Age of Empires 4 Review: ‘Too old school for its own good’

The real-time strategy genre is one that stubbornly refuses to innovate or to die off. It’s firmly stuck in the same place it was in the 1990s. While tech trees have evolved, movement has become smoother, and AI has (sorta) gotten better, the core gameplay of most RTS titles in 2021 isn’t too far removed from 1992’s Dune 2. So, my big question when reviewing Age of Empires 4 was whether it was any different than its decades-old predecessors.

Age of Empires 4 is an evolution of Age of Empires 2 and retains many of that game’s mechanics. So, for better or worse, AOE4 doesn’t propel the RTS genre into a new direction. Instead, it offers a polished, modern version of what makes users keep coming back to Age of Empires after all these years.

History’s mysteries

The campaigns of Age of Empires 4 have a lot of love put into them. There are four of these, and players can follow the English, Normans, Mongols, and Rus civilizations through hundreds of years of history. However, it’s given from an impersonal viewpoint with a narrator. This means each campaign has a bit of a clinical feel that might not be to everyone’s taste.

However, the game leans into it with unlockable mini-documentaries for trebuchets and bows. It’s quite nice for fans of history, and you can tell the devs put a lot of time into making sure their portrayal of the events was informative and correct. But, it lacks the drama and visceral depictions of recent historically-based productions.

The campaign sets the tone for the recent of the package, and there’s really nothing about Age of Empires 4 that hasn’t been done before. That’s not to say the game is poor quality or that it’s not worth playing. On the contrary, this is a very good real-time strategy game. The issue is that Age of Empires 2 exists, and it’s a great game that just got another expansion this month. So, what is there that Age of Empires 4 has to give that its predecessors didn’t? Well, surprisingly little.

Too civilized

The most significant change that comes with Age of Empires 4 is that the civilizations are now asymmetrical in their capabilities. In previous Age of Empires games, the tech trees and bonuses between factions were largely the same outside of some special units. Each civ is more specialized this time around, with one of them playing almost completely differently than the others.

The English and French are closest civilizations to those found in Age of Empires 2. Most of the other civs are still recognizable while having a gimmick or two to differentiate them. However, one of them, the Mongols, is completely different. The Mongols are highly mobile and can pack every building and redeploy it at will. They have to mine stone using a building and aren’t able to build farms. This makes them as different from the English as the Terrans are from the Protoss in StarCraft.

I wish the devs could have found a way to make some of the other factions feel more unique. The Mongols are a great step in the right direction as far as breathing new life into Age of Empires, and having another civilization that played entirely unlike those in AOE 2 would be awesome.

The choice to keep the max population limited to 200 is also a strange move. Age of Empires 2 could handle 200 units in 1999, and that was increased to 500 in The Forgotten expansion. So, I’m wondering why what seemed like a technological limitation back in the day is still the standard for this game. We’re stuck leading the same size armies we were two decades ago, and it seems like they could have at least made each unit consist of several soldiers to up the feeling of scale a bit. That’s not the case, though; you still end up fighting with an army made up of a handful of horses, 10 archers, a few dudes with swords, and that’s it.

Stuck in the past

I was hoping the graphics would really blow me away in Age of Empires 4, but they’re not as impressive as I’d anticipated. They’re a bit too simplistic, and I get that Relic Entertainment was going for a particular aesthetic with that, but I just don’t think it looks good.

The animations are also too limited for a game in 2021. Units never really feel like they’re interacting with each other. When in combat, two foes will rush to each other, politely stop, and take turns jabbing, slicing, or firing at each other until one falls over. Buildings fall with little impact, and explosions don’t cause units to fall over or be blown away. Some decent combat interactions would make up for the low population count a bit, but they’re much the same as they were 20 years ago.

There are some excellent touches that I did love, though. Upon completion of a building, little doodads and roads will automatically sprout up, which is adorable. By the time you reach Age 4, your settlement feels really homey. I also liked how your units speak a different variation depending on the age. I thought my English Villagers were just spouting some sort of simlish during Age 1, but as I advanced in time, I realized they were switching from Old English to Middle English and then Early Modern English. I lack the language knowledge to know for sure, but I’m assuming the other civilizations got the same treatment.

Age of Empires 4 Review: The final verdict

Age of Empires 4 isn’t a bad game at all. I had a lot of fun with it. Its biggest problem is that it plays it too safe. It wants to capture the success of Age of Empires 2 so much that it never really gained an identity of its own.

I hope that in the future, the devs take the asymmetrical civilizations further and focus on mechanics that evolve the Age of Empires franchise. There’s a solid foundation here, and if built in the right direction, it could lead to something special. For now, it’s too old school for its own good.