The expansion adds a new single-player campaign of 15 missions in two acts. As before, the background is a fully dynamic representation of the player's home city. The opening cinematic, though very short, is beautifully rendered and opens onto a redesigned interface. Since Microsoft showed no signs of deviating from the usual with their latest release, I met The WarChiefs, with a hint of apprehension.įollowing the series' lead, it came as no surprise that The WarChiefs boasted excellent visuals from the start. The very successful series, which includes titles such as Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age of Mythology, has closely followed this formula and has seen limited success from their expansions. For real-time strategy games like Microsoft's Age of Empires series, the expansion formula usually involves slightly incrementing the game's time span by adding a single-player campaign or two, and increasing the replay value with a new civilization or new map types. Since most expansions usually fall short of expectations, one can usually find them in the bargain bin half a year after their release. The question of purchasing expansions is a difficult one for most gamers.
