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Age of Empires (AoE) is one of those games that seems to keep hanging around. Whenever it comes time for my friends and I to play a strategy/war game, we always end up coming back to AoE. It has all of the elements necessary to remain a favorite of this genre. The resource system is complex, there is great variability when it comes to what empire to play, and upgrading units and buildings is complex and time consuming. Basically, it is a strategy game that takes all of your brains to win, and even just to survive.

Rise of Rome (RoR) does nothing more than fix the few problems I had with AoE, as well as add new Empires, maps, and units. Everything I would have changed on AoE has been fixed with RoR. My main problem with AoE was when it came to the maps, there just wasn't enough diversity. RoR adds in numerous new types of maps that improve the strategy aspect of the game. The other thing it did that I am going to praise it for is give you an even larger map. I have a bad tendency to want HUGE maps that take hours to explore and conquer. AoE had big maps, but RoR has gigantic maps that spread out opponents better, scatter resources, and in general make the game far more intricate.

Four new empires are also added, including Rome, Carthage, Macedonia, and Palmyra. For the most part, these four look the same, the only differences being restrictions on certain units and upgrades. Each has its strengths and drawbacks, just like the other empires you can choose from. Each also has its own set of upgrades that the others may or may not have. As far as I can tell, none of the original empires changed with the expansion pack.

New units are the next main improvement with RoR. It's not that the new units are any better or worse, just different, which is nice when you are bored with the existing units. Camels, Slingers, Armored Elephants, and Scythe Chariots are the new land units. The Fire Galley is the only new waterborne unit. There are a few other upgrades now available, mostly for the Priest. These include Martyrdom and Medicine. Medicine causes your priests to heal much faster, and Martyrdom allows you to sacrifice a priest for an enemy unit.

All in all, I would call RoR nothing more than a tease. It exists to add some new elements to relieve any boredom you may have with AoE and keep you on the line until Age of Empires 2. That is not necessarily a bad thing. If that is its purpose, then it succeeded. I have found myself playing AoE again on a daily basis. As far as expansion packs go, I am for the most part not in favor of them. This is probably the first expansion pack that I would consider worth its cost.

The following review is more on AoE than RoR, as it is hard to review an expansion pack without touching on the original game.

AoE, with or without RoR, is a game for the diehard gamer. It has all of the necessary ingredients, the main one being gameplay. It is extremely easy to get wrapped up for hours in a single large map surrounded by 6 opponents, whether they are human or computer makes no difference. I must confess something now, I never did bother to play the actual scenarios created for single player, I dove straight into random maps and never turned back. Why worry about scenarios though, when it takes around three hours to play a single large map! As if that wasn't enough, RoR comes along and adds in what I call Gigantic maps. Expect to waste 4 or 5 hours on those monsters.

The AI (artificial intelligence) is absolutely brutal. It will not leave you time to so much as catch your breath, so you had better think fast. The AI's only fault is that it is predictable to an extent. You know that if you are near a artifact, the AI is going to come for it, so you had better move quickly. One of the other things I had have problems with concerning the AI is that each race will only attack you, not other computer players on screen, which basically makes it you versus a team of ALL the others playing. That does not change the fact that AoE is extremely fun to play for long periods of time.

One of the problems I had with AoE that seems to be fixed with RoR is peasants. For the most part they are stupid, and after they finish what you tell them to do they will just stand there. If you are off on another corner of the map and don't notice, you are wasting manpower. RoR seems to have done a little better with that, they will now attempt to find something to do, or at least it seems that way.

Multiplayer is AoE's time to shine. The maps are big enough that you and all of your friends can spend hours building up before you commit to an all-out total war. I cannot tell you just how much fun that is, but picture hundreds of various fighting units, all bent on destroying one another. If you aren't fast, you aren't going to last long in a battle royale like that. Of course, you can also play as teams against each other, or against the computer, but eventually you will have to live by the motto "There can be only one". Those new gigantic maps make multiplayer even more fun, on top of taking most of the night to play an 8 person LAN match. By far, AoE is one of the best multiplayer games ever for this genre.

