Age of Empires (Game Series)

Games of the series cover historical events of various periods. Age of Empires affects the time period between the Stone Age and the classical period in Europe and Asia. Supplement The Rise of Rome tells the story of the formation of the Roman Empire . The Age of Kings tells about the medieval history of Europe and Asia. The addition for the second part, The Conquerors - takes place in the same time period, but includes new scenarios for the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica , as well as the stories of El Cid and Attila . Age of Empires III , like its first expansion, Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs , is already fully focused on the European colonization of America . The second expansion, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, focuses on events taking place during the same period in Asia.

In Age of Empires Online, emphasis is placed on Greek and Egyptian civilizations.

The events of the spin-off series, Age of Mythology , as well as its additions, The Titans , take place in the Bronze Age , but are more based on mythology than history.

Age of Empires

Age of Empires , released on October 26, 1997, ^[3] was the first game in the series, as well as the first major Ensemble Studios project. ^[4] She was one of the first real-time historical strategies ^[5] and worked on the Genie Engine game engine. GameSpot described it as "a mixture of Civilization and Warcraft ." ^[6] The game provided the player with a choice of one of 12 civilizations, which he had to spend from the Stone to the Iron Age. The Rise of Rome add-on, released by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, brought new gaming features and added four new civilizations, including the Romans . Despite the fact that at first in both games there were many software bugs , most of the problems were resolved by the subsequent patches . ^{[7] [8]}

Age of Empires was generally well received, despite some extremely negative reviews. GameSpot criticized the intricate design, and Computer and Video Games magazine praised the single-player and multi-player component of the game. ^[9]

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences called Age of Empires "Strategy of the Year" for 1998. ^[10] The game showed good sales for several years in a row and by 2000 had been sold in a circulation of three million copies. The Rise of Rome managed to disperse in a million copies over the course of 2000 ^[11] and received an 80% approval rating according to GameRankings aggregator. ^[12]

Age of Empires II

The release of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings took place on September 30, 1999. The game worked on an improved version of the Genie Engine and had a similar gameplay with the first part. ^[13] The events of Age of Kings occur between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance . This time the player was given a choice of 13 civilizations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. ^[14] On August 24, 2000, Microsoft released The Conquerors add-on for the game: new units and five new civilizations were added, including two Mesoamerican ones , the Aztecs and Mayans . ^[15] The Age of Kings was even more successful than the first part, with a 92% rating on Game Rankings and Metacritic . ^{[16] [17]} Microsoft has shipped more than two million copies to stores - the game has received praise and has received many awards. ^[18]

In April 2013, Steam of Digital Distribution released Age of Empires II: HD Edition , an updated version of the game that included the original game and The Conquerors add-on. The main innovation of the HD Edition concerned support for higher screen resolutions - the game engine itself was slightly updated.

Age of Empires III

The release of Age of Empires III took place on October 18, 2005. The game was released on an improved version of the Age of Mythology engine - among the significant changes, an improved graphics engine and the inclusion of Havok Physics software, which is responsible for processing physics, should be noted in its composition. ^{[19] [20]} Game events develop in the period from 1421 to 1850 ; the player is given a choice of eight European powers. In addition to other innovations, metropolises were added in this section - cities used as “native harbors” that help the player to develop, periodically supplying resources, equipment, troops and improved technologies. Ensemble Studios described the metropolis as "an important aid in the efforts to conquer the New World." Overview of the metropolis is available outside of the game parties; after each battle they can be improved and “pumped”, which resembles a system for improving characters in role-playing games . ^[21]

The first addition for Age of Empires III - The WarChiefs - was released on October 17, 2006. The gameplay has not undergone significant changes, but 3 new game civilizations of the American Indians have been added. ^[22] Noteworthy was the introduction of the “War Leader” as a game unit for these civilizations. ^[23] The second addition, The Asian Dynasties , went on sale on October 23, 2007. This was a joint development of Ensemble Studios and Big Huge Games : Brian Reynolds joined Bruce Shelley as lead designer. ^[24] The game expanded the scene to the Asian region and introduced three new civilizations. ^[25]

Age of Empires IV

On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced Age of Empires IV , announcing that Relic Entertainment would be involved in the development ^[26] . On June 11, 2019, the head of the gaming division of Microsoft, Phil Spencer, confirmed that Age of Empires IV was still under development, and promised to provide more details about the game in the second half of 2019 ^[27] .

