Age II possibly the most awaited game of all time has arrived with more units more technolgys and more civilations and more buidlings to choose from. The PHX clan asks is it cracked up to the high stadard of AOE games or is it a game selling purely on hype with little or no gameplay

I'll split up the review into 5 parts

1. Graphics

2. Lastibility

3. Gameplay

4. Is it better then AOE:ROR

5. Conclusion

1. Graphics

The graphic in some places are quite stunning with high level buildings draw with expert skill and lots of attention to detail. The land scapes are also coloured brillently wiht water being the pick of the buch just looking at makes u feel like u can smeel the sea. Over very impressive graphics

9.2/10

2. Lastibility

This game has plenty of life in it the campgains are interesting and challaging and will last u a quite a while. The dm & rm option gives it unlimited life. With the online game also being huge on the zone their loads of different people to play with all with their own particular stlye of playing

9.8/10

3. Gameplay

A real pity that after good graphics and a long life that it falls over the most basic gaming hurdle "how it plays". To sum it up it seems to have lost its charm as it passed from aoe to aok. I can't quite pinpoint the exact thign but it some thing is wrong. When i'm playing i'll sit up and think this should be more fun. They had all the elements but they could not make the compound thats was AOE.

6/10

4. Is it better then AOE:ROR

Quite sumply its not as good. As i said before in AOE al the elements clicked in AOK they are all there just not in the right place. Time after time when faced with either playing aoe or aok i'll always choose aoe

Is it Better : No

5. Conclusion

At the end of the story its still a good game and certainly worth buying BUT it is not as good as AOE by a long shot so those of u expecting an AOE beater will be a little annoyed when they buy £50 worth of software that is not as good as it is hyped up to be. Beware it is good but i think AOE veterns will be let down

Overall Score = 7.6/10