Age of Empires Online review – Part 3 – Art & Design
Part 3 of the Remember ES Age of Empires Online review looks at the art style of AOE-O and other aspects like the UI design. Firstly, it is important to note that the engine behind Age of Empires Online is the same engine we have been used to for the last few iterations of Age. AOE-O uses the Bang! engine first introduced with Age of Mythology, the first Age game to utilise modern 3D graphics, moving away from the 2D bitmaps used in Age 2. Age 3 demonstrated just how excellent the Bang engine can be at generating realistic graphics (remember the water!). The Bang engine was used perfectly to produce the stunning realistic art style of Age 3. AOE-O uses the same engine but does things a little differently, instead of using a realistic art style like Age 3 we now have a more “cartoony” style with AOE-O.
The cartoony art style probably wasn’t something that fans would predict the next Age came would take shape as. Perhaps something akin to how The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker was first received with its cell shaded art style compared to previous more realistic titles. In the case of AOE-O (and the Wind Waker) cartoony art style does not equal bad game, what it does equal is a bright and colourful atmosphere which is perhaps more aesthetically pleasing to play. Appealing, colourful and inviting graphics might also help attract newer players to the franchise. Robot Entertainment, whos bots came up with the art direction posted a blog last year indicating some of the reasoning behind this more unique art style. Here are some of the things they were looking to do for AOE-O:
- Create a timeless, bright, and visually appealing game that can technically run on a wide range of PCs, and still look good for years to come.
- Create a bold and more graphic look with a lot of character. That means a lot of different things.
- Make the terrain vivid, but less ‘noisy’ so the buildings and units ‘pop’, and are easily identifiable.
- Explore exaggerated and unique silhouettes to create a large variety of units and buildings. This helps give even inanimate objects more character and appeal.
- Use animations, in addition to the units’ unique proportions, to better differentiate and emphasize roles and classes
- Give the world and its inhabitants character and ‘life’, creating a digital terrarium for the player to control
- Less obstructive user interface and a more ‘graphic look’ to our iconography
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Age of Empires Online and Atomic City Adventures launch. Plus Orcs Must Die coming this October
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Its been an exciting week for fans of studios formed out of Ensemble Studios. This week saw the launch of both Age of Empires Online from Robot Entertainment and Atomic City Adventures from Windstorm Studios. Part 1 and 2 of the Age of Empires Online review are currently online at Remember ES, with further parts on the way, plus reviews for Atomic City. As these games have come out so close together Remember ES is playing catch up to get this content out for you!
Meanwhile, I wanted to express how much fun I am having playing both AOE-O and Atomic City. AOE-O is a fine edition to the Age series with an extensive number of quests offering a huge single player and co-op experience, backed up by solid online multiplayer. Although the PvP side has its faults, its certainly a game every Ensemble fan should be downloading right away. Plus the game has a lengthy free to play element. So head over to www.ageofempiresonline.com and download today!
As for Atomic City, this is a brand new game and environment from passionate Ex Ensembler, Dusty Monk at Windstorm Studios. I have only had a chance to play through the first few levels of Atomic City but am very much enjoying the experience. There is no question that Dusty has taken ques from Ensemble development practices, making the first 15 minutes super fun. The game is super easy to pick up and play thanks to the helpful tutorial system. It takes a while to get used to the mechanics of driving the flying cars, but after a little while you are on your way. Mission objectives are fun, as is the commentary, complete with voice acting. Available from just $14.99 on the Impulse store, take a step into the year 2254 and enjoy the fun times in Atomic City!
Orcs Must Die to arrive in October
In other news, Robot Entertainment has subtly announced that Orcs Must Die is slipping back from the initial late summer release window, to October. This is the current projected window for the games release as indicated on the official website. The October release date is no doubt strategically planned to be better suited to Microsoft and Robot Entertainment. So just sit tight, its only a few more months away now. Its not like you haven’t got other games to play… Age and Atomic City are waiting for you right now!
Stand by for more Orcs updates over the coming weeks.
Age of Empires Online review – Part 2 – Multiplayer
Multiplayer
Multiplayer in Age of Empires Online takes two forms – player vs player (PvP) or Co-Op play. PvP is similar to traditional Age of Empires multiplayer and refers to players being matched against each other, such as “Supremacy” and “Deathmatch” on ESO from Age 3. Co-Op play on the other hand refers to co-operative play where players join forces against the AI in quests or the Defense of Crete.
