Age of Castles Review

This downloadable, shareware computer game is based on a hard time in the history of civilization, the notorious Dark Ages. In it, one plays the part of a king in what I presume to be a Europe from several centuries ago.

You are given a chance to name the ruler, and then forced to chose from one of five images to represent you, such as the Dwarf or the Wizard. Do not take this part lightly, as your decision at this point will affect your entire gameplay experience.

Speaking of gameplay, this piece of software features no direct control over the player's little commonlings and also sports a rather simplistic style of turn-based strategy. On the other hand, I am able to run Age of Castles on my ancient, dinosaur-like laptop, meaning that this game should play on any PC in the land. There are seventeen different places to visit in the realm, and some of them are quite interesting, such as the Underworld Cemetery and the River Styx.

Age of Castles can be somewhat lengthy in that one must convert 1 billion people to achieve victory; whether that is a good or bad thing depends on how much excitement one is able to draw from this shareware product. Personally, I was unable to feel copious amounts of joy or addiction from experiencing Age of Castles, but I still think it has slight redeemability due to my fascination with the time period associated with it.