Age of Empires Online

The Short


Pros
- Age of Empires is finally back, with all the fundamentals you know and love
- Improved UI controls help you better manage the large number of resources and technologies
- The biggest change, the fusion between RTS and MMO elements, is actually extremely well done
- Earn experience through missions and battles to unlock more techs
- Every unit can be equipped with gear, and the loot is plentiful and has cool features
- Just one Premium Civilization can net you hundreds of hours of play
- Hundreds of unique and fun missions, with side missions and repeatable missions making for tons of content
- Unlike original Age of Empires, the four current races (Celts, Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians) are all extremely unique and have specific units and techs the others don't
- Goofy, cartoony art style is charming while still reminding one enough of the original games
- Finally on Steam, which means $120 worth of content was on sale for $13

Cons
- Unit pathfinding and response is awful, and is easily the worst part of the game
- Repeatable missions are fun but are always exactly the same as the last half-dozen times you played it
- No difficulty level or difficulty indication on missions
- No easy way to transfer gear between your purchased civilizations
- While it's technically "Free to play," the free elements are little more than a glorified demo
- Despite having a good deal of variety between missions, a lot can be beaten with repeat tactics
- Only four civilizations currently playable

While some things are different, others stay the same. 

The Long

Age of Empires 2 was my first real strategy game, that and Command and Conquer Red Alert, so you can imagine I have a hefty amount of nostalgia for this series. After burning through countless hours on both Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and the expansions, I was bummed when Age of Mythology and Age of Empires 3 weren't everything I hoped they would be. They were hardly bad games, just underwhelming ones, like they were in the shadow of the incredible Age of Empires 2 and couldn't get out of it.

And then the series disappeared. Ensemble, the original makers of these games, made Halo Wars and then was dissolved. I'm pretty sure everybody figured this series was dead, especially since the last game was set in colonial times. Where do you go from there? World War I? Actually that would be cool, I take it back.

When Age of Empires Online was announced as a free-to-play, MMO style "reboot" of the original game, I'll admit I jumped onboard the "fan backlash" wagon. Why was the new art style more like a cartoon than the original realistic games? Why was there only two civilizations from the start, when the point of Age of Empires was to have a billion (almost identical) civilizations to play through? Why was 90% of the game barred with the "free-to-play" model, and instead of microtransactions it cost a whopping $120 for a season pass? The game just seemed to be making every mistake in the book, and despite playing the demo and begrudgingly enjoying it, there was no way I could justify the $20 purchase for one premium civ. I mean, that's the cost of full games! 

The cartoony style grows on you, and is actually pretty good looking for a free-to-play game

Then the game popped up on Steam a few weeks ago, with a massive sale: every available thing in the game (currently) including four premium civs and two expansion packs for $13. How could I pass on that? Remembering I liked the demo, $13 was well within my "worth the risk" quota. So I bought it.

And have since sunk around 100 hours into the game in about three weeks. It has become my perfect drug.

So rather than blab about myself for paragraphs here, let's get on with the review. Why, despite all odds, has Age of Empires Online hooked me more than any other game I've played in months? What are the fundamental changes here, and what do they do that's unique? Read on and I'll tell you. 

At it's core, this game is very much an Age of Empires game

First off, let me say this: if you enjoyed the old Age of Empires games you'll feel right at home here. The game still has a hefty focus on multiple resource management (food, wood, gold, and stone) as well as building massive armies and then "aging up" to a new tier of abilities, technologies, and units. You still need tons of wood since it's the most important resource, still can focus either cavalry, infantry, or naval warfare, and still need like fifty villagers in order to pay for all this. This is Age of Empires. 

The changes, however, become very apparent from the second you start playing. 

This game apes a lot of RPG elements from MMOs, which a lot of people complained about when it was first announced. However, after sinking over 100 hours in across three civs (Egyptians, Spartans, and Celts, with Egyptians being my main) I can tell you this: the MMO elements are implemented perfectly. But here's the real important thing: you'll spend 90% of this game playing by yourself. Sure, almost every mission has a co-op option, but unless your friends are online (or you have a thing for PvP), 90% of this content is essentially single player. And, as single player Age of Empires experiences go, this is the best out of the entire series. Hands down. Yes, I just said that. 

