Age of Empires 4 Review: When Old Works Come to a New Era

Since its first announcement four years ago, every time Microsoft holds a game launch event, the game I am most looking forward to is Age of Empires 4. On the one hand, it was because my initial game enlightenment was Age of Empires 2, and on the other hand, I hoped that Minecraft could create a miracle and achieve the revival of real-time strategy games.

  Main Impression of Age of Empires 4& nbsp;

Whether it's announcing one new playable country after another, or demonstrating new game system mechanisms, such expectations are becoming increasingly strong. However, the more trailers I watch, the more worried I become - is Age of Empires 4 too much like Age of Empires 2?

After playing, I realized, um... yes.

Times have changed... what?

Recruit villagers from the center of the town, collect food, wood, gold, and stone, build logging yards to collect wood, mining yards to collect gold and stone, build barracks, bow yards, stables, and siege equipment yards, use city walls to protect your home, progress between four eras, and coordinate with the army to attack the enemy. Whether it's the underlying game design or the gameplay rhythm experience, Age of Empires 4 can almost be considered a super evolutionary remake of Age of Empires 2.

For veteran players of Age of Empires 2, they only need to know a small part of the differences and adapt to the game rhythm after numerical changes, and they can quickly get started. So, in terms of gameplay, I will focus on explaining the differences between the two.

The city wall of can now accommodate people!

The most obvious change is the role of city walls. Similar to Age of Empires 2, Age of Empires 4 was able to build wooden city walls and gates in the Dark Ages, while in the Feudal Era, stone city walls and gates could be built. And what is the difference?

Players familiar with Age of Empires 2 will know that in the early stages of a game, during the "home siege" phase, players do not actually need to use that wooden fence to surround their base. Whether it is a house with an increased population limit, a barracks for troops, a shooting range, and other buildings, as long as it is a building, placing it outside the base can play a role in hindering enemy harassment of the economy. This makes stone walls quite awkward. Wooden walls at least have the advantage of being cheap in cost. Like other buildings, stone walls are just a barrier to the road without the function of other buildings, so they often have little meaning in fast-paced games.

The gap between buildings is very large

In Age of Empires 4, the situation underwent significant changes. Firstly, ordinary buildings cannot serve as obstacles, and even the most densely arranged houses can be easily drilled through by units. So, at least you need to use wooden walls to surround your town, otherwise enemies can break in from any direction. Secondly, the stone wall not only has extremely thick health, but also allows non cavalry units to stand on it. Archers need not mention it, and infantry can also use torches to attack nearby charging vehicles when standing on it.

Standing on the city wall not only provides a longer view, but also enhances defense. In addition, specialized defense towers can also be built on the stone walls. These defense towers have the ability to attack enemies in front of you, and on the other hand, they will sound an alarm when enemies come, giving your unit some boost effects. Civilizations known for their defensive abilities can easily use fortresses made of stone walls to outdo others.

, this can be considered as a temporary grinding mill... siege tower?

Correspondingly, there are also some differences in the construction of siege weapons. Simple siege weapons such as assault vehicles and siege towers are no longer built by siege weapon fields, but can be built by infantry on the front lines of war. Similar to Age of Empires 2, assault vehicles can sit in a pile of units and push them under enemy walls to collide, while siege towers can send your swordsmen to the enemy walls and no longer watch those archers get beaten for nothing. The other siege weapons still need to be produced in the siege weapon field, and the most hilarious giant catapult has also been changed to be produced in the siege weapon field.

There is a building that has undergone significant changes compared to Age of Empires 2, which is the castle. No, there are no more castles in Age of Empires 4. Castle Age now unlocks a building called the "Large Arrow Tower", which costs 1000 stones and cannot produce any units. It is really a large arrow tower that can upgrade defense weapons, that's all. I don't quite understand the advantage of this large arrow tower compared to surrounding a stone wall. It's too expensive.

Large Arrow Tower?

So, without castles, where do the special units of each country produce? The answer is everywhere. Each unit is now produced in its corresponding building, and of course, the Zhuge crossbow in China appeared in the shooting range. Although the later musketeers and grenadiers did not shoot arrows, they were also produced in the shooting range because they were long-range units. Any type of melee infantry is used in barracks, while the French Royal Knights are produced in stables, and there is no longer a problem of low productivity due to a particular specialty being a "castle soldier".

Most common units, Age of Empires 4 and Age of Empires 2 are similar, with basic melee swordsmen, spearmen, basic long-range units such as infantry archers, crossbowmen, basic cavalry units such as light cavalry, heavy cavalry, and so on. However, there is no longer a spear thrower, and the unit restraint chain has become a relationship where archers restrain infantry, spears restrain cavalry, and cavalry restrain archers.

