Joshua Sniffen

Age IV is incredible on so many levels, but they are all subtle and being glossed over or downright missed. The masterwork is in the details. The game takes our beloved Age 2DE and instead of slapping a 3D paintjob over it and "spicing" it up with gameplay gimmics founds in other Age games opts for a careful and respectful port and polish. The result is a game that plays exactly like Age 2DE but feels like wielding a perfectly balanced sword rather than a rusty garden hoe. The sound design is the best I have ever experienced in a video game. Not just that the game sounds great, which it does, but how the game treats sound as information. There are no obnoxious bells, sirens, dings, or the dreaded farm expiration sigh. Instead all the sound is natural, but beautifully and distinctly mixed. There is so much sound but it never becomes noise, and stays informative. The first match I played I found myself scanning the minimap far less than I do in Age 2DE because the game does such a good job communicating through sound what is going on. Not only that, but the sound is 3D positional, so you can hear what part of the map needs attention. This is one of the most obvious but ingenious innovations in RTS gameplay ever. The interface is simply glorious. I love that the first thing that greets you when you launch the game for the first time is the accessibility panel with full voice over. You may not need to use this, and if so thank God for that. The rest of the interface is so hyper efficient and effective it doesn't even feel like a video game team designed it. The intro tutorial is another amazing example of game to player communication that I have not seen matched. Noone is going to talk about it because so many of us have been playing RTS and video games all our lives, but Age 4 does such a great job that I hope it brings in more people who have never dared to open an RTS before. Also, THANK YOU to the team for having menus and font that properly scale to super high resolutions and look fantastic. The single player experience is one that I didn't think I would even touch...Age 2DE put some work into the new campaigns but it's just not my thing. However I really did enjoy several of the single player missions with its history channel style narration and the video footage before it. This is the kind of thing that could be really boring or cheesy but I felt it was well integrated and the pacing tied in very well. I was expecting this game to be a money grabbing reboot with a 3D skin but I was oh so wrong and I have never been happier to be wrong. This is the best example I have ever seen in any media category of what a reboot should look like. It is faithful to the original, without holding onto the weeds. I have been playing Age II since its release with no other RTS being able to keep me away for long, but this one is finally the one to succeed the throne.