Relic announces new Age of Empires content

Fyra Frost - Apr 12, 2021, 12:00

Age of Empires is a cult real-time strategy series that has served as an introduction to the genre for countless players over the years. Controlling an empire and making it grow through the ages as you gather resources and raise an army to obliterate your opponents is just the basic premise of the series. Each of the games in the series focuses on a certain period of history and allows you to play as different cultures, each of them with their own units. The first Age of Empires was released in 1997 and quite a few games and expansion followed it. The series has recently experienced a resurgence thanks to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, a couple of remastered versions of the original games that include revamped 4k Ultra HD graphics, new campaigns, and civilizations. Both titles offer endless hours of gameplay in battles against the AI and other players but they are getting even more content very soon.

Microsoft has announced a free update for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. It will add the United States civilization, which will bring a new explorer, exclusive units, and new mechanics. To unlock it for free you will have to complete a 50 State Challenge that requires you to finish certain daily challenges for a limited time. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will also see the addition of African civilizations in a future update. But Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition has not been forgotten, there is additional content coming for it this summer in the form of new campaigns that will focus on Eastern Europe.

This announcement served as a prelude to a bigger one that followed it. The gameplay of Age of Empires 4 has been shown for the first time. The new installment in the series will be available next fall on PC and a few lucky ones will get the chance of trying it ahead of the release in a closed beta. It will feature naval battles, four different campaigns, stealth mechanics, and many more novelties that we will be able to discover in more detail in the upcoming months.