You want to get your cavalry out of the way of spearmen, perhaps to get them to tie up enemy archers if you can get swordsmen to cover their withdrawal. This isn't a problem in and of itself regardless of the age of the system, it allows for a significant amount of depth when it comes to planning assaults or making tactical changes in the middle of a battle. For example, cavalry is countered by spearmen, who are laid to waste by swordsmen, and they fear just about anyone on horseback.
It's largely the same units, and critically, it is the same 'rock paper scissors' dynamic. Despite the new campaigns, flashy presentation, and some other bells and whistles, the basic gameplay in AoE4 isn't that much different compared to the older game. Under Relic's development, the game is a love letter to fans of the franchise and especially to those who enjoyed Age of Empires 2. Any way you look at it, the release of Age of Empires 4 is the return of a giant, but it feels like a reintroduction of the franchise rather than of an attempt to reinvent it.Īge of Empires 4 has benefited from its time away.
In that time, the RTS genre has seen the rise and subsequent decline of numerous milestone entries from Relic Entertainment's own Company of Heroes to the trio of StarCraft 2 releases. It's been over 15 years since the release of the previous mainline Age of Empires game, 2005's AoE3.
