Age Of Empires 4 Is Nostalgia Done Right
Relic’s new historical RTS captures the magic of PC classic Age of Empires 2, but has more to offer than just pure nostalgia.
You Are Reading :Age Of Empires 4 Is Nostalgia Done Right
Playing Age of Empires 4 is like travelling back in time. Not just to the days of Ghengis Khan and William the Conqueror, but to 1999, the golden era of the real-time strategy game. Relic’s latest sequel, which is available now on PC and Xbox Cloud, has new features, but in many ways feels like a modern remake of Age of Empires 2. When I play it, I forget I’m an adult looking at an oversized 4K monitor in the year 2021: I feel like I’m back in my old bedroom at the turn of the millennium, a witless teenager, eyes ablaze with the glow of a chunky CRT monitor. Relic has perfectly captured the spirit of Age of Empires 2, which admittedly does make it feel somewhat creaky and old-fashioned. But man, I really don’t care: this is classic Age of Empires and I am loving slipping into this warm, steamy bath of nostalgia.
If you’ve never played an Age of Empires game, the premise is simple: gather resources, build a city, amass an army, then conquer the map. It’s an RTS in the classic mould, but being based on real-world history gives it a distinctive character of its own. In the new game you can command the English, Chinese, Holy Roman Empire, Mongols, and other famous civilizations, battling in either open-ended skirmishes or a superb campaign that takes you through a series of real historical battles. It’s not exactly a history lesson, being a fairly broad summary of events and skirting over some of the more unsavoury elements of the eras it depicts. But it’s still an entertaining way to immerse yourself in the past.
Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but you can have too much of it. Age of Empires 4 walks a delicate line. The essence of Age of Empires 2 lingers in every city you build, every unit you command, and every castle you assault. But there’s enough new here to make it feel like more than just a rehash. None of the new systems are particularly dramatic. Buildings can catch fire, and will collapse if you don’t send a villager to repair them in time. You can conceal units in tall grass and forests. None of these additions majorly change the classic flow and structure of a match, but they shake the formula up enough to justify sticking a 4 on the title—or to stop you going off to play the excellent Age of Empires 2 remaster instead.
The campaigns are a huge draw too. There are four in total, spanning 150 years of history, from the Hundred Years War to the rise of the Mongol Empire. Not only do these cleverly teach you how to play the game in an unobtrusive way, but the missions are varied, surprising, and thrilling too—especially in the standout Rise of Moscow campaign. The documentary-style films between missions are incredibly well produced too, overlaying modern footage of the places where these legendary battles took place with animated troops, siege weapons, and castles. Age of Empires 2 is still a great game, and exceptionally playable today, but the new game’s campaign blows it out of the water.
I appreciate that Relic decided to make what is essentially a direct follow-up to the second game, rather than continuing to build on the foundations laid in Age of Empires 3. The new game strips out some of its predecessor’s more controversial complexities, particularly the divisive card system, and it’s for the best. Age of Empires 2 was a much simpler game, but it struck a masterful balance between depth and approachability—and Age of Empires 4 continues this tradition in fine style. For any RTS fan who misses the genre’s glory days, the nostalgia it conjures up is worryingly powerful. But if you’re new to Age of Empires, or even real-time strategy games in general, this is a perfect introduction.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/age-of-empires-4-nostalgia-done-right/