The medieval times in which the Age of Empires IV is set lends itself perfectly to these kinds of mechanics. This mechanic needs to be interesting for new and skilled players alike not too on the nose, but also not too difficult. Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock?Ī good real-time strategy game starts with good rock, paper, and scissor mechanics. And while some people may claim Age of Empires IV is akin to a modern version of the second game, I’d say the developers have taken learnings from a variety of sources, such as Warcraft, Command & Conquer, and Age of Empires III. This was probably a reason for World’s Edge and Relic, the developers of the new fourth game in the series, to look at what made that one so beloved. The HD remaster was fairly popular on Steam and the Definitive Edition is doing impressively well on Valve’s platform these days. Indeed, it’s the second installment in the series that has kept Age of Empires at the forefront of PC gaming. And the public has embraced the return of these games, especially regarding the lovechild of the franchise Age of Empires II. Microsoft wasn’t fooling around when they reignited their love for the franchise. Years have passed since and we’ve seen three remasters show up on the scene. One of the largest strategy game IPs was back, with full support from Microsoft. It was the starting point for Microsoft to show the world they were ready for another round. While I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen again, we can take a look at what’s in front of us right now.Īge of Empires IV was announced back in 2017 at Gamescom during a special Age of Empires event. Many fans of the genre have been clamoring for the return of this series to the pedigree it had back in the late ’90s and early ’00s. But now the time has come for the Age of Empires to return. We've all played a better alternative priced at half the price.It has been 16 years. The world has changed a great deal, so has technology. Decades later I'm a grown man that's experienced a whole world of exploration and excitement. But it's not worth even half its price tag, I'd maybe pay £10? I was at secondary school when AOE2 was released. I'd recommend you try if you have game pass on PC. We're talking tiny slithers, trade routes. A tiny fraction of what 3 innovated on, 4 has kept. It's not a bad game, because age of empires 2 isn't a bad game. They're tiny and you'll look over them immediately, because there is no impact. I just don't care enough about the changes. It strikes me that either the Devs forgot this was a sequel, or perhaps hoped to cash in on nostalgia before it's players discovered in the second hour of gameplay that this is just AOE2, with a little more shine, and hills. It's quite frankly a bit of a disappointing mess. You don't feel the ages as strongly either. Age of empires 4 feels like a village builder. Age of Empires 3 felt like it was trying to justify the Empire tag, with all its dark colonial exploitation. Age of Empires 2 felt like a game trying to reach for its grand title. But if I wanted a 20 year old strategy game then I'd play one. The graphics are okay, the presentation is okay, definitely reminds me of the history based games we saw 20 years ago. It's not a true sequel and lacks much of what I'd expect from a modern sequel. In reality it's a reimagining of the second game on the core series, AOE2.
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