As a Greek, I embody might and power. From high above I command a small empire with careful planning and tactical precision. We continually research new technologies and citizens work ‘round the clock for our cultural prosperity. Our capital city, Nerdemic, stands firm along the coastal region where the fish remain bountiful and our warships safeguard the waters from adversaries. I can hear the shuffling sounds of people at market, mumbles of their chatter, clanking of construction, and sounds of the Earth around me. Hail the Age of Empires.
I’ve always had a strong affinity towards the series ever since I played the 1997 original on a laptop my mother used for work. The computer sported one of those brilliantly designed mouse knobs in the middle of the keyboard – yes, one of those. When Bitmob offered me a chance to partake in the next release to dawn one of gaming history’s greatest suites I jumped at the opportunity. Age of Empires Online is an upcoming free-to-play real-time strategy title for Windows PC. Developer Gas Powered Games, creators of Supreme Commander, have taken lead on the project from Robot Entertainment, which comprised of employees who started the original Empires procession. After downloading the beta from the Games for Windows Live Marketplace service and installing all the required updates, I logged on for my first taste of modernized nostalgia. It’s unfortunate both for Mac users and the developers that the game won’t deliver on the OSX platform; it would fit right in with the desktop App Store.
The only nation available was the Greeks; while the Egyptians had a selectable slot it was tagged as offline. An additional slot for a “Coming Soon” civilization will, hopefully, release on launch day sometime in 2011. I named my capital city and hit play. Upon entering the online realm I caught the first glance of my glorious capital city of Nerdemic, which acts as a persistent, static area that will always be there for you; think of it as your virtual home. While Empires Online includes Player vs. Player battles your capital city is untouchable, but others can visit and trade or purchase items from it.
I spotted a man with a white beard, walking staff, and hovering above him a large yellow exclamation mark. This man, who deemed himself my Village Elder, advised me through a quest interface that a nearby outpost had come under attack from a group of raiding clubmen. The pop-up box provided all the pertinent information regarding the quest’s objective, completion requirements, and rewards. He instructed me to venture out and defend the outpost to show the citizens of Greece that they can settle new lands.
After accepting, the Elder prompted me to open the world map where you can see all the locations of open quests and can easily warp to their locations. I clicked on the outpost and loaded the scenario. Empires Online handles quests in self-contained “instanced” areas that you may complete either by yourself or cooperatively with friends. Each of these instanced missions has their own circumstances and arrangements for battle and success; think of them as bite-sized versions of the original series.
Loading areas took little time. The minimum graphics have not have detailed yet, however I’m running on a GeForce GTX 275, AMD Phenom II 3.2 GHz processor, and four GB of RAM; the wait time seemed almost nonexistent.
I arrived at the zone with a small squad of blue spearmen to command, which I used to eliminate eight red clubmen and secure two treasure chests. Players familiar with the real-time strategy genre will understand Empires Online; you select units with clicks or drags from the Left Mouse button and issue individual orders or may select multiple as a group. You can also assign number keys (1,2,3, etc) to act as selection hotkeys to your essential units for quick access. Right-Clicking an area with units selected will issue the command for them to move to that location, while doing so on an opponent will charge your men into battle.
My blue spearmen squad moved into the occupied outpost and proceeded to knock out any red enemies attacking the buildings, which freed up the terrified Greek citizens hiding in the town square. Return to work, my good people, we rid you of the evil clubmen!
Jumping ahead to a time when I had more advanced infantry, I certainly enjoyed watching my hordes of military might completely raze enemy settlements to the ground. Take your soldiers into an adversary’s village and they will obliterate any aspect of their Earthly existence in the surrounding area. It’s truly delightful to witness.
After cleansing the lands I searched the surrounding forest for treasure. Exploring dark and unfamiliar regions provides a simple, yet exciting, joy. Any of your buildings or units emits a circular point of light that unveils the world; the more explored, the more revealed. During my inspection I came across a small campfire with a red clubman guarding a glowing chest; I pulverized the poor sap and snatched my reward. This is when the tutorial introduced me to the inventory system, which allots you an initial backpack with 16 slots for collectable items. You can purchase additional slots for your reserve by constructing more storage buildings in your capital city. Loot ranges from resources to use on quests, to bonuses that you can equip on units, to blueprints for new structures. It also follows a color-scheme to identity worth: green items being the most common, while purple items sold in general chat for hefty amounts.
