Hey, everyone! This week, I review the fourth entry of one of the most recognisable franchises on the RTS sub-genre. Does this game still have the charm, depth, and appeal as its predecessors, about a decade and a half after the previous entry of the series? Or, should this franchise be left as merely a footnote of the history of the sub-genre?
Let's find out!
(Best enjoyed with headphones on!)
Microsoft's & Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires series is one of the very few franchises, I hold dear to my heart.
In the early-90s, the RTS subgenre was revolutionary. As I have said in my review of Command and Conquer Remastered Collection (https://youtu.be/dLgW6j4pJrI) before this particular period, strategy games, in general, was bland. The majority of them was turn-based, similar to Cid Meiers civilisation series, the first game we can truly recognise as an RTS game came in 1992, when Westwood Studios, released Dune 2.
After that, game developers, including, of course, Westwood themselves was developing similar games, one of which, was Dallas, Texas-based Ensemble studios.
(FUN FACT – head of playful studios, the developers of the Super Lucky's Tale Series worked as a creative designer at Ensemble Studios!)
During the game's development, operating system giant, Microsoft approached the developers and came under the Microsoft Game Studios brand, and the first game, Age of Empires was released in 1997.
With the game's expansion set, The Rise of Rome, released the next year. To me, this was the first game I ever loved. I discovered the franchise one my brother installed the demo for the expansion pack, Rise of Rome on our family PC when I was 8,0 the sheer feeling of empowerment of leading a on was surreal. I remember sinking hour upon hour after school, playing it.
The next stop on our guided tour of the Age of Empires franchise is, of course, Age of Empires 2 Age of Kings, released to the public in 1999, running on an improved version of the game engine, which LucasArts used in the Star Wars RTS spin-off, Star Wars: Galactic battlegrounds.
For the majority of RTS players (including myself!) Regard this title as the pinnacle of the RTS sub-genre. The game's expansion, The Conquerors was released in 2000. A Further Spin-Off, Age of Mythology, a spin-off was released in 2002, with the game's expansion, the Titans, released in 2003.
Our final stop, on our journey of the history of the Age of Empires franchise, is, of course, age of empires 3, released in 2005. The game's two expansions the Warcheifs, and the Asian Dynasties released the next year. Also, released in 2006, was the DS port of the aforementioned Age of Empires 2.
After this, the Age of Empires series seemed to be finished, as Ensemble Studios developers were shut down by Microsoft due to poor sales of the RTS spin-off of the Halo series, Halo wars, released in 2009.
In 2013, the Age of Empires Series, somehow, came back. However, there was mostly remasters of the previous entries of the franchise. In 2017, the franchise's silence got broken during Microsoft's E3 press conference, Phil Spencer announced that the fourth entry of the series was in development, along with Canada-based, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War developers, Relic Entertainment.
So, here we are in 2021, with this game, Released yesterday (literally!)
This particular entry of the franchise revisits the mediaeval period of history. You lead of eight civilisations as you build up your city, research technologies to increase the strength and efficiency of your military and economy advance through the ages, and destroy your enemies!
The access ability scores are as follows –
Visibility 9.5
This game has a high contrast mode, this mode is similar to YouTube's night mode theme, or Windows 10/11's Dark Mode. Although there is no colourblind mode available, you can use Windows colour filter settings to add a colourblind mode. You can also set civilisation colours to mirror that civilisation's diplomacy towards you. I understand that Windows has colourblind support. But that does not mean that game developers can ignore visually impaired players need for a colourblind mode. '
Audibility 11
In terms of this category, this game has a wide range of features that can be helpful to a player with a hearing impairment. First off, this game has subtitles support. You can also customise the size of the font in which these subtitles will appear. So, you can read the subtitles without the risk of gaining any eyestrain.
Also, there are text-to-speech features. With a player sends a message to you, via text chat, the message itself is read out to you. In an RTS game, teamwork is vital in a lot of situations, for example, coordinating a joint attack on an enemy player. So, this feature levels the playing field when taking hearing-impaired players into account.
You can also add narration features to the user interface. When your cursor is over an element of the user interface, for example, an option in a menu, or a button in the interface, the option, and its tooltip is read out to you. So, a hearing-impaired player will find no issues when playing this game.
Mobility 10
As par for the course, the game is primarily controlled by the mage. For serious RTS players out there, and you can use hotkeys, these hotkeys can be redefined to suit your impairments. So, a mobility-impaired player should be able to play this game with no issues
Gameplay 10
As I have said, the age of empires series is one of the most recognisable franchises on the RTS sub-genre. So, this game has pretty big shoes to fill. In my honest opinion, I think, Worlds Apart has done a phenomenal job of revitalising the series.
First off, they have retained the majority of the features that the classic games has, for example, the resource management mechanic, while adding a lot of additional features to make the game more realistic, and more appealing to a modern audience.
For example, in the classic games, farms needed to be periodically rebuilt in order to keep that farm producing food.
In this game, farms produce unlimited food, helping you to manage your food income. In terms of other resources, the same rules apply. Wood, Gold and Stone can be gathered at certain points on the map. After a villager has gathered the maximum amount of that particular resource that he or she can carry, he or she has to carry the resources back to the town centre in order to add them to your stockpile. To improve efficiency, he or she can build specific buildings, like lumber mills and mining camps, which acts as a drop-off point for resources. Making the journey shorter for the villager when carrying resources from source to drop-off point.
Also, each and every civilisation feels completely unique. For example, the English are an excellent defensive civilisation. When an enemy unit or army comes in close proximity to a town, the alarm sounds, and defensive towers and archers gain a temporary attack speed bonus, therefore making their territory easier to defend. Also, unlike other civilisations, English keeps can train every unit available to them.
The Mongols are an aggressive civilisation, allowing you to access the cavalry units a lot earlier than other civilisations. Also, due to their nomadic lifestyle, their bases can be packed up, and moved around the map, allowing you to gain dominance of the map a lot earlier and easier than the other civilizations.
With four unique campaigns to play through from the Norman conquest to the hundred years war, to the rise of the Mongol Empire, this game has plenty of content to play through in the base game, With lockable, documentary-style videos done by the BBC to give you an insight on how life and warfare were done in the middle ages.
You'll come for the campaigns, and you'll stay for the multiplayer. In terms of multiplayer, there is only one game mode available. Only standard mode is available for a multiplayer match. You can when by either capturing sacred sites, building and defending a wonder, which is only available in the Imperial Age, or simply destroying your opponent. There is also a skirmish mode, allowing you to practice your strategies in simulated multiplayer matches against AI opponents.
In summary, Age of Empires 4 reboots the age of empires franchise in the best possible way. This game may be too similar to the second entry of the series, but there is a lot of new mechanics to make this game fresh, for example, archers can go on top of walls, to defend against invaders. If you're a fan of the age of empires franchise, hell, a fan of the RTS sub-genre, I cannot recommend this game enough to you! Seriously, this game is available on Xbox game pass for PC! Don't knock it till you try it!
OVERALL SCORE 101.25%
See you guys in the next review!
SpartanCommander1990 out!
Roll out, Spartan Legion!
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