The sequel to the popular game Age Of Empires has been named "Age of Empires 2:Age of Kings". The time period has been advanced-it now covers the middle ages, about 1000 AD to 1500 AD. The gameplay is still done in the same basic style of real time strategy; however, the graphics have been pumped up and so have the civilizations. How so? Check out the screenshot below.
Well, the picture that you see above is a real AoE2 screen. (It may look bad on some computers because it has some odd colors to it.) The buildings are HUGE, and it takes a villager upward of eight minutes to walk across the entire map. For you first time players, it takes maybe two minutes for a villager to walk across the average AoE map.) But Ensemble Studios hasn't neglected the gameplay...oh no, there are ways to play that an AoE player would be crazy to think about. Some people play games like AoE not to fight (believe it or not) but strictly to build an empire and trade with other civilizations. So, respecting that, the designers have built up a sophisticated trade system to keep those people happy. They added another resource-ore-and made it so the only way to get gold is to trade. You can trade with other allies that aren't even on the map, for example. The artifact concept has been taken to a new level-artifacts, aka Relics, will be few and far between. If you do find one, the only person who can claim it for your civ. or move it is a Priest (relics were sacred, think about it... it makes sense...). You can garrison units in buildings (more on that later), so if you place a Relic in a temple, you will get free gold (people came and payed tribute to the God, or whatever) a little bit at a time. You can build a huge wall around your town (nothing new) BUT you can have gates in it that you will be able to raise or lower. So, instead of leaving gaps in your walls for the enemy to come barging thru, you can crush their units the instant they step under the gates.
As I said earlier you can place units in buildings. If the unit is injured, and he (or she, as there are female villagers in the game) will be slowly healed as if he (or she) had a priest healing them. Also, if the building is under attack, the units inside it will come out to defend the structure.
More information is coming, however, the site is not finished. Check back later.
Age of Empires, Age of Kings and all images pertaning to either game are property of Ensemble Studios. Age of Empires, a game by Microsoft and Ensemble Studios. Age of Kings, a game by Micorsoft and Ensemble Studios.