In the Norman campaign, for instance, you start as William the Conqueror, but eventually you'll witness the conflict between his kids, and then their kids, and so on. This time, however, we'll be getting four campaigns that give us a longer view of a civilization's history.
Previously, Age of Empires has focused on historical figures, like Joan of Arc, or given us more of a story-driven campaign, as in AoE3. For us, starting with eight is a big endeavor, and then we're going to keep expanding."Īge of Empires 3 (Image credit: Microsoft) Age of Empires 4 will contain 4 historical campaigns "The detail we're putting into the civilizations and the focus on making them more unique-you can imagine there's a reason StarCraft had three factions the entire time, because doing asymmetrical balance gets massively complicated. " is where we're starting," Relic told us.
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It's not clear if they'll be appearing in free updates or premium expansions, though. I would've liked to see a lot more of AOE4, but the short glimpses I got were still enough to pick up on how many changes can fall under the umbrella of modern." Age of Empires 4 will have 8 civilizations, but there's room to expandĮight civs is a decent start, but Relic plans to keep expanding them. They’re handy for sure, but it’s a long way from being a fashion revolution."Three big things fans will want to know about right away: the plan is to launch with eight civilizations (largely from Europe and Asia, but not exclusively), there will be four campaigns tracing the histories of some of those civilizations, and naval combat is in.
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If you’ve been playing the series since its inception, it’s like slipping on a well-worn, comfortable piece of clothing, while the improvements here and there basically amount to someone having added pockets to your outfit. Some players may be disappointed that Age of Empires 4 is so familiar. Balance will surely come through updates after the game is in more people’s hands. It’s hard to tell at this early stage how well the balance has been found between them, but whether you’re utilising the English, the Romans, or the Abbasid Dynasty they feel individually distinct while retaining that all-important familiarity.
Relic has set out their stall with eight factions in Age of Empires 4, though there’s the promise of further civilisations being added via future DLC. This could have been an element that you’d bypass, but instead it feels utterly essential. Mixing modern day footage with super-imposed imagery of the past works fantastically well, and everything has the sheen of a high-quality documentary, with the related editing down to a tee as well. It helps that the storytelling and the additional material are provided with plenty of drama and excellent presentation. The Hands on History videos and documents feel integral to the AoE4 experience
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The four campaigns – Normans, The Hundred Years War, Rise of Moscow and the Mongol Empire – focus on a full time period’s events, taking you through multiple battles and generations as you experience history as it happened. Two of the most enjoyable new features in AoE4 are the campaign narrative and unlockable content that you gain as you level up. Be prepared to work for those victories though. You’ll also need to make sure you’re utilising all of their secondary skills at the right time, but the rhythm of attack and defence feels just right. A huge part of that is utilising Control Groups, and it’s a cinch to add units that you can then call on with a press of button. You’ll soon learn that you need the tightest of controls on your army to succeed, at least on Intermediate difficulty or higher. These aren’t things that are unique to AoE4, and the RTS genre as a whole has struggled with them for years, but don’t expect any remarkable solutions here. Large armies will bump and jostle their way through environmental bottlenecks, pathfinding sometimes feels a touch loose, and if you allow it to happen battles can degenerate into messy melee with a little too much ease. There are still moments where things don’t quite hang together. Building your settlements in AoE4 looks better and more naturalistic than ever.
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