Age of Empires is the quintessential PC game. The first version was released in 1997, and it has since seen a number of expansion packs, sequels, spin-offs, and remakes. The latest installment is called Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, which just came out on October 19. In this blog post, I am going to talk about how the Age of Empires changed over time by analyzing some notable aspects from each era.
Contents
1997 Age of Empires
The first game in the series was designed by Bruce Shelley and Brett Norton, with graphics programming being done by Brian Sullivan. It is a real-time strategy computer game where players are tasked to build an empire of their own design from scratch, which can span multiple continents or just one island while competing against opponents trying to achieve world dominance through military conquest and economic prowess, technological advancement, and cultural domination. The player starts off without any enemy contact but will soon be faced with attacks from at least two angles simultaneously.
1998 Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
1998 Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome is a 1998 turn-based strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Games. It was the first sequel to the award-winning computer game, “Age Of Empires.”
The game focuses on Roman history from the time of Scipio Africanus in 218 BC to Emperor Honorius (395 AD). There are three main campaigns that follow these historical events; one for Rome’s conquest under Scipio Africanus, one describing how Octavian became Augustus in 27 BC, and finally one showing Constantine I as he unites all factions into Christianity with his Edict about religious liberty at Milan around 313 AD.
1999 Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings
The previous Age of Empires had been successful for many reasons, but it lacked one thing; good graphics. 1999 Age of Empire II: The Age of Kings fixed this problem with revamped scenes and animations which took advantage of modern computers’ capabilities (which were much better than ten years ago). This led to a beautiful-looking game where buildings looked like they were really made out of wood or stone instead of just being colored pixels on the screen.
Another welcome change was how troops behaved differently depending on what civilizations they were from. For example, the Franks had very strong cavalry, which was more suited to fighting in open plains, while Japanese troops preferred a forested landscape with lots of time for them to attack enemies on horseback.
2000 Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors
2000 Age of Empires is one of the best games ever made. 2000 Age of Empires was released on October 16 for Windows, 98/XP/ME, and 2000 XP Games For Windows 95 with DirectX compatible video cards.
2000 Age of Empires II: The Conquerors offers three different modes: campaign mode, scenario editor mode, and multiplayer mode. Campaigns are what you would expect from a computer game. they include campaigns such as Barbarians in China or Vikings in Europe to more unorthodox warfare like Sengoku Jidai (Age Of War)
– Scenario Editor Mode makes it possible to edit maps and create new scenarios by adding units, buildings, etc… Multi-Player Mode enables users to play against each other over the internet or through LAN networks.
2002 Age of Mythology
2002 Age of mythology was developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It’s an RTS game. The player controls one of three races, the Egyptians, Norse, or Greeks, with each race having its own unique units for a total of 18 different unit types in all.
They are tasked to defeat their rivals through armed conquest while improving economic development on every map tile, which can be achieved through either farming, mining, or hunting wildlife.
2002 Age of mythology has been acclaimed as being particularly sophisticated and addictive due to how it mixes strategy with role-playing elements such as leveling up heroes with special abilities overtime during battle, customizing home bases plus exploring terrain from bird’s eye view using hero characters incapable of being
2003 Age of Mythology: The Titans
Age Of Mythology: The Titans is an expansion to the game Age of Mythology. It comes with a big add-on disk that offers a new civilization (Greeks), two new unit types (Pantheons, Cults), four new gods (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and Ares), and a couple of other things like ten new maps. Two months after it was released, Microsoft also offered an update with some fixes and extra items for this game, such as additional avatars.
The first thing you might have noticed when you see the box or play the game is that there are no ‘civilizations’ anymore in the traditional sense. Civilizations here are actually Atlantis, Greece, and Egypt for single player and Norse, Egyptian, Greek for multiplayer. Each of these civilizations has its own tech tree, which is divided into three parts: Military, Economic, and Myth Units.
The economic section offers technologies to unlock new buildings or units faster or to get extra resources from each mine. The military branch is a collection of all the usual unit upgrades like more hit points or damage for chariots and phalanxes and special powers like flanking bonuses. You can also find some unique myth units here that only one civilization has (like Einherjar for the Norse).
2005 Age of Empires 3
2005 Age of Empires III was developed by Ensemble Studios and the third installment in the 2005 Age of Empires series. It is an RTS (real-time strategy) game just like its predecessors (Age Of Empires I and Age Of Empires II: The Rise of Rome), with a strong storyline focus (both single-player campaigns and story-based multiplayer missions).
This is also one of a handful games to have no expansions, although two demo versions of earlier versions are available for download. There are new units, maps, and features over those seen before in both the previous age of empires games.
2006 Age of Empires: The Age of Kings
In 2006, Age of Empires: The Age Of Kings was released. 2006 is a real-time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studio, released on October 18. Age of Empires: The Age Of Kings focuses primarily on multiplayer scenarios.
There is no single-player campaign, as the developers felt this would distract from the core strengths of their RTS games. 2006 reworks many aspects of its predecessors and introduces new gameplay features such as culture bonuses, a larger population limit for each player (300 units), individualized palaces for leaders (in which they can collect taxes from). 2006 also provides players with more control over game speed than previous titles to accommodate different play styles.
