Let me take you back to a time before high speed Internet connections let you play with people all over the world. Take a seat in my (or Dr. Nick’s) time machine and go back to 1999. No, not the Prince song … though some of the LAN Parties I took part in were nerdtastic … the last year of the old millennium.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. It was released on September 30, 1999 for PC and Mac gaming availability and an era was born. You see, I don’t know if I’ve ever actually play the first installment of Age of Empires and I’m not sure I really want to. I was first introduced to this game by FNX’s very own TBTI (holy throwback for the site). TBTI and I grew up as family friends, our parents worked together, he went to school with my older siblings and I graduated with his little brother. We shared interests; wrestling, music and a myriad of other subjects but I’m just going on a tangent now so I’ll end there.
One day, as I was over at TBTI’s residence hanging out with his little brother, I noticed he was violently clicking his mouse and keyboard and naturally I gravitated towards the computer monitor where I bestowed my eyes upon a game that would change my life forever. I was enamored by its then high-quality graphics, the beautiful landscape layout and the ability to play God over a civilization (no not that game). I was in love with what would quickly become my all-time favorite computer game.
As our group of friends got older and got access to our own money, we began saving it up and would all eventually would get a copy of the game. That was the easy part. The hard part?
Getting our own computer…
That never happened until I went off to college … and by then, we were all off on our own life journey.
So what did we do? We would commandeer our respective family computers and lug them over to each other houses for an all-out-war to prove who was the better God. (Side note, I never won. TBTI’s brother always did). We clicked for hours, trying to devise a plan to over throw the other bastards as we swore at one another, like some rugged old men yelling at kids to get off their lawns. We tried setting up secret plans and alliances behind each others backs just so we could gain a victory. But it never happened. The battle lines were drawn and it was on for the next two, sometimes three hours but the result was always the same. Naturally, we grew tired of losing so we all just quit playing the game and moved on to other games but this isn’t about those games, this is about Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
The greatest PC game … ever. Thanks to Wikipedia for this picture.
Recently, I was at a local superstore and noticed they were selling a dual pack of The Age of Kings and the The Conquerors expansion pack and since my brother had recently acquired a gaming PC, I bought them and kindly asked to put them on there. He agreed and I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole ever since. Spending hours playing a game that is nearing 20 years of existence, it hasn’t aged a day and still I find people online playing and talking about the great game that we were blessed with in the late 90s. Don’t believe me? Check out Steam, they now have an HD version of the game on there. The game has been brought back to life like one of Dr. Frankenstein’s monsters except this is a thing of beauty and not some hideous cretin.
In 2007, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings was voted the 10th best PC game of all-time in a poll done by IGN. GameFAQs users named it the 56th GREATEST GAME EVER.
EVER MOTHER FUCKERS!
And in 2014, I think it should be numero uno!
In closing, I want you guys to promise me you’ll get out there and place this game. If I can’t persuade you to put down your shitty FPS games (Fuck you, COD .. but not you COD4, you’re perfect) with flashy graphics and shit replay value and get Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. It’s cheap, it’s fun and even though it was released in 1999, it holds up better than your grandma’s bra defeating gravity.
If my small story and review isn’t enough to get you to play, here are the rankings this game was given upon its initial release..and yes, I stole this straight from Wikipedia.
So thanks for reading this and I hope to read some feedback from you guys. Feel free to make suggestions on what you want me to talk about next. Just remember, if it ain’t the 90s, it ain’t right!
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 92% |
| MetaCritic | 92 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| AllGame |   |
| Computer and Video Games | 9.0/10 |
| Edge | 8/10 |
| Eurogamer | 9/10 |
| GamePro | |
| Game Revolution | A- |
| GameSpot | 9.1/10 |
| GameSpy | 89/10 |
| IGN | 8.8/10 |
| PC Zone | 9.0/10 |
