PC Gamer - UK (2022-01)

On the other hand, reverence to the

past can be restricting, and I can’t

help but feel that Age of Empires IV

could havebeen something more.

While I respect Relic’s decision to

play things fairly safe,

that should result in

making what’s already

there really shine;

polish those mosque

minarets and

Moscavian onion

domes, pump up those

population limits, let

bodies fly with

abandon upon impact from

cannonballs and elephant heads.

Instead, there’s a staid

utilitarianism throughout much of

Age of Empires IV– everything in it

works much as it ever did, but

without the flair that could have

made it a grand celebration of that

timelessAoE formula.

The campaigns follow the

Normans, Mongols, Rus, and English

across three distinct eras each.

Interposed throughout each

campaign are crisp documentary-like

videos showing footage of significant

castles, towns, landscapes, and

battlefields as they are

today, superimposing

hundreds of wireframe

soldiers over them.

The documentary

style permeates into

the campaigns

themselves, with most

of the stories told

through a narrator

rather than in-game characters. It

keeps you at a distance from Genghis,

Ivan the Terrible, and other movers,

shakers of medieval history, which is

disappointing given Relic’s history of

great RTS storytelling.

Regardless, the campaign throws

up plenty of great set-pieces; there’s

the Battle of Xiangyang to establish

Kublai Khan as Emperor of China,

Dmitry Donskoy’s power-shifting

defeat of the Mongols at Kulikovo,

and over in the west the Battle of

Bremule to establish England as a

regional power. These missions aren’t

easy either – on standard difficulty I

found I had to quickly wrap my

fingers around the new keyboard

shortcuts to keep up.

But these sleek campaigns are just

a foreword to the stories you’ll be

crafting on the Skirmish maps with

the eight eclectic civs on offer. It’s not

a huge number, but the visual and

strategic variety between these

factions is one of the most significant

evolutions in the series.

The Mongols are the biggest

wildcard, capable of packing entire

towns up into carts and relocating to

anywhere on the map. For a simpler

player like me, the Delhi Sultanate,

with its war elephants and research

system based around scholars, was a

hoot, while the Rus accrue gold

through hunting cabins and bounties.

Your path through the ages is

further refined each time you

advance an age, when you get to pick

one of two civ-specific landmarks

that will advance your empire in

different directions.

WISEUP

A couple of the civs even have their

own twists on age advancement. The

Abbasids add wings onto their House

of Wisdom instead of erecting new

landmarks, while the Chinese can

build two landmarks per age and

found dynasties which grant bonuses.

You can even ‘build tall’, with the

Holy Roman Empire gaining bonuses

based on buildings you place near

their central structures.

While the core mechanics and

loops will be familiar, the carefully

designed civs and age-advancement

choices offer an intricate new web of

strategies and approaches to each

match. It’s Relic’s bravest evolution of

that preciousAoE formula, and it

really diversifies the game.

Upon starting a new game,

returning players will immediately

W

ith Age of Empires IIstill heldupasa paragon of

strategygames, you can see why new seriesdeveloper

Relic has decided tomodel Age of Empires IVonthe

secondentry. The latestiteration stripsawaythe

complexitiesofAoE III, while addingwelcome touches

ofits own. Chief among these are asymmetrical factions, which will elicit

screams ofbloodyimbalance but count asthe game’sgreatestsuccess.

ACT YOURAGE

The uniquecivilisations arethe stars, showing that less is more inAGE OF EMPIRES IV

By Robert Zak

It’s Relic’s

bravest

evolution of

that precious

AoE formula

NEED TO KNOW

WHATIS IT?

A new entry in the

iconic historical

real-time strategy

series

EXPECT TO PAY

£50

DEVELOPER

Relic Entertainment

PUBLISHER

Xbox Game Studios

REVIEWED ON

Ryzen 7 5800H, Nvidia

GeForce 3070 (mobile),

16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

Yes

LINK

ageofempires.com

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

The DLC packs people want most, according to a fan poll

MESOAMERICA

It’s got to be the

Aztecs. Before the

Spanish came and

cocked everything

up, there was a rich

history of conquest

and politics between

the Aztec city-states,

leading to the Aztec

Triple Alliance.

SOUTH EUROPE

A vast region with

plenty of intriguing

powers like Castillan,

Venice and Genoa,

though Byzantium is

probably a favourite

with its influence and

gloriously turbulent

history during the

medieval era.

NORTH EUROPE

Everyone loves the

Vikings, but the

Viking era ended by

the period covered in

AoE IV, and the

12th-14th centuries

were a time of

Christianisation,

unity, and relative

peace in the land.

EASTERN

EUROPE

Given that the Rus

already feature, the

next logical jump

would be Poland,

which began life as

an nation in the tenth

century. Sadly, this

era predates the

famous cavalry.

Age ofEmpires IV

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