It's consistently pretty and colorful, like a diorama brought to life, which is the exact kind of spectacle that made this series so enduring and welcoming without trying to melt anyone's graphics card. Large, slightly clumsy armies of melee and ranged infantry, cavalry, and siege weapons plod across the map to fight in battles largely determined by the exact ratio of rock to paper to scissors that each player has chosen. As you expand, you'll also advance through the titular "ages," unlocking more powerful units, buildings, and upgrades. From a single town center and a handful of villagers at the start you'll expand across the map to seize control of gold and stone mines and dense forests, defending your holdings with long chains of fortifications. The foundations of this game are as familiar as ever: this is a real-time strategy game about managing tons of workers inside sprawling bases. Even a few years ago I might have reached that conclusion myself, and I'll concede that there is every chance I am just heeding my own call of the easy chair as I embrace Age of Empires IV as a skillful and humble reinterpretation of an enduring classic. If anything, Age of Empires IV is Relic's Age of Empires II remake, which might seem like a depressingly modest ambition or even an unnecessary one after all the fine Age of Empires Definitive Editions Microsoft put out over the last couple years. What's more, this is not some attempt to shake-up the franchise or redefine it in a new context. Somehow that future has led us here, with a new Age of Empires IV resurrected for Microsoft by Relic itself.
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