The long-awaited Age of Empires showcase event aired Saturday, delivering an extended look at Age of Empires 4 that fans of the real-time strategy franchise have been looking forward to. Over the past several years, Microsoft has put out definitive editions for Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and Age of Empires 3, and it has even released a new Age of Empires 2 expansion named Lords of the West. Now it's time for Relic Entertainment to show what it's done with Age of Empires 4 in preparation for the game's confirmed fall 2020 release window. 

The meat of today's reveal is a gameplay trailer featuring Age of Empires 4 in action. The trailer is broken down into four sections, covering Age of Empires 4's different ages: the Dark Age, Feudal Age, Castle Age, and Imperial Age. The trailer also swaps between the perspectives of different civilizations as the ages change. Civilizations include the English, Mongols, Chinese, and the newly revealed Delhi Sultanate. In just five minutes, the trailer offers a diverse and exciting introduction to the game.

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Unsurprisingly, the Dark Age segment of the trailer looks a lot like what previous Age of Empires games do in their early games. A town center spits out villagers who go off to gather basic resources, including lumber and food, and then expanding to gold. Scouts go out and collect livestock and hunt wildlife. Soon there are farms, walls for defense, and guard towers. There are also initial waves of combat as villagers guard against scouts and skirmishes between military units begin.

The Feudal Age gameplay is as much about showcasing the diversity of civilizations as it is the age's technological advancements. The Mongols are shown packing up their entire city and moving to a new location, for example. More advanced combat skirmishes show the return of mechanics like villages taking shelter and buildings burning. A new mechanic shown has units hiding in dense wilderness and ambushing a passing raiding party.

Befitting the Castle Age, the third section of the Age of Empires 4 trailer focuses on a major siege. The Delhi Sultanate brings in war elephants and siege engines to storm the English civilization's walls - which notably allow for units to attack from in this new installment.

The last section of the trailer, the Imperial Age portion, focuses on two core areas. First, what the Chinese civilization's economy might look like in Age of Empires 4's endgame, with massive cities that have layers of walls full of farms and military production buildings. Lastly, what a major endgame battle looks like, cleaned up to be more cinematic than normal gameplay. There are even clips showing different battles in different scenarios, including the iconic Priest unit doing a new type of conversion.

Suffice to say, this trailer delivers exactly what Age of Empires fans have been waiting for. Age of Empires 4 has seemingly never felt more real, and people will not have to wait long to get their hands on the RTS game.

Age of Empires 4 releases fall 2021 on PC.

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