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Age of Empires II. That’s what it’s all about. Not just Age of Empires even if it is the progenitor of the series but just didn’t stand the test of time. Not Age of Empires III a good game but one that failed to catch the hearts of the community. And certainly not Age of Mythology. No. It was Age of Empires II that became the legend. The revolutionary real-time strategy game that to this very day, 22 years after its release this has more than 30,000 players playing it simultaneously. And it’s also the game the developers of Age of Empires IV decided to learn from. But honestly, could’ve they even chosen differently?

While some AoE purists may be scared by the fact that the fourth installment is not being developed by the original creators but by the Canadian studio Relic Entertainment – creators of games like Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, or Homeworld) I don’t think this was a bad choice. First of all, Relic is one of the few remaining studios that focuses on strategy games. Secondly, and more importantly, the developers seem to understand that this may be their magnum opus, one of the biggest strategy games ever to be created with a still living and loving community that will not hesitate to burn everything if it doesn’t go right. That’s why back in 2017 when the development of AoE4 officially started they created the community council made from experienced developers, professional players of AoE, and many other important personalities throughout the gaming world. The council is part of the development process itself, consults on the ideas and decisions of the developers, and its primary role is to tell them whether the mechanics created still feel like Age of Empires. Just the fact that they are giving so much importance to the community feels calming. And let’s face it, I’m not the biggest strategy game guy. But even I’ve spent hours upon hours in Age of Empires and still love watching tournaments to this very day.

And I’m not the only one who feels this is important. The developers themselves are proudly announcing that AoE 2 is the true king. But this should be evident from the footage. Just look at it! Middle-ages! AoE is coming back to the era that brought it most of its fame and success. The first campaign we know of will take place in Britain in the 11th century and takes real-world history as inspiration. Just don’t expect the history to play out exactly as it did in history books. This shall not be a history lesson.

The first gameplay footage we got to see showed us a return to the fundamentals of AoE. All you get is a town center and a few villagers. To do well, you need to quickly send them out to collect berries, build houses, gather wood, while queuing up more villagers so you can boom. At the same time, your scout is already on the map, searching for a large forest to place the mill, discovers gold and stone. What’s that there? A relic? I need to remember that so I can send a monk! And relics will gain more importance than just generating gold so get ready to battle over them. In the footage, we got to see a moment when a monk with a relic converted like 20 units at once! That’s one hell of a WOLOLO!

So, everything seems to be good. The main goal is to capture the feeling of the king AoE 2 and just add a few cherries on top. And that seems pretty good for me. We will still have the four main resources, combat based on counters (infantry against cavalry, cavalry against archers, and archers against infantry) the four ages. The main differences to AoE 2 should stem from the civilizations themselves but more on that later.

There will obviously be changes. A countless number of smaller or even larger changes that are hard to figure out from what we’ve seen so far. But there are a few things I noticed. For example, you can now see in-game how many villagers are gathering each resource, the villagers now know how to use their hunting gear in combat, the walls are no longer just wall, but you can place archers on top of them and your enemies will be able to use siege weapons to drop their own units on top of the wall too! And the maps themselves seem to be utilizing 3D space much more so get prepared to abuse the high ground!

Another thing I like is the focus on campaigns. While we all remember AoE 2 being about multiplayer and its current scene lives by almost nothing else let’s face it. We weren’t really good enough for multiplayer and so we’ve spent either playing the original campaigns or playing skirmish against the AI. So, the fact that AoE 4 should come with a large set of spanning campaigns that should last you for dozens of hours with a bigger focus on storytelling is something the average gamers will more than love. And from what I’ve heard, just the cinematics should be three hours long! On top of that, the single-player campaign should come with a few mechanics that I don’t think could work in the competitive environment of multiplayer but should add a great edge to single-player such as the ability of some unites to hide in the forest and stage an ambush.

So… what else do we need to talk about? Well, the civilizations of course! Over time, we got used to a plethora of civilizations as AoE II amassed a total of 37 different choices to this day. So the eight civilizations AoE IV will be launching will sound a little daunting at first. Yes, you heard me correctly, not eighteen. Not eighty. Just eight civilizations. But, the approach seems to be quality over quantity.

So, while in AoE II the civilizations don’t really differ that much – a bonus here, a special unit there – AoE IV wants to come with much larger differences between the civilizations. The authors are talking about making them much more asymmetric though I still wouldn’t expect AoE IV to follow Starcraft’s route to asymmetry. So far, we were introduced to four civilizations – the English, the Delhi sultanate, the Chinese, and the Mongols. Some of the differences are clearly visible – while the English can build pompous bases with sophisticated defenses the nomadic Mongols can quickly pack their things and go somewhere else. Yes, microing will be the key to success with Mongols and it will definitely be hard. But then, the feeling of your enemy finding your base empty only to be attacked from behind will certainly be worth it. And what about the four missing civilizations? Based on the fact the game is set in the middle ages and its greater emphasis on campaigns I’d bet we will see at least the Franks and Vikings. But your guess is as good as mine.

So… everything seems to indicate the developers want to stay true to what made AoE II the true king of real-time strategy. But some things have improved since those times. One big one is the graphical fidelity of games. So… let’s take a look at how AoE IV wants to look. We start with lush full colors that almost look comic-like. I won’t lie. This kind of scares me because if you remember the sad, sad Age of Empires Online you still have nightmares. With all the emphasis on trying to be true to the legacy of AoE II, I would’ve expected more realism.

On the other hand, I understand Relic's reasoning for this artistic choice. It is important to be able to easily recognize units. Making everything colorful and simplified does make sense. The cap for the number of units you can control will again be 200 so there is potential to see truly huge battles. But the standard format for AoE is 1v1 so I’m just not sure whether the artistic choice was that needed.

Then there’s the engine. And that’s probably the thing that scares me the most. It’s a very old engine. The Essence Engine was first used in 2006 on Company of Heroes. Yes, obviously it has gone through many upgrades since but still. And while I do think the game looks good it doesn’t look that much better than AoE III and sometimes even feels Worse AoE II: Definitive Edition that came out just two years ago.

Conclusion

Nonetheless, no matter the fears I have for AoE IV I am still more than looking forward to it and I quickly registered to hopefully become part of the beta. And so should you at www.ageofempires.com.

It’s been a long time since we got a truly big entry into the genre of real-time strategy games. So, the real question is – what is the goal of Age of Empires IV? Because I don’t really doubt that AoE IV will be a good RTS that both newcomers and veterans of AoE will enjoy. But, is that enough? Won’t it just be a nice thing for RTS fans for some time and they will eventually just return to either AoE II or to Starcraft 2? Or will it be good enough that it will create its own community of RTS lovers for years to come? That’s the million-dollar question.

So, that’s it for today guys. I hope you liked the review and if you did, please up-vote the review, follow my blog, and be sure to share it with your friends. And comment, if you have anything you would like to add. See you guys later with more gaming content.