Age of Empires 4, the sequel to the legendary RTS series by Ensemble Studios, was announced two years ago, during Gamescom 2017. There hasn’t been any information about the title… until now. Microsoft just showed a gameplay trailer for AOE 4 during the X019 event. The game is currently developed by Relic Entertainment, a branch of Sega, who has ample experience working on RTS games such as the Company of Heroes games.
Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition is also released today on Steam. It is an updated of the fan-favorite Age of Empires 2 back in 1999. You should be careful when purchasing this title, as the previous remake from Microsoft, the Age of Empires Definitive Edition, is rather broken, with various bugs and problems mentioned on Steam player reviews.
Based on the trailer, Age of Empires 4 would keep the core gameplay of the series. In Age of Empires games, players would control workers, gather resources, construct buildings and create units to fight and destroy enemies’ bases. The unique part of AOE is the number of civilizations that you get to pick from, and the fact that they are based on real-life empires. We usually do not have that luxury in other real-time strategy games such as Starcraft (only 3 races), Command and Conquer (2 fictional factions)… Each civilization would have unique advantages and disadvantages.
This trailer today definitely has shown Relic’s grand plan on reviving the fabled franchise, with various looks at buildings, combat units and the like. We would definitely see more of this game in the future. It is a shame that this gameplay trailer did not come with an official release date.
Interested in more information about the X019 event of Microsoft? Please check out this post for the announcement of the Wasteland sequel, Wasteland 3.