Can AOE4 unite all Age of Empire esports under one title?

While the RTS genre has been out of the esports limelight for the last decade, Relic Entertainment’s newest release in the form of Age of Empires IV (AOE IV) might give it a fighting chance against the current generation of AAA titles.

Due to the failure of AoE3, the Age of Empires series as a whole has been largely kept alive by AoE 2, a title that’s well past twenty years old at this moment. While the AoE 2’s HD and Definitive edition remasters managed to refresh the title, there was only so much that could have been done with the game’s almost prehistoric engine.

Even in its prime, AoE 2 was mostly seen as a niche title on the RTS competitive scene, playing second fiddle to the likes of Stacraft and Warcraft 3. A community-driven game at its core, AoE2’s competitive scene was mostly revolved around groups of players called clans. Despite a sizeable player base, the lack of tournaments and developer support seemingly marked the game’s end as Microsoft shut down the game’s official game servers.

Age of Empires 3 was subsequently released in 2005 as the direct successor as well as the next step for the series. Although the game did much to improve the graphics and tweak the core gameplay, the changes were overwhelmingly ill-received by the community. Lack of diversity between civilizations, scaling issues, and the changes to the rock-paper-scissors unit equilibrium were just some of the problems that AoE 3 faced. In a Counter-Strike: Source-esque turn of events, the gameplay changes ultimately saw the bulk of the competitive scene return to AoE 2.

Despite the setbacks it faced, AoE continued living on through the efforts of its community. For a time the franchise looked to be dead in the water, but the release of AoE2’s HD remaster in 2013 breathed new life into the competitive scene, bringing it into the modern streaming age. With minimal changes to the cherished core gameplay, new civilizations, and with updated graphics, the game managed to attract both veterans as well as a new generation of RTS players, while also laying the groundwork for the game’s competitive scene to emerge.

AoE 2 HD’s release was followed up by the game’s Definitive Edition in 2019, further improving the visuals, adding new game mods, even more civilizations, and an improved AI. Up until the release of Age of Empires IV, AoE 2’s HD and Definitive Editions were the gold standards for competitive play. But the question arises, can AOE4 unite all Age of Empire esports?

So can AOE4 unite all Age of Empires Esports?

While Age of Empires 4 is still in its early infancy, the support from both the developers and the community has been a refreshing sight. The game itself is a much truer successor than the game’s third iteration, but the changes to some of the game’s mechanics could prove to be an eyesore for veteran players. In a way, AoE 4 feels much more streamlined to when compared to AoE 2. From a competitive standpoint that could prove to be an issue, as it could bring the skill floor up, while at the same time bringing the skill ceiling much lower than its predecessor.

As an RTS, AoE 4 seems to be lacking in the real-time segment in comparison to other titles from the genre. Adapting on the fly is one of the main aspects of RTS, something that both Starcraft 2 and AoE 2 do good almost to a fault. On the other hand, while AoE 4’s esthetic beauty is quite undeniable, unit recognition is borderline impossible and players will find it hard to tell what’s actually going on in a battle.

The beauty behind AoE 2’s competitive matches was that almost every matchup