Age of Empires (Series)
Platforms: Mac, PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Open World and Strategy
Released: February 1998, updated in 2019. Added to this library 3 months ago, last updated 11 weeks ago.
Overview
Age of Empires is a strategy game where you command an ancient civilisation in real-time and must develop from hunter-gatherers to advanced forms of defence and war. This is similar territory to Civilization but focus on resource management and direct warfare rather than politics and religion and is played in real-time.
It initially focuses on events in Europe, Africa and Asia, from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. Subsequent games in the series took players to the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Europe's colonizing of the Americas.
To play, you click on buildings, people and items in the world to direct your population. You must collect resources, build camps and buildings and develop armies to survive. Mining, fishing and farming play a vital role. The combination of real history, with knife-edge strategic gameplay, has seen the series sell over million copies. The main releases are as follows:
- Age of Empires (1997)
- Age of Empires II (1999)
- Age of Empires III (2005)
- Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (2006)
- Age of Empires Online (2011)
- Age of Empires II: HD Edition (2013)
- Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (2018)
- Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (2019)
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (2020)
For families, the earlier games are a great introduction to strategy games. You can take them at your own pace to some extent as well as play together online. Their age also means that they are simpler and easier to understand than more modern strategy games.
Tip
This game is good if you want to learn something playing a properly great game or play your first video game.
Commitment
Players: You can play this with 8 players online. You can play with 100 people in Age of Empire Online, but the main Definitive Edition of the game is played with battles of up to 8 people each commanding a competing civilisation.
Costs
You will need Xbox Live Gold to play online with Xbox One.
This game is free with Xbox Game Pass.
Ratings
This game has been rated ESRB TEEN.
Users Interact: The game enables players to interact and communicate with each other, so may expose players to language usually associated with older rated games.
Accessibility
System settings: Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators. Xbox One has a wide range of system features including some that can be used on all games, like the excellent co-pilot mode... read more.
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Age of Empires is in These Lists
In addition to the similar games listed above, which have been linked to this game specifically in the database, you may find games with a similar theme to Age of Empires in the following lists:
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Your First Video Game
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Free With Xbox Game Pass
You cannot play games you install when your Xbox Game Pass expires, although you do keep any games you have purchased at a discount with your membership. You will need to purchase any in-game extra content in addition to the subscription, although some games include this content for free.
- Xbox Game Pass £7.99/month
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate including Xbox Live Gold for online play £10.99/month
- Xbox Game Pass PC £7.99/month
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