Cesar Lardies

An astonishing technical accomplishment, a satisfying combat design, and an incredible soundtrack make this game a clear GOTY contender for 2023. And let me make this quite plain: you don’t need to be a Harry Potter fan to enjoy this masterpiece of a game.

I don't understand what happened. Like, at all. I was an AOE fanatic as a kid. I believe the original AOE was the first game I ever played on a PC, and I never really stopped. I have played through every single AOE game and I retain great memories. AOE III was hands-down my favorite. I got it back in 2005 and I kept playing it through college. Then I remember thinking, "will there ever be an AOE IV?". I always thought of a new release as a no-brainer since the franchise made Microsoft a lot of money, so I was perplexed by the fact that for more than a decade there was no news whatsoever about a potential release. But even before the new game was announced, for years every once in a while I would Google AOEIV hoping that I would come across a blog or news article discussing a potential launch. But nothing. I was convinced that we were stuck with the old games forever and could only hope that another franchise could do something along the lines of AOE. And then, after 15 years of waiting, I finally got the news I had craved for so long. Sadly, today all I feel is disappointment. AOE IV has not improved the franchise in any way!!!! NO GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS OVER AOE III; THE SAME DAMN 200 POPULATION LIMIT; NO NARRATIVE-LED CAMPAINGS; AND FEWER EMPIRES TO PLAY WITH!!! YOU GUYS SERIOUS?? WHERE IS FRANCE? WHERE IS SPAIN? WHERE ARE THE DUTCH? Out of everything that they could have done wrong, no of these things even crossed my mind. You would imagine that after 15 years and how far gaming has come they would have been more ambitious. But no. This is nothing more than a AOEIII remaster (not even that, actually), and I feel totally cheated.