A lot of Age of Empires fans will no doubt have their eye on the PvP multiplayer as this has been the main focus in the multiplayer element of Age games of the past. At the start of the beta process back when AOE-O was announced in 2010 there was some concern by fans about the lack of PvP elements in the game. As the game developed PvP elements have been making their way into the finished product. A new region called “Sparta” was created as the hub of online PvP, think of it a bit like ESO but in city form.
Sparta – the region where most PvP’ers will spent their time!
The PvP in Sparta allows players to choose between either ranked or unranked 1v1 or 2v2 modes. There is on proviso, in order to play in a ranked multiplayer game you will need a capital city of at least Level 25. This helps ensure players competing have a suitable amount of gear and technology to help ensure a fair match. This restriction also helps ensure that newer players of the franchise can learn a majority of how the game works by questing up to level 25 first.
Ranked multiplayer is taken place using Microsoft’s infamous “TrueSkill” matchmaking system. This system assigns a score for each player depending on how well they play. The system then tries to match up players with similar score which should in theory result in a fair match. For new players the system can be in-accurate as it takes a few games before a good average score can be determined. For example a player which wins their first match will be given a high initial true skill score so next time they play they will be pitched against higher level players. The system balances out wins and losses to find players of the most suitable skill. The system has previously been used on Ensemble’s Halo Wars. Here is how the system was described to work previously:
When players of very different TrueSkills™ play each other, the resulting change may not be what you’d expect. For example, if Alice (Trueskill™ of 40) plays Bob (TrueSkill™ of 10) and wins, Alice’s TrueSkill™ will increase by a tiny amount. However, if Bob were to win his TrueSkill™ would increase by a good amount, but not necessarily a huge leap, especially if both have been playing for a long time.
The PvP matchmaking screen, with ZutaZuta at the top the 1v1 leaderboard
Once a PvP match starts it works pretty much the same way as previous Age games – build up your empire in order to crush the enemy. Players can either rush, turtle or boom depending on their strategy. In PvP mode players cannot make use of consumables (which are similar to Age of Mythology “god powers”) but they can make use of any gear which they have previously brought in their capital city. The gear purchased will be a reflection of their home city level.
There is no “vanilla” PvP which some members of the community are slightly disappointed about. Vanilla refers to a game with no gear or bonuses, where everyone is on a level playing field. Think of it as a mode without Home City cards in Age 3 or god powers in AoM. It’s not a big issue as TrueSkill and capital city levels help ensure matchmaking is fair. Age of Empires Online is also an ever evolving game, so like Halo Wars, expect patches in the future as the developers fine tune certain aspects depending on the communities feedback.
Co-Op play takes numerous forms – firstly there are questing co-op options. With certain quests players can invite friends to help them beat the objectives. Inviting players to help is a doddle, just right a click a friend in your friend list and choose “invite”. Alternatively, players can ask in the chat room is anyone is available to help out on a certain quest. Other aspects of co-op play include the whole world of trading gear and materials. For those that enjoy building up their cities and collecting rare and epic items, the capital city offers plenty in the way of co-op trading, there’s even an exclusive chat channel for trading and a dedicated forum on the community website, the “Trading Post”
Expect the trade channel will be buzzing come release
Store plenty of in-game inventory. Even more if you have a premium civilisation
Overall there is a lot in Age of Empires Online for those who prefer the multiplayer aspects instead of questing. While currently there are only a few multiplayer modes, 1v1 or 2v2 at present, hopefully there might be more combinations in the future such as free-for-all, but nothing like that has currently been announced. The Defense of Crete booster pack which is available at launch allows players to join forces and help defend against hordes of enemies, adding some multiplayer mode variation outside of the typical PvP
Numerous difficulty and customisations are on offer for co-op defense of crete
AOE-O caters will for both singleplayer and multiplayer experiences giving the best of both worlds. Classic Age multi-player fans should find something in the Sparta region to take their fancy. See you on the leader-boards!
Stand by for part 3 later this week!
