Total War Vs Age Of Empires
Is Age of Empires Withal Worth Playing?
The history of a classic RTS serial
Written by for Opinions on 🏛️
Last month, Age of Empires IV released for PC and it marks the showtime full installment of the franchise since Historic period of Empires III back in 2005. I spent a good clamper of fourth dimension on information technology and had a fairly skillful fourth dimension but before I get-go booted information technology up, a couple questions kept entering my heed: does Historic period of Empires have a place in gaming anymore and is the franchise on the whole notwithstanding worth playing?
For those who may not be aware, Age of Empires is a series of real-time strategy games that were very pop in the late 90s and early on 2000s. The outset game was released back in 1997 and information technology spanned from the Stone Historic period to the Roman Empire menses. The following game, Age of Empires II, enjoyed a lot more mainstream success and was a must-have PC game at the time. A spin-off called Age of Mythology would release 2 years later and it remains one of my all-time favorite games and it represented the top of the franchise. v1d30chumz 149-129-213-153
The gameplay in every installment is virtually the aforementioned as y'all gather food, gold, wood, and some other resources to build upwards your towns, erect defenses, field an army, upgrade that army, advance through the ages, and defeat the opposing factions. Gainsay is essentially a giant rock-paper-scissors lucifer with infantry usually existence strong against cavalry, cavalry stiff against archers, archers strong confronting infantry, and at that place are a number of other counter units and siege weapons thrown in to milkshake things up. Other games like StarCraft and Warcraft featured similar styles and for a fourth dimension, the mechanics were the definition of "if it ain't broke, don't gear up it" but as it turned out, the Age of Empires games had a rival that would eventually come to dominate the RTS genre.
While the Historic period of Empires games connected to impress, some other development team known as Creative Assembly was taking its own shot at the RTS genre. In 2000, the team made its first big franchise debut with Shogun: Total War then followed it up with Medieval: Total War. The series wouldn't attain mainstream recognition for another 2 years until the release of Rome: Total War which effectively redefined the genre by asking a very simple question: what if nosotros implemented realistic kingdom management and war machine tactics?
The main gameplay mechanics of the Total War franchise is a bit complicated but unlike Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, it was at least accessible. Y'all start as a faction that is commonly on the smaller side. Y'all then employ currency not just to build an army but to build infrastructure in your cities and provinces. For every coin you spend on your military, y'all're going to want to spend only equally much building roads, sewers, and other things to bring in money via trading posts, mines, and farms. In addition, you demand to consider the well-existence of your citizens who will riot and kick you out of your own cities if they are non satisfied with your rule. This added an entirely new angle to the genre that unremarkably boils the noncombatant population downward to workers with no purpose other than to fuel your faction's war machine.
The large evidence stealer was of grade, the use of actual military tactics in combat. Information technology's not only about overwhelming with sheer numbers equally you tin strategize with troop types, terrain, and flanking maneuvers which may turn the tide of boxing. Every victory makes you feel like a general and every loss can be a burdensome tragedy which is more satisfying overall than annihilation the Age of Empires games ever did.
One twelvemonth later Rome: Total State of war debuted, the Age of Empires franchise released its tertiary installment which nosotros thought would be the final. The fourth dimension period jumped ahead once more; stretching from the colonial era to the industrial revolution. While Age of Empires III wasn't bad past whatsoever ways, it definitely lacked the same magic that its predecessors had and felt apartment-out primitive when compared to Rome: Total War. The mechanics simply weren't equally innovative or as satisfying when there was a far more sophisticated option that had been released a yr prior. As it turned out, the companies behind these games seemed to hold with this as the genre shortly started to dwindle.
Later on the release of Age of Empires Three, this style of real-time strategy game had roughly 5 more mainstream releases in the adjacent 16 years. These were of course, the couple of Company of Heroes games, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, and the 2 Halo Wars games. The first Company of Heroes and StarCraft II were both well-received past gamers and critics just this type of RTS refused to grab on again.
Following their work on the get-go Halo Wars game, Age of Empires developer Ensemble Studios airtight in 2009 while seemingly taking the Age of Empires franchise with it. The Company of Heroes games failed to achieve the same level of recognition equally Age of Empires Two and faded away for some time. The apparent swan vocal of the entire genre seems to come up in the form of Halo Wars ii back in 2017 which besides failed to wow fans or critics. That was until concluding month when Historic period of Empires IV was finally released.
For me, Age of Empires IV is a game that falls squarely into the category of good but not great and in many ways, feels like a remake of Historic period of Empires II. Its graphics have been modernized and the gameplay engine speeds things upwards so the experience is a bit faster-paced. However, the core gameplay is near unchanged with the just notable difference being the enhanced effectiveness of archers which makes it feel more like a throwback championship than a modern installment. Even some of the campaigns like The Hundred Years' War and The Mongol Horde are remakes of campaigns from the second game. In fact, it almost feels similar an indie game that was originally fabricated as some kind of tribute or spiritual successor then was somehow turned into a full sequel. While I certainly had my fun playing it, information technology's difficult for me to fully recommend Historic period of Empires 4 to gamers who didn't play the first few games at the turn of the millennium.
This brings united states of america back to our original questions: is Age of Empires worth playing and does the franchise still accept a place when games like the Total War franchise exists? My answer to both questions would be "yeah" only in a somewhat limited capacity. At the time of its release, Historic period of Empires Four rapidly became a top seller on Steam and has received mostly positive reviews on the platform while critical reviews are likewise mostly positive. At the aforementioned time, I have difficulty seeing any new Historic period of Empires gain traction with audiences outside of those who grew upward with it. This is especially true when you accept games like the Total War franchise out at that place which offers a far more sophisticated feel but for now, at least Age of Empires however has a place; even if their seat at the table may not be in that location forever.
Source: https://videochums.com/article/is-age-of-empires-still-worth-playing
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