Let me explain myself before you lynch me. 

So here's how the game works. First off, you have a main city that serves as a quest hub for your game, though you travel to many other cities around Africa, Europe, and Asia to get more quests, help the natives, etc. Your main city is basically a monument to your accomplishments. You can buy multiple buildings (I have a huge pyramid I earned on a particularly difficult set of missions), set up shops to gather lingering resources, and basically assemble things you want. Having a main city to care for is cool, even though it really is just there for looks and applying the upgrades you get.

The RPG elements come in full force as you realize how the mission structures work. Like most MMOs, around the city people will have giant exclamation points over their head and will then offer you quests. Most of these are a variation on building up a base and an army and crushing the enemies, but there is actually a crazy variety, like the people at Robot and Gas Powered Games weren't afraid to make it a little weird. There's tower defenses, camel races, and my favorite: one where you have infinite resources but extremely limited time to build a massive army and sweep your enemies. While the main "plot" quests tend to follow the same pattern, there are so many challenges, special missions, universal missions (such as "kill 100 fishing boats" that carries over between other missions) and repeatable missions that the content is just staggering. There's always something both new and old to do here, with repeatable missions able to be played again every 12 hours for more rewards. 

Though it still boils down to massive armies clashing at some point along the way. 

As you complete missions you gain XP, both from killing units in-mission to the actual quest completion. As you earn enough XP your civilization levels up, and when that happens you earn points to buy technologies. Unlike previous Age of Empires games, where all techs are unlocked from the start for each mission, you have to buy them with your level up points. Which sounds like a pain (and it kind of is at first, when you have no options) but it forces you to decide what route you want to go in your game since you can't have everything right off the bat. For example, as the Spartans I decided to tech heavy gold economy and focus on foot-soldiers, earning upgrades that made them build faster and cheaper. While as the Egyptians I went straight cavalry and heavy economy, completely ignoring the religion, foot-soldier, and trading trees. The game also rewards you by sticking to one group with "ultimate" passive techs you learn when you reach Age 4 (at around level 15). These are always-on and very powerful (such as all military units passively healing 2 hp/sec, or increasing village run speed permanently by 35%) and serve as good goals to reach. This addicting draw to gain just one more level and get that technology is one part of many that makes this game addicting.

Levels also come relatively quickly, though they do slow down at around level 20. It'll probably take you 50 hours to get to level 20, across dozens of missions, but since there is relatively little downtime (unlike most MMO based games) the leveling still feels very quick. About 3-5 missions and you'll rank up (the number required increasing with levels), and since XP increases with your rank it never feels like a grind. It's an excellent balance that doesn't frustrate or overly reward you, which means it is perfect. 

The massive city of "SPACE EGYPT" needs no introduction!

This is compiled with the drive for loot, of which there is a-plenty. Age of Empires Online's system focuses mostly on random loot chests. Every mission has several "guardians" you can kill in the world that will net chests and most mission rewards include one. These are random when you open them and have a chance to give you good gear, resources, blueprints, or just about anything. So how does loot work in an RTS game? Easy: you equip your units.

No, seriously. Every single unit (and building!) in Age of Empires Online has a list of equips. Most have four slots (weapon, armor, helmet, misc.) while some have less. Abilities range from decreasing price, increasing damage, adding a critical hit chance, decreasing build time on all techs and units built, increasing gather rate (for villagers) and more. Like any good MMO loot is color coordinated, increasing the drive to get the good stuff. Lots of missions have specific rewards you can get, letting you pick a powerful piece of gear that best fits your current playstyle. Let me tell you: trying to max out your units with the best gear is addicting as hell. And since you are constantly being rewarded, you want to push "one more mission" just to see if you can get some awesome stuff. It's...bad. For my productivity.