Age of Empires Online review – Part 1 – Gameplay
According to the online countdown over at AOE-O Fans, Age of Empires Online is now just 2 days away from launch. A number of community members have been lucky enough to secure pre-release keys to play the game early ahead of the August 16th launch date. Remember ES has been checking out the pre-release and today wanted to share my thoughts on the final product. The pre-release is the full version of the game, although there will be a small patch in the coming days for the full launch what we are seeing is the near final version. In just 2 days Age fans worldwide will get what they have been longing for, a new release in the Age franchise since the Asian Dynasties release in 2007.
The Remember ES review will be split into 5 parts:- Gameplay, Multi-player, Art & Design, Sound & Music and Conclusions. Each part will be coming out over the next few days, so keep checking back!
Gameplay
Age of Empires Online *is* a different direction for the franchise, it is the first game to be a hybrid MMO/RTS, which some are calling a MMORTS. AOEO is also the first game in the series to use a fremium, or “free to play” model. The free version of the game includes access to the Greek and Egyptian civilisations offering over 40 hours of game play with a huge amount of quests (or scenarios) each. The free to play aspect isn’t a slouch on content, there is alot here to keep people busy just as much as a paid for off the shelf retail game, if not more. This whole concept, in my opinion, an excellent way to market and grow the game. I expect the free to play model to draw in huge numbers of players who perhaps have never played an Age game before, or perhaps those who have not been so keen to purchase RTS based games. Combined with the approachability and ease to pick up and play, AOE-O is in a fantastic position to take the market by storm and take the series to new heights.
My first capital city as the Greek civilisation. The capital city concept improves greatly on the Age 3 home city concept. Players can build up huge capital cities where they will spend their time crafting gear, consumables, resources and more. Vanity packs are also available for the creative folks!
Although the free version offers considerable depth and game play hours it is important to discuss some of the benefits of upgrading to a premium civilisation and the pricing of such content. Upgrading to a premium civilisation gives players extra access to gear, advisors, workshops, and PVP features. Essentially, the gears, advisors and workshops offer a more in depth experience adding new strategy combinations into the mix and promote further collecting of items. The content is great for those who have tried out the free version, liked what they saw and want to unlock further features. Premium versions are priced at 1600 Microsoft points each. The price point, seems to be adequate, I wouldn’t say it offers incredible value. Only time will tell about the community reactions with that price point. Considering players will need to spend 1600 MSP per civilisation this certainly can add up over time. In terms of necessity, I think for those players who want to get the most out of the game the premium packages are a necessary. Advisor’s and rare / epic gear do add alot more to the experience and variation.
Purchasing DLC, be it premium civs, gameplay packs or vanity packs is a doddle and can be purchased and activated in game in minutes.
Like many when AOE-O was first announced I was concerned that moving into the MMORTS style would be a big departure from traditional game play and that the focus would be too much on crafting and creating enormous home cities instead of actual RTS play. These concerns were soon dashed early on in the beta program. There is a great deal to do in the capital city but the traditional Age game play in terms of scenarios or rather “quests” are still there. Personally, I have always really enjoyed the “campaigns” of Age games in the past, particular hats off to the Age of Mythology campaign. While AOE-O’s quest lines are no where near as detailed in terms of history, or storytelling they are still very fun to play. Each quest line has some type of story attached and they are all objective based. What is pleasing to see is that there is variety amongst the different quests. Some quests will have players starting in Age 1 with a Town Center, building up an empire to eventually overthrow the enemy. Other quests however might vary the starting Age and victory conditions. Some quests are different entirely, like racing camels to a certain point in the map, building up tower defences against waves of enemies and creating farms in record time. There always seems to be a number of quests available to the player at one time, so if you’re getting bored of one type of formula, just try out a different quest entirely.
As discussed earlier, there is a claim of 40 hours of game play. I do think this is a realistic figure considering the huge amounts of quests available for both the greeks and egyptions. For campaign lovers of past Age games, theres alot for you here!
The gameplay mechanics are very traditional to previous Age games. The concept of gathering resources with villages to build up an army is all the same. This time round Food, Wood, Gold and Stone are the four resources utilised to build your empire in quests, a nod to Age of Empires 2. Buildings are also pretty much the same as previous games in the series – town centers, houses, docks, barracks etc are all there. If you’ve played previous Age games you’ll be right at home here.