2006 Age of Empires 3: The Warchiefs
2006 Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs is an expansion for 2006’s, and it is a real-time strategy game (RTS) that involves controlling a civilization from ancient times to the modern-day and leading it through the history of technological development, managing resources, and defeating enemies in combat. 2006 plays online via on a single computer through Microsoft Windows XP.
This expansion adds three new civilizations (the Maya, Iroquois, and Sioux), two new campaigns (one each for the Iroquois and Maya), three new native tribes (Huron, Apache, and Nootka). Nine new units each for all civilizations except the Europeans (for example, there are now Korean musketeers instead of only European musketeers).
New technologies, new resources (such as bison and deer for the natives), three completely new multiplayer maps (one for each native tribe), and 12 new songs for 2006’s 2006 soundtrack. There is also some minor quality of life changes.
2007 Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties
The Asian Dynasties expansion of Age of Empires III added four new civilizations (Japan, China, India, and the Golden Horde), three new campaigns, and a host of gameplay refinements to an already polished game. Added features include a huge number of new technologies and units that vary from civilization to civilization. This necessarily requires more research slots than in the previous game.
College: Monks now cost 200 food instead of 100. Archers are now available at the Barracks without having to first build a Blacksmith.
Researchers: Players start with one researcher as before but can now find or buy others later in the game; these researchers act like workers but have fewer hit points and no combat capability.
One of the most interesting features is the new civilization selection screen which allows players to play single-player games with up to 8 players.
2008 Age of Empires: Mythologies
2008 Age of Empires: Mythologies is the fourth installment in the series and was released on November 19, 2008. as with its predecessors, it includes new gameplay elements and units.
The main point that distinguishes this game from its predecessors and other similar games is the addition of two new ways to evolve your units (and buildings) while the previous mechanism remained intact.
This allows for greater variety in army design, more versatile playstyles, and better micromanagement. The downside is that some effects can be severely anti-synergistic for certain combinations of unit types.
It features five civilizations (4 playable ones; Aztecs, Egyptians, Greeks, and Norse), four campaigns, and ten standard maps available when all civilizations are unlocked through various means, including single-player campaign mode.
2011 Age of Empires Online
Age of Empires Online 2011 is a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. It is an online application and requires a persistent internet connection to play.
Take control of a vast ancient world, collect resources, build a powerful economy and do anything it takes to dominate your enemies in this massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game. Build an Empire great enough to stand the test of time. With unlimited base building, massive battles featuring siege weapons & heroic warriors calling on you for support, and state-of-the-art graphics and sound from the Age of Empires franchise, it’s a brand new spin on an old classic!
As with many RTS games, Age of Empires Online follows a general storyline about gathering resources for your town/city or tribe. You start at level 1 and try to get enough experience points by killing enough monsters and doing quests to move up until you reach level 10. At each new level, you earn points that can be used to buy upgrades for your hero or your city.
2013 Age of Empires 2: The Forgotten
The Forgotten is not a fully-fledged sequel to the original game. It’s more like an extension to one facet of that game, as it adds new civilizations to play and new campaigns (designed by members of the community) with which to occupy your time. However, there are some fundamental differences between this release and those that have come before it.
Age of Empires II HD was released in 2013, almost ten years after version 1.0 was originally published back in 1998. The original came with five playable civilizations plus one non-playable civilization – the Celts – whose campaign served as a tutorial for players who weren’t. Age of Empires II HD (2013) added six more civilizations and a further three campaigns, one of which – the Viking Campaign by Soren Johnson.
2014 Age of Empires: Castle Siege
The game was developed using the Lionhead Studios engine that powers Fable Anniversary. The game features both single-player campaigns (one as British, one as Arabian) and multiplayer maps based on various well-known castles such as Nottingham Castle in England; Château de Pierrefonds in France; Alcázar of Segovia in Spain; and Bastei Bridge in Germany.
Flying units for attacking castle walls were added with later updates to the game.
The difference between castle siege and the previous age of empires games is that instead of exploration, there are multiplayer fights against random people around the world (or your friends if you have IOS or android). There are also custom matches that allow you to choose what map type/amount of players/team-based or free for all, etc…
2015 Age of Empires 2: The African Kingdoms
The African Kingdoms is the new expansion to Age of Empires II HD, released on March 30, 2015. There are new campaigns for Wololo, Portuguese, and Egyptians. Lots of new maps, units, and HD textures give an excellent improvement in the gameplay experience. Good performance on most modern computers (although you have to turn off shadows if your PC is low-end) should also be mentioned here.
The African Kingdoms main feature is that it’s the first Age of Empires II expansion that adds new native civilizations (Ethiopians, Berbers, Nubians, and Egyptians). That means there will not be any European or Asian nations this time around, like with Rise of the Rajas, which was released back in 2016. However, the developers have decided to make a few European nations available during the campaign mode as “European mercenaries” – Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians.
