Age of Empires
Age of Empires | |
---|---|
Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
Developer(s) | |
Publisher(s) | Xbox Game Studios |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows Classic Mac OS Windows Mobile PlayStation 2 OS X N-Gage Nintendo DS Windows Phone iOS Android Xbox One Xbox Series X/S |
First release | Age of Empires October 15, 1997 |
Latest release | Age of Empires IV October 28, 2021 |
Spin-offs | Age of Mythology |
Age of Empires is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was Age of Empires, released in 1997. Nine total games within the series have been released so far as of October 28, 2021.
Age of Empires focused on events in Europe, Africa and Asia, spanning from the
The Age of Empires series has been a commercial success, selling over 25 million copies. Critics have credited part of the success of the series to its historical theme and fair play; the artificial intelligence (AI) players have fewer advantages than in many of the series' competitors.
Games
The games in the series focus on historical events throughout time.
Main series
Age of Empires
Age of Empires, released on October 15, 1997,
Age of Empires was generally well received, despite some highly negative reviews. GameSpot criticized a confused design, while Computer and Video Games praised the game as strong in single and multiplayer.[9] The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named Age of Empires the 1998 "Computer Strategy Game of the Year."[10] For several years, the game remained high on the sales charts, with over three million units sold by 2000.[11] The Rise of Rome sold one million units in 2000[11] and attained 80% as an aggregate score from GameRankings.[12]
In June 2017, Adam Isgreen, creative director of
Age of Empires II
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, released on September 30, 1999, used the Genie game engine, and had gameplay similar to its predecessor.[18] Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages, from the Dark Ages to the Imperial Age. It allows players to choose one of 13 civilizations, from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.[19]
On August 24, 2000, Microsoft published the expansion, The Conquerors. It added new units and five new civilizations, including two
In April 2013,
In June 2019, Adam Isgreen, now the Franchise Creative Director for Age of Empires, shared more information regarding the
Age of Empires III
Age of Empires III, released on October 18, 2005, was built on an improved version of the Age of Mythology game engine with the most significant changes being the updated graphics engine and the inclusion of the
Several
In 2008, Microsoft announced they were closing down Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. Some of its employees would form a new team as part of
Following the announcement of remastered editions of previous games, Microsoft announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on August 21, 2017.[31] On May 30, 2019, the company revealed that the Definitive Edition would come to Steam in the future, along with the Definitive Editions of both Age of Empires and Age of Empires II.[16][17] On August 28, 2020, Microsoft announced at Gamescom 2020 that Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition would release officially on October 15, 2020.[56]
On January 23, 2020, Microsoft announced a closed beta for early February of that year. Betas ran on Steam and the Microsoft Store, with each beta session including a small piece of the game.[57] The first closed beta session began on February 11, 2020, and ended on February 19, 2020.[58][59] The second closed multiplayer session began on March 31 and ran until April 7.[60] The game was released on October 15, 2020.
Age of Empires IV
On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced Age of Empires IV, developed by
Spin-off games
Age of Mythology shared many elements of gameplay with the main series,
On August 16, 2010, Microsoft announced
On April 13, 2014, Age of Empires: World Domination was announced. It was developed by KLab Games for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone.[86] It was released on December 7, 2015,[87] with the service terminated on November 30, 2016.[88]
On August 25, 2014, Age of Empires: Castle Siege was announced. It is a touch-based game developed by Smoking Gun Interactive. It was released on September 17, 2014, for the Windows PC and Windows Phone 8.[89][90]
Development
Historical elements
The
Artificial intelligence
The artificial intelligence (AI) used in the Age of Empires series has been developed and improved regularly by designers. AI specialist Dave Pottinger noted the development team gave the AI in the original game a very high priority, and spent over a year working on it. He said that the AI in the game relies on tactics and strategies to win, instead of "cheating" by giving bonus resources to itself, or tweaking its units to be stronger than normal.[94] Pottinger later noted that the Age of Empires series team took great pride in their AI playing a "fair game"[95] and didn't know what the player was doing and had to play by the same rules as its human opponents.[96]
Age of Empires allows players to choose to play either along specialized, story-backed conditions or as individual battles against the AI (and other players). Choosing to battle against the AI – rather than following the storyline – allows the AI to adapt to players' strategies and even remember which games it won and lost. The AI eventually overcomes players' strategies and easily destroys their villages after several games. For instance, in Age of Empires III, this is referred to as playing a "Skirmish." However, Age of Empires III allows players to refine their strategies further against the AI by "Building a Deck," which allows players to replace "Home City" shipments with improved alternatives.
