I'm one of the biggest AoE2 fans out there-- it's my favorite game of all time and I've played <i>thousands</i> of games of it. I also loved the original AoE and the related Age of Mythology.<p>In spite of that, I feel this is nothing to be excited about.<p>Age of Empires 1 & 2 were special because they were designed by a special team at a company called Ensemble Studios, which was bought by Microsoft and sadly shut down in 2009. None of that team remain with Microsoft.<p>AoE4 is being developed by Relic, a company with no track record to speak of.* It has <i>nothing</i> in common with the game many of us know and love other than the title. It is <i>extremely</i> unlikely to have the depth, nuance, replayability, and well-thought out design that made the original franchise a hit.<p>In place of those things, it's likely to have shockingly poor multiplayer integration through the Windows store as Microsoft inevitably rejects Steam integration, and god knows what other modern problems like microtransactions.<p>Frankly I feel there's very little to be hyped about here.<p>And god do I ever hope I'm wrong.<p>*They made some decent games 15 years ago. How many of those designers and developers are still with the company now? How many will be working on AoE4? And were their best games good enough that they're still so beloved that they merit re-releases, new expansions, and definitive editions 20 years later? I don't think so...
Relic just recently screwed up DoW3, CoH2 has become micro-transaction hell even in multi-player against bots, so I wouldn't expect much.<p>I've always played these RTSes with friends against bots, and Relic have basically been at war with our play-style for a decade. First they said the RTS was dead, then dispatched with base-building and then added in terrain heights that are impossible to discern from a top-down view. Now they have made the DoW series into some sort of bad DotA/RTS hybrid, removing cover and morale, that's got terrible reviews.<p>Prepare for your fond memories of AoE to be trampled over.
As a long time fan of the AoE who thought that the series was dead, this news is rejuvenating. I've found the chess-like gameplay of turn based strategy games to be frustrating, and there are hardly any new games being made in the RTS genre anymore.
As a life-long fan of this series I have extremely high hopes and expectations for this game. I really hope they deliver.<p>I remember some of my first "hacking" was running chat bots in the MSN gaming zone lobby for AoEII.