Age of Empires IV is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and World's Edge that features a great campaign and epic PvP and PvE modes. In addition, it offers many historical details, different gameplay mechanics and allows you to play with many civilizations.

Plot

You will travel through 500 years of history from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance, fight in great battles and play iconic characters such as Joan of Arc in her quest for freedom to defeat the English army or the brave Mongol troops during Genghis Khan conquest. But battles are not everything, as every choice you make will have consequences on the outcome. Welcome to Age of Empires IV, where you will experience a thrilling journey full of action, epic battles, and strategic choices.

Gameplay

A great campaign: There are 4 specific campaigns with 35 missions that will make you relive 500 years of remarkable history, from the Dark Ages up to the beautiful Renaissance, including The Normans on the Norman conquest of England, The Hundred Years War, The Mongol Empire, and The Rise of Moscow. Throughout your journey, you will play many civilizations and legendary characters like Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan and many others. During each campaign, you will learn many real and valuable pieces of historical information with lots of interesting details, access behind-the-scenes videos that add more texture to the experience, and much more.
Fight: You can play online in epic and challenging PvE and PvP battles or locally against the AI. You and up to 7 of your friends will either compete, cooperate or spectate in tremendous fights for the win. Note that you can fine-tune your experience as many parameters can be customized, like victory conditions, the type and size of maps, the amount of resources, the level of the AI players, and more. The campaign mode is designed to get you into the historical context and inmediately get you started in the game. On the other hand, the multiplayer mode will challenge your skills as you will have to understand your enemies, learn how to effectively collect and manage resources in real scenarios, adapt your strategies depending on many parameters, and fight until the end.

Diversity: Many civilizations are available, including the Abbasid Dynasty, the Chinese, the Delhi Sultanate, the Holy Roman Empire, the English, the French, the Mongols and the Rus. Each has different buildings, troops, and gameplay mechanics, so don't expect to collect resources and rush into battles as you will have to understand how they work and how to use their subtleties wisely. However, it is worth taking the time to master each one of them as it helps you understand more deeply the history of each civilization. Still, it also shows you alternative play styles and gameplay mechanics.
Infantry and weapons: Many different infantry units are available depending on the civilization you choose and can be more or less suitable for long-range or short-range combats, including melee infantry, ranged infantry, siege units, and more. Note that the more evolved your civilization is, the more powerful and advanced your technologies, weapons and troops will be. So make sure to evolve to overcome your adversaries.
Buildings: You will need to build many different structures to get the most out of your civilizations, including military buildings (like docks, siege workshops, barracks, etc.), economic buildings (town center, house, mill, lumber camp, mining camp, farm, market, village, pasture, etc.), technology buildings (blacksmith, university madrasa), defense buildings (palisade, outpost, wall, tower, keep) and religious buildings (monastery, mosque, prayer tent, pagoda), but also the great and marvelous wonders.

Tutorial: Even though your first games will be pretty easy, the more you will play, the more you will understand how far the game can go when managing troops and resources and adapting to each situation. But don't worry, as the game will guide you through a very well-designed tutorial that will progressively teach you how to play.
Mods: You will be able to customize your game with mods. Using powerful creator tools, you will be able to create unique skirmishes and maps, and design innovative mission scenarios. It truly spices up the game.

Graphics and sound

The game features gorgeous 4K graphics where landscapes, buildings, and characters are beautifully modelled. Moreover, all the legendary sounds have been updated, and playing this version may remind you of many memories from previous titles. The voiceover of the tutorials and the campaign is also very polished. Age of Empires IV truly offers an immersive and coherent experience throughout the game, and the heat of the battles will make you feel more alive than ever.

Duration and game modes

Exploring only the main aspects of the game will take about 25 hours on average, but exploring all the other elements, playing online and taking the time to really master the game will take over 150 hours, depending on your skills. In addition, as mentioned above, the game offers several game modes:

Campaign: This is the story mode where you will visit all the different places and epochs the game offers and play legendary characters. You will also learn lots of valuable pieces of information about how the various factions work.
PvP and PvE: In Player versus Player (PvP) and Player versus Environment (PvE), you can face other players online or try to take the AI down. Play with up to 7 of your friends and compete, cooperate, or spectate iconic moments of thrilling and strategic battles.

What do the reviews say?

The game has received a pretty good rating from the Metacritic aggregator, 81/100.

"Age of Empires IV builds greatly on the series' reputation that began in 1997. If you're a fan of RTS games, world history, or both, this should be an easy recommendation. With dozens of hours of campaign play, eight unique civilizations, hours of live docu-style video segments, and a ton of maps for skirmishes, there's no shortage of well-polished content to enjoy." (Windows Central)