Age of Empires IV – Review
Our Score: 9/10
Age of Empires IV is finally here! The game we’ve waited so, so, so long for is finally here thanks to developer Relic Entertainment who made this game in partnership with World’s Edge.
It took four long years since the first announcement that Age of Empires IV was being developed. And those have four years have been quite long thanks to a worldwide pandemic. We saw numerous games, shows, and movies getting delayed which didn’t help. But that wait is finally over because the game is finally here! We were all curious to know whether or not this RTS titan would stand the test of time and deliver experiences like the one we had in the original titles. And to put it mildly, they’ve done it.
What is Age of Empires IV?
Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game that was first released way back in 1997. After that came Age of Empires II which is probably a lot of people’s favourite game of all time with an active community even today. Then in 2005 came Age of Empires III with the final expansion released in 2007. And since then, players have been waiting for a sequel, a reboot or something to fill the gap that this massive franchise left.
That brings us to Age of Empires IV. Continuing on and learning from its past games and games in the genre, it brings back the much-wanted Age of Empire RTS formula to the modern-day. Taking a lot of inspiration from AoE II, this game is a bit more simplified as compared to AoE III.
You take control of a civilization and must resource gather, build your city, and grow in order to survive and compete with the other civilizations. And yes, this does mean a lot of combat encounters which you’ll have to be smart about.
The Age of Empires IV Campaign
The game has a campaign mode where you play as the Mongols, the English, the Rus, and the Mongols over three eras. The game has a documentary-type way of telling the story with the help of a narrator. You will be shown footage of castles and towns, with wireframe soldiers and their gear. This allows you to get a better idea of how things worked back then and is quite honestly, a fun way of learning some history.
The campaign itself is quite fun as there’s a lot of fun scenarios here. Even on the standard difficulty, you’ll want to be quick to learn the keyboard shortcuts so that you don’t fall behind
Skirmish
Once you familiarize yourself with the campaign, you’ll probably want to move on to the Skirmish mode. Where you can play as any of the eight civs that are currently;y in the game. But eight isn’t a low number here because of the different number of ways each civ can be played. There’s a lot of flexibility and room for experimentation here that makes this game so damn addicting.
Look and Feel
Age of Empires IV is a modern game from a visual standpoint. The graphics and texture work is fantastic here and the game looks great. Most importantly, the UI is sleek and concise. You’re never overburdened with a lot of UI elements. It’s all very cleanly done which saves you the hassle of wrestling with the UI and menu.
The sound design is on point and absolutely fantastic. It’s so crisp and so powerful that you feel yourself getting sucked into the game world. I’m often disappointed by the way games handle their sound design but AoE IV is a real treat to the ears.
The soundtrack is outstanding here as well. The music of Age of Empires II is permanently burned into my head and just listening to even a 5-second clip of it gives me crazy nostalgia. Age of Empires IV’s soundtrack might probably end up doing the same for you.
Final Verdict
Age of Empires IV is the game we’ve wanted for years. With a very interesting cast of civs, a lot of room for experimentation, and its addictive gameplay, AoE IV is brilliant. And as is the case with most RTS games, they only get better and better after release. I am excited to see where the game goes from here. As I continue to pour hours and hours into this game.
