I know there are a lot of you who played Age of Empires 2 (source: the nostalgia game thread), and we all love to play those games we have good memories about, but most of the time, these are not supported or just look weird on modern systems (hmm, how does this sound familiar ).
Now, I recently discovered this mod http://www.forgottenempires.net/ which is an unofficial expansion of Age of Empires 2 + the conquerors. It's not a great mod... it's superb, seriously, try it out!
If you guys don't check this out, I am profoundly shocked!
ps: this game should be played online of course, if you don't find anybody to play with, I'd suggest gameranger, a big part of their community still plays this game, beware of the germans though, they are tryhards!
It's great, and I've played a few games with it. Still waiting for a more polished release. However, it's not quite Age of Empires 2, and never will be.
I've also been interested in that game, but i have my doubts about it. It sure has better graphics and it's in a 3d world, but I fear the gameplay will lack quality. The design also gives me a cluttered feel and makes things more complex then it ought to be. I am looking forward to it though.
Also, never played it, would like to wait for a more complete release.
Greendogo, could you give us a small review ?
0 A.D. is obviously a modern real time strategy game, heavily influenced by the Age of Empires series. The time period it takes place in is around 0 A.D. (hence the name) with many civilizations such as the Indians, the Celts and the Romans, but there are several more.
The game takes place on circular maps that can be quite large. The player usually either starts out with only something akin to a town center, or even a small starter town on certain map-types, and a few units. The player is constantly surrounded by a boarder similar to the one in the Civilization series. It expands from certain buildings built in your city and any new buildings must be built within it. Also, units slowly take damage when they leave its protection. There are only one or two buildings which can be built outside of the boarders, such as rough wooden forts and towers, but they too will lose life steadily, so they're only temporary. The boarder is probably my biggest complaint in the game. I find it restricting, and I don't think I'll ever really enjoy a game where I have to pay head to something like that. Sure, you can expand it by building new town centers, but the added boarder area isn't that large and it prevents rushing strategies, which is intentional.
The graphics are very lush. The trees and plants are deep greens, the plants sway in the breeze. The water is gorgeous, and so are the unit and building models. A lot of work has gone in to making this game look awesome. Though a few interface problems stop it from really shining as of yet, but those will probably be fixed in subsequent releases.
The music and sounds of the game are also quite amazing for a free game. The music is beautiful and was composed just for 0 A.D. The sounds, too, are immersive and show the level of detail they've gone through to nail all those little things you expect from a game that looks this good.
All in all, the game plays A LOT like Age of Empires style RTSes with the except of the border. If you can look pass its restrictiveness concerning the boarder and the few other design differences, I would imagine the game could bring you hours of entertainment. Also, the developers have already expressed interest in providing game modes that mimic Age of Empires, among other games, which means eventually you could play without the boarder, if it bothers you too. Sounds good to me! Future game features include a Hero unit system among other things, so I look forward to trying those out.
I can't wait until 0 A.D. gets to a more polished state, because it has a lot of promise. Download it now, because it's free and multi-platform! The next alpha version should be out inside of a month's time, as well. So that's something to look forward to!
How's that for a review, Zedd?
Yes and no. There's some things that are a little irritating (a few releases ago, the walls had just been implemented, so they didn't get placed correctly). But overall, I think they do a good job.
But, yeah, the game needs a lot of polish to be something that won't make you want to pull your hair out!
Guys are doing a great job on O.A.D., it sure is greatly influenced by AoE, but it can never bring that nostalgic feeling, and a tear to my eye
Loving the forgotten empires, and their launcher. 1920x1080 finally.
Time to gather up some people once again, and update Garena
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