As technology has evolved, it feels like the line between PC gaming and console gaming, once wide, has narrowed considerably. We now have consoles that support online, graphics settings, and even keyboard and mouse. Many things that were previously thought impossible on consoles are now simple. But some genres are still primarily the purview of PC gamers — most notably the real-time strategy genre.
Of course, many attempts have been made over the years. I have fond memories of the slightly rubbish console ports of the earliest Command & Conquer games, and then C&C actually managed some pretty good controller-based versions of C&C 3 and Red Alert 3. I think these games have a direct lineage to the control scheme of Halo Wars. Halo Wars was a lot of fun — and now another stalwart of Microsoft’s strategy is on board game pass on the console. Age of Empires comes with a host of improvements and tweaks for the Xbox, making it easier to play the game on the console no matter which control method you choose.
First up is Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, a powerful remake featuring beautiful 4K visuals and some new content first released on PC in 2019. This version is definitive indeed, containing everything from the original game, plus a few additions, and even the option to choose between the original 1999 enemy AI and a more advanced versi on.
The full package is now on Xbox, an exciting release in its own right and a prelude to the more modern Age of Empires 4, which is coming to Xbox later this year.
However, it’s not a simple matter of porting – as this is a genre that cannot be directly ported to consoles. Compromises and tweaks have to be made, and this is obviously a title that places considerable emphasis on finding a truly elegant solution to control input rather than simply messing around with some “good enough” product.
“Our team did a lot of research and prototyping during the development process,” revealed Alex Liu, design director at AOE developer World’s Edge. “We quickly discovered that simply porting our PC-centric titles to the Xbox did not provide the correct gaming experience.
“To truly deliver a gold-standard strategy game for consoles, we needed to rethink and rebuild everything from the ground up and do things that were right for the console. That meant new controls, new UI, new features, new tutorials, and more.”
All console RTS ports go through some level of iteration to work properly, but even then not all of them are immune to headaches. But through experimentation, the Age of Empires team stumbled upon a single solution that could significantly reduce many of the genre’s controller-based ills — and it’s all about artificial intelligence.
“AI automation and site-based commands were our biggest game changers during development,” Liu said of the console version’s most significant new additions.
“Both features are completely new to the Era series, address many of our outstanding design challenges, and at the same time, will significantly lower the barrier to entry for new players.”
Early prototypes of the console version didn’t have this feature, but Liu notes that the team quickly noticed that the “intense and repetitive aspects” of managing villagers and other base units proved to be taxing on players—both in terms of mentally mastering everything and actually execute. Jumping around the map and performing “micro” actions is much easier on the keyboard and mouse–but on the controller, things are much more sluggish, increasing the stress level.
solution? An AI automaton steps in and helps the player automate more of these things, which frees the player to focus on larger-scale strategic decisions that actually affect the flow of the match. AI can cycle between preset methods using the right stick. You can turn off AI automation if you feel you can do better without it. But leave it on and it will really do the classic RTS grunt work on your behalf.
“When activated, players can instruct villagers to collect each resource according to selected ratios. We have created presets for many common economic needs, and experienced players are welcome to manually adjust the ratios after enabling advanced interface profiles. Automation will affect All villagers, including idle and newly created villagers.They will gather suitable resources nearby, and can even build farms automatically.
“During the development of the AI, we took great care to make sure it didn’t take away the strategic thinking initiative of the player. All strategic actions like training villagers, building houses, building resource drop structures, herding sheep, hunting wild boars, or finding more Many resources are firmly in the hands of players.
“The AI system is inactive at the start of each match and can be manually turned on or off at any time. The automatic farming feature can also be enabled or disabled.”
Naturally, this creates a little concern for the balance. The inclusion of cross-platform play to allow controller players to take on PC warlords, and even keyboard and mouse support on Xbox, means there’s no guarantee that all console players will be on controllers. I’m old enough to remember the puzzling and endless arguments about the Xbox 360 Shadowrun reboot having cross-play and how the KBM player was pumping the pad player every time.
Here’s the possibility of that happening again, but World’s Edge has given serious thought to every aspect of Age of Empires 2 on console to avoid it. First off, cross-play with PC is optional for controller players–but if you plug a keyboard and mouse into your Xbox, you’ll be stuck with all the PC veterans out there. This seems fair.
“Age is ultimately a game of strategy. We hope that, for all but the highest competitive players, victory will be determined by strategic decisions, not minute-by-minute actions,” Liu explained.
For what it’s worth, it’s pretty good. I have some toys where the controls are intuitive and effective, and may actually be a little better than those 360-era command & conquer control schemes that I also find more acceptable. A lot is thanks to shortcuts, like how the game alerts you when there are idle villagers and lets you instantly jump to them with a single button so you can unidle them. There’s also a lovely button – I have to give this credit to Halo Wars – that just selects all military units, ready to push them against the enemy.
The thing about Age of Empires is that, in contrast to many other similar RTS experiences like C&C, micromanagement has always been a big part of it. In Red Alert or StarCraft, resource management is important, but your “micro” happens on the front lines. Micromanaging your empire’s stronghold is just as important in Age of Empires — and the AI figures out how to do it with fairly deft hands.
Still, some of the UI is reminiscent of how the game was made a long time ago, and only for PC. Age of Empires 2 wants to give you a ton of information at any given time, and the way all of that information is displayed on screen can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming on the big screen – there’s a lot of UI to behold! However, the more you play, the more it becomes second nature–the hallmark of a well-designed control scheme.
Perhaps most exciting of all, this launch, and the release of Age of Empires IV, could be an opportunity for the series — and the genre — to find a whole new audience. As a supplement to Day 1 Game Pass, the ultimate strategy may be that these games, given “free” to subscribers, act as a Trojan horse to get more people bitten by the RTS bug. Of course, developers have also been thinking about this issue.
“We’re really excited about the prospects for the strategy game genre today,” Liu said.
“More people play games than ever before, and the barrier to entry for our genre has never been lower, especially since Age 2 was available on Game Pass for Xbox and PC. We hope everyone who is passionate about strategy, history, or us Anyone interested in our community can try Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on Xbox.”
If they do, and love it? Well, Age of Empires 4 awaits you. Liu said the two teams have been working together “very closely”, but also warned fans that they “want to see some differences” in the controls and UI – but as part of the newer, larger, more modern game Age of Empires 2 The audition tape is an audition on Xbox.
