Age of Empires Online Review

A fine first step towards a truly great free-to-play model

Posted by Christian Sorrell on September 10, 2011 - 5:08pm EST

Age of Empires: Online is one of the first forays into the western free-to-play space that feels right and it does this mostly by replicating the shareware model of yesteryear while incorporating in modern online transactions and social interaction. Just as I had the shareware game Doom 95 as a child and loved it. It wasn’t until years later that I realized what I had played was only the first of many episodes. Such is the case with Age of Empires: Online.

Without needing to spend a penny (and rarely ever being asked/prompted to do so), you are treated to over 20 hours of content that is fun and (mostly) fully-featured RTS experience. Many RTS games have shipped at full retail prices with far less content than what you can get here entirely for free. If you do decide that you enjoy the game and want to explore that content further as well as add to your current experience throughout with additional special items, storage, etc. you pay a single, but larger fee and until everything for that civilization. Where many free-to-play (or pay-to-play as many like to call them) attempt to nickel and dime you endlessly with a wide array of minute and time-based items, Age of Empires: Online respects the player enough to give them a lot for nothing and even more for something.

Ultimately, Age of Empires: Online is not a true successor to Age of Empires III and those hoping to get that in-depth, realistic, and more hardcore experience will not find it here (for the most part), but for those looking for a more casually played RTS taking some of the best components of Facebook games, creating interesting new bits of innovative, and utilizing a pricing model that won’t make you feel cheated (for both non-paying and paying players), they will be pleasantly surprised. A fine first step towards a truly great free-to-play model, Age of Empires: Online is a good game befitting of its namesake that will hopefully continue to improve as more items, civilizations, and environments are added in the planned seasonal updates.

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Our ratings for Age of Empires Online on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)

Presentation

A crisp and cartoony art style strays away from the AoE standard but looks great and runs well on an array of machines.

Gameplay

It�s all standard AoE units and gameplay here but missions and maps, tied to the persistent leveling, keeps things interesting.

Single Player

A massive amount of content can be accessed entirely for free with tons more coming to those who take the monetary plunge.

Multiplayer

Co-op can be accessed early and is fun, but it�s a shame that PvP is mostly something for end-game players.

Performance

Other than a few graphical glitches here or there, the game runs excellently.

Overall

The best foray into free-to-play gaming to date, AoE: O is a competent RTS with enough content and fun to actually deserve some of your money without requiring it.