Age of Empires 4 review

Age of Empires 4 is a classic-style RTS that builds bases, clashes swords, and loots villages, inside and out. Jumping into a match as the tenacious English take on the chivalrous French feels like being transported back, not just to your setting from the High and Late Middle Ages, but to a completely different era of strategy games. And there are some things about that that feel really good, like comfort food for players of a certain age. But they are the few places where Relic has risked here and there where this battlefield shows us its best and feels modern. Outside of that, it often seems too careful and safe in a world where Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition already exists.

If you’ve been sending villagers hunting animals, mining for gold, and chopping wood for decades like I did, you can slip right into the armored boots of most Age 4 factions without a problem. Winning pitched battles reliably requires knowing the rock-paper-scissors relationship between spears, horses, and bows. A quick raid to assassinate some of your opponent’s villagers and shut down their economy can be more strategically valuable than victory in any head-to-head showdown. Building walls and other defensive structures turns the late game into a tense game of chess where map control is key, though eventually high-tech artillery like cannons will break the deadlock and lead to a decisive sweep for whoever sets them. more effectively. Pacing is right where it needs to be when facing an equally skilled opponent.

I was also impressed by the semi-random skirmish maps, which allow you to choose a biome, defining colors, tree types, and general vibes, from temperate European to Asian steppe to taiga, plus a layout. Each features different tactical challenges, from two opposing ridges overlooking a valley that looks a lot like a StarCraft 2 tournament map, to wide-open layouts with lots of forest hiding units in the middle that fuels blatant guerilla warfare, and a lot of disorientation. However, some of them may feel a bit unbalanced; Mountain passes will always favor castle-building civilizations over nomads like the Mongols, for example. But overall, it’s a great variety of well-designed battlefields. And while I was concerned that naval combat would feel like an afterthought with how little Relic talked about it before launch, it’s pretty well developed, making island maps an exciting proposition on their own.

But for six of the eight playable factions, I just didn’t feel like there was enough news here. I mean, each one plays a little bit differently; Unique technologies, units and benchmarks are great for establishing an identity that evokes your historical inspiration and varies the way you maximize your economy. The Chinese derive much of their income in gold from imperial officials who walk around collecting taxes from all their buildings. The Abbasids get the Baghdad House of Wisdom, which positions them as leaders in technology and, graciously if you know their fate in the real world, grants fire resistance to nearby structures.

But these modest tweaks didn’t change much of the fact that there is almost nothing in Age 4 that couldn’t have existed 10 years ago. That includes the graphics – even at maximum settings, they don’t look all that impressive, especially when I was able to play any Total War released since 2010 and see an order of magnitude more units with much more detailed models and much higher fidelity environments. And with Microsoft signing the checks, it’s not like Relic does this on a tight budget. At the same time, new mechanical ideas like being able to hide units in the woods to set up ambushes are a nice twist, but other than that I’m really not doing anything I couldn’t do in Age of Empires 2 and 3 Definitive Editions that have been launched recently.

UNLESS… WAIT… YOU ARE THE MONGOLS

With completely mobile bases, no population buildings, and an economy heavily focused on burning other people’s stuff for money, the Mongolian faction breaks with tradition and conventions and shows what Relic can do when it’s really trying to bring something new. to the table. The Mongols took me from feeling a bit lukewarm at the age of 4 to getting excited about exploring new tactics almost immediately, and I’ve spent most of my multiplayer time since then throat singing and micro-narrating to horse archers. Rus are also a nice breath of fresh air, although they aren’t all that unconventional; they focus on dominating nature with smaller outposts rather than having a dense and heavily defended urban core.

Unfortunately, not even Genghis Khan was able to save me from the generally terrible search for paths and unit targets. It’s not StarCraft: Brood War bad, but it’s bad enough, as cavalry commonly get stuck in rubble and dance back and forth aimlessly, explorers try to go through a forest instead of around it, knights try to circle around and unite. to a spearman. from breaking out to hit the siege weapons behind him, and archers stop to pounce ineffectively into a tower when there’s a crucial battle unfolding just a short jog down the road. You will need to constantly take care of your armies, at a very fine tactical level, to get the most out of them. And that’s true even when you’re not playing a super micro-heavy faction like the Mongols.

Screenshots of Age of Empires 4

But there’s one area where Age 4’s old-school sensibilities brought me nothing but pleasure: it features 40 full-length missions of single-player campaign goodness. The first two campaigns, with the English against the French in the Norman invasions, and then the French against the English in the Hundred Years’ War, are a bit slow due to the fact that they focus on the two most boring factions: almost They could sometimes be mistaken for each other’s mirrors. But the campaigns of the Mongol Empire and The Rise of Moscow feature tons of interesting objectives that put you amidst exciting flashpoints in history. You’ll unlock mini live-action documentaries for each scenario on things like how to build a compound bow or traditional Mongolian folk music, which are pretty cool, although I would have killed for the basic pause and rewind buttons while playing.

It’s worth noting that the music and sound design are great across the board. The traditional instruments and melodies that evoke the spirit of each faction start out simple and grow into something more epic as you progress through the ages. The voice lines for each unit were recorded in the native languages ​​of their historical cultures, including some that are no longer natively spoken. English units, for example, speak mostly incomprehensible Old English in the early period, gradually evolving through Middle English and eventually reaching Shakespearean Early Modern English. This was a really nice touch, and none of it sounds too stereotypical or cartoonish.

On the other hand, perhaps my biggest disappointment so far is the lack of a map editor. One of my favorite activities in old Age of Empires games has always been to design my own scenarios and share them with my friends, and right now you can’t do it here. Luckily Relic says mod tools are on the way, I just hope they don’t take long to get here.