A highly acclaimed strategy game!
Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings is a strategy-based video game in which players build towns, gather essential resources, and create an army to fight opponents. Players follow a 1,000-year timeframe moving from one civilization to another by conquering rival empires and towns. As they win, they pass from one historical era to another, thereby gaining new technologies, structures, and units. However, players must pay in food or gold to gain resources as they go through each Age. The Steam and Windows-based game was released by Microsoft to universal acclaim and is still considered one of the best Age of Empire games.
Guide villagers through the advancing Ages
Age of Empires 2 free download follows gameplay similar to other games in the series. Set in the Middle Ages, The Age of Kings takes users through 13 civilizations and 5 historical campaigns. It starts in the medieval times when you take control of a small number of villagers and lasts until imperial times when technology becomes far more advanced.
AoE 2 also has five campaigns centered around different civilizations. Each campaign can be played in different scenarios to create a progressive storyline. Players start with a tutorial Celts campaign involving William Wallace and learn to control units (villagers), resources, and armies.
The campaign is followed by other, more difficult real-life scenarios such as the conquest of Eurasia led by Genghis Khan, the Wars of Scottish Independence, Joan of Arc’s campaign against the Hundred Years’ War, the expansion of the Holy Roman Empire by Fredrick Barbarossa, and more.
How do I play Age of Empires 2?
When you download Age of Empires 2 PC, you start your journey during the Dark Ages, with limited resources. You command the female and male villagers to gather resources, aka food, wood, gold, and stone. These resources, stored in depository buildings, help in constructing villages, training units, and researching technologies.
Players can create a marketplace for trading with enemy markets but need to be careful of being destroyed. Trading doesn’t need to be tracked, as once the market starts running, trading continues without interruption. If that’s an option you don’t wish to take, you can easily purchase upgrades from the store, to increase the rate at which you collect resources.
There are multiple ways to win the Age of Empires download. Users can either win and move on to another civilization through military quests and by killing the monarch, or by taking control of all relics on the game’s map for a certain amount of time. You can also win the game by creating a unique building called Wonder and keep it standing against enemy attacks for a significant amount of time.
Immersive graphics and audio
Played from a fixed point of view, the game supports up to 1280 x 1024 resolution on Pentium II devices. All you need is 64MB RAM and a good graphics card. The game has exceptional detailing such that all units have unique details that separate them from each other, and buildings appear in sharp 3D before they’re converted to 2D building sprites. Moreover, each of the 13 eras has its unique style of dress, buildings, and language.
Audio plays a huge role in providing a dash of realism to the gameplay of Age of Empires free download for Windows. The soundtrack of the game borrows elements from different cultures to create a mixed sound with a primary theme rooted in the Age in which the player is. Furthermore, each Age has its own language, so units respond in an accent appropriate to the times.
Single & Multiplayer
Age of Empires 2 download can be played alone or in multiplayer mode, with AI models standing as substitutes. The five campaigns can be played in single-player mode, but also support up to 8 players if you opt for the multiplayer option. The latter can only be played over a reliable internet connection and is a lot more tactical than previous versions. Units can now hide when the town is attacked, there are ally-friendly perimeter walls, and a possibility to attack enemies as a team.
Is the Age of Empires 2 free?
The Age of Empires 2 setup.exe free download is only available to users for a trial period. After the trial period ends, users can access the game by buying it from the developer’s site. Users may also want to check out the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, an updated remaster version of the much-loved game. If you’re looking for similar strategy games, you will like the Rise of Nations, Age of Mythology, and Stronghold Crusader.
Final thoughts on Age of Empires 2 download free
Irrespective of how you play the game, you will enjoy it! From carefully detailed historical appeal to its real-time strategy, AoE offers a lot to its players. Top it up with an authentic soundtrack and brilliant graphics, and you have a game that is nothing but a classic. If you like strategy games, you can’t go wrong with Age of Empires 2 download for windows 7 and above.
