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A Short History Of Lost Sumeria
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| Author |
File Description |
| Andrea Rosa |
Posted on 10/18/05 @ 04:31 PM (updated 12/17/05)
| File Details |
|---|
| Number of Scenarios: |
6 |
| Difficulty: |
Moderate |
Sumer may well be the first civilization in the world (although long term settlements at Jericho and Çatal Hüyük predate Sumer and examples of writing from Egypt and the Harappa, Indus valley sites may predate those from Sumer). From its beginnings as a collection of farming villages around 5000 BC, through its conquest by Sargon of Agade in 2371 BC and its final collapse under the Amorites in 2000 BC, the Sumerians developed a religion and a society which influenced both their neighbors and their conquerors. Sumerian cuneiform, the earliest written language, was borrowed by the Babylonians, who also took many of their religious beliefs, and parallels of Sumerian myth can be found even in the Genesis.
This campaign covers the history of Sumer in six scenarios, each one based upon one of the six periods in which historians trend to divide the multimillenary Sumerian timeline. I hope these missions will entertain you. For comments and bug-reports, either mail me or visit the Guestbook on my website.
Andrea Rosa
ilpinky@libero.it
http://crea.html.it/sito/aoelastresort
GAMEPLAY INFORMATIONS
* This campaign was designed to be played with the original Age of Empires, not with the expansion pack Rise of Rome.
* To play "A Short History Of Lost Sumeria" unzip the .cpn file and put it into the campaign folder of Age of Empires, then run the game and start playing as any other AoE campaign.
* The recommended difficulty settings range from "Moderate" to "Hardest". Please do not play on "Easiest" and "Easy" or many parts of this campaign WILL NOT WORK.
* Carefully read the Hints before playing a scenario, because loss conditions are stored there.
ABOUT LANGUAGE.DLL
Language.dll is an edited file which replaces the names of many units with the ones acting in the story. Installing this file is optional, in that case you should remember to make a temporary back-up of the original language.dll, so to go back to the previous settings once you finish "A Short History Of Lost Sumeria". If you have lost the original language.dll you don't need to reinstall the game, you can copy it directly from the Age of Empires CD.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Playing this campaign you may notice some units and landscape features pretty unusual to the AoE world. Those are actually hidden units which have always been buried within the game code and were finally unlocked in October 2005 by Scenario_t_c. Although some of these units (mainly Horses and Trade Workshops) were known from long time, they could be accessed only one at once by designing upon preset templates. Thanks to Scenario_t_c, now we are able to access almost all hidden units and mix them at will. This happens to be the first campaign designed in such a way, and the merit goes to that skilled guy, who shocked the AoE community by bringing the eternal quest of the "beta" units to an end. |
| Pages: [1] 2 » Last » | | Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| Richard Ames |
Posted on 10/20/05 @ 01:19 AM
Well done on completing another campaign so quickly Andrea, you can have 3 months of paid leave :) |
| Richard Ames |
Posted on 11/05/05 @ 05:20 PM
Playability: 5
A Short History of Lost Sumeria encompasses a wide range of styles in a massive 6 playable levels. We begin with a small B&D map, in a land time has forgotten, where the gods rule all. The third level is one of a kind - a unique puzzle level where you must regroup civilization from the great flood, and avoid a great maelstrom. The variety continues with a backbone of B&D but many other styles mixed in, with more puzzle and role playing in the early part of Gilgamesh and the Quest for Immortality, and a ‘shoot em up’ style in the next level. I enjoyed every level and will no doubt play it again many times. The levels are created with expertise and we are lucky Andrea is designing for us and not being paid to build levels for another game. There were a few small bugs which Andrea has corrected now, which is just part of making such huge and complex scenarios.
