➤ Age of Empires: Definitive Edition review 🎮

In the end, the guys from Forgotten Empires managed to respect the ultimatum and the "definitive" edition of Age of Empires, the immortal RTS released in 1997 by Microsoft and developed by the defunct Ensemble, is ready to be downloaded. This time the download speed of the Windows Store, the only digital platform on which it can be purchased, was in line with Steam's performance and in a short time, thanks to the optical fiber, we were able to click on the game icon. The first impact with the single player sector (of the multiplayer one we had already spoken in the tried a few days ago) is a real heart dive. Apart from a skimpy restyling of the home screen, however in line with the style of the game, it seems to be catapulted into the middle of the nineties, at a time when video games were finding their place in the world of mass entertainment and there was still a certain space for "daring" ideas even in the so-called "triple A", a category in which Age of Empires recognized itself completely being the flagship title of the new Microsoft policy that would lead, a few months later, to the development of the first Xbox.

Backstreet's back, alright(?)

Those were the years of WarCraft and Command & Conquer, but also of Civilization, and Bruce Shelley (former right-hand man of Sid Meier at MicroProse), together with brothers Rick and Tony Goodman and Brian Sullivan decided to put the two different philosophies of strategy (albeit to an unequal extent) to give life to the first of a series of games of which we are waiting for the fourth chapter, entrusted to Relic Entertainment. A brief review for those who were distracted at the time and for the younger ones who did not have, for reasons of registry office, the opportunity to get their hands on the CD-Rom of the first Age of Empires: it is an RTS that respects the postulates introduced by the sacred monsters of the genre but adding the technological evolution which is one of the fundamental pillars of the Civ saga. Of course, all those aspects that real-time management would have made excessively difficult to keep at bay are missing, but some nuances, such as the possibility of persuading the CPU to ally in exchange for resources, or the ability of priests to convert to their cause. enemy units are a clear reference to Civilization.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition review

Hit me baby one more time

The typical game starts with a worker: a handyman unit that, in addition to building buildings, can be used for gathering food, timber, stone and gold, the four fundamental resources. The first few minutes are spent exploring the map in search of the richest areas and creating the basic structures necessary to be able to progress in the four stages of progress of your civilization. There are even sixteen of them, but the development tree is unfortunately the same for all but a few specific units. As you evolve, new structures and military become available while simultaneously unlocking upgrades for existing ones.

The enthusiasm in rediscovering the old mechanics is quickly dampened by the revival of limitations that perhaps could have been accepted twenty years ago, but which today are much more difficult to swallow. Our complaints concern in particular the path-finding logic of the drives, who often get stuck remaining at the mercy of any enemies, or who limit themselves to attacking only the closest opponent independently; once eliminated they remain stationary and force the player to act with the mouse to avoid a dripping. Even the artificial intelligence has remained the same: to have a good degree of challenge it is necessary to set at least the "difficult" level, but one realizes that to be more fearful the CPU simply "cheats" with the speed of resource collection. , coming faster to build the most powerful units. In essence, therefore, it is sufficient to resist the first and numerous attacks and then launch the backlash with an army that draws the opponent's one in number; objective made a little more complicated than in the past because with the Definitive Edition the maximum population limit has risen to 250. Although there is a certain variety in terms of infantry, the duels with the CPU always reward the phalanxes composed of the most powerful that, in the final analysis, continue to be preferred even in the challenges with "human" intelligence.

The weight of the years

The single player mode allows you to face nine campaigns: to the original eight (four of which are present in the Rise of Rome expansion, which has been integrated here) the Forgotten Empires programmers have added a ninth one, The First Punic War, which sees how protagonists once again the Roman centurions and that was present in the demo of the expansion pack. Although at first the presence of new cinematic sequences was leaked to "link" the various scenarios, we noted with mocking bitterness that the videos, which were also present in the 1997 release, have been completely eliminated to make way for aseptic fixed screens in which an annoying narrating voice presents us with the objectives to be completed. Obviously, the campaigns are characterized by very particular situations and limitations that cannot be repeated in online games and represent, despite everything, the most appetizing course of the celebratory dinner prepared by Microsoft, retracing the salient moments in the development of a civilization. Despite the springs on the rump, this mode can still have its say, but in a short time it shows all the ailments of the years especially when compared with the most brilliant evolutions of the genre, among which it is impossible not to mention the no longer very young StarCraft II, whose Wings of Liberty campaign recently went free, which has set narrative and engagement standards on a whole other level. Once completed (it will take more than thirty hours) there is then the possibility to face the computer, or other opponents in the flesh, setting a series of parameters such as the morphology and the size of the map, the victory conditions, any alliances and so on.

Listless transposition

The thing that stands out most is the updated graphics: the programmers have used the same engine of twenty years ago (the Genie), with a cosmetic work both on the textures of the terrain and buildings, and on the animations of the units. It certainly cannot be said that the result makes your hair tear, far from it: the mere awareness of being in the presence of such a sacred monster manages to make people accept a standard that, in our times, represents the minimum wage even for an independent production. The fact of being able to act on the zoom does nothing but turn the knife in the sore, since approaching the gaze on the sprites you notice a work certainly not up to the coat of arms of the saga. Of course this Definitive Edition is perfectly suited to the FullHD standard and even 4K, keeping system requirements absolutely within everyone's reach, but it remains a meager consolation. The impression is that we wanted to feast on the corpse of Age of Empires with minimal economic effort, and it is even more paradoxical considering instead how much had been invested at the time.. Much more effective the "remastering" of the soundtrack, really pleasant in accompanying the player during the sessions, on average quite long, without ever getting bored. We are unable to express an opinion on the online sector as we have a version for the specialized press: we simply found that those technical defects that plagued the beta seem to have been resolved, but it was not possible to join any game.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Operating System: Windows 10 64bit
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700
RAM: 16 Gbyte
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

Minimum requirements

Operating system: Windows 10 64bit
CPU: Intel Core i5 @ 1,8 Ghz
RAM: 4 GB
Scheda video: Intel HD 4000
Disk space: 17 Gbyte

Comment

Digital Delivery Windows Store Price 19,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

5.5

Readers (18)

7.1

Your vote

With a clumsy nostalgia operation, Microsoft entrusted Forgotten Empires with the thankless task of bringing one of the most beloved titles of the late nineties back to the screens. The result is a mimetic reinterpretation of the 1997 title, simply subjected to a clumsy graphic update. Unfortunately, together with the many advantages represented by engaging and immediate game mechanics, there are all those defects that were understandable at the time but which today can no longer be tolerated. At a price of around twenty euros it is much better.