This is on top of even more robust systems. You can craft your own items and weapons if you have resources, which can be earned on missions or harvested if you buy the right buildings for your capitol. You get advisers who provide a unique bonus, one per age, ranging from decreasing costs to increased unit build time. There are hundreds of advisers you can buy or find in random loot boxes that dramatically change gameplay. There's also one-time use items that can summon armies, give you a temp boost, and more. The abilities mix very well with the RTS systems already in play, and since the core element is so solid all these extras feel...really good. And quite cool.

You can rearrange buildings in your city, if you want it to look awesome. 

So let's address the two big complaints people had: the lack of available civilizations and the pricing model. First, with regard to civilizations, I'm just going to say I don't care that there is only four, and here is why. In the original Age of Empires games, yes: there were like twenty civilizations available to pick. But aside from locking you out of specific techs and one unique unit apiece, they weren't very different. All their units were essentially the same and none were really unique. In Age of Empires Online, every civ is dramatically different, like Starcraft II and its races. Greeks/Spartans are a rush race, with lots of powerful cheap units but no serious punch once you hit the later ages. Egyptians have a very slow start without even a dedicated archery building, but their priestesses boost economy and let you tier up quickly to their ultimate unit: kick butt elephants. Celts have almost no horses but focus on strong, massive amounts of infantry and siege, and Persians...I haven't played enough to say, but I'm certain they are unique too. Since you only take control of one civilization to build your city anyway, and since each one is unique, actually having more than one (which I do since I bought the pack) actually feels redundant. I like Egyptians best, so I'm glad I'll play them. I always just played the same two races in Age of Empires 2 anyway (Goths or English) so there isn't really any real loss here. Trust me: once you get deep enough, the unlocks make it so the races stay fresh even if there are only four.

The second is the pricing model, which I admit was total garbage when the game was first released. They tout it as "free-to-play," but playing on a non "premium" civ ("premium" being a bought one) locks you out of most gear, all advisers, and tons of missions. Yeah, you can still play, but after you hit around level five the game sucks. So if you want to spend serious time, be prepared to invest.

Luckily, however, this game avoids microtransactions (I hate those) and just has large packs you can buy. A premium civ started at $20 (which, looking back, isn't bad) but is now around $10 on Steam and cheaper if on sale. You have to have a premium civ to play PvP, so keep that in mind. There are also challenge packs and what not you can purchase, which are fun but not really worth the $10 unless you are really out of stuff to do, and if you are then you've spent like 200 hours in this game so I guess you love it enough to make it worth it. 

As it stands, the $13 I paid feels like a deal too good to be true. Between four civs we are looking at anywhere between 500 to 1000 hours of time if I really want it (I probably won't; that's a lot of Age of Empires) and most of that time is quality. It's crazy how well this game fits together when it shouldn't, but considering I just paid less than most full games (and less than if they'd released a disc-based numbered Age of Empires sequel, which probably would have been $60) I feel like I got a pretty killer deal here.

The Celts look the coolest, but the Egyptians get War Elephants...aka the biggest hax ever. 

So what is bad about this game? I've been singing its praises because I've spent so much time with it the past few weeks (and show no sign of stopping), but there's gotta be some problems here, right? Well...yeah. There's a actually quite a few.

The biggest is bad pathfinding. For those who don't know the term, it's when you order units to go to an area they follow an AI directed route. If they have good pathfinding, the units will move intelligently. If not, they move like idiots. While not as bad as some RTS games I've played, the units in Age of Empires Online  are pretty dang stupid. It's a core thing that should have been addressed early on (especially since all the previous games had this problem; you think they'd fix it for a modern reboot) and gets annoying.

What is even more broken, however, is Attack-Move. Again, for the uninitiated this is essentially the most important order in any RTS. You order units to move to a location, but to attack any enemies they find along the way rather than run blindly to the goal. The problem here is it only seems to work about 75% of the time, if that, and weirdly enough if they are in the middle of attacking and then you order them to attack move again they'll stop attacking and often retarget. What? 

