#AGE OF EMPIRES 2 MAPS SERIES#

The base building element in the game, therefore, feels more along the lines of Starcraft 2 and a clear break from Age of Empires II. Civilisation bonuses also require you to pack your buildings close together. When building your base, there's only limited space available to place buildings. When I'm playing multiplayer maps or skirmishes against the AI, the maps in the game often feel very small. There are also things I don't like though, things that also don't seem to fit the game's Age of Empires legacy. The UI is very minimalist and could've used some more historical bells and whistles, besides not distinguishing clearly between units or buildings, but those things probably don't matter in the long run. Buildings that get damaged also have neat destruction animations and the camera allows you to rotate freely, so there are plenty of things to like. It's also easy enough to discern different unit types on the screen. I felt the unit's weapons were a bit too cartoony at first because they're relatively big compared to the units, but it's something you can get used to really quickly. Relic's new Essence Engine does a fine job at delivering a highly detailed environment, colourful buildings, and authentic-looking units. I'm also having a good time zooming in and looking at my units and buildings. All in all, I think the campaigns are definitely a high point in historical strategy gaming. The fact that units speak their authentic languages and the game's music and visuals add to the experience while playing. Even as a historian who's read lots of books and articles on history, I feel like I've got a novel emotional experience playing the campaign of the Mongol Conquests, for example. There's content on castle construction, horse archery, and Mongol war drums, for example, which do a great job of amplifying your campaign experience. The combination of great visual storytelling and dropping into the action during missions makes it feel as if you're playing an interactive documentary, which I really enjoy.Д«esides the videos that propel the campaign story forward, there are additional videos zooming in on specific topics relevant to the campaign you're playing. At other times, important figures or events are illustrated using contemporary drawings such as the Bayeux Tapestry. Watching the present-day site of the Hastings battlefield in the video first and then playing out the battle simply felt very immersive for me. They allow you to relive the struggles and conquests of either the Normans, French, Mongols, or Rus, offering a great combination of concise, high-quality documentary videos narrating the campaign story and missions that drop you right into the action to play out important events. And really, I think Relic did an amazing job here as the campaigns are really well-made and enjoyable. The first thing I did when I started playing the game was given the single-player campaigns a try. Age of Empires IV is running on Relic's latest Essence Engine 5, offering highly detailed and colourful buildings and units, including the ability to turn the camera 360 degrees around to enjoy the scenery. All unit taunts are in a historic language such as old French or Mongolian, which together with the music adds to the immersion of a historic game. There's a core of shared buildings and units, but with civilisation-specific skins, and some unique units such as the Mongol Mangudai cavalry archers, Delhi's armoured elephants, or English Longbowmen. Age of Empires also features an age system, where you progress from the lowest 'Dark Age' to the highest 'Imperial Age', allowing you to gain a technological advantage over your adversaries when you invest in your economy.ДЄge of Empires IV launches with eight playable civilisations with unique advantages. Military units follow a rock-paper-scissors principle, with spearmen countering cavalry, cavalry countering archers, and archers countering spearmen.

#AGE OF EMPIRES 2 MAPS SERIES#

From what I can tell after playing over the past few weeks, they've certainly managed to develop an enjoyable real-time strategy game that many players will embrace, but there are also some annoyances that I think the older games simply did better.ДЇor those who don't know the game or the series yet, Age of Empires IV is the spiritual successor to Age of Empires II from 1999, which was also set in the Middle Ages, and sticks quite close to the classic elements of real-time strategy games: building your base, training villagers in order to extract resources such as wood and gold, and quickly building up an army to fight your enemies. With the originals developed by the now-defunct Ensemble Studios, Relic Entertainment has taken up the challenge to create a game that will appeal to both existing fans and new players. After more than a decade of waiting, a new Age of Empires game is finally here.

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