Each civilization has its strengths and weaknesses, and just how you play and micro-manage your constituents will turn the tide to victory or not. Some of the combat mechanics are a a bit more frustrating from here however; there's a rock-paper-scissors element (for instance, spears are great against horsemen) that is worth remembering otherwise you'll lose lots of your army when heading into war. There’s also a few strange quirks over previous titles – for instance, sheep will attach to your Scout because it wanders, so it is common to locate an army of sheep bounding together with your Scout as it explores.
Where Chronilogical age of Empires IV really shines is the Campaign mode; throwing you into a part-documentary, part warfare scenario that plays out with some amazing vignettes. Basically, imagine you've just turned the TV onto something around the History Channel – you learn about a historic battle or war, the thing is the place where it happened (albeit in the current day) and then you get to listen to it out in-game. In the Mongol invasion of Europe to the Norman conquest of England, the Campaigns allow you to take part in the shaping of historic events, whether it be defence of lands or conquering others. The vignettes between gameplay are eye-wateringly stunning, a blend of high-def footage goodness along with stylised CG overlay – you could almost sit back watching these exclusively, without needing to play. They are doing a lot more than look good, too – they really provide you with great depth towards the story you are going to play, as well as an knowledge of the event as well.
For players acquainted with the franchise, the shortcuts and keypresses are essentially just like AOE 2, but for newer players the tutorial provides you with all you need to begin and learn along the way. You'll be able to shift the field of view and also the direction which the camera faces, but this frustrated us a tad as sometimes I wanted to zoom out further than I had been able to. Your building animation receives a great update in that the thing is 'ghost' villagers constructing the building as it rises, and progress bars appear above everything too, for both tech upgrades and unit creation. While not ultra-detailed, the visuals are really nice too – you see more detail the closer you zoom, buildings are detailed and often overwhelming (castle walls really look the part now!) and even the sound just has that classic AOE feel, from villager calls and military units towards the carefully-crafted background music.
Even running a 2060 Super having a Ryzen 5 3600, Used to do get moments where the amount of units on screen would slow the framerate down a little. One of the biggest things to realise however is the fact that unlike the previous three instalments, this Age of Empires title will not be hindered by a singular release with updates to come in expansion packs – now that games could be patched and updated, don't be surprised to determine swathes of updates and content to come in the near future to improve on what is already quite a solid experience.
At the time of writing the online multiplayer is very limited and harder to locate matches, but will be more accessible on release on October 28th.