Balance: 5
The campaign was once again perfectly balanced, with every level a big challenge and hugely rewarding to complete. Right from the first level you will need to take advantage of the terrain, play quickly, mange your economy with skill and scout every forest for hidden gold mines, stone deposits, and even berry bushes. Some levels will be particularly hard for newer players, so playing other campaigns first like those made by Ingo would be a good idea, as playing on easiest will ruin the levels just as much as playing in RoR would. The Gilgamesh level was especially hard at the beginning, but once I got through to the base I was set. In fact I didn’t at first notice the TC there, and I was trying to defeat the enemy with my eles as a FF :-)
Creativity: 5
Wow, again Andrea has outdone himself in creativity. The maps speak for themselves, while the gameplay offers a distinctive new challenge in every level. There are superb new tricks – from dynamics, like the appearance of Sargon’s army, to the Gods vicious destruction of your civilization in the first level, which really blew my mind and set the stage for the rest of the campaign. The second level features another new trick – this time more subtle: Take a look at your gold stockpile to see what I mean. The third scenario is one of the most creative ever – when did you last see a flood scenario in the first place? We’re greeted by 2 of each animal, a magnificent arc suspended on top of a mountain after the flood, and two of each bird flying from it. The role-play and puzzle elements later on are quite outstanding, and the last level has another diplomacy style add on. You are able to train Hittite and Sumerian catapults as Assyria. How? By tributing the owners of the siege workshops, and converting the units. This is an amazing addition and stylishly done diplomatic element. In Senate and People of Rome we saw this with the HHA, but the process was not as clean: You had to supply your own priest and keep all military units at bay, and the HHA wasn’t really needed anyway. Now you get a huge advantage from the double HP or fire rate, and you need the catapults desperately. In addition, you can even convert the siege workshops yourself if you don’t want to use the tribute process.
Map Design: 5
The maps are again a beautiful mix of new features, eye candy combinations and terrains, and he has managed to somehow introduce the new units into his levels even though he had finished them by the time the hidden units were unlocked, and they look so natural it’s scary. Not only will you be seeing dead animals, horses and trade workshops on the same map, but even new terrains and buildings, like decoration only storage pits, and mud terrain. The levels are put together like a jigsaw puzzle to fit the map dimensions and other areas of the map, such as the first level, which offers amazing playability for such a tiny map, to the later levels, which show just what great things you can do with larger maps.
Story/Instructions: 5
The story is one of the many highlights. Not only do you get the visual and playable joy, but a thrilling story of a mysterious civilization from the dawn of time. The project is heavily researched, and the conversion to playable levels matches the story so well. Most levels are set in the early ages to reflect the basic technology available. Like Angkor Wat this campaign was tricky to make because it is a little before (rather than after) the period covered by AoE, but this is handled with ease. I was amazed how well all the details of the Gilgamesh epic were translated into actual objectives in one level.
Each level contains a brief outline and clear objectives, with a wealth of historical information. The history section has been made with much concern, explaining which parts are historical and which mythology, often explaining the differences between religions, or the similarity to stories in the bible, and even quoting the amazing poetry of this period.
A Short History of Lost Sumeria is mainly a Mythological campaign, a field we often forget about when breaking stories into the sections of history, fiction and fantasy. Mythology is really a mixture of history and fantasy, and its very relevant and even controversial topics, like the eerie prediction of a great cataclysm in less than a decade from now, and the remarkable similarities of the Sumerian’s myth to Noah’s ark. This leads me to compare it to Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’. Like the book, I simply could not put this campaign down, and ended up playing the last 3 massive levels in one day.
Andrea chalks up his 5th five star, a feat only bettered by one man. Watch out Ingo![Edited on 11/05/05 @ 05:27 PM]
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| c4master |
Posted on 12/14/05 @ 05:28 PM
Playability: 5
All right, full points here. Nothing much of a surprise, though. It's a campaign from Andrea and there I tend to expect a lot. Yet I have never been disappointed. And the same here. This campaign lights up the historical and mythical role of Sumeria during more than 3000 years of Mesopatamien history. All scenarios are fun to play. Sometimes because it's hard (first one), sometimes because it's creative and always because of the beautiful landscapes designed in dozens - if not hundrets - of hours.
Balance: 4.5
This is the "weak" point of Andrea's campaign. Although not bad at all this point is not the very best because the first scenario is one of the hardest I've ever tried (It took me about 10 attempts!) while the third one holds no difficulty. That might be a bug because red player simply didn't attack me. Anyway the other scenarios had a great balance. You should also say that the difficulty is a bit lower than in Andrea's other campaigns, except the first mission of course.
