#Age of empires 3 vs 2 series
GIF: Microsoftįans of older entries in the series also have things to look forward to. We also got a brief glimpse at an area-of-effect wololo, something that’s very intriguing for fans of Age of Empires and memes alike. These two mechanics should help to make raiding and defending castles more strategic. The event also showed off wall combat, where units were able to fight both in front of and on top of castle walls, and siege mechanics, where a base could be surrounded by units and - as the name implies - siege weapons. It’s a feature the creators hope will not only add excitement and tension to gameplay, but will actually give you a reason to keep scout units around, as you’ll need to make sure there isn’t an entire army hiding along your route. The studio showed off a very interesting feature called stealth force, which allows players to create ambushes where enemies will not be able to see their units hiding and waiting. The game will also include some new mechanics. I bet this campaign screenshot is really cool if you know the historical context. The team talked extensively about the fact that campaigns would include documentary footage with narration about the real-life historical events that you’ll be playing through. I’m not enough of a history buff to know anything about that, but it seems like the game will be trying to teach me. They revealed that there would be four campaigns in the game but only shared details about one: the Norman conquest. The game’s creators also talked about the evolution of campaigns, which act as a sort of story mode in Age of Empires. There will still be similar classes of units, but the developers wanted to make sure that players could switch up the gameplay style if they wanted to and even main a certain civilization if they really like its mechanics. For example, a wide-open map could benefit the Mongols with their highly mobile units and towns, while a map with a lot of chokepoints could benefit the defense-heavy English. Image: Microsoftĭuring a Q&A, Relic talked a lot about adding asymmetry to civilizations the team wanted to make sure that each played differently, with the randomly generated maps playing to different civilizations’ strengths and weaknesses. However, we did get to see that the Delhi Sultanate will include elephant units and that the Mongols will have the ability to pack up and move their buildings and towns (which is mind-blowing to see in action). So far, there hasn’t been a lot of information about the unique abilities and traits of each civilization.
So far, we know four of them: the Delhi Sultanate are making their first appearances in Age of Empires, and the Mongols (who are getting a big upgrade), Chinese and English will be returning. That includes the obvious things - like 4K and HDR - to more strategy game-centric upgrades, like new pathfinding that will accommodate tons of units.Īccording to the team behind the game, there will be eight civilizations in the initial release of the game.
The last main entry in the long-running historical strategy series was released in 2005, and the new game looks to build on the formula created by previous entries, while adding features made possible by 15-ish years of technological improvements. The game also has a release window: fall 2021. Microsoft and developer Relic Entertainment showed off a healthy amount of gameplay footage as well as new features and civilizations coming to the series in a “Fan Preview” event. We haven’t heard much about Age of Empires IV since it was announced in 2017, but we’ve finally been given a look at the game, which includes the Mongols and Delhi Sultanate as playable civilizations.