The focus will instead be on more fleshed-out expansions. Plus, in very welcome news, it looks like microtransactions won’t be a thing in Age of Empires 4.

We want to modernize the series and that means we are going to do things differently.'

We do not want to take on all of the complexity that we see in RTS games today,' Isgreen said.

With Age of Empires 4, it was important for us to be like, 'okay, how do we back away from that?'. While this might set alarm bells ringing for series veterans, it could allow the game to be much more welcoming to newcomers than previous Age of Empires titles.Ĭreative Director Adam Isgreen told GamesRadar: “Generally speaking, the longer a genre exists, the games that are responsible for taking it forward tend to make it more complicated.' Then another generation of kids will follow afterward, and the cycle continues.Īge of Empires 4 aims to modernize the series, which may mean stripping back some of the more complex systems seen in previous games. One big change is that these campaigns won’t focus on the life of one historical figure as in previous games but will instead span multiple rulers over whole generations.Īn example given is that in the Norman campaign you begin playing as William the Conqueror but over time his kids will take the crown and you’ll have to navigate the conflicts that arise from a disputed succession. There will be four campaigns in Age of Empires 4: Norman, 100 Years War, Mongols, and Rus. Expect the game to be supported for years to come, after all, Ages of Empires 3 latest re-release came in 2020. Each will look and play slightly differently, which means either control of them or fighting them will require a unique strategy.ĭeveloper Relic Entertainment has already hinted that the plan is to launch with eight civilizations but grow the list post-release. It has been confirmed that there will be eight fully playable civilizations at launch: Chinese, Delhi Sultanate, English, Mongols, French, Abbasid Dynasty, Holy Roman Empire, and Rus. This fourth mainline entry in the series will retain the core real-time strategy gameplay but will update it in several fundamental ways. In summary, Age of Empires 4 won’t be dramatically reinventing the classic Age of Empires formula. During this press briefing, the team at Relic Entertainment talked us through the core pillars of the latest installment in the long-running series and gave us a deeper understanding of what playing Ages of Empire 4 will actually be like. Earlier this year Tom's Guide was invited to an Age of Empires 4 preview event.

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