans.

Conclusion:

With Age of Empires Online, players will discover an amazing cross between MMO and strategy game in real time. Available only on PC, in several languages ​​(French, German, Italian, Spanish) and is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7, this title seems to succeed in rendering homage to the original saga while offering both a unique appearance and approach news. Entirely focused on online (no play offline), the adventure seems therefore able to meet a wide range of players. Promising!