Perhaps one of the best things about AOEO is that we can expect lots of future content to be pumped out, potentially, faster than previous Age games. Robot Entertainment has built AOE-O to be an “evergreen” game, this means the game has been architectured to support new content to be developed and distributed quickly. From gameplay packs like the Defense of Crete to brand new civilisations. I would expect we will see new content packs being released much more often and faster then the retail expansion packs found in previous games in the series. The Age series has been quiet during the last few years, its about to ramp up the production dramatically with Age of Empires Online which can only be a good thing for players and fans.
Check back for part 2 tomorrow where we take a look at the multi-player elements of AOE-O!
Atomic City Adventures launches tomorrow – last chance to pre-order!
Tomorrow is August 15th, launch day for Windstorm Studios’ first adventure – Atomic City, the case of the black dragon! It wont be long now until we’ll be fighting crime in Atomic City, hopping aboard futuristic flying cars. If you missed the news last week, if you pre-order Atomic City now you get a free bonus vehicle, the 6 Odaka S-110 “Wraith”. So if you havnt already pre-ordered, you best head over to the Impluse Driven store and make your order now!
Pre-order now at Impulse Driven
Check out the latest trailer for the game below, demonstrating the Odaka Red Nail vehicle:
About Windstorm Studios & Dusty Monk
With Atomic City adventures launching in under a week, Windstorm sole employee has taken to his company webpage to describe the journey taken so far to bring Atomic City to market. Dusty Monk had previously worked at Ensemble Studios since 2000 where he first worked on Age of Empires 2, The Conquerors. Before Ensemble Dusty worked at Midway on games like the incredibly popular Hydro Thunder.
When Microsoft tragically closed Ensemble Studios in 2009, the talented software programmer decided to pursue his own passion to build his own game idea. Dusty formed Windstorm Studios as sole employee, investing his severance pay from Microsoft to hire artists and animators to bring is dream game to life. At first Dusty wanted to build a massively multi-player online game, or MMO for short. Sadly this project was slightly too over enthusiastic as building an MMO as a one man band sure isn’t easy! A whole lot of investment and time would be required to accomplish something like that.
Instead, Dusty focussed his efforts to create a unique single player game, Atomic City Adventures. Based on the same prototype for his MMO game Atomic city takes players far into the future with fast flying cars mixed with traditional car designs. One day Dusty hopes to create an Atomic City based MMO, hopefully subsequent to the success of the soon to be launched single player game. I am sure Atomic City Adventures will be an excellent game coming from someone so passionate about his own idea and look forward to playing it come August 15th.
Wishing Dusty the best of luck that one day he can turn his Atomic City world into a fully blown MMO. Check out Dusty’s website at http://www.windstormstudios.com/about for his full article about Windstorm Studios – a must read.
Orcs Must Die! to be playable at Gamescom on Xbox 360
Robot Entertainment has today announced that Orcs Must Die will be playable at Gamescom in Germany August 17th to 21st . Gamescom is one of the biggest gaming events of the year, it was previously used by Microsoft and Robot Entertainment to announce “Age of Empires Online”. This time Orcs Must Die will be playable at the Microsoft booth, who were recently announced to be publishing the game on Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. So if you’re around in Germany be sure to stop by the booth in Messe, Hall 8.
If you’re not around in Germany, no worries as there is sure to be lots of press coverage – expect lots of videos and interviews buzzing around! With the game being demoed at the Xbox booth we might get to find out more about how the game plays on that system. Maybe a release date will be announced too, who knows!
P.S if a release date is announced you are going to make sure you have entered in the competition to win swag by now!
Stand by for Orcs Must Die updates between August 17th and 21st!
Prawny interviews Ryz0n over at RTS-Sanc
Age Community, or “AgeCom” for short has had numerous moderating personalities over the years to name a few we have the likes of Yeti, Paragon, Lethe (Aloysius), MrMilo, SOLUS, Thunder and various others. Yesterday Prawny over at RTS-Sanctuary interviewed the current AgeCom moderator Ryan “Ryz0n” Chaply. So if your’re hanging around AgeCom and want to find out a little more about the famous moderator, check out this interesting interview which includes information about how Ryan became moderator for the peaceful land that is AgeCom.
