Age of Kings Heaven

To celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, we here at Age of Kings Heaven are having a special contest: The AoK Vanilla Contest! The object of this competition is to create the best single player scenario possible with only the AoK scenario editor: no data editing, no graphical modding, no Trigger Studio and none of that pesky modernity known as The Conquerors Expansion!

Check out the contest page, or go directly to the contest thread in the forums and sign up! The deadline for entries is November 30th, so make sure your scenario's ready and uploaded to the Blacksmith by then!

It's hard to believe, but today Age of Kings turns fifteen! The game was released on September 30th 1999, and even now it is still going strong with a very active modding and designing community. And with the release of AoK:HD, it looks like the game is going to live and prosper well into adulthood, too!

To celebrate this great anniversary, today we will be kicking of a special event; but more on that later! For now, eat, drink and celebrate this joyous occasion!

*sobs* They grow up so fast! *sobs*

Today we turn to a relatively recent release (okay, so it was released over a year ago, but for a game that's been out for fifteen years I would still call that pretty recent!): we will take a look at one of the most bombastic and effects-filled cinematic scenarios that graces the Blacksmith with its presence: Paradise Lost by Devestator, which shows the last days and destruction of Atlantis.

The legendary island of Atlantis has intrigued everyone from historians, writers and filmmakers to conspiracy theorists and 19th century occultists: the story of the island that sank into the ocean, never to be found again, and an advanced civilization that predated or coexisted with the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, is a fascinating one. Several scenario designers have attempted to tell their own story about the legendary island, and the most recent rendition is this impressive cinematic.

"Paradise Lost" tells the tale of Kaleirath, a royal warrior at the court of the king of Atlantis. He is tasked with rooting out a notorious rebel and throne-pretender that has been seen lurking about an ancient temple near the city. Meanwhile, the high priest prophesizes that the holy mountain of Atlantis will start to bleed, and that once the wound opens the world will come to an end. Soon enough, columns of smoke start to rise from the mountain, but the people still carry on with their normal lives, certain that the old priest's prophecies will turn out to be false as they always have been. This time, however, they aren't.

Disaster strikes Atlantis as the volcano erupts, raining hellfire down upon the city. Our hero attempts to flee the city with his beloved Elania and his brother, but they are intercepted by the rebel, and a final struggle begins during the last, shuddering moments of Atlantis.

This is a very tightly paced, engulfing cinematic: the music fits the story perfectly, and the sound effects bring a level of atmosphere only seen in the very best scenarios: Mashek's "Blood of the Bear" comes to mind more than once. The fire and smoke effects, made available through an edited data file, makes the graphical storytelling very smooth and effective: the way the fire and brimstone rain down upon the city in this cinematic is about as realistic as you can get it in a 2½D game like Age of Empires II!

Despite being 42 in-game minutes long, one of the longest cut-scenes out there, time flies by as you watch it: when the credits started rolling, I didn't think I had been watching for more than fifteen minutes! There are some weak points to the scenario, like the storyline and the characters being rather simple, but the pacing and the atmosphere make up for a lot of this.

"Paradise Lost" was an entry to the 2012 rendition of the AoKH Cinematic Scenario Contest, and it was tied for first place with paperclip007's "White Light on the Black Sky" (another great, and more unconventional cinematic, which you definitely should have a look at as well!); it also won the award for "Best Cinematic Scenario" in the Game of the Year Awards of 2013. Now, if that double title isn't telling you something, let me spell it out to you: download it now and watch it as soon as possible, preferably yesterday!

There have been many attempts at making full-fledged RPGs in the Age of Empires II scenario editor, with trigger systems for gathering, buying and eating food, switching between weapons, grand inventory systems, and much more. "Life of a Mercenary" from 2005, which we will be looking at in a future feature, is often considered the most successful and extensive AoK RPGs out there, and more recent releases like "Tsubasa's Tale" are shorter but perhaps even more complex.

Back in the year 2000, a lot of designers were obsessed with making RPGs. With relatively limited knowledge of the editor, at least compared to today, the RPG scenarios that were released often became popular, only to fade away with time. William, Warrior of the Sun by Chiang Ning, however, became instantly popular, receiving high ratings and much praise from downloaders; to this day it remains in the top 10 most downloaded single player scenarios with around 16,000 downloads!

"William, Warrior of the Sun" follows the tale of William Wallace, who is named after an old Scottish war hero because the "change object name" effect would not appear until the release of The Conquerors expansion. William has been training to become a knight for many years, and now his time shine (like the sun) has finally come! He journeys around the country, saving damsels in distress, killing off bandits, fighting witches and buying slaves and turning them into warriors, all in very heroic fashion.

It is a thoroughly built scenario with varied landscapes, from dense forests and open meadows, to deserts and rocky, dangerous rivers. There are four towns for you to visit across the map, each with its own building style, and all bustling with life and people ready to give you quests and tasks to complete.

The scenario certainly does show its age, as the food and gold systems are a bit clunky, and the onslaught of simple spawning pikemen and camels gets a bit repetitive after a while. Still, the music and the map design, which holds up surprisingly well for a fourteen-year-old scenario, bring a lot of atmosphere to the scenario, and you can feel the creative joy that went into the making of it.

Despite its drawbacks, and despite its age, it is still quite enjoyable, and an interesting piece of AoKH history if nothing else. If you decide to play it, I would advise you to do so without The Conquerors expansion, as certain bugs appear to occur when it is not played in the proper version. That said, go check it out!