But Age of Kings makes good on the original's promises by providing a huge, branching technology tree and a correspondingly profound depth of gameplay that rivals virtually all similarly themed turn-based games. You must constantly reevaluate your priorities when gathering the game's four resources, since those priorities change as new technologies become available; and you must constantly make key tactical decisions based on the order in which you research particular technologies. You need to keep moving forward without spreading yourself too thin, although you're afforded some breathing time to get started early on since you can garrison your villagers within your town hall to defend against a preemptive attack. And yet throughout the game, Age of Kings' pacing is so fast and so exciting as to rival Blizzard's real-time strategy hits. Consequently, under no circumstances should you be prepared to win a war in Age of Kings without a fast hand on the mouse. But similarly, you're not going to win unless you think.

So it's a shame this diverse gameplay is marred by a few all too familiar AI difficulties. The enemy troops are, to be blunt, not exactly on Mensa's most wanted list. The root of the problem seems to be they are too reluctant to move from their ordinary patrol routes and start thinking for themselves. Such give-aways as coming across a big pile of corpses, or having your mate sniped just three feet away from you ought to cause them a little more consternation. Too often it is possible to find a tree to hide behind, wait for the next guard to come along, and stab him in the back as he passes your position. This can be repeated on the next guard, and the next, and so on. It is possible to move the corpses to somewhere out of sight, but there is really no point - the guards do not seem to notice the bodies. They also seem a little deaf, making the silenced weapons a touch less useful than they ought to be. Higher difficulty levels improve matters a little by making it harder to sneak around unnoticed, but the fundamental problem remains.