The interview also includes tid bits like word association and what its like moderating the community and details about his role at Microsoft Studios. Oddly, Ryz0n isnt so keen on the Community Server software which powers AgeCom which I personally think is pretty awesome, but we wont go there.
Needless to say its always good to put a face to people on AgeCom beyond the avatar so check out Prawny’s Ryz0n interview on the link below!
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?portal=RTS&showtopic=204872&st=0
Check out some of Prawnys previous interviews with a mix of other AgeCom moderators past and present:
BatsyBatsy – http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?portal=RTS&showtopic=189305
CosyGOODkNIGHT- http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?portal=RTS&showtopic=190171
Aloysius – http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?portal=RTS&showtopic=135949
SixOkay – http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?portal=RTS&showtopic=138356
Atomic City Adventures launching August 15th – pre-order bonus available NOW!
It looks like this August is going to be a busy month for Ex Ensemble designed games. Not only is Age of Empires Online just around the corner, Dusty Monk at Windstorm Studios has just announced that his brand new game “Atomic City Adventures, The Case of the Black Dragon” is launching on August 15th. Thats right, just a day before AOEO! Soon players will be able to take to the skies in unique futuristic flying cars as they battle unscrupulous enemies in order to clean up the mess that Atomic City has become, a place filled with crime and corruption. Agent Pam Rodgers awaits your control come August 15th!
Sticking with industry trends those who pre-order the game early will enjoy a reduced price and a pre-order bonus item – an in-game vehicle the “S-110 Odaka Wraith”. Take a look at this unique vehicle below.
This vehicle plus the adventures of Agent Pam Rodgers is available at a special pre-order price of just $9.99. A bargain for sure! The standard price for the game after the pre-release period will be $14.99 which is an excellent price on its own. The game will be available to pre-order and purchase from Gamestop Impulse. It would appear that there is no Steam launch for the game at the moment. The Impulse service helps provide Windstorm a good client and excellent developer support which can be essential for a small independent developer.
Check out the pre-order page here: http://impulsedriven.com/atomiccityadventur
Head over and pre-order now now now! There’s also a whole bunch of new screenshots to check out on the link too. You’ll also find details about the system requirements.
Remember ES is hugely looking forward to playing this unique game come August 15th and see the fruits of Dusty’s hard labour over the last few years since Ensemble’s closure. Developing games indpendently isnt easy, but it looks like with Dusty’s skills and talent he’s pulled it off. Congratulations, Dusty!
Atomic City Adventures trailer:
Screenshots:
Windstorm press release:
Atomic City Adventures – The Case of the Black Dragon is set to release on August 15th, and you can preorder your copy from Impulse today!
Atomic City Adventures is an exciting, 3rd person sci-fi action game set in a cool retro-futuristic setting. Player’s take on the role of Agent Pam Rodger as they battle villanous mobsters, evil robots, and nefarious corporations. Players start on foot, and quickly progress to hoverbikes and full blown flying jetbikes as they fight crime on the ground and in the air.
Atomic City Adventures will be regularly priced at $14.99, but if you preorder today you can pick it up for the preorder sale price of $9.99!
Plus, preorders get a bonus vehicle – the S-110 Odaka Wraith – for use in the game. The Wraith is a sweet full blown flyer that is considerably faster than the standard issue bike – which is no slouch in itself!
So head over to Impulse RIGHT NOW and pre-order your copy today!
New game play trailer for Atomic City Adventures
Things have been a little quiet over at Windstorm Studios lately. However, Dusty Monk has still been very busy working on his first Windstorm Studios title. Today a brand new game play trailer was announced. The trailer provides us with a good insight to how the game is shaping up, its game play, mechanics and feel. The trailer shows Agent Pam Rodgers hoping on board a “Sorenburg Azure” which is one of the unique vehicles available to use in the game. Pam takes on some enemies with her Sorenburg’s own in built weaponry before taking an explosive trip down town.
The game seems to be shaping up quite well and hopefully we will get to play this futuristic invention soon. Check out the new game play trailer below. Beware.. trailer contains jiggy music! Windstorm may have to release a soundtrack!
