Age of Empires Online

When I was given the opportunity to review the free-to-play version of this game early in August 2012, I was a bit wary of what it could turn out to be. Despite my reservations, and while it is no secret that free-to-play games are ultimately designed to motivate the player into spending money, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Age of Empires Online stands out among the crowd in the way it goes about that. This game delivers a free experience that leaves the player wanting more by handing over a good taste of what it has to offer up front. Much like the person handing out free samples of Chinese food at the food court in many a mall, Age of Empires Online gives you a sizable morsel to chew on before you decide whether you want to sit down for dinner.

One of the first things that got my attention when I started playing was the overall visual presentation. The graphics are entertaining, lightweight in terms of processing requirements, and maintain a measure of respectability despite a lack of fine detail. When idle villagers are running around haphazardly with their hands high in the air while still others spar in old-English-style boxing matches, you cannot help but take a moment or two away from your imperialistic ambitions to watch the cartoons at play. Yet these distractions were not enough to keep me from noticing that the military units received a lot of care in their design as well. The units and their animations are well drawn, using crisp lines and a color scheme that fits together in a way that makes it reasonably easy to see what is happening and when. The design of both the military and civilian units goes well with the background graphics, giving an overall presentation that is clean, crisp, lively, and able to get the player’s attention without overwhelming them.

Speaking of not being overwhelmed, I would like to point out that even with 150 or more units on my screen moving as a pack, my lower-end graphics card (an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 series) was able to handle the processing load and lag never became a serious issue. This was another pleasant surprise, one which I am happy to say did a lot to eliminate the hardware requirements that have acted as a major barrier to my desire to try out many other games. One last point worth mentioning about the graphics is that the detail level appears to actually adjust as you zoom in or out. It gives you the most detail when your viewpoint is closest in, and the least detail when it is farthest out. This, in my opinion, is an act of sheer genius, as it really does a lot to create a visual experience that is both pleasing to the eyes and gentle on your GPU.

The audio experience does not fall behind either. The background music is lively and will often change to fit your location as well as the pace of your current activities. The sound effects fit well with the events they are associated with, and yet are tasteful enough to minimize the harshness often associated with combat-based games. The combination of the two is even better, given that the balance between the music and the sound effects is just right and does not distract from the gameplay as it has in other games I have played.

While the audio and visual presentation was enough to get my attention, the gameplay and intuitive control system did even more to keep it. This game is just flat-out fun to play and easy to learn. Whether you want to focus on rushing your opponents early, building structural defenses to protect against that kind of rush, or becoming an economic powerhouse that lets you overwhelm all challengers, you will spend less time learning the game and more time enjoying it thanks to the well-thought-out tutorial quests and the relatively simple control system. The only real problem I noticed with the controls was that selecting individual units, or units of a specific type, from within a large group is a little cumbersome. While it is possible to select all nearby units of a certain type by double-clicking on one of them, the game could be noticeably improved by making it easier to pick out specific types of units from within a large mixed pack. With that said, whatever frustration may arise from this is reduced by the fact that military units moving as a pack will automatically shift their places in the group so that the brawler units are up front and the not-so-tough units are in back. Not only does this make selecting units easier, it saves a massive amount of headache by removing a lot of what would otherwise be tedious grunt work.

Yet this is perhaps the best that can be said for the AI of the units in the game, friendly or otherwise. One would hope that the AI would ramp up as the player progresses, but sadly this does not appear to be the case. While having enemies that are mostly unable to adapt to your strategy can be a good thing in the tutorial quests, it does not help to create the kind of sustainable gaming experience that those familiar with RTS or MMO games have come to expect.

Seeing that at its core Age of Empires Online is a combination of these two genres, it is worth pointing out that it appears to have done a fairly good job of combining certain elements from both worlds. As evidence of this claim, the previously mentioned deficit of sustainable RTS gameplay is at least partially offset by the game’s MMO-style mechanics. These mechanics let players choose from multiple civilizations that have different strengths and weaknesses. They can further customize their strategies by gaining levels, which add to their available units and structures, as well as by equipping gear, which can add bonuses to everything under their command. Customization like this lets the player tackle earlier quests they may have had difficulty with by using new units, or by using strategies that were previously unavailable to them for lack of equipment bonuses. It also lets them revisit some finished quests that have been re-forged into their “elite” versions.

While all this is fine and good, in the end the MMO-style mechanics will not be enough to prevent the more advanced players from developing a thirst for something more. Sadly that thirst will not be satisfied through the game’s storyline, or even through the many visual customization options on offer. At best the storyline is barely there, and in my opinion there are better games to play if one is going to be strongly dedicated to working toward visual customization. This is simply not a game that will manage to enthrall its audience with stunning visuals or gripping character development, so if it is to have any serious longevity there must be something else that keeps the player’s attention. This is normally the point where the PvP aspect of RTS and MMO games comes in, except that in the free version of Age of Empires Online the PvP matchmaker appears to be rather inept at arranging even a quick 1v1 game, never mind the 2v2 or four-player free-for-all options. Even worse, while you are waiting fifteen minutes or more for a match to start you can do nothing else in the game. You must simply sit there and watch the matchmaking screen without even the slightest indication of the average wait time, or any other way to know if or when the game will get going.

In the paid version more PvP options are available, and judging by what I have read on the forums it appears to have the normal features one would expect in competitive play, including long rants about imbalances between certain units, alliances, and so on. Oddly enough, such rants are often a good sign that players care enough about the game they are playing to stick with it and try to help with the fine tuning. While this is not proof that the paid PvP experience is without legitimate problems, one ought to be far more concerned with a game when large portions of the player base think that discussing PvP balance is a complete waste of time and the game is beyond repair. Clearly that is not the case here, so it stands to reason that there is something about the paid PvP experience that keeps players coming back for more.

If the player is not PvP-oriented, they will still reach a point where they encounter the double meaning of the phrase “the buck stops here”. They will find a large number of items in their inventory, accumulated over previous quests, that they must purchase a premium civilization in order to use. As the player levels up and the quests grow more difficult, the inability to use these items becomes a genuine hindrance to their efforts. To a minor extent this can be overcome in some quests through the game’s co-op mode, which lets multiple players work together toward the same goals. Unfortunately, that is at best delaying the inevitable. At some point the rubber hits the road and the player will need to make a choice about paying for the game, continuing in mediocrity, or finding something else to do.

Before I come to a conclusion, there is one pet peeve of mine worth mentioning. RTS games that do not have a save function generally frustrate me, and despite everything good I have said about this one, it is no exception in that department. I highly value the ability to save my progress on a quest or mission so I can come back later and start where I left off. When life happens and it is time to get off the computer, I would like to not have to fret about getting disconnected due to inactivity and being forced to start a particular quest all over again.

The free-to-play version of Age of Empires Online is at least a partial exception to the saying “you get what you pay for”. In and of itself it is a game worth playing, and worthy of consideration for fans of the RTS and MMO genres. Though it is not without its limitations, and is ultimately designed to get the player to pay, the developers seem to have taken a lesson from the people handing out free General Tso’s chicken samples in food courts across the nation. It turns out that giving away high-quality samples is a good idea after all.