The original Age of Empires attracted a large and loyal following with its blend of real-time strategy and civilization building. Acting as the guiding spirit for your tribe you must lead them out of the Stone Age, all the while competing against other tribes. Age of Empires 2 builds on this premise, taking over where the previous game left off (the Fall of Rome), and offers some stunning new single player campaigns and a much more in-depth gaming experience.

One of the great strengths of Age of Empires is that each of the races you can play as has real and different abilities that genuinely affect the way you play the game. These skills are based on real historical details. For example, the Mongol's fearsome army manifests itself in the game as a bias towards combat and military research. This is a simple example. The choice and combinations within the game give you immense possibilities.

Age of Kings does away with the rather staid single player campaigns of the original. Instead there are several real historical scenarios to play through. For example you can take over William Wallace's attempts to unify Scotland against the English or Genghis Kahn's attempts to destroy everything in his path.

The maps are much larger than the first games, giving you a much greater sense of exploration. You have a better chance of establishing yourself before you have to worry about meeting the competition (of course, sometimes you don't which is half the fun).

Another welcome improvement is the better Artificial Intelligence. Grouped units will automatically move into formation with hand-to-hand troops at the front and range weapons at the back. They will also move across the map more intelligently allowing you to leave them to their own devices to a certain extent.

If you missed out on the original then Age of Kings offers the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with Age of Empires. If you already have the original then there is enough new stuff to make it worth the investment.