Games

Experiencing Age of Empires Online Part 01


By Sean Booker
September 5, 2011 - 08:08

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Welcome to the first entry into my experience playing Age of Empires Online. As stated in my last post (Part 00) I will using these articles in a blog like format to document my time and level of enjoyment while playing this game. Age of Empires Online is a free-to-play real-time strategy game that focuses heavily on micro-transactions. Playing the standard game is open to anyone, but gaining access to special weapons, quests, etc. requires the player to purchase in game items and upgrades. These articles will relay my experiences and thoughts on the game over the next few weeks.

To begin I decided to shelve the retail copy I had and jump into the game as a fresh and free player. The copy I have - Age of Empires Online: The Greeks - gives me access to the Premium Greek Civilization as well as an Exclusive In-Game Store. I chose to ignore these for now. Instead, I downloaded the game itself and jumped into it, transaction free. I wanted to see how the standard player can enjoy this game, and just how limited it might end up being. After I feel enough time has been spent, I will start up a new account and use the download codes and see just how much more I get access to.

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To begin, I was offered to either start up a Greek or Egyptian empire, I chose the latter knowing I would be going back to the former in my next game. The first glimpse of the game has you looking at and naming what is essentially your hub town. It was pointed out to me that here I would be able to accept quests by any character branding a large yellow exclamation point (quite standard). The next few interface features I noticed was a real time chat room in the bottom left corner that seemed to be filling itself by other players currently on. I also had the option of inviting any of them to my town, or even anyone from my Xbox Live friends list. Accessing their towns was just as easy, right clicking any of their names’ and choosing to visit them.

Everything about this instantly screamed social-game structure to me. Instead of a standard campaign, it seemed that I would just be able to scroll around and accept whichever quests I preferred, a decision that makes the game seem quite light. As opposed to having to jump into a several hour long story mode, I found myself casually starting and completing standard tutorial quests that slowly raised my (in-game) cash and experience. Everything seemed almost “pick up and play” like. I quickly found myself hooked, constantly thinking “just one more quest then I’ll stop” several times before actually doing so. The missions were short enough and simple enough that I could easily justify jumping in for one more. And the idea that with all this I was gaining experience points for a generalised level made each quest seem relevant and worth playing.

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As far as the quests themselves, they seemed pretty straightforward as far as real-time strategy games go. You make villagers farm you resources while you simultaneously build an army and expand your economy. The instructions were simple enough to get me going but as of getting a couple hours into the game and not already being instructed about hot keys (keyboard shortcuts) is a little bothersome. You can find a wealth of information in the “Empire Handbook” in the main menu, but this causes the game to jump out and open up a web browser. Still, I would have much preferred to be getting taught the corresponding hot keys to my tutorial missions while doing them. Not having to learn it one way then read up on how to make it more efficient later.

An hour in or so I was then told to travel to a different city (as opposed to my current hub town) to accept more quests. Doing this was achieved by going into the map (where I would normally chose a quest to head out on) and select a city in a different part of Egypt all together. This was quite interesting as it opened a new area up to me. The look of the town was much different. It actually looked well thought out and not just thrown together like my crappy hub town. The unfortunate part to this was that after a couple quests, I was back in my first city since the other was empty already. In fact, the majority of the world map was completely empty but viewable. I am quite hoping that more quests will open up in different areas of Egypt for me to look into. I really want to be able to have a huge list of available quests going at one single time.

With that, I’ll sign off on this first installment. I was able to get a feel for how to play the core game. I was taught how to engage in combat, use items and basically how the structure of my economy should be laid out when in a mission. At this point I am very interested in Age of Empires Online and enjoying my time with it immensely. As I continue on I am hoping to learn some important hot keys, as well as get access to more than one or two quests at a given time. Stayed tuned for my next article in a couple days.


Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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