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The King is back! Age of Empires IV was released by the end of last month, and this marked the first new entry in the series since 2005’s Age of Empires III. Needless to say that expectations were as high as the anticipation and Relic Entertainment, the studio behind the development of this game, had better know what they were doing in order to please a fan-base that had only been given DLCs and definitive edition as appetizers since the announcement of Age of Empires IV back in 2017!
Of course, reviewing such an anticipated game is no easy task, and that’s why I’ll first start with a summary of what is available at launch, as I am sure that over time, more content will gradually be added to the game. As of now, only eight civilizations are available for players to choose. The English, The French, the Germans, represented as the Holy Roman Empire, the Rus’, the Abbasid dynasty, which at its peak ruled all over the Middle East, the Dehli Sultanate, which represents the Indian Subcontinent, the Chinese and the Mongols. Each of these civilizations was carefully designed to be unique and tries to represent as best as they can the way these different people operated. For example, the Mongols being nomads, rely less on stone and can move their buildings across the map. The French will heavily rely on their horses while the English favor archers. The Germans have strong infantry and religious units. The Russians are expert hunters, while the Muslim civilizations, which were in their golden age during that time period, rely on knowledge and benefit from interesting bonuses. As a result, each of these civilizations feel unique and Fresh, and switching from one to another is a perfect way to avoid the game from being repetitive, as you play single or multiplayer skirmishes.

Needless to say that it wouldn’t be an Age of Empires game without its campaign, and here, let me tell you that although I have not finished them all, after 20 hours, I’ve only completed 25% of them, I have been absolutely blown away by the sheer quality of the work that was done here. The cutscenes themselves would be worthy of being a standalone documentary on the BBC, as they meticulously explain with real in-situ footage of the real locations the reasons behind each battle as well as their repercussion throughout history. You can also optionally watch extra featurettes about various technologies developed throughout the game’s time period such as crossbows or chain mail. But the best part is that the gameplay is actually on par with the high-quality production videos. The real-life terrain was recreated by the developers to the best of what the game engine would allow them to, adding to the sense of realism and immersion. Take the Siege of Dover, for example. Anyone familiar with the landscape in Kent, England would notice how accurately placed and steep the cleaves are. And during the battle of the Thirty, at the start of the French campaign, I could even recognize how the developers tried to re-create how my native Brittany’s country side is organized between its farmlands and towns. That is again, very, very impressive. Unfortunately, I did notice some historical inaccuracies as well, for example, we are being told at the end of this Battle of the Thirty that thanks to our actions, France ended up being in control of the duchy of Brittany, which couldn’t be further from the truth, as this particular even was in fact, rather meaningless in the War of Breton Succession, and the side that we made win in the game ended up losing the war, with Brittany, in fact, falling under English influence. This is why is why despite the fantastic visual quality of those cutscenes and the fancy narration, Age of Empires IV still remains a game and you should still take what you are being told with a grain of salt, as a video game will never replace good old fashion books written by professional historians.

And now, the time has come to talk about the elephant in the room, which are the graphics of the game, which is something that people have been discussing for years now, all the way since the release of the first teasers about a year ago. I understand that this is a very polarizing topic, with people hating them on one side, and people being in love with them on the other hand, and of course, Good ol’ Erad being stuck in the middle, and I’m going to explain to you why.

Read the full review at [ Ссылка ]

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