Age of Empires II : Age of Kings - done

As the weather improves, I spend more time in the Real World. This is not a good time of year to play a several hundred hour RPG, so having a game that holds your interest, but that I can come and go from, is valuable. I chip away at AOE as time allows, and that's OK.

I finished Age of Empires II : Age of Kings, and am about to start the followup, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. Such unwieldy names, but the games are good and are still interesting, despite the years. There's a lot of good grinding here, if you like to play turtle as much as I do. I love to build a good base, hoover up all the resources, secure a trade route to a market, then start building castles and towers everywhere. Its slow, but invincible. And if I ever get pushed too hard before I can get set up, I can always make a dozen priests, and convert enemy units until I get bored of it.

*spoilers*, if you haven't finished AOE2: AOK yet. Considering that the game has been re-issued in HD, you may have missed it first time around.

I like how AOE2 turns history into a story, and puts you right into it. I'm sure it distorts the accuracy of the history to make the story more appealing, but I don't think they go too far. And there are sometimes poignant little reminders that bring you back out of the game, that even as you are marching little chess pieces around a board, these wars really did happen, and real people lived and died for them. Then you go back into the game, and it seems a little more serious. Its a rare game experience that can knock you out of the game, and into a bit of reality, and yet strengthen the game experience by doing so.

I like the sudden shifts between campaigns, where your heroes are now someone else's enemies - your enemies. Its a little jarring, but its actually a fairly quick transition. It helps that the next narrator is a fallen knight, who comes to know and understand his captors, and eventually sympathize with them. The writing is brief, but good, and the voice acting really helps sell the weariness and futility of the Crusades.

The Mongol campaigns... not so much. The writing and voice work were weakest here, and even the campaigns felt off. Also, all of our heroes thus far seemed to have some sort of cause, and the Mongols were basically just the Borg of the old world, except more conquering and less assimilation. The AOE games are usually pretty good at putting you in the shoes of whoever you are supposed to be playing, but it never really clicked here. This could have been a good opportunity to explore the Mongols motives, but it doesn't really happen.

The Barbarossa campaign is the best. Every one of its surprises is well telegraphed, but it doesn't matter because the story telling is just that good. The narrator does some good (over the top) voice work, and while the writing is still measured out like a story, its tempered with all the wacky twists and turns that real history is made of. And I love the final reveal of the fate of Henry the Lion; its like the cherry on top.