Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition review of the friv game - An unexpected gift

Cult real-time strategy games continue their comeback in the form of remasters. Fans of the Age of Empires series, who received early excellent re-releases of the first two games, are preparing to welcome the third, which is not so much remembered by players. However, given the current lack of competition in the genre, it probably has a much better chance. What will make the remaster happy - we tell you in the review.

The original Age of Empires 3 by Friv2Online came out at the same epochal time when studios specializing exclusively in RTS were still alive and were translating their cult series into full 3D.

It was lucky enough to stand in line with such projects as Command & Conquer 3, Red Alert 3 and Warcraft 3. These games are separated by several years, but in general they can be called a full-fledged generation of 3D real-time strategies.

Age of Empires 3 was less lucky than its famous ancestors. Of course, it had its fans, but players in general remembered it much less than the developers wanted. Perhaps, the reason was the simplified mechanics or cutting of many gameplay elements. However, the difficult fate of the friv game doesn't mean that it should have been deprived of a re-release. And it finally happened.

The setting of colonization of America as a whole disposes to the creation of exotic landscapes of different climatic conditions. And thanks to the improvement of the graphic part, the nature now looks especially lively and able to please any artist.

In small rivers beautifully play the rays of the sun, waves beat against the shore, and in the sky constantly mottled seagulls, falcons or parrots. The place of wooden planks with a monotonous texture was taken by a stormy vegetation, in which now you can not notice the lurking predators.

New models of buildings and units do not lag behind the environment, having received a lot of small details. Now there is no shame in zooming the camera to the maximum possible distance to examine your wards on vacation or in the heat of battle.

Battles in Age of Empires 3 have always been different from what players could see in previous games in the series. This is because troops are now armed with firearms, and artillery has been given a much bigger role.

In general, physics has always been one of the hallmarks of this RTS, but thanks to the reworked picture its presence is now perceived much more harmoniously. Infantrymen fly away from the nukes that broke the formation, fall from horses and in general do not scare with wooden animations. Buildings fall to pieces, and ships go to the bottom quite realistically.

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition looks like a full-fledged modern friv game, and thanks to the work done, it's hard enough to say that it's more than fourteen years old. However, some may be confused by the strong bias towards cartoonishness.

The realities of changing 3D graphics in the case of strategies are such that if you show gameplay of Age of Empires 3 remaster to a person who is not familiar with the series, he will never determine the age of the friv game. The visual part turned out to be quite qualitative and not inferior to modern projects.

Yes, the gameplay of the third Age of Empires was greatly simplified in relation to the past parts of the series. The world part became much more modest, buildings are much less, and some iconic mechanics and features were removed.

For example, the ability to collect relics on the map, which over time provided a constant income in gold or could even lead to victory for the player who collected them all, disappeared. The same fate awaited the building of farms, the map generator and the possibility to win by building a wonder of the world.

What's more, workers no longer need a place to take the resources they produce. It is enough just to stand in one place, interacting with gold or wood, after which the extracted is immediately sent to the "account" of the player.

The authors of the game decided to compensate for all this pile of lost opportunities with the help of the "Factions' Capitals" system, which became the hallmark of Age of Empires 3. It consists in the fact that in each battle the player has access to a city unique to each nation.

In addition to aesthetic pleasure, which can be enhanced with a small customization of buildings, this mechanic can also help in combat. On the capital city screen, you can select a set of special cards that are responsible for sending reinforcements or supplies right in the middle of battle.

These cards come in several types and are unique for each nation respectively. And to activate the selected bonus you need to gain a certain amount of experience, which is given for destroyed enemies.

The combat system has not changed that much, presenting the same dump of units on the principle of "stone/scissors/paper". Except that formations now play a much bigger role due to the fact that artillery is able to hit multiple targets with cores in one shot much more efficiently than before.

In addition, each unit of infantry can fully attack buildings and ships with incendiary attacks. So the famous sword picking at stone buildings is also a thing of the distant past.

In general, the game is quite friendly to newcomers, although missions at a high difficulty level are quite capable of giving even experienced strategists a head start. And serious questions remain only to the artificial intelligence, which is able to endlessly send workers to the field, which is right on your base.

Besides visual changes Age of Empires 3 remaster brought some new content, which was not present in the game before. The main gift to fans, perhaps, can be called new nations in the form of Swedes and Incas.

Less significant innovations are fresh policies, small changes of old development paths, rebalancing of maps and other useful little things. It is worth noting the complete re-sounding of several nations, which began to sound less stereotypical and more realistic.

The user interface is also presented in two variants - "classic" and "updated". The second variant, designed for a more modern player, has a mini-map in a different corner, and more information is provided.

Not without adaptation to current network technologies, which allowed players to test the strength between themselves on the official servers. Also implemented integration with Steam, which includes achievements and much more.

Of course, the scale of work done on Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition looks much more modest than what was realized for the cult first and second parts of the series. However, thanks to the updated visuals Age of Empires 3 is able to compete quite successfully with modern RTS.

If you like real-time strategies, take a closer look at this friv game, which was neglected in its time. It has everything to spend a few dozen hours with pleasure. And the moderate price in our region makes this offer even more tempting.