Unit attack priority is also a huge mess, meaning you are gonna micro a lot. In a good RTS, the priority goes something like this (in terms of who your units attack when left alone): enemy units attacking you, enemy buildings attacking you, enemy units just sitting there, enemy buildings just sitting there. Makes sense, right? You'd think you'd want to attack who was hitting you. But it Age of Empires Online, when it isn't being completely random it's something like this: enemy units attacking you, any enemy units, any enemy building, maybe a building attacking you. I swear they hit towers last, which is completely stupid (especially on siege equipment). I mean, sure, it isn't hard to micro these guys to doing what I want, but I shouldn't have to. How do you mess that up? 

Skirmish is fun, even if you have to buy it separately. 

Another problem is the repeatable missions. Now, I'm glad you can repeat missions, because if not eventually you'd run out (though I haven't yet so...there's a lot). But the problem is they never change. Which means I've done the same "burn down the boats" mission who knows how many times, every experience being almost exactly the same. At least some at least sort of randomize the map, but there are quite a few that don't even do that! So it's literally the same damn thing a hundred times over. I guess you don't have to do them (I have like 10 missions currently I can cycle through on repeat) but...seriously, would it be that hard to make every map randomized? Even the challenge missions do it.

Lastly, repetition does tend to set in. Since most missions are the "build a base, destroy enemies" variety, the first 10-15 minutes of each mission can be the same as all the others. You build villagers, scout, find where your resources are, tech up and build a small army for defense, and then after a while maybe somebody will attack you. Since most maps start you around a similar resource pool (berry bushes and gold next to the Town Center, stone a little ways of, a large clump of trees with an expansion gold pool near it) those first couple of minutes quickly become simple repetition, over and over. And while this isn't bad (every other RTS in the history of the world does this) it starts to show the grind during long play sessions. 

You explore and do quests all over the world, which is kind of cool. 

The graphics and sound are excellent. I know a lot of people hated the "cartoony" new look, which was clearly to broaden the game's appeal, but I think it fits the new direction the game has gone. Though I will admit the way the extremely thin Egyptian Priestesses wobble their hips/butts around when meandering around the map looks a bit...totally stupid, when in the heat of battle you probably won't care, and generally everything is non-offensive. I like how sometimes they turn into little graves with flowers (instead of falling into corpses like the older games), and the graphics are simple enough but employ enough of a unique style that you can run them on any machine, and they'll still look good maxed out. Valve, look into this, because DOTA 2 looks really boring in comparison.

Sound design is good, with every civ talking in their native tongue, and cute music clips playing victoriously after each mission (and each fits the style of the civ in question). I just wish they had more background mission music, as I'm so tired of hearing the same basic Egyptian melody. I guess you could just plug music in or something, but it's kind of annoying still.

It doesn't sport the highest polygon count, but the style really shines through. 

As it stands, for the extremely low asking price for a single civ, Age of Empires Online is really worth looking into if you have any love of either the series, MMOs, or just RTS games in general. It tries something new with it's blend of RTS and RPG MMO elements, and generally everything pulls through flawlessly. Though I'd personally check out the demo and playing a few missions with all civilizations, and then just pick one to buy. Seriously, now I feel obligated to get all these stupid civilizations to max level, and that's gonna take me the rest of my life. Not to mention they'll probably release more in the meantime, which'll just add to my addiction. 

While it had glaring faults on release, there is no denying Microsoft took this series in the right direction by both putting it on Steam and letting them drop the price. Aside from a few control issues and frustrations (and if the server disconnects you mid mission you have to start over from scratch...bullcrap) Age of Empires Online is extremely solid, and proves to be a superb follow-up to a series that was beginning to stale a bit. As much as I opposed the idea at first, I can't help but think this was probably the best they could have done with this franchise. Highly recommended.

Four out of five stars. 

Ah, how times have changed.