At the start of the Norman Campaign — just one of four campaigns available in Age of Empires IV — William of Normandy sets forth on the hard-fought road to conquer England and become its new king. What follows is an epic story of succession, family conflict, anarchy, and rebellion — all with the players in the front seat. Ravaged by years of English raiding, France must gather its might to resist the onslaught. During the Years War campaign, players will defend France, turn the tide of war, and forge the foundations of the French nation.
Playing as the Rus and their iconic leaders, players will battle the relentless brutality of the Mongol invasion, unite allies and foes, and force a change of fortune — from subjugation to independence. Under the unifying rule of Genghis Khan, warring Mongolian tribes came together and forged the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known. The sequel too is wonderful, but I have never thought of the original as being a gaming milestone.
I do believe that there are games that are definitely milestones in history. But, personally, I don't consider AoE to be in that category. Microsoft we're sure would disagree. And anyway, what do accountants know about games? With the first game set in the ancient world, the second during the medieval era, it seems obvious that the next Age Of game will be set from Europe's early Renaissance period until the Industrial Revolution, the age of technology, a time during which culture, government and science developed at a rate unknown since the Roman Empire.
Ranks of musket-wielding infantry will patrol the battlefield, trains will chuff across the countryside carrying linen for trade and villagers will pack the local factory to make heavy machinery.
That's our theory anyway. Whether Ensemble has plans to dive straight into Age Of Empires IV, or instead branch off again into the realms of fantasy for Mythology's first add-on, we can be pretty sure that the team will want to make more use of their new 3D engine. We haven't seen the last of the Age Of Empires, that's for certain. It's rapidly becoming apparent that there are fewer and fewer truly well-designed games on the market, especially in the real-time strategy category.
This genre seems to have fallen prey over the last year to the get-rich-quick mentality that has produced a whole host of mediocre Command and Conquer wannabes, but few real winners.
With the high standards getting ever higher, the arrival of an RTS game from a company best known for such pulse-pounding titles as DOS 5. That would be your loss. This is an absolutely stellar game -- our leading contender for Strategy Game of the Year by a good distance, even over the impressive recent releases of Total Annihilation and Dark Reign.
What makes Age of Empires great? A lot of things. Most importantly, it is incredibly fun and addictive. We've had the beta for going on three months and we've been hard pressed to stop playing it long enough to review other games.
Add to the great gameplay absolutely superb graphics, the most balanced and intelligent economic model we've yet seen, and a truly innovative tech tree that builds on the best of Civilization , and you've got yourself a really amazing game. Sure, Age of Empires is basically a take-over-the-world type game, and yes, it has a problem or two that's still hanging around in the retail release, but those cease to matter quickly once you're five minutes into the game.
You begin with only a tribal council fire and three villagers and must learn where to hunt and fish, gather wood and stone, and mine for gold. Once you have built a basic economy, you can begin expanding your village and researching new technologies that will eventually enable you to irrigate farms, smith iron and steel weaponry, perfect masonry for your city walls and educate your military cadets into deadly legions.
Along the way, you'll have to deal with wild animals, famine, enemy raiders, and a vast map full of uncharted territories. What immediately impresses, though, is not simply the richness of the world and of the work that went into all the intricacies this game offers, but rather the immersive experience of playingAOE.
You know those games that you load up "just for a minute" to check out the demo and end up looking up at the clock at 3 a. This is one of those. First, because you play the game through four different ages stone, tool, bronze and iron , each of which must be reached by accumulating various resources and proving your prowess by building the staple structures of a civilization for a given age. But don't worry, this doesn't take hours -- once you've learned how to coordinate your resource gathering and construction processes, you'll progress quite quickly.
And with each new age achieved, you gain new technologies, buildings, unit types and defensive options. This makes for an RTS experience unlike any other game out there. Sure, other games let you "upgrade" certain units or give access to new units with the construction of a given combination of structures, but none ask for the sort of coordinated thought and strategy that Age of Empires requires.
In a fast-paced multiplayer game, the decision to expend resources toward advancing to the next age vs. If your Neanderthal opponent shows up with a couple dozen club-wielding goons while you're getting enlightened, you're history. But advance your civilization and gain the wheel, advanced ballistics, and engineering knowledge, and those cavemen will be no match for your catapults led by Ben-Hur and his well-armed charioteers. Second, consider the fine interplay between various resources in AOE: instead of simply mining some abstruse material spice by any other name , Age of Empires requires that you gather wood, food, stone, and gold.
Neglect any one of these and you will lose. Downloads Last Week 1, Report Software. Related Software See More. Fall in love with the classic Age of Empires II experience, now with high definition graphics. Plants vs. Zombies Free to try. Defend your garden from a zombie attack using a variety of plants.
Stronghold Crusader Free. Add new features to the Stronghold Crusader game and fix some bugs. See All. User Reviews. The review for Age of Empires has not been completed yet, but it was tested by an editor here on a PC.
It's the dawn of a new age in real-time strategy RTS games. A brave New World is rising — a hostile yet beautiful world, filled with innovative gameplay, new strategic scenarios, eye-searing graphics and much more. Play Age of Empires IV and you will find out soon! Now, with Age of Empires 4, this franchise is sure to attract more fans.
Players can develop European countries from the discovery to the industrial era.
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