Age of Mythology

Age of Mythology shares many elements of the gameplay with the main series and is often considered part of it, despite a slightly different approach. ^{[28] [29]} The Age of Mythology campaign is built around the Atlantean Arkantos, trying to find out why his homeland lost the favor of Poseidon . ^[30] The game was released on October 30, 2002, and a year later, on October 21, 2003, Microsoft released The Titans for it. In this supplement, the ability to play for the civilization of the Atlanteans was added. ^[31] The Titans campaign tells of the adventures of Castor, the son of Arkantos, who succumbs to the trick of the titans and frees them from Tartarus . In four months, more than one million copies of Age of Mythology have been sold ^[32] , with a 89% rating on Game Rankings and Metacritic. ^{[33] [34]} The Titans failed to replicate the success of the original game, although critics praised it. ^{[35] [36]}

Game Remakes

Historical Elements

The development stages of all Age of Empires games were similar in many aspects. Since the games were based on historical events, the development team often had to conduct large volumes of research on historical materials. However, the depth of this research was not high - according to the designer of Age of Empires Bruce Shelley , it was “acceptable for most entertainment products” ^[37] Shelley added that Ensemble Studios often referred to materials from children's sections of libraries . He explained that the goal of the game was to entertain the players, and not "designers or researchers." ^[37] At the Games Convention Developers Conference in 2007, Shelley continued his thought, explaining the success of the series by saying that their games "appeal to both casual and hardcore players." ^[38] Shelley also noted that the Age of Empires games are in principle not about history as such, but about “human experience” - they focus not only on what humanity has done in the past, but also on what it could do in the future, for example, "go to space." ^[38] When creating Age of Mythology, the developers at Ensemble Studios took a different path from the first two games. The team was worried that they would have to develop a third historical game in a row, so after discussing several options, they chose mythology as a game setting. ^[39]

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI), used in the games of the Age of Empires series, was constantly being developed and improved by designers. As AI specialist Dave Pottinger noted, the development team took AI out of the original game and took over a year to work on it. He said that in order to win, the game AI relies on tactics and strategy, and not on “scam” like bonus resources or reinforced units that would be more powerful than ordinary ones. ^[2] Later, Pottinger added that the Age of Empires series team is very proud that their AI is playing a fair game. ^[40]

In Age of Empires II: The Conquerors , the “smart peasant” feature was first introduced, which was used in all subsequent games in the series. Its essence lies in the fact that the peasants automatically begin collecting nearby resources after the construction of the building corresponding to the stored resource. ^[41]

In Age of Mythology: The Titans, players are provided with an AI debugger to create their own scenarios: players can customize computer players to behave according to specific patterns of behavior. ^[42] Previously, more basic AI editing capabilities were in the first two games of the series. ^[43]

Graphics

Each successful release in the Age of Empires series brought with it improved graphics and visual effects. The improvement in graphics in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings compared to the original game was warmly received by critics. ^{[44] [45] [46]} With the release of Age of Mythology, approval only increased ^{[44] [47] [48] [49]} , and the fourth release, Age of Empires III , gathered even more enthusiastic responses. ^{[50] [51] [52]}

GameSpot noted an improvement in graphics in the second game - Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings . ^[44] Eurogamer welcomed the introduction of female peasants, while in the first part only male peasants were present. ^[53] Allgame also praised Part Two for advanced unit building modes and an improved path finding system. Despite the improved graphics, Allgame criticized similar units, which are difficult to distinguish ^[45] , which many publications agreed to. ^{[44] [54]} Despite this, Game Revolution wrote that the second part has "the best graphics among all the 2D strategies that are currently out." ^[46]

The graphic component continued its development in Age of Mythology , collecting flattering reviews from most observers. IGN responded so much about the graphics: "eye pleasure ... awesome." ^[47] GameSpot agreed, rating the graphics at 9 out of 10. ^[44] Game Revolution also agreed with this opinion, and PC Gamer wrote that the graphics in the third release are “strewn with details.” ^[49]

To the delight of reviewers, the trend for improving graphics continued successfully in the next release, Age of Empires III . IGN wrote: "after viewing the screenshots, our jaws dropped to the floor from the abundance of details." ^[50] 1UP.com described Age of Empires III as “one of the most beautiful games you will install on your computer for the foreseeable future.” ^[51] GameSpy agreed with them, noting that " Age III graphics have no rivals in the strategy genre." ^[52] Compared to the Age of Mythology , on the basis of which it was created, Age of Empires III has a number of innovations, including the Havok physics engine , which has won many awards ^[55] (in the version for Mac OS X - PhysX ). He allowed to get rid of the pre-recorded animation, instead of which the physics of events were calculated in real time during the game. This allowed a believable animation of events such as the destruction of buildings or the fall of trees. GameSpot also impressed with the graphics of the fourth game, but complained about the "clumsy behavior of units." Other graphical innovations include the bloom effect and pixel shaders version 3.0. ^[56] GameSpy awarded Age of Empires III the 2005 Best Graphics Award. ^[57]

