Inspired by the famous original series Age of Empires, a real-time strategy game where you can build an empire to dominate the world, you can now play an AoE clone called 0 AD . It starts as military leader of an ancient civilization and, by gathering resources, forming an army and building more and more structures, war is waged against the neighbors to conquer them.
It then begins with the choice of a civilization of past times : Romans, Carthaginians, Greeks or Persians and development begins from a small village to become an empire .
The game is historical, set in the 500 BC, very accurate in the reconstruction of the past time.
The resources to be used are food, wood, stone and metal and one of the first tasks to be carried out is to guarantee the supply of these resources.
Women take care of crops while men are purely warriors although they can also be used for civilian tasks and for the collection of resources.
The beginning therefore foresees a patient development of the infrastructures, to prepare the road to war, the real protagonist of the game.
Military structures of various kinds can then be added, such as ports, walls and towers to protect villages.
Before thinking about the attack, it is better to build defensive units and, during the game, you will always have to keep a certain balance between the attacking and defending army.
The buildings to be built are farms to produce more food, houses to increase the population and mills where workers unload the resources collected from the fields.
Depending on the chosen civilization, special buildings can be built that reflect the historical trend of past events.
AD 0 is characterized by basic units such as knights and infantrymen with specific abilities to collect resources, build structures, make repairs, conquer enemy buildings and attack.
Some of the available units gain experience and become more powerful each time they survive in a battle.
In many phases this game, 0 AD, is very reminiscent of games such as Civilization, with a more war-driven dynamic but with the constant growth of civilization, without being bored with taking care of the warriors' experience.
The graphics and audio are really well cared for and detailed, with a beautiful historical experience that immerses the player in the reality of that time.
0 AD is a totally free game, it does not require registration and registration, for Windows, Linux and Mac and, even if it is currently in the Alpha state (therefore still under development), it is perfectly and fully playable.
It is not a multiplayer game, so every game is done offline against the computer that moves the enemies or even playing on the net against a friend.
The download of the game can be done from the official website or, it can be more convenient to use the Game Downloader tool
Below, one of the presentation videos
Those who like the genre of RTS (real time) strategy but want something different and similar, I can recommend playing:
Age Of Empires Online
FreeCiv, free version of Civilization