Speaking of chatting, the current online population during the beta was a mix of interested fans and annoying, cliché jerks – this is a persistent online adventure, after all. Sometimes the general chat channel floods with spam messages from players trying to get a rise out of others through sheer annoyance. Simply ignoring their gamertag will shield you from their insufferable chat, but it’s still prevalent enough to note. I can only hope upon release that the whiners and spammers will grow bored enough to quit and leave the realm open to friendly people to play in.
I returned to the grand domain of Nerdemic victorious. The Village Elder informed me that my people will not forget I came to their rescue and bestowed me with gold coin, the ability to create worker units in future quests, and experience points. Experience plays a large role in Empires Online. Battling enemies and completing quests grants experience that levels your civilization to new heights. Each new level gives points to spend in your capital’s technology tree, which allows you to upgrade units, worker production rate, and more. As I continued on my rise to glory, missions became gradually more complex and thorough – so choose how to spend tech points wisely. I allocated points into resource gathering, as quests became increasing difficult and required substantial funding.
Quest success depends heavily on resource collection and management. You need to collect various elements to build certain units and buildings that require them. For example, a house to increase your current quest’s population capacity costs 200 wood. So if you need more warriors you must build additional houses; to build more houses you tell your workers to chop some trees! While resource consideration doesn’t compare to the level of complexity in a Sid Meier’s Civilization, it’s still enough to satisfy your quench for production without annoying you.
Age of Empires Online personifies beauty with its strikingly stylized art direction. Characters have an over-exaggerated look that adds a sense of charm to the visuals; military units are large beefy characters that show their physical prowess, while general workers exemplify lanky and slender body types. The colors of the world pop from vibrant hues of grass greens, watery blues, white buildings with red roofs for the Greek cultural appeal, and more.
To compliment the wonderful art direction the developers have injected the game with a whimsical score. Fans of the Empires series will feel right at home here. Additionally, the sound effects generate a sense of livelihood and worldly appeal. The chopping of axes to trees, trots of horses on the Earth, and the sounds of battle all cement yourself into this meticulously well-crafted experience.
While I fully enjoyed my time with Age of Empires Online, the beta isn’t without bugs. I didn’t care for some of the default key shortcuts so I decided to change them, which should take just a few clicks. Unfortunately, mapping the camera control keys to the mouse prompted the camera to spin on its own accord. When I defaulted back to the original, Ctrl+arrow keys, it still reacted to my Mouse 4 and 5 buttons. I’m won’t generate a laundry list here, as I’ve already submitted my bug reports, but I hope it receives due polish before release.
Empires Online offers a free-to-play subscription model that, at its core, offers more than expected from a F2P experience. Premium content requires a cash investment, however the developers have previously stated they will take a more thoughtful approach to the offerings. Microsoft Game Studio’s General Manager Dave Luehmann told Joystiq, “it’s not a nickel and dimey microtransaction thing.” Designer Jerome K. Jones adds, “So it would be like paying for an expansion pack. … You won’t buy one thing at a time. You might buy an entire civ or another region with a bunch of quests in it.”
Hopefully Gas Powered Games and Microsoft stick to their words and resist the urge to release a product that tries to constantly suck money from your wallet. While many companies have found success with the free-to-play model, others doomed themselves by alienating their fan base through trite and bitter microtransactions. Age of Empires Online could provide a fruitful endeavor for those who wish to play. The streamlined gameplay mechanics do differ from the rest of the series, however not so much as to subdue the flavor of the brand name. With a different approach to the free-to-play model, AoEO could very well set a precedent by which other RTS developers follow. Sid Meier’s Civilization is already making its way to Facebook – can we expect a Command and Conquer Online next?