I have spent countless hours playing AoE since it first came out, and I will spend many more hours on it before I put it on the shelf. I have a feeling the only thing that will stop me from playing this game is if AoE2 supplants it as a favorite (which after what I have seen is highly likely). My friends and me inevitably put away other strategy games in favor of this one every time we get together. Of course, you eventually will put down any game if you play it too much, but with the addition of the new units and empires in RoR, you will pull this one back out.

Basically, I am promising you that you will spend many more hours than you want to, or than is healthy, playing AoE. There are so many things to do, and every game has its highlights and excitement. The new units will cause you problems trying to tailor a new defensive plan as well as new offensive patterns, but that is half the fun. RoR took a game with incredible gameplay and longevity and added a new twist, basically turning it into a new game. In my book, that just added 6 months onto AoE's longevity.

The game has a simple, mouse-based interface with a handful of useful hotkeys, but nothing that is hard to remember. The controls are very responsive and the game seems to have no problem recognizing what you intend, leaving very little possible error. The only problems I have had are not really related to how the controls are setup, or how they relate to how the game plays. After a little bit of time, you have so much going on that it becomes easy to lose track of your men, and for some reason they don't go back to what they were doing, but instead just stand there. The second problem is more due to sensory overload. During times when there are huge numbers of units on screen, it has a tendency to bog down my computer, just due to the sheer volume of things going on. Let's not even mention trying to select a unit when they are immersed in a battle.

RoR didn't change the controls beyond one key point, and if you have played AoE you will know what I am talking about. When you select your stables for example, you could only create one unit at a time. Thankfully, that was changed. You can now produce multiple units (only of the same type though) at any of the barracks style buildings. This is definitely an improvement.

Coming from Microsoft, you would expect that AoE would utilize DirectX, and it does. It does so beautifully, with smooth animation and gorgeous graphics. Few games seem to get DirectX to work just right, but AoE pulls it off beautifully. RoR uses the same styles for all of its new units, and I have yet to see any problem with graphics anywhere in AoE or RoR. My main suggestion as far as graphics go is go into the settings and set it to the highest resolution your system can support. It makes the game much more playable.

As I mentioned before, my computer has a tendency to bog down when there is a lot on screen, but thinking about it I am surprised it doesn't just crash with the amount of animation going on. Even during those rare moments of system lag the animation stays smooth, simply slowing down a bit. Don't let this turn you off, as I have talked to numerous people that do not have this problem.

Sound is probably the only bone I want to pick with the creators of AoE. It sucks. There is nothing more annoying than what I call the "Dying old man sound". Each building has its own sound when you click on it, which is fine, my problem is that most of the sounds just grate my nerves. They are horrible.

RoR adds nothing as far as sound goes that I can notice. Aside from new sound effects for the new units it really doesn't make the game sound any better or worse. As far as I can tell you, the sound effects are still annoying at best. While the unit and building sounds are annoying, you really do need them to know what is going on. It is the easiest way to know if something has been completed because you will hear its effect whether you have that unit selected or not. So while the sound effects suck, they are necessary.

The music score, however, is great. I actually find myself using the AoE music for other games like Quake and Unreal. It is very tribal and a little bit eerie if I may say so. The music does not bother me, nor does it disrupt my concentration like the unit noises.

Installing RoR is simple, put the disk in and go. You do have to read the licensing agreement (courtesy of Microsoft's lawyers I am sure), but other than that it does it all for you including checking your DirectX version and updating if necessary.

I consider setting a game up part of installation, and here are my handy pointers for AoE: 1) Play random map and not scenario 2) Set gigantic map, high resources 3) Use an Inland or Mediterranean map for the most fun. Other things to consider are whether you want to team your opponents up, and maybe pick one computer player as your ally. Allies are nice later due to shared exploration, where you see what your allies see.

Overall, AoE is one of the best games I have played, and it is only improved with RoR. I thoroughly enjoy strategy games, and this is the one I enjoy more often that the rest. The only thing I can really tell you is to go out and procure a copy of this game any way you can, and get ready for the sequel, which is going to be amazing (I hope).

There are numerous more recent strategy games to choose from, but if you don't have AoE and RoR yet then make sure you pick them up first. It is far superior than any of the current offerings. I will bet you won't be going to buy any others anytime soon, you will be too busy playing AoE: RoR.