The first Age of Empires was a critical and consumer success, gaining rave reviews and selling over 2 million copies. The first was a success because of the blend of strategy action and historical charcters. The sequel, The Age of Kings, expands on this winning formula, and in doing so, creates the  best real time strategy game avaliable on the market. The game focuses on  13 major empires, such as the Persians, Vikings and Japanese. As head of  one of these 13 kingdoms, you must defeat your enemies to gain rulership  over all the land. This is very fun, being that each race is varried and  has different strengths and weaknesses. It is also fun, because each one  has a different look to them, the Japanese buildings look much different  than the Vikings. The real fun of the game starts when you play the preset  historical scenerios. You take control of such historical figures as Joan  of Arc, Genghis Khan and William Wallace (ie Braveheart). These are all  historically accurate and can help you learn a great deal about the time  period. There also is an excellant multiplayer game, featuring the usual  deathmatch games, as well as a regicide game, which gives each team a king,  and the first one to destory each others king. All of these features add up  to the best RTS game on the market for the money. The guide for the game,  is also a great value, it retails at 20 dollars and gives you all you would  need to know about the game, without spoiling it.  All and all, this  is the best game you can buy, and you will enjoy it for a long, long time.