Despite this, it received generally good reviews, and an expansion pack, titled The Rise of Rome, was released in 1998. Originally touted as Civilization meets Warcraft, some reviewers felt that the game failed to live up to these expectations when it was released. The game allows the user to act as the leader of an ancient civilization by advancing it through four ages (the Stone, Tool, Bronze, and Iron Ages), gaining access to new and improved units with each advance. The game uses the Genie Engine, a 2D sprite-based game engine.

Age of Empires ( AoE) is a real-time strategy video game based on history, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, and the first game in the Age of Empires series.