This game is a good solid game but hard to get into and possibly too large for most age of empires, etc players.
This game is a good solid game but hard to get into and possibly too large for most age of empires, etc players.
There are 15 epochs spanning from the stone age to the "nano" age , but it feels slightly disjointed, therefore , much of the small online community online sticks to single epoch or earlier epoch games leaving much of the game unplayed.
This game is also plagued by lag in the singleplayer, which hasnt been fixed by the multiple patches. The main competitor for this game is obviously going to be AoE3 but EE2 has much more than AoE3 . As you can imagine there is an incredibly diverse range of units from men and catapults throwing stones to nuclear bombs and planes. There are also special resources which add an extra dimmension of strategy, as these are different depending on epoch range. But there are problems with this as guns dont have a major advantege over earlier techs and the balancing, even though made better by the 1.2 patch , is still minorly unfair as counter units absolutely slaughter the units which they counter. On some occasions it takes 30 horses to kill 100 bowmen on the earlier epoches.
This game also adds some new and interesting modes including crowns which are either imperial , economic or military and give a special ability dependant on crown, territory control - as population limit is limited per territory so you need to claim more with more city centers to win. There is also the citizen manager which is a usefull tool for managing a large economy/no. of citizens, the PIP , picture in picture viewer allowing you to see part of your base in the bottom left corner of the screen , which you can chose yourself , allowing you a strategic advantage as you can change unit production from a barracks and still be controling the battle, and there are smaller less noticable additions such as ' attack move' an easy to use ability allowing you to move units so they attack any hostile units on route, various formations, and the ability to make a coordinated attack allowing two army units of yours to attack but one controlled by the computer on a path which you had programmed. There are many different additons and new features in ee2 which makes it a fun and intriguing game to play.
The sound is impressive at times with realistic and large explosions complimented with the sound you would expect. This said the music is often looped and does not offer much thrill so i would therefore reccomend using itunes with the SFX.
The graphics for this game are real time with weather , wind , and detailed units but trying to run all of the settings on full with the PIP viewer will certainly cause lag on older computers and is not reccomended to do online.
In terms of value this game has much to offer, it is fun on the surface but when you get really into it and start considering strategy with more depth, choosing which crown and which abiltiy to bestow with it, managing territory and choosing which ones to pick , and spying on the enemy to decide which unit would best counter them.
This game offers some interesting new features with some revamped old features with a diversity and variety that is not seen in any other major RTS games. This game is good for all RTS players, it takes time to get into , but when you are good at it , it provides an extraordinarly sattisfying experience.