In Age of Empires II: The Conquerors the AI was given a high priority, the result being the "smart villager" feature, which was included in subsequent games of the series. After building a structure that stores or produces resources, smart villagers would proceed to collect resources related to the structure, such as crops from farms or ore from exposed deposits.[97]
Age of Mythology: The Titans lets players use an AI debugger when creating custom scenarios; players can change the settings of computer players and make them act according to certain patterns.[98] More basic changes to the AI had previously been available in the series' first two games.[99]
Graphics and visuals
The graphics and visuals of Age of Empires improved with each successive release. From the original release to the second, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, noteworthy improvements gained praise from several critics.[100][101][102] With the release of Age of Mythology the praise continued,[100][103][104][105] and the fourth release, Age of Empires III, garnered even more.[106][107][108]
GameSpot praised the improved graphics
The graphics continued to improve in Age of Mythology and was praised by a majority of reviewers. IGN ranked the graphics in this third release, "a joy to watch ... awesome."[103] GameSpot assented, also rating the graphics a 9 out of 10.[100] Game Revolution agreed,[104] and PC Gamer stated that the graphics in the third release "are packed with detail."[105]
The trend in improved graphics continued well into the next release, Age of Empires III, much to the delight of reviewers. IGN stated, "After seeing the screenshots, our jaws hit the floor at the amount of detail."
GameSpy awarded Age of Empires III the "Best Graphics" award at GameSpy's "Game of the Year 2005."[115]
Music
Stephen Rippy has been the series' music director since the first game. He has had occasional help from his brother, David Rippy, as well as Kevin McMullan.[116] He created the original music in Age of Empires with sounds of instruments from the periods in the game.[117] These sounds came from actual instruments, and their digital samples.[117] The tunes were the result of extensive research on the cultures, styles, and instruments used.[117] Rippy said that sound development on The Age of Kings was easy, since there was knowledge of the instruments used in the Middle Ages. Therefore, they were able to reproduce the tunes for the soundtrack of the game.[118] In Age of Mythology, an orchestral instrumentation was used, instead. According to McMullan, the team also collected large numbers of audio recordings from zoos, and created "a massive sound library of [their] own material."[119] The music of Age of Empires III was similar to The Age of Kings, in which the team used more historical instruments; Rippy noted the team used instruments such as "bagpipes and field drums" to give it a realistic feel.[116]
Collaboration
Ensemble Studios worked together with Big Huge Games to develop The Asian Dynasties, Age of Empires III's second expansion. This was the first joint venture for both teams. The reason for them doing so was compatible schedules: Ensemble Studios was busy with other projects—particularly Halo Wars—while Big Huge Games' real-time strategy team had few projects at that time. Big Huge Games did most of the work, but Ensemble Studios designers Greg Street and Sandy Petersen joined in the brainstorming, and had control over the final product.[120] Both studios had roles in testing the game before its release.[121]
Reception and legacy
The Age of Empires series has been a commercial success. As of 2008, five of its games have each sold more than one million copies. According to
Critics have credited Age of Empires for influencing real-time strategy (RTS) games such as
Shelley has said that the key to the success of the games was its innovation, rather than imitation of its peers. He also claimed the unique elements in the games "helped establish the reputation of Ensemble Studios as masters of the real-time strategy genre."[144] Mark Bozon of IGN wrote in his review of The Age of Kings, "The Age of Empires series has been one of the most innovative real-time strategy games for PC in the last decade or so."[145] Gamenikki called Ensemble Studios "the developer that started it all" when they talked about how much Age of Empires III had done to advance the real-time strategy genre.[146] Shelley has acknowledged the success and innovation of Age of Empires helped to ensure Ensemble survive its early periods since startup.[147] In 2005, Shelley complained of critics holding an "innovation bias" against the series; citing the 60% score from Computer Gaming World, he said that despite Age of Empires III being "perhaps the best selling PC game in the world", reviewers expected "something really new", and rated it harshly.[148]
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