Music

The music director of the series, starting with the very first game, was Stephen Rippy. From time to time, his brother David Rippy, as well as Kevin McMallan, assisted him. ^[58] He wrote original music for Age of Empires , using instruments from different eras that were featured in the game. In this case, both real instruments and digital samples were used . The resulting melodies were the result of a deep analysis of cultures and a long selection of style and instruments. ^[59] According to Rippy, the development of sound for The Age of Kings was easier for him, since he had a clear idea of ​​the instruments that were used in the Middle Ages, so it was easy to reproduce them when creating the soundtrack. ^[60] In turn, Age of Mythology used already orchestral instrumental music. According to McMullan, the team also recorded a large amount of audio material in zoos , which allowed them to create their own library of sounds. ^{[61] The} music in Age of Empires III was similar to the music from The Age of Kings — it used even more historical instruments. Rippy noted that the team used instruments such as bagpipes and field drums to give the music a realistic sound. ^[58]

Collaboration

Ensemble Studios collaborated with Big Huge Games to develop The Asian Dynasties , the second expansion pack for Age of Empires III . This was the first collaborative development experience for both teams. Collaboration was driven by matching schedules: Ensemble Studios was busy working on Halo Wars , while Big Huge Games, real-time strategy developers, had few projects at that time. Big Huge Games did most of the work, but designers at Ensemble Studios Greg Street and Sandy Petersen participated in a brainstorming session and controlled the final product. ^[62] Both teams participated in testing the game before its release. ^[63]

The Age of Empires series was a commercial success. As of 2008, each of the five games in the series sold over a million copies. According to Gamasutra , more than three million copies of Age of Empires and one million copies of The Rise of Rome were sold by 2000. Microsoft said more than two million copies of The Age of Kings were shipped to stores after a similar period of time since the release. In 2003, Microsoft announced one million copies of Age of Mythology sold. By 2004, shortly before the release of Age of Empires III , the games in the series had sold over 15 million copies. On May 18, 2007, Ensemble Studios announced two million copies of Age of Empires III sold. The games in the series scored consistently high on GameRankings and Metacritic review aggregators . As you can see from the table, the highest score - 92% - has the game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings . ^{[16] [17]}

Critics have noted the contribution Age of Empires made to the real-time strategy (RTS) genre by influencing games like Rise of Nations , Empire Earth, and Cossacks . ^{[64] [65]} Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds was also inspired by the series - it uses the Genie engine on which Age of Empires and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings are based , so many critics even call it their clone; for example, an IGN review begins with the words “I love Age of Star Wars , I mean Star Empires . It doesn’t matter what it is called, I like it "" ^[66] , and GameSpot noted that "the fundamental foundations of the Age of Empires II engine remained intact, so game veterans can immediately immerse themselves in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds ." In October 2005, Shelley commented on the legacy of the series in an interview with GameSpy : “parents write to Ensemble Studios that their children read books about Ancient Greece because they liked playing with triremes so much, or that they want to look into books on the history of the Middle Ages because the game showed them what it would require . ” ^[68]

According to Shelley, a key success factor was that they relied on innovation, instead of simply imitating competitors. Unique gameplay elements have helped Ensemble Studios build a reputation as a master of the RTS genre. ^[69] Mark Bozon of IGN wrote in his review of The Age of Kings : " Age of Empires games are some of the most innovative PC strategies in the last decade." ^[70] Gamenikki called Ensemble Studios "the developer that started it all" while talking about Age of Empires III 's contribution to the genre. ^[71] Shelley also noted that thanks to the success and innovations implemented at Age of Empires Ensemble Studios managed to establish itself and survive the early stages after the founding of the studio. ^[72] In 2005, Shelley lamented that critics had a “biased attitude about the series due to the expectation of innovation,” commenting on the 60% rating that Computer Gaming World put to Age of Empires III . He added that while “perhaps the game is the best-selling PC game in the world,” critics expected to see something truly new that affected their tough assessment. ^[73]

• История создания Age of Empires: «Это была лучшая из худших среди наших идей»