Age of Empires

Age of Empires is a 1997 real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Releasing at a time when the RTS genre was dominated by the sci-fi and high-fantasy settings of StarCraft and Warcraft, Age of Empires did something completely revolutionary: it grounded the genre in actual human history. Often famously pitched as “Civilization meets Warcraft,” it became a massive commercial success and launched one of the most enduring and beloved franchises in PC gaming history.

The premise tasks the player with acting as the guiding spirit of an ancient civilization. Spanning 10,000 years of human history, you begin as a small tribe of hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age and must guide your people through millennia of technological advancement, ultimately forging a massive, heavily armored empire in the Iron Age.

Gameplay

Age of Empires codified many of the mechanics that are now considered absolute standard for the historical RTS genre, blending deep economic macro-management with rock-paper-scissors military combat.

Key gameplay mechanics include:

• The Four Ages: The defining mechanic of the franchise. Players start in the Stone Age and must stockpile specific resources to advance through the Tool Age, the Bronze Age, and finally the Iron Age. Advancing to a new age immediately unlocks new buildings, more powerful military units, and advanced technologies.
• The Four Resources: To build your empire, you must constantly manage your villagers to gather four distinct resources: Food (harvested from berry bushes, hunting, fishing, or farming), Wood (chopped from forests), Gold (mined from deposits or earned via trade), and Stone (mined for fortifications and towers).
• 12 Ancient Civilizations: The game features 12 playable historical factions (including the Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, and Yamato), divided into four distinct architectural styles. While they share a core tech tree, each civilization has unique passive bonuses, unit caps, and missing technologies that heavily dictate their playstyle.
• Multiple Victory Conditions: You don’t always have to wipe the enemy off the map. Players can win through standard military Conquest, by exploring the map and holding sacred Ruins/Artifacts for a set amount of time, or by achieving a Wonder victory—spending a massive amount of resources to build an architectural marvel (like the Pyramids) and defending it from enemy attacks until a timer expires.
• Priests and Conversion: Instead of purely relying on brute force, players can train Priests, who chant the legendary “Wololo” battle cry to magically convert enemy units to their own side, as well as heal allied troops.

Development and Legacy

Ensemble Studios was founded by Tony Goodman, but the development of Age of Empires was heavily spearheaded by Bruce Shelley, a legendary designer who had previously worked right alongside Sid Meier on the original Civilization. Shelley’s influence was heavily felt; he wanted to take the historical depth and educational appeal of Civilization and translate it into a fast-paced, real-time environment.

Upon its release in October 1997, Age of Empires was a smash hit. Reviewers praised its gorgeous, highly detailed 2D sprite art, the sheer scale of the maps, and the educational value of its historical campaigns (which covered the rise of Egypt, Greece, Babylon, and Yamato Japan).

In late 1998, Ensemble released a massive expansion pack titled Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, which added Roman architectural styles, four new civilizations (Rome, Carthage, Palmyra, and Macedon), and highly requested gameplay tweaks, such as the ability to double-click a unit to select all units of that type on the screen.

The game’s staggering success established Ensemble Studios as a titan of the genre, directly leading to the legendary sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999), which perfected the formula. To celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary, Microsoft completely remastered the original game in 2018 as Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, featuring fully redrawn 4K graphics, an orchestrated soundtrack, and modern quality-of-life UI improvements.

Key Features:

• Historical RTS Pioneering — Experience the game that successfully bridged the gap between methodical historical city-builders and fast-paced real-time combat.
• Age Progression — Evolve your civilization from club-wielding cavemen to a sophisticated Iron Age military powerhouse.
• 12 Distinct Factions — Command legendary ancient empires, from the chariot-riding Egyptians to the heavily armored hoplites of Greece.
• The Resource Economy — Master a delicate, four-resource economic loop that forces you to constantly expand your borders to feed your war machine.
• Definitive Edition — Play the beautifully modernized 2018 remaster, featuring 4K visuals, fully integrated Rise of Rome expansion content, and modernized controls.

Release Platforms:

• Microsoft Windows (PC) — October 15, 1997
• Mac OS — 1999
• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (PC) — February 20, 2018 (Currently available via Steam and the Xbox PC App)