Back in college, I used to eat lunch with this friend of mine. He was actually the brother of one of my coworkers, and since we were both English majors who enjoyed video games, we became fast friends. Our lunchbreaks overlapped, so we used to head down to the campus food court and chat about games over whatever they were serving that day.
This guy was obsessed with Age of Empires III. And I mean obsessed. He talked me into trying it, and since Spring Break was coming up and I didn’t have plans (being a broke college student), I decided to pick it up and give it a whirl. No joke, I ended up spending pretty much my entire Spring Break in front of my computer, playing Age of Empires III. I was hooked.
I did eventually go back and try Age of Empires II, and I didn’t like it quite as much. Look, I know this is heresy in the AoE community, where AoE2 is considered the pinnacle of the franchise, but it never grabbed me the same way. It’s possible the determining factor was that I didn’t have an entire week alone and without responsibilities in which to play AoE2.
I also dabbled in Age of Empires Online (once it went free-to-play), but let’s be real; that one wasn’t great. So my heart has really always been with AoE3. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed an RTS game quite as much as AoE3 since.
Now, the RTS genre is somewhat niche (which doesn’t mean it’s a small niche — StarCraft alone is humongous). While we’ll see the genre represented at some of the smaller E3 shows, especially the PC Gaming Show, it doesn’t hit the big conferences all that often — certainly not as much as first-person-shooters and third-person action games, at least.
So I was surprised to see Age of Empires IV get a new trailer at the Xbox/Bethesda E3 2021 showcase. Here, I’ll show you:
And I have to say, this looks like everything I want in an AoE game. You’ve got the traditional, historically inaccurate color coding to visually differentiate between factions (I actually do love the way this looks, but perhaps it’s just nostalgia). You’ve got eight factions, just like AoE3 before the expansions added more. Ship combat is back, and it looks glorious. Units can fight on top of walls now. The destruction physics just keep getting better.
Age of Empires IV is going back to the Medieval period, covering the same time period as AoE2, only starting earlier and ending later. This means AoE4 will cover a larger time period than AoE2 or AoE3. While I really like the American colonial period setting of AoE3, I actually am excited to dip my toes into the Medieval period. I should point out that I took Medieval History in college, and I’m pretty sure that was after I’d played AoE3. Having a bit more historical knowledge going into this might actually make it more enjoyable.
Because of all this, Age of Empires IV looks like it could bridge the gap between people who love AoE2 and the weirdos who (like me) prefer AoE3.
Oh, and did I mention that I recently acquired a gaming PC? I’ll actually be able to enjoy this with reasonably high graphical settings (maybe even maxed!)
All of this looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s been ages (haha) since I played an Age of Empires game, and I’m really excited to build my empire afresh when Age of Empires IV drops on October 28.
