About
Age of Empires is a historical real time strategy video game series originally developed by Ensemble Studios. The series centers around the player creating an empire of a chosen civilization and defeating other players by various means either through conquest, economic superiority, wonder construction, etc.
History
Main Series
On October 26th, 1997, Age of Empires was released for the PC. Being one of the first historical real time strategy game, Age of Empires gives players the option to control one of 12 civilizations that spans from the stone age to the iron age. The game’s expansion, The Rise of Rome, was released On October 31st, 1998. The expansion adds new features and 4 new civilizations, including the Romans.
On September 30th, 1999, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings was released for the PC. The game focuses around the middle ages with 13 playable civilizations. The game’s first expansion titled The Conquerors, was released on August 24th, 2000. The expansion adds new units, refined game mechanics, and 5 new civilizations.
On October 18th, 2005, Age of Empires III was released for the PC. The game centers around the age of exploration and colonialism with 8 playable European civilizations. On October 17th, 2006, the first expansion to Age of Empires III, titled The War Chiefs, was released. The expansion adds 3 new native american civilizations. On October 23rd, 2007, the game’s third expansion titled The Asian Dynasties, was released. The expansion introduces 3 new Asian civilizations to the game.
On April 9th, 2013, Age of Empires II: HD Edition was released digitally on steam. The game was developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and was spear headed by Matt Pritchard, the original lead programmer by the now defunct Ensemble Studios.The game contains both the original Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion with improved graphics, compatibility for newer systems, mod workshop support, widescreen support and 3D rendering water. On November 7th, 2013, the second expansion in the series titled The Forgotten was released on steam. The expansion adds 5 new civilizations and 2 new game modes.
On April 9th, 2015, Ryan Chaply, the producer of Age of Empires II HD, announced an upcoming third expansion to the game which is being developed by Forgotten Empires, the same team that previously worked on The Forgotten Expansion.[1] The announcement was covered by a number of gaming news site such as Gamespot,[2] Polygon,[3] Destructoid,[4] and PC Gamer.[5]
On June 20th, 2015, Forgotten Empires announced on their website that the upcoming expansion is titled The African Kingdoms. The game will feature new African civilizations including the Malians and the Berbers. The game is currently scheduled to be released later in 2015.[6]
Spin-offs
Age of Mythology is a mythology based real time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios which was released for the PC on October 30th, 2002. The game takes the basic formula of Age of Empires and features the Greeks, Norse, and Egyptians as playable civilizations with mythology based gameplay. The game’s expansion titled The Titans was released on September 30th, 2003. The expansion features the Atlanteans as a new playable civilization and new features such as the ability to summon Titans in the game.
Age of Empires: The Age of Kings is a turn based strategy spin-off game developed Backbone Entertainment and published by Majesco for the Nintendo DS. The game features the Britons, Franks, Saracens, Mongols, and Japanese as playable civilizations. The game was released on November 14th, 2006. Age of Empires: Mythology is the second turn based strategy spin-off game which is developed by Griptonite Games and published by THQ for the Nintendo DS. The game takes the same system from its predecessor and replaces the historical civilizations with the three mythological civilizations featured in Age of Mythology. The game was released on November 24th, 2008.
On August 16th, 2011, Age of Empires Online was released for the PC on Games for Windows Live. The game was developed by Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games. The game ran on a free to play model with micro transactions in the form of buying premium content. The game’s servers ran from August 16th, 2011, to July 1st, 2014. On September 17th, 2014, Age of Empires: Castle Siege was released as a Windows app for the Windows 8.1 and the Windows Phone. The game was developed Smoking Gun Interactive. The game followed a free to play model that focuses in a tower defense gameplay with micro transactions to aid in developing the castle and to improve its defenses. The game was later released for the iOS on May 20th, 2015.
Reception
As of July, 2015, Age of Empires holds a metacritic score of 83.[7] Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings holds a score of 92[8] with The Conqueror Expansion holding a score of 88[9] and the HD edition holding a score of 68.[10] Age of Empires III holds a score of 81[11] with The War Chiefs expansion holding a score of 80[12] and The Asian Dynasties expansion holding a score of 81.[13] Age of Empires is often considered to be the series that pioneered the Real Time Strategy genre in Video Games, inspiring other titles such as Empire Earth, Rise of Nations, and Halo Wars.
Online Presence
Since its release, the game has gathered an online following with sites dedicated to each of the games that dates back as early as 1997 with Age of Empires Heaven.[14][15][16][17] On April 19th, 2006, Urban Dictionary user Aliii submitted an entry regarding the series.[18] The official Age of Empires Facebook page has gathered over 784.000 likes as of July, 2015[19] while the official Age of Empires Twitter page has gathered over 16.100 followers as of July, 2015. Age of Empires has a number of subreddits dedicated to each game in the series with the most popular one, the Age of Empires II subreddit, having over 13.600 readers as of July, 2015.[26]
Mods
The series has inspired a number of user created modifications for the games which can be found in sites such as Age of Empires Heaven, ModDB,[21] and the Steam Workshop.[22]
One of the most notable mods is the Forgotten Empires.[23] The mod was an unofficial expansion pack to Age of Empires II developed by Forgotten Empires in 2011 before being picked up by Microsoft and made into an official expansion pack under the name The Forgotten for Age of Empires II HD Edition in 2013.[24]
Fanart
On the art sharing site Deviantart, typing the keyword “Age of Empires” would yield more than 18.100 results.[24]
Related Memes
Age of Empires Logic
Age of Empires Logic are a series of advice animals that aims to poke fun at some of the logical flaws in Age of Empires (Age of Empires II in particular) due to the graphical limitations the game had when it was first developed.
Wololo
Wololo is the sound made by the Priest unit in the 1997 game Age of Empires. It is used as an interruptor, causing the color of something to change colors between red and blue.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Steam Community – Age of Empires II – The path forward
[2]Gamespot – 16-year-old Age of Empires II Gets a New Expansion, Patch
[3]Polygon – Age of Empires II HD is getting a new expansion
[4]Destructoid – A new Age of Empires II HD expansion in 2015
[5]PC Gamer – Age of Empires 2 is getting a new expansion
[6]Forgotten Empires – Age of Empires II: Teasing at E3 2015
[7]Metacritic – Age of Empires
[8]Metacritic – Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
[9]Metacritic – Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
[10]Metacritic – Age of Empires II HD Edition
[11]Metacritic – Age of Empires III
[12]Metacritic – Age of Empires III The War Chiefs
[13]Metacritic – Age of Empires III The Asian Dynasties
[14]Age of Empires Heaven – Main Page
[15]Age of Kings Heaven – Main Page
[16]Age of Empires III Heaven – Main Page
[17]Age of Empires Online Heaven – Main Page
[18]Urban Dictionary – Age of Empires
[19]Facebook – Age of empires
[20]Twitter – Age of Empires
[21]ModDB – Age of Empires II Mods
[22]Steam Workshop – Age of Empires II HD Edition mod workshop
[23]ModDB – Forgotten Empires
[24]Forgotten Empires – The Story So Far…
[25]Deviantart – Search for Age of Empires