Age of Empires IV - Review
The Age of Empires series has seen years of dedication and fan following. Since the early days of playing against friends via a phone modem, the series has been a real-time strategy game at its best. The rush to build an army quickly and smash your opponents was never tiresome, and the battle for supremacy over key resources or locations on the map will keep you going until the end.
It's no surprise, then, that Microsoft finally added to the Age of Empires legacy with the release of Age of Empires IV. Relic Entertainment took over development from the much-loved but long-deceased Ensemble Studios, and while the company has a strong background in real-time strategy games, Age of Empires IV feels like a very risky release, looking more creamy to the game. Age of Empires II. That's not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but if you're thirsty for a whole new Age of Empires experience, you'll find yourself wanting more.
As with any Age of Empires game, civilizations play an important role. Age of Empires IV introduces eight new civilizations: the Chinese, the Delhi Sultanate, the English, the Mughals, the French, the Abbasid dynasty, the Roman Empire, and the Russians. The campaign mode focuses on 4 of them: English, Mongolian, French and Russian, while the remaining four civilizations can be experienced in multiplayer mode. Each campaign contains about 10 missions, and each mission lasts between 20-40 minutes on the game's normal difficulty level.
What Relic has done with Age of Empires IV is to make each campaign a direct account of key events through the ages, complemented by stunning realistic cinematics. Whether you're flying over the castles of England or traversing the vast landscapes of the Mongol Empire, you won't want to skip these stunningly detailed cinematic scenes. Another interesting change is that the game continues to tell the story while playing the main objectives in each mission, which further enhances the narrative nature of the game. The narration is methodical and engaging, and makes you feel like you're not just living through important parts of history, but getting a front row seat to witness some of the most important decisions made in history.
Each civilization has its own perks and preferences, and it's really hard to pick a favorite among them. With each campaign you'll discover how civilization rose to its legendary status, and learn all the tricks and battle skills needed to conquer your enemies. The way you choose to conquer them is of course up to you. Do you choose supply routes strategically so that the enemy cannot deploy more troops? Or are you stationed at your base until you have a powerful army that can crush anything in its path? Or, given the opportunity, would you diplomatically praise the enemy for stopping the raids on your town? The options are many, and there will always be more than one way to lead the battlefield.
As you play in each of the four campaigns, you'll learn about each civilization's strengths and hone them to your advantage. For example, the English pride themselves on the famous English longbowman, who can easily shoot arrows at enemies long before they have a chance to reach you. An added bonus in Age of Empires IV is the ability to place units on top of your walls now, so having a line of archers standing guard at your city gates is a good first line of defense. On the other hand, the hardened Mongols take advantage of their nomadic roots with the ability to move their possessions anywhere on the map, making it easy to move to resource-rich areas or reposition in a new strategic location near an enemy camp. With each campaign, you'll learn the basics of warfare and units that are strong or weak versus other unit types. This will come naturally to players familiar with the previous installments in the series, but for new players this is a huge help. There are even tips that pop up during gameplay based on your actions, and can recommend strategies and ways to turn the tide of battle.
Of course, you have to fight the battle in the end, because as much fun as it is to build a huge army, you can't hide behind your city walls forever. The wonderful sight of your army preparing its formation as it marches towards the enemy is very interesting, and the game allows you to quickly change formations and groups to better manage your attacks. There can sometimes be problems with routing, units are trying to climb on top of each other to reach an enemy or a point, so it is best to divide the army into smaller manageable groups to make it easier to guide them.
With certain main characters appearing in each campaign, you'll be able to control the great leaders of your army and take them into battle with you. They offer some additional abilities that you can use, for example, the ability to rally nearby troops to fight more aggressively, or even heal them over time. Being able to direct Joan of Arc to lead the French army was definitely an exciting experience, one that you will enjoy with each of the different campaigns.
Reinforcements are always welcome in any battle, and one of the great improvements in Age of Empires IV is that infantry can now build certain support units right on the battlefield. Batteries can be assembled in a few minutes, making it easy to break through enemy walls. Some civilizations can even build powerful siege weapons right on the battlefield, helping turn the tide of war during pivotal moments.
Where the game seems to falter is the unit interaction, and this makes the battles less exciting than they could be. Take, for example, the English cavalry, which can attack in battle and are excellent against certain units. In a real war, a cavalry attack would be able to cause some damage to infantry as they pass through their ranks, weakening their positions and opening them up to attacks. But this is not portrayed the same way in the game. Your cavalry will continue to rush towards your enemies, but then it will suddenly stop in front of them and begin to pierce with swords and spears. Age of Empires was never about getting too close to real-world mechanics, but it would have been better if a few attacks triggered different animations to indicate the attacks of different units. Whether you're killing an enemy with an arrow or with the fiery rage of a catapult, the animations for death are the same, which is somewhat frustrating. Even when you zoom in on the battlefield to see the action, it doesn't feel quite as satisfying as it should be.
Age of Empires IV also has the ease of managing villagers and the economy, eliminating many of the management details that plagued previous games. You can now build farms that self-renew, providing an unlimited supply of food that villagers can harvest. Also the villagers will now work automatically based on the method they just completed, for example if you set up a firewood factory, the specific villagers will build it, and then they will automatically chop down the trees.
Other benefits come in the form of an effect, as certain buildings and landmarks give bonuses to your army or your production, making it more efficient to maintain a strong economy. Whether it's taxes that increase gold or a network of castles that can alert you of enemies approaching you, there are plenty of great rewards that you can take advantage of to improve your chances of winning. The Mongols are a perfect example of this, if you place the unit buildings next to the sacred Ovoo (which automatically mines stones for you) you will be able to use the stone to build two of the same unit without affecting production time.
A great addition to Age of Empires IV compared to the previous parts is the large number of documentaries that you unlock as you complete each mission. These clips go into detail about weapons, trade, religion and many other topics, and are very interesting to watch. You can also unlock historical information about key characters and battles, which enhances Age of Empires IV's style of teaching some history while playing the game, which we are pleased with.
The game looks good graphically, but it's not a game to get excited about in 4K at 200 frames per second. Although there are some distinct animations in some of the buildings and units, the models themselves are not very detailed, which will keep you from immersing yourself in the game. While the battles and cities you fight in are vast to explore, the overall look is more like a game you would have played in the first decade after the year 2000, not something that reflects the mechanics of modern games today. But maybe that's what Age of Empires has always been, a game that sacrifices realism and detail for fun strategic battles. Performance-wise, the game ran smoothly at the highest graphics settings, with the occasional exception of some cinematic scenes that stutter a bit during playback.
For folks who have finished single-player campaigns (which run at least 10 hours), they can dive into The Art of War challenges, which come back here from previous games. These short missions test your skills across a variety of scenarios, and are suitable for both new and old players alike. The real test, of course, comes when you dive into multiplayer against AI or real opponents.