Another major difference is the reconnaissance soldier, which is no longer a first level light cavalry by default, but a special "reconnaissance cavalry" that can be recruited from the town center or from stables. It is not only capable of reconnaissance, but scouts can take the unowned sheep home on the road. Even if other units walk up to the sheep, they cannot take them away. After upgrading technology, scouts can still go hunting. Although they cannot collect meat, they can bring their prey back to the villagers for collection. The attack power of reconnaissance cavalry is very poor, but they have the ability to restrain wild animals and at least won't be bitten to death by individual wolves.

Age of Empires 4 also has the changes of darkness, feudalism, castles, and emperors. However, unlike the 2nd generation, you no longer need to upgrade the era in the town center, but instead use villagers to build "landmark buildings" to upgrade the era.

The effect of landmark buildings is extremely powerful, but for most civilizations, you have to choose between two when upgrading in each era, choose a landmark construction according to the actual situation, and then enter a new era. Like other buildings, the more villagers build landmarks, the faster the construction speed of this building will be, and the faster you will progress in your era. On the other hand, urban centers no longer need to cut off farmer production. This system is similar to the era upgrade method of the three Asian countries in Age of Empires 3: Asian Dynasties.

In addition, Age of Empires 4 has added an "influence" system, which has different special effects according to different countries. Influence refers to the special enhancement effect in a circle of space around a building. For example, Mongolia's Aobao can allow the surrounding buildings to research "upgraded" technology, while China's Hanlin Academy can double the taxes generated by the surrounding buildings.

Various civilizations have their own different systems of influence, some of which, like the accelerated scientific research in the Sultanate of Delhi, make it almost impossible for buildings outside the scope of influence to study technology normally, while others are relatively less critical. This system requires players to plan the placement of buildings more finely, and also allows for greater differences in game styles among different civilizations.

Impact System

The trading system is also the same as in Age of Empires 2, where you can manufacture merchants or merchant ships to and from your and your allies' markets to create money, and always keep an eye out for trade routes that may be hijacked. The difference is that Age of Empires 4 will set up a neutral market on the map, even in 1v1 battles, you can choose to use this neutral market for trade, avoiding the embarrassment of having no teammates and the market being useless.

Neutral Market

Another thing that cannot be reflected in the screenshot is that when asking villagers to work, constantly clicking on the target will no longer refresh the dubbing, which means there will be no more "logging logging logging... carpentry". You can only hear the strange accent of "hearing instructions" or "there is wood to collect here", which is really soulless!

A new victory method has been added in regular matches: occupying all holy sites. On the map, some holy sites will be semi randomly brushed out, and you can use monks to occupy them. If you occupy all the holy sites for more than 10 minutes, you can win. The holy land is not just a goal of victory, it will also generate money over time. This encourages players to adopt a more aggressive gaming approach.

Occupy the Holy Land

However, the forest ambush section in the trailer that was very anticipated, I haven't played anything special yet. Not all forests can ambush, and there are dense forests specifically provided with wood in the game that people cannot enter, while those forests that can ambush are relatively sparse. When the unit stands in these forests, its voice will also be lowered. However, if the enemy gets too close to the forest, they will see you and need to pay close attention to your position to avoid sight.

is ambushed in the forest

The ordinary infantry standing in the forest is not particularly meaningful. Archers can hide and shoot cold arrows, but it is more useful to have cavalry hide in the forest, so that they can aim at the attacking weapons or archers behind the enemy team to launch a charge. There is a problem here that the AI enemy's formation speed is too fast. Even if you charge at close range, the spearmen in the front row will have enough time to come back and stab your cavalry, so it is no different from engaging in a frontal battle. This ambush function should require particularly meticulous operation to be effective.

Speaking of charging, there is something worth mentioning. That means your unit now generally has multiple weapons. For heavy cavalry, they usually use cavalry guns with high attack power. The first wave of cavalry attack will accelerate and collide with the enemy's face, and the cavalry guns have high attack power. After entering the melee, one will use a sword with much lower attack power. Archers, on the other hand, are more tragic as they can only take out a dagger to defend themselves when approached. However, English longbowmen can set up resistance horses specifically targeting riders attempting to ambush.

Setting up horse refusal

The unit now has the difference between "flexible mobility" and "stationary presence", which is used to reflect the type of airtight shield wall. When you have your unit line up and station in place, no one wants to squeeze through a row of soldiers. In this way, you can achieve a formation where the spearmen carry them in the front and the archers in the back slowly shoot. Through reasonable formation and the unit volume setting that does exist in this game, each unit can also be less easily attacked individually.

In terms of map mode, there has been some regression, at least I have not noticed any features such as "only displaying economic units" or "only displaying military units" on the map. I often forget some soldiers in a corner and cannot find them. Although there are shortcut keys to search for idle units, it is also time-consuming. An additional trouble with playing in China is that when selecting idle economic units, not only will idle villagers enter the poll, but also idle court officials will be selected, often just waiting for taxes to rise enough.