If you're a medium or weak player the first scenario could be too tough for you. I'd advise you to try it a few times and if you then still cannot beat it - simply type home run. The other scenarios are worth this little cheat, believe me.
Creativity: 5
Whoa! Andrea showed another time how creative historical campaigns can be. Not only map design or victory condition made this campaign an outstandingly creative one but also story and the ability to always choose the right scenes to be played. Every mission is very different to the others. I liked the last one best because it reminded me of those old campaigns from Ingo. The first one is a really unique style which I haven't seen done by anyone except Andrea. The second one is kinda "new". The third one was the most creative with you playing as Noah (well, he's name was different but it's pretty much the same story as Noah in the Bible). The fourth one was also very nice although I don't like this open playing where you don't really know what to do. Anyway this campaign is more creative than 3 average ones together.
Map Design: 5
Andrea is famous for his beautiful maps. So he does beautiful maps ;) I will never understand how you can invent all those tricks and eye candy. Well, just take a look and enjoy the maps. You will find only few campaigns with comparable map design and probably non which contains any nicer map than one of these.
Story/Instructions: 5
Yes, I'm a history freak! Although my knowledge of history isn't the best I really love it. A Short History Of Lost Sumeria made me dance for joy ;) He did not only some research but his campaign is the best source of historical knowledge about Sumeria that I know. You get tons of information and still in a way which makes me feel excited as if it was just happening. Ah and don't forget those awesome bitmaps!
There's one little thing I have to claim again: I do not like to lose the game only because I do not know the loss conditions. This happened again a few times to me. I would appreciate to scroll down a little bit and get to know which events I have to prevent. I won't chop down the score for that but I wanted to say that I can't get familiar with your choice of merging hints and loss conditions.
Additional Comments:
Imho, Memories of the Gupta dynasty was the best campaign Andrea has done so long. Still "A Short History On Lost Sumeria" is a great one, too.
download recommendation: Yes! |
| IICDO |
Posted on 02/24/06 @ 02:16 PM
Absolutely amazing. I could not pull myself away from the game. From scenario to scenario it has you at the edge of your seat. I do not hav ethe experince yet to give a proper eview but when I do I'll be back. If you die (and you will plenty of times) do not give up keep at it and play the campaign through to the end. Grecia Andrea![Edited on 02/24/06 @ 02:16 PM]
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| Dean McCullough |
Posted on 12/16/06 @ 09:44 PM
In the end however, the difficulty in this first scenairo is perhaps a tad too much. I was just able to pump out 700 gold just now when they asked AND build a market. It sort of spoils the fun... The rest of the scenairo is already challenging as it is, so it wouldn't hurt to lower the amount of gold for tribute.
[Edited on 12/16/06 @ 09:48 PM]
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| Cato Maior |
Posted on 03/06/07 @ 03:18 AM
Believe me, balance is even in this scenario PERFECT. |
| Nikokol |
Posted on 06/30/07 @ 05:18 AM |
| Gojoseon |
Posted on 08/18/10 @ 12:28 AM
Some very nice triggers too, such as Assyria pouring out of the north after you've engaged some enemy Sumerian states.
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| Magnatio |
Posted on 04/21/13 @ 12:42 PM
The campaign is very interesting, each unique mission makes me enjoy playing it. It is one of the best campaigns I ever played.
Balance: 5
Creativity: 5
Each mission provides something new, if you play the campaign you will see the scale of Andrea's creativity
Map Design: 5
Maps are very detailed. Each map is especially unique and beautifull. I can't even imagine how much time Andrea Rosa spent on doing it)
Story/Instructions: 5
The campaign is historically based. The unstructions are made in deatail but sometimes it takes some time to know and understand all the loss conditions.
[Edited on 04/21/13 @ 12:42 PM]
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| volume |
Posted on 07/18/13 @ 07:14 AM
im too impatient and wont bore with the rating details...DOWNLOAD NOW!!! |
| Pages: [1] 2 » Last » |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 5.0 | | Breakdown |
|---|
| Playability | 5.0 | | Balance | 4.9 | | Creativity | 5.0 | | Map Design | 5.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 12,802 |
| Favorites: [] | 5 |
| Size: | 1.20 MB |
| Added: | 10/18/05 |
| Updated: | 12/17/05 |
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