The Bayeux Tapestry unfurls before the player you will soon be at the heart of it. There is no better example of a perfect Age of Empires setting than in one of the earliest missions in the new game.
Age of Empires turned players toward the past and compelled them with its bloody, battle-strewn vision. These historical figures were so much more absorbing than a typical sci-fi or fantasy setting I studied the Middle Ages at school because of them. I was Joan of Arc, protecting the Orleans Cathedral from the hated English I was Attila the Hun, letting Bleda, my murderous brother, die at the tusks of the iron boar.
And I did, in a way: Even if the history itself was shaky (even then I knew that the Chinese invented gunpowder: why so few gunpowder units?), the passion for this history, told through gameplay, was infectious. When I was 9, my dad bought me a copy of Age of Empires II under the pretense that, since I refused to stop playing games, I might at least learn something about history.
