Have You Played… Age of Empires?
Paving the way
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
They’re making a HD version of it, so it must be good, right?
The first will never be as popular or as well-regarded as its sequel, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, which has already received its high fidelity makeover and is somehow stillgetting expanded. But it deserves its place in the vidyagame annals, kicking off the series that was seen at the time as a blend of Civ and Warcraft.
It also tried to give a sense of eras passing, even if they went quite quickly. From being hunter-gatherers to becoming Iron Age warfolk, it chose history over fantasy and laid the stoney, warlike foundations for its kingly followup. Well done, Age of Empires. Well done.