Everything else is either brand new, or a fundamental improvement over the previous generation of strategy games. Well AoE is that, multiplied by how many little villagers, farmers, soldiers or other life-forms you wish to create. Only in this game, you steer them not through dark tunnels, but watch them labour on beautifully crafted landscapes, building huts, barracks and granaries to further your quest for world domination. Send your villagers fishing, gazelle hunting, or even assign two mentally challenged individuals to sort out the rogue lions that keep eating soldiers as fast as your barracks can produce them. The game's graphics are perfectly suited to its genre.
Trees look like trees, and animals like animals.
After all, a gamer concerned with world domination isn't really interested in seeing whether the tribe he has just slaughtered practise ritual scarring for medicinal purposes. Age of Empires is an extremely complex game, but it is so easy to come to grips with and so well designed, that each aspect of the game is challenging in a enjoyable and fun way. Personal pride is also a factor. I got really annoyed when a herd of Babylonian siege elephants and a well drilled Babylonian division trampled my granaries and huts, decapitated my finest club-bearing soldiers and carted off all my gold just because I was still stuck in the Stone Age. The game has a great learning curve, with easily selectable skill settings to keep you from being overrun by rival empires within three minutes.