They were consistently a joy to watch, and although the highly linear gameplay segments that followed weren’t too exciting, I was always eager to push forward to see the next one. Whilst previous games have often relied a little too heavily upon overwhelming walls of text to provide background information, here a mix of informative documentary style narration, full-motion footage and computer animation accompanies every level. The four new single-player campaigns, which each explore famous battles throughout different periods of medieval history, are immediately elevated by excellent cutscenes. When launching Age of Empires IV, first impressions were very good. By completing certain criteria, you can advance through four visually distinct ages, each with their own unique buildings to construct and units to discover. Playing in real-time, your goal is to construct a successful town by accumulating four different resource types and using them to build an army of various unit types to defend it from rival players or AI. For those unfamiliar, each game in the series follows a fundamentally similar formula. With the last numbered entry originally releasing back in 2005, IV has been a long time coming and so my expectations were understandably high. With the release of last year’s Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition concluding the remastering of the original trilogy for modern systems, there has never been a better time for a new entry. Sure, there have been a couple lacklustre spinoff entries, not to mention the odd mobile cash-in here and there, but the three main series titles have endured like few others. A veritable titan of the strategy genre, the name alone commands a level of respect only afforded to the likes of the legendary Sid Meier’s Civilization or XCOM. Few franchises have stood the test of time quite as well as Age of Empires.

Age of empires iv review