All of this stuff is expected from a modern remaster, but that doesn’t change the impressive work that the studios have done to make Age of Empires III look and sound the best it ever has.Īs impressive as the visual and audio improvements are, they pale in comparison to the work that’s been done on the gameplay.

Age of Empires has always had an excellent soundtrack, and these new tracks and enhancements make everything sound better. The game’s sound design and soundtrack have also been enhanced, with new music for each civilization. Age of Empires III is fifteen years old, and you can occasionally see it when you look at the game’s character models, but this is a very pretty game. Almost everything has been retouched, from textures to lighting and particle effects, animations, and physics. The game supports 4K resolutions and features rebuilt 3D assets. Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first: the Definitive Edition looks gorgeous. Almost everything has been retouched, from textures to lighting and particle effects, animations, and physics.' Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is less a remaster and more an overhaul that makes a deeply flawed game significantly better without fundamentally changing the parts of it that worked. Rather than view Age of Empires III’s shortcomings as a problem, however, developers Forgotten Empires and Tantalus Media seem to have viewed it as a challenge. Even Ensemble knew this: they tried to change the game’s name before release. Age of Empires III isn’t bad – but it never felt like Age of Empires. Part of it was the setting: the colonial era just didn’t feel as interesting as the middle ages the Home City mechanics, while good in theory, never really felt good putting deck building into an RTS was weird maps were smaller there were fewer campaigns and civilizations the addition of firearms made melee units almost worthless and while Age of Empires II followed real historical figures like Joan of Arc and El Cid through real battles, Age of Empires III’s campaigns were historical fiction. But when you go from a masterpiece to just fine, disappointment is bound to follow.

Part of it was expectation: Age of Empires II is a masterpiece and remains one of the best RTS games ever made. I should know I still have an original copy. When it released in 2005, Age of Empires III was considered something of a disappointment.

Age of empires 3 release date