After your army’s merciless offensive, your life rages around you. Your enemy finally surrendered. The soldiers cheered, but you stopped to wonder why. Was it a victory to raid a small village and defeat a few peasants? Age of Empires 4 is the most important video game, so no matter what you think about the events you control, this victory will be ticked and you will gain experience.
It is also a new type of real-time strategy game, which treats history more carefully and is committed to immersing you in it. World’s Edge’s view of the classic real-time strategy series may be too familiar to loyal fans, and some of its ambitions will not be fully realized until after it is released. However, here is the best age of empire.
Age of Empires 4 started with 8 civilizations. Although the number seems to be limited compared with the original 13 empires of AoE 2, the balance of regions represented at the time of release has been significantly improved. The lineup includes the Abbasids, the Sultanate of Delhi, the Mongols and the French, although you st art with the British-or, more accurately, the Normans. Age of Empires 4 lets you experience the Battle of Hastings and other familiar battles again, but there are some important differences.
Age of Empires 2 and 3 have historical battle modes that can loosely replay important past conflicts, although “loosely” is the key here. The center of the Norman invasion of 1066 was the destruction of Harold’s castle in the second game, a gimmick that will make any history buff cry in pain. Age of Empires 4 is closer to Bayeux tapestries, battlefield landscapes, and other chronicles in which it serves as a background. For example, it uses William’s decoy on the famous Saxon Shield Wall as a unit management tutorial, and it only ends after Harold is killed on a battlefield that clearly does not have a castle.
Age 4 no longer focuses on a great leader of each civilization, but chooses to have a more coherent overview of each period. After the Battle of Hastings in the game, the Norman era alone spanned nearly two centuries, covering William’s brutal suppression of the northern rebels and the civil war that broke out between his children, and then ended before the Hundred Years’ War , Where to pick up the next battle.
World’s Edge provides a brief, detailed overview of the upcoming battles that will affect the upcoming battles and the resulting events to buffer each chapter. Instead of lashing out at you with text, facts, and dates, it presents a higher-level overview of key details and characters in smooth, documentary-like footage. These are consistent high points in every battle, combining real-world footage with game rendering, and superimposing an animated army on the actual battlefield.
These, coupled with more attention to the historical details of the battle, show that World’s Edge is committed to making Age of Empires 4 more than just another medieval battle simulator. Civilization is about being stupid, throwing the world into chaos, or letting a long-dead ruler lead their people into space. The old AoE was a race to conquer everyone else. Age of Empires 4 is still about conquering your enemies, but now those who have a deeper understanding of why it happened and its effects.
However, you have many common things about AoE, such as thematic units, the technology to invest in, and the trebuchet to build. It is still the age of empires, sometimes wrong. Some civilizations have more unique quirks than before, such as the mobile buildings of the Mongols. Whether World’s Edge believes that it is best not to make drastic changes to its first Age of Empires game, or that the series needs a soft restart, compared to the previous game, Age of Empires 4 is almost the same mechanically.
In other words, World’s Edge’s reliance on higher historical accuracy means that there are welcome changes in certain campaign missions. The Battle of Norman is another good example. The Harlin stage in the north is after William tried to destroy York’s rebels, as happened in the actual Harlin, you can repay the attacking Danes or choose to fight them head-on (you will fail). It doesn’t care about making you feel like a strong and smart warlord all the time. York City itself is his ultimate goal, but you will conquer several other villages on the way. William’s celebration after his cavalry trampled on an almost defenseless small village emphasized the cruelty of missions and the cruelty behind real-life battles in a way that most strategy simulation games have never tried.
However, this is a game to have fun first, and “Age of Empires 4” does not condemn the war or make judgments about the instigators of the war. Although it is obvious that murdering farmers or illegally invading other lands is a bad thing, the narrator never talks about the fact that certain battles or their consequences are not so pleasant. The same applies to other self-evident problem areas, such as the rampant deforestation needed to maintain any settlement. The solution for the age of empires was to conquer more land.
Despite this, World’s Edge promises to include multiple views on potentially controversial topics, although it is not visible in the release version. The future civilization will explore the occupation of certain territories from the perspective of the occupier or ruler after the collapse of another empire. Obviously, it is not yet possible to fully assess World’s Edge’s ability to manage this goal. However, compared with the racist and stereotyped descriptions of certain groups that took place in Age of Empires 2, the desire to do so is more commendable.
It is disappointing that we have to wait for this additional content. The existing battles are enough, even though they only explored half of the story of launching civilization. Multiplayer games are the same as ever. Players can compete to rule the map and lead their empire to victory. World’s Edge has a season and challenge plan for multiplayer games, but naturally, we can’t get samples before launch.
There are also a series of training challenges to help you understand the advanced strategies and missions of Age of Empires 4, which unlock cosmetics for customizing your profile. But that’s it, and it’s hard to ignore the missing content.
Age of Empires 4 is as multifaceted as the events it portrays. It is more ambitious in handling content and inspiration than other AoE games, but it is also more conservative in changing fundamentals. There is no need to change something that already works, although some additional gameplay can help AoE 4 feel more fresh and exciting. These activities are powerful, but the missing content is prominent in its absence. This is especially true considering that “Age of Empires 4” is a full-price release, although using Game Pass makes it more attractive. The content here is still more than enough, but like any good strategist, World’s Edge is planning ahead for the long-term game.