Why wait to build and expand a single kremlin over the course of many missions and hours, or indeed limit yourself in any way at all, when there is a mode available from the outset that lets you do whatever you want? But ultimately I’m just not that interested. The missions are bookended with lavish videos giving history lessons that tie together the overall story arc. The second mission of the Norman campaign, for example, is focused on capturing and maintaining multiple bases, while the second mission of the Moscow campaign prioritizes collecting taxes from neighboring settlements.

The campaigns try their best to vary the core gameplay loop by giving different abilities and bonuses to different civilizations and by emphasizing different elements of base-building, scouting, and troop battles across different missions.

Age of Empires IV hits like a truck of nostalgia, even as it presents a gameplay loop that most RTS games moved on from by the early ‘00s.Īge of Empires IV offers several campaigns, from the tried and tested 1066 English setting to the rise of Moscow from 1238 through to imperial Russia.

Sure, you can attempt fancy military tactics with split forces, siege engines, and support units, but anyone who grew up on the likes of Dune II, Command & Conquer, or Total Annihilation will remember the certainty of overwhelming unit numbers. Raise villagers and send them out to gather wood, food, gold, and stone to build an increasingly sophisticated base, then use the base to build increasingly sophisticated combat units, and finally accumulate enough of these to rush the enemy force. You could call it an unhealthy obsession, I suppose, but is it my fault that Age of Empires IV offers some of the most addictive base-building since, well, Age of Empires II?Īge of Empires IV is deliberately and unashamedly old-school, not merely recalling the revered second installment in the franchise, but in many ways directly replicating it in a modern engine. So far I’ve built six kremlins, and I can’t promise that I won’t build more.

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