Enjoying Age of Empires II (AoE II) on an Xbox Sequence X with a controller is a surreal expertise for me.
In any case, despite the fact that AoE II has acquired a number of strong re-releases and expansions (Dynasties of India dropped simply final yr), the enduring real-time technique (RTS) title continues to be the identical 23-year-old sport I spent hours taking part in as a toddler on my mother and father’ chunky, grey-coloured desktop.
However real-time technique (RTS) video games can actually solely be loved with a mouse and keyboard, proper? With only a few exceptions to this rule, together with Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2, that is the opinion I’ve held for many years, significantly with titles from the late-90s-to-early-2000s golden period of the style (I blame StarCraft 64).
Fortunately, Age of Empire II Console Version for Xbox breaks this pattern with surprisingly intuitive and fluid gamepad controls.
“I’ve to be sincere with you and say that the work [on the controls] was tougher than we initially anticipated. Once we first began, we did what everyone does, ‘let’s simply take the entire PC sport to console and simply map to controller.’ It really works, however it doesn’t really feel nice — it’s not clean…” stated Earnest Yuen, govt producer at World’s Edge, in an interview with MobileSyrup.
In A0E II‘s Console Version, each facet of commanding your models is cleverly mapped to a controller button. For instance, as a substitute of constructing a sq. round your troops with a mouse such as you would within the PC model of the sport, on Xbox, you kind a inexperienced circle by holding down the A button. You too can choose idle Villagers by urgent up on the D-pad, any navy unit by hitting left, and entry villager properties by clicking the appropriate joystick. Different easy-to-access actions embody the left set off to chain instructions, the appropriate bumper to entry the mini map and the X button for assault transfer/particular actions.
“The primary problem that we encountered is transferring the cursor on the display, as a result of the PC model of Age of Empires II is all about clicking, in a way. Translating that have to a controller utilizing an analogue stick is cumbersome. The very first thing we tried was a multi-cursor — that didn’t really feel proper,” stated Alex Liu, design director at Microsoft.
Liu defined that to do Age of Empires II justice, the crew wanted to reimagine how one can management the sport.
“How can we make a sport that’s 20 plus years previous and beloved by followers really feel recent, new and welcoming for brand new gamers… The Xbox sport introduces fairly a number of new options, from automation to new methods to construct stuff and to regulate models — all of those are issues we developed within the course of as a way to make the sport extra accessible for individuals.”
Additions to the AoE II embody automation mechanics, a primary for the Age of Empires franchise, however a transfer Yuen and Liu say was essential to adapt the title to console. You may set Villagers to mechanically construct farms round city centres or ask them to hunt out and collect sources with outlined computerized presets like ‘Meals and Wooden’ foraging, permitting you to pay attention extra on constructing navy models and battle.
If this sounds sophisticated, you aren’t incorrect, however after transferring by means of AoE II‘s complete tutorial, the actions grew to become second nature; apart from switching to completely different Command Menus with the Y button (for some motive, that didn’t click on with me — at the least not but). Nonetheless, I by no means felt my controls have been restricted within the few hours I’ve spent with AoE II on the Sequence X. In truth, I loved leaning again in my laptop chair and taking part in acquainted campaigns like ‘William Wallace,’ ‘Joan of Arc,’ ‘Atila the Hun’ and extra with solely a gamepad. Generally I discovered myself wishing my cursor would transfer a little bit extra precisely by way of the joystick, however for essentially the most half, the expertise was wonderful.
One other essential facet of Age of Empires II Console Version value highlighting is how good the sport seems to be operating on the Xbox Sequence X in 4K. After all, AoE II is over twenty years previous, and a remake ought to look this nice on a contemporary console, particularly given it’s a port of 2019’s Definitive Version for PC. I continually zoomed out and in of the battlefield and marvelled at its element. As a long-time fan of AoE II that remembers the sport wanting gorgeous again in 1999, despite the fact that it didn’t, the recent coat of 4K paint strains up completely in my creativeness (our minds have a humorous manner of preserving gaming recollections and making them look higher than they really did).
After all, you possibly can ditch the gamepad for extra conventional mouse and keyboard controls, which I spent a number of hours doing. With this management methodology chosen, all the things performs precisely like the sport’s PC model, solely on an Xbox console.
“I personally really feel it’s vital to provide gamers selection… Let gamers play the sport the best way that they need to. If a participant desires to play with mouse and keyboard, allow them to,” stated Yuen, when requested why it was essential to nonetheless provide extra conventional RTS controls in AoE II‘s console model.
Different issues value noting about AoE II‘s Console Version embody that saved recordsdata are transferable between the Xbox and PC, making it easy to start out a ‘Skirmish’ on Xbox after which proceed that very same battle in your PC (this characteristic positively would have come in useful for me within the ’90s).
Whereas taking part in Age of Empires II on Xbox, one of many key issues operating behind my thoughts was how equally the Age of Empires IV console port will play when it releases later in 2023. It is sensible for World’s Edge to make use of the title’s surprisingly succesful gamepad controls as a testing floor for AoE IV‘s console launch later this yr, and that’s exactly what the studio plans to do.
“That’s positively the purpose. Alex labored with the design lead on Age IV console as effectively, in order that they do alternate notes. Our purpose is to ensure that when you learn to play on console by means of II, you’ll have the ability to play Age of Empires IV on console as effectively similarly,” stated Yeun.
As somebody who has spent loads of time taking part in AoE II over the previous few years, first with the HD remake again in 2012 after which the Definitive Version in 2019, I’m extra inquisitive about diving again into AoE IV on the Sequence X. Whereas I performed the sport on PC again when it launched, my desktop’s ageing {hardware} didn’t permit it to run at high settings or in 4K. Will I go for mouse and keyboard controls or gamepad, although? I’m nonetheless undecided, however after spending a number of hours with the Console Version of Age of Empires II, I’m leaning extra in the direction of the chilled-out expertise taking part in with a controller presents.
Age of Empires II Definitive Version launches on Xbox consoles on January thirty first. It’s value noting that should you personal the PC model of AoE II: DE, you’ll have already got entry to the Xbox model, and the identical goes for the Console Version.
