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While fans were generally happy at the idea of playing another chapter in the glorious history of Age of Empires, there are still several areas of the game that could use some work. Age of Empires 4is far from a perfect game, and some of its biggest flaws have annoyed hardcore fans to no end. Here are ten fixes this game needs to become the quintessential Age of Empires experience.
7 Higher Difficulty
While there’s no denying the fact that Age of Empires 4 is a challenging game, RTS veterans will breeze through the difficulty modes. Even the highest difficulty can be managed as long as players maintain a steady stream of resources and military units.
With a higher difficulty setting, veterans can finally be pushed to the brink by a terrifying and aggressive AI. Trying to manage waves of enemy assaults while also generating enough resources is a challenging task that most veterans would relish.
6 More Variety When It Comes To Offensive Units
There are a decent number of units that players can experiment around with in Age of Empires 4. However, after a point, players might get tired of generating the same units over and over again.
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This is where a lack of variety really hurts the military warfare of Age of Empires. It would be more engaging if players could create a whole host of powerful and tactical units that could be used for a wide variety of offensive and defensive situations.
5 The Ability To Turn Buildings Around
It might be a small inclusion, but players who wanted their settlement to look as aesthetic as possible absolutely loved the feature in Age of Empires 3 where they could finally rotate their buildings. So, it’s a shame that the same feature isn’t available in Age of Empires 4.
It’s a huge missed opportunity that would irritate certain players who wanted their settlements to be absolutely perfect. Most people consider this to be a minor gripe, but the needless omission of this unique feature is still quite questionable and should be fixed in a later patch.
4 Better Graphics
The biggest issue that most people had after Age of Empires 4’s reveal was how drab and uninteresting the visuals of the game were. While most veterans of the series consider graphics to be secondary to gameplay, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the game missed a huge opportunity when it came to increasing the quality and cleaning up the visuals of this game.
The game doesn’t look like a 2021 release by any angle, and an updated texture pack or anything else along the same lines would be a huge boon for players who want their modern titles to be as visually pleasing as possible. Thankfully, the tight gameplay of Age of Empires makes up for this minor issue.
3 More Detailed Animations
Another problem stemming from the visual problems of Age of Empires 4 comes from the lackluster animations. Aside from the graphical overhaul, the animations of this game look almost similar to its previous counterparts, with little to no improvements coming on this front.
In an RTS game, good animations can make everything from resource gathering to large-scale battles feel all the more alive and interesting. While Age of Empires 4 might not be completely soulless, its animations could still use some serious work.
2 More Campaigns
There’s no denying the fact that Age of Empires 4 has enough missions to satiate most RTS gamers. The four campaigns are simple yet engrossing, with the documentary-style narration being surprisingly riveting and a great way to set the stage for a mission.
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However, most players feel that the campaign’s content is exhausted just when it starts to get going. It’s possible that Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has spoiled certain players, given the massive amount of single-player content in this game.
1 Establishing Its Own Identity Instead Of Trying To Be A Modern Age Of Empires 2
While Age of Empires 4 certainly went on the safe road by trying to make its gameplay reminiscent of what’s present in Age of Empires 2, there are a few drawbacks to this approach. Perhaps the biggest complaint most players will have here is that the game doesn’t really try taking any major risks.
It’s a shame since the game should’ve definitely tried establishing a unique yet familiar identity of its own. Instead, Age of Empires 4 feels like a modern reskin of Age of Empires 2 at times, and that’s not necessarily a compliment.
Age of Empires 4 was released on August 5, 2021, and is available on PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
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