There have also been some changes in the naval warfare section. Combat ships now shoot arrows from the side instead of from the front, and many countries have their own unique naval capabilities. However, unless they specifically play island maps, naval warfare is still in a relatively marginal state. There is absolutely no part about naval battles in the plot and battles, even the Duke of Normandy's cross sea landing in England is just a brief introduction to the storyline. At the beginning of the battle, both sides will fight each other to complete the task.

Chronicles with operational sections

It's time to talk about this battle.

If the battles in Age of Empires 2 are chronicles, then the battles in Age of Empires 4 are chronicles. It is not so focused on telling a person's epic, but on the journey of a country over decades or even centuries.

For example, when it comes to the Hundred Years War between England and France, the battles in Age of Empires 2 are about Joan of Arc, starting from her hometown and leading France step by step to find hope for victory. Age of Empires 4 spans the entire Hundred Years War, from the initial Battle of Thirty in Brittany to driving the British back across the strait, with Joan of Arc only appearing in a few battles in the middle.

is vividly remembered in the distant past

All the cutscenes of battles start from modern battle locations, recalling past events. Then you enter history, operating on the side that will achieve victory and experiencing this victory. To some extent, the sense of destiny that the plot and battle give people is too strong. You can basically only follow the history step by step, and the entire level design gives the impression that you have become a string puppet as a narrator. He says that whatever you do, you have to do it, making it difficult to cross the thunder pit halfway.

On the positive side, these dozens of hours of battle can be seen as a stretched beginner's tutorial on how to develop quickly, build defenses, resist harassment, and counter enemies.

In addition, after each battle, the game will reward you with a documentary about the "cold knowledge" of this history. For example, you can see the process of making chain armor, the characteristics of Mongolian music, or the structure of medieval castles here. If you are interested, these cold knowledge are quite worth a look.

Yes, this is also part of the game

Compared to the battles in Age of Empires 2, the content of Age of Empires 4 appears somewhat rudimentary. The vast majority of battles only involve both the enemy and ourselves, with a few having additional enemies and a few having allies. Most of the time, there are only one or two additional goals that you need to achieve. However, there are also interesting battles that are eye-catching. For example, the Battle of England has a level where players need to organize castle defenses while using long archers to harass enemy siege weapons. There is also the special rule of the Thirty Man Battle in France, which allows you to selectively select soldiers and enemies to compete in the arena, which is quite interesting.

Less than the pitiful internal capacity

But none of these can hide the biggest problem of Age of Empires 4: the content is too limited. Currently, Age of Empires 4 has 8 selectable civilizations and 4 series of battles. The differences between these 8 countries are mainly reflected in different bonuses, special units, and landmark buildings and influences. Some countries can give units special abilities. Their basic game mechanics are similar to each other, except for Mongolia, which does not require houses, which is slightly special. Expectations like the huge difference between Indigenous peoples and European countries in Age of Empires 3 are non-existent.

The differences in technology trees among different countries are not as significant as in Age of Empires 2. Basically, all countries have all the economic and technological resources, and a few countries lack full level infantry and full level knights. From this perspective, the initial version of Age of Empires 4 should have the same level of content as Age of Empires 2- however, the initial version of Age of Empires 2 has 13 optional countries and 5 storyline battles.

All 8 optional countries

The current eight civilizations also lack representativeness in many aspects. It is foreseeable that there will be a series of "expansion packs" lining up in the future, and the diverse medieval civilizations will appear one after another in future updates.

Specifically, what can we expect? The existing countries in the game now include England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Ross, China, the Sultanate of Delhi, Black Food, and Mongolia. One major difference from Age of Empires 2 is that Age of Empires 4 uses more specific medieval countries rather than abstract ethnic groups to represent different forces. So, forces like the Eastern Roman Empire, the Flower Thor Model, the Venetian Republic, and even the Teutonic Knights can probably make their own appearances. In terms of battles, activities such as the recapture of lost territories and the rise and fall of Viking pirates are also worth doing.

Super Evolution of Age of Empires 2

Although there are many differences, the overall gaming experience of Age of Empires 4 is an upgraded version of Age of Empires 2, with the world turned into 3D and many pain points of Age of Empires 2 resolved. However, whether it is the basic game architecture or the medieval theme, the difference between the two is not significant.

This is a game that hopes to attract veteran players of Age of Empires 2. If you want to reminisce about the feeling back then and hope for progress, then Age of Empires 4 has undoubtedly fulfilled your expectations. However, in contrast, there are many innovations like Age of Empires 3, such as card and trade routes systems, and Age of Empires 4 is relatively conservative in terms of system innovation.

And the biggest problem is that the current version's capacity is simply a preemptive experience version, which needs to be gradually updated with more countries and campaigns in the future to be more playable.