Age of Empires II: Age of Kings was the first game I have ever played on PC, so it’s no wonder this series has a special place in my heart. I’m certain I’m far from being alone because the Age of Empires series has long been a cornerstone of real-time strategy gaming, captivating players with its historical settings, strategic depth, and engaging gameplay. Spanning multiple decades, titles, and introducing new civilizations, mechanics, and innovations, each instalment has left its mark on the genre. However, with such a rich legacy comes a wide spectrum of quality, from groundbreaking classics to underwhelming experiments.
In this article, I’ll take a look at every Age of Empires game (Age of Mythology included), ranking them from worst to best, and exploring how each one contributed to the evolution of the series. There are several editions for the same title, and I’ll mainly focus on the better editions for each, aside from a few oddities here and there, so don’t be surprised to not see Age of Empires II: Age of Kings for the Playstation 2 (yes, that was a thing).
Whether you’re a die-hard fan or a newcomer to the franchise, I would love to hear your opinion on this list, and let me know how your love for the franchise affected the way you play games nowadays.
Age of Empires: Mobile
Whenever I see these kinds of games I usually roll my eyes to the point where I can see the back of my head. “What’s even the point?” – is a question that every person who greenlit this project never asked. The worst part of it is that the game has been marketed as a real Age of Empires experience for mobile, using fancy trailers and developer interviews. What Age of Empires: Mobile truly is, is Return to Empire, a mobile game from 2020 with an Age of Empires II skin. Shameful.
Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (Nintendo DS)
This one will stick out from the bunch for a couple of reasons: the first one being that it’s turn-based; the second is that the game is played on a console, and what a great console the Nintendo DS was; but the third, and most unexpected reason is the fact that Age of Empires: Age of Kings, is actually a really good game. It features some of the factions from Age of Kings, has full-length campaigns, and even comes with a skirmish mode. It’s a fun relic from a bygone age that’s worth collecting for the oddity that it is. We could use a definitive edition for this one.
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition
Age of Empires II was (and still is) a genre-defining game that surpassed every other RTS at the time it came out. So, it’s natural fans of the series had massive expectations for Age of Empires III. However, Age of Empires III was doomed to fail from the start, as meeting these expectations was borderline impossible, and even Bruce Shelley, the founder of Ensemble Studios recognized how by trying to “all these new ideas”, they ended up making a “huge mistake”. The team “wanted to create something that was 30 per cent the same, 30 per cent borrowed, and 30 per cent innovative […]. It just wasn’t an Age game anymore”.
I personally didn’t dislike Age of Empires III. It brought new ideas- like the hometown mechanic- it introduced players to new timelines in history and the campaigns were some of the best the series had when it came out in 2005. The release of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition in 2020 brought a whole new audience that might have missed it, and people flocked to it, so maybe it was beloved after all.
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
The original Age of Empires is a remarkable title and was a huge success when it came out in 1997, kickstarting one of the most famous RTS series of all time. Set in ancient history, it laid the foundation for what was to come next. The formula was so simple: You build cities, manage resources, evolve through the ages, create armies, and fight and conquer other civilizations, and yet, few games manage to achieve this level of success and popularity.
Personally, I think that as soon as Age of Empires II came out, the original Age of Empires was immediately outdated in almost every aspect, bar one: it’s ancient setting and the civilizations it allowed you to take control of. It’s a setting criminally underexplored, even almost 3 decades after its release.
Of course, this is my personal take, and I think that a lot of people would put the original Age of Empires as their second-best game in the series, but that just isn’t me.
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