If you take a poll of the most popular PC games of all time there is little doubt that Age of Empires would be one of the most commonly mentioned games. With that in mind it is clear to understand all of the excitement that was created when it was announced that ZioSoft would be developing Age of Empires for the Pocket PC. Will the Pocket PC version deliver the same fun and excitement as the desktop version? Read on to find out.
Installation
The download includes three separate install files. The three files are the game itself, the campaign installer, and the scenario installer. Due to the large size of main game (8.1 MB) and the other files (6.6 MB for campaigns and 1.3 MB for scenarios) you are given the option of installing the scenarios or the campaigns at your option. The game is able to be installed to a storage card if you have access to storage cards from your device. When deciding whether or not to install the additional components it is important to realize that Age of Empires will require at least 10 MB of free memory on your Pocket PC in order to run properly.
Game Play
I am not big fan of PC games, and I have very limited experience playing the desktop version of Age of Empires. With that in mind I was a little concerned that I would not be able to easily get into the flow of the game. Due to the complexity of this game I did a quick read through of the manual before starting. I was impressed with the quality of the manual that ZioSoft provided.
After a quick read through of the manual I was able to load up the game and get started.
When you have started up the game one of the first things you will notice is that the Pocket PC version of the game is single player only. The game is great as a single player game, but many people will be disappointed that there is no option for multi-player capability.
Selecting single player mode will take you to the menu where you can select which of the various game modes you would like to compete in. I started with a random map, and I have also attempted some of the campaigns and scenarios.