2016 Age of Empires 2: Rise of the Rajas
Age of Empires II: Rise of the Rajas is an expansion pack for (1999) Age of Empires II that was developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios, released on October 19, 2016.
The campaign follows two storylines: Western Rajas and Eastern Rajas. In Western Rajas, you play as a newly elected raja from one of three European-style kingdoms in Indonesia, tasked with uniting the archipelago under your rule through war or diplomacy. In Eastern Rajas, you play as a raja from one of four ancient Chinese-style kingdoms in Southeast Asia that China has abandoned to defend itself from raiders and rebels.
The game can be played with up to 6 players on the PC version, 2 AI players in single-player mode, or as a multiplayer match over the internet using Microsoft’s GameSpy Arcade networking software.
2018 Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
The Definitive Edition of Age of Empires was first announced back in May 2017, with development in full swing later that year. By October 2018 (6 months later), Microsoft Studios has now officially launched this modern remake onto Steam with a whole new multiplayer lobby and a completely re-mixed campaign. Other changes include improved graphics with 4k support for higher resolution displays, the ability to speed up or slow down the game’s frame rate, and online play with lobbies of up to 6 players.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is just that, the definitive edition of a classic RTS game. This means newly added features like Steam workshop support and 4k UHD graphics. It also means better native development support for modern PCs, including mouse wheel scrolling and bug fixes, of course.
2019 Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
After 20+ years, the classic Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is evolved into a new definitive edition. While the game still lives on as a multiplayer title, I didn’t play that much of it anymore. So when this beta version came out with some significant changes and additions (including story missions), I was excited to explore more about this updated title, and let’s see how good it fares after all these decades.
For those who never played the Age of Empires series or didn’t remember, you’re in for a treat. It has all the core features but also includes something for everyone from casual players to the most hardcore fans – from campaign to scenarios.
2020 Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition
The 2020 Age of Empires 3 definitive edition is quite the package for anyone who’s a fan of this classic strategy series. It features improved graphics, UI, and gameplay mechanics that make it look great on contemporary PCs—improved, modernized graphics with strong attention to detail (especially in the buildings). The game runs smoothly – no glitches or bugs are noted during playtime.
The age of empires III definitive edition offers completely remastered visuals which make everything pop as if you were watching an animated movie. The sounds effects are crispier than before, making combat feel alive while playing it -realistic soldiers can be seen fighting each other or manning artillery guns raining destruction on their enemies- all thanks to the new animations. The gameplay mechanics have also been overhauled, making this game feel alive and enjoyable to play: you’ll be able to use your mouse wheel while moving units, zoom in on the battlefield with a double click, unit formations are easier to set up in seconds, etc.
2021 Age of Empires 2: DE: Lord of The West Expansion
In 2021, the game starts with a new campaign in North America separated into six parts. The first part takes place around 1000AD and focuses on warfare between Native Americans of the northwest coast (Nootka) and their neighbors to the south (Tlingit). Tensions are ignited by an epidemic that has been ravaging both tribes for years.
The second installment covers events from 1070-1100 during the reign of Emperor Gotoba, who unifies Japan under his rule after decades of civil war. This section also features wild animal hunting missions and more traditional Age gameplay focused on martial conflict throughout feudal Japan.
2021 Age of Empires 3: DE: United States and African Civilizations
These mods give a breath of fresh air to the embattled American and African civilizations, which are typically not popularly used in online games due to their low numbers, weaknesses (in comparison with European civilizations). And because these civilizations don’t have many bonuses or techs that people would find useful. This is what this mod aims to do:
This mod intends to update/replace all the artwork for both North American and African civs, from units, buildings, etc., and update all sound effects for said civs and add unique music tracks! As you may notice, this mod also aims to simulate the “rapid” evolution that took place on the continent.
2021 Age of Empires 2: DE: Dawn of the Dukes Expansion
The Dawn of the Dukes expansion brings new units and technologies, like new cavalry units and an advanced economy with 35 trade goods and 13 different types of resources!
It is based on its own engine, which made gameplay much smoother than in previous versions. It brought higher resolution graphics (now you can zoom in far beyond) and better lighting effects! But don’t think that this is just a pretty face.
It also has some serious changes regarding core game mechanics. There are new multiplayer modes like team play (2vs1, 3vs1) and two brand new game types: “Capture the Relic” and “King of the Hill.”
Age of Empires 4 (COMING SOON)
References
1. Age of Empires: TheRise of Rome – Juegos Friv – Juegos …. https://juegos.game/play/age-of-empires-the-rise-of-rome/
2. Age of Empires II: TheAge of Kings | Real Time Strategy …. https://rts.fandom.com/wiki/Age_of_Empires_2
3. Age of Empires II – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empres_II_Mobile
4. Age of Mythology: The Titans (2003). https://www.igdb.com/games/age-of-mythology-the-titans
5. Buy Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs Expansion Pack on PC …. https://www.game.co.uk/en/age-of-empires-iii-the-warchiefs-expansion-pack-22379
6. Age of Empires II: The African Kingdoms – Wikipedia. https://sv.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_African_Kingdoms