Age of Empires II Mobile
Few other games can rival the scope and ambition of In-Fusio's new strategy title, but can it conquer the mobile realm?
Age of Empires is a sprawling epic of a game spanning four historical eras and is probably the most ambitious mobile phone game we've come across here at Pocket Gamer. Based on the PC game of the same name, where single levels can take tens of hours of playing time to complete, it encompasses building and maintaining a town, feeding and defending it's populace and ensuring it's got a solid, successful economy. All this while pursuing other historically-significant objectives, such as expelling the English from Scotland as William Wallace (as told in the movie Braveheart, starring the dreamy Mel Gibson). Oh, and doing it all within a certain time limit, too. Think you're up to it?
In-Fusio, the company making the game, certainly hopes so. "The launch of Age of Empires II Mobile signifies a new era - never before has a mobile game this deep been released", explains Richard Moureaud, Senior Product Manager at In-Fusio. "We knew we had to develop a game that captured all of the key aspects of one of the world's most popular PC game franchises and create an experience on the phone which would be appreciated, even by the most hard-core fan." Given that the PC version has sold over 16 million copies, that's a lot of people to satisfy.
Initial signs are encouraging, though. Keeping with the epic scope of the franchise, players can lead two different civilisations to greatness. You must develop your kingdom from humble beginnings by collecting resources and increasing the amount of your territory with castles, outposts and farms. Players can also manage up to seven different types of units, including war parties to engage the enemy on the battlefield and peasants to help explore and farm, mine or harvest the surrounding land. A comprehensive tutorial is included to help you get the ball rolling and this is followed by a seven-mission Campaign mode that'll see you (hopefully) lording it over an unrivalled empire. A random map mode and multiple difficulty levels should have you coming back for more.
Rest assured that Pocket Gamer will be bringing you the full skinny, and soon. Age of Empires II Mobile is available on all the major networks now.