Age of Empires IV

1. Summary

Players treat Age of Empires IV as the modern heir to Age of Empires II, and many call it the best RTS they can buy. They praise civilizations that each play like their own game, campaigns that come with documentary films about the real history behind them, and unit voices whose languages change as you advance through the ages. The game also works two ways: as a relaxed co-op night against the AI and as a competitive ladder that rewards planning more than clicking speed. Long-time players often add that it is in far better shape than at its rough launch, and they credit steady patches for that.

Crashes and disconnects with no way to rejoin a match are the complaint raised most often in negative reviews: 18% of them mention crashes, desyncs, disconnects, launch failures, server trouble or the missing reconnect. DLC and price come close behind (14% of negative reviews), mostly over civilizations, maps and the Crucible mode sitting behind paid packs. Team ranked players write about early leavers, lopsided matchmaking and cheaters. Single-player fans ask for a tactical pause, saves that survive updates, and an AI that neither stalls nor swamps them. Balance divides players. Some call this the best-balanced RTS around, while ladder veterans were angry about a siege overhaul that reviewers date to October 2024 and about new DLC civilizations that launched too strong.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Civilizations that each play like a different gameHigh

No other feature gets praised as often. Players say the civilizations differ in more than stats: they have their own units, buildings, landmarks, economies and ways to win. One reviewer wrote "Every civilization feels like learning a completely different game." Another, who mains the Mongols, said "sometimes I spend a week playing another civ and it feels like another game." Some contrast this with older Age games, where factions mostly shared the same units. The criticism here is about quantity: the launch roster felt small to some, and later additions split opinion (see the variant civilizations item in the split panel).

A modern Age of Empires that keeps the classic feelHigh

Many reviewers grew up with Age of Empires II and say this is the sequel they wanted: the same loop of gathering, aging up and building armies, with quality-of-life fixes such as scouts herding sheep, free farm reseeding, archers on stone walls and units passing between buildings. Some newcomers say it was their way into the genre. A smaller group disagrees and calls the game too safe, a half-step sequel that does not justify moving on from Age of Empires II, or says Age of Empires III had more content. Among negative reviews from players with only a few hours, that comparison with the older games comes up more than any other topic.

Campaigns with documentary films and real historyHigh

Reviewers often praise the live-action and drone-footage documentaries between missions, and history fans say they learn from them. "Its a documentary that comes with a game 10/10 will recommend," one reviewer wrote, and another said "Base game campaign is phenomenal, worth the price." One parent says their children love the historical videos too. The disagreement is about the storytelling format and the number of campaigns, covered in the split panel.

Playing with friends and family against the AIMedium

Co-op against computer opponents comes up often, from couples and roommates to parents playing with kids. One reviewer said the game "allows my family to all play together against the computer." These players are also the ones hit hardest by disconnects with no rejoin and by the lack of a save option for multiplayer games.

Sound design, music and languages that age with youMedium

Unit voices speak period languages that modernize as you advance through the ages, each civilization has its own music, and battles sound heavy. "The sound design is phenomenal," as one put it. Another wrote: "As you progress the ages, the language becomes more modernized and I love that attention to detail."

Strategic multiplayer that favors planning over speedMedium

Competitive players describe a ladder that rewards game plans, scouting and counters more than mechanical speed. Several StarCraft II players say it is slower and leaves more room to plan. "AOE4 feels more like chess while Starcraft 2 feels more like a pingpong match," one wrote. Walls, sacred sites and wonder victories are named as tools that widen the strategy. One reviewer at an average skill level said queues rarely take more than two or three minutes.

A much better game than at launch, thanks to steady updatesMedium

Reviewers who played at release often say the game had a rough start and has since been turned around by frequent balance patches, new civilizations and features such as pause in multiplayer. "Devs been improving the game since its rough launch and its in a great state," one wrote. In reviews from late October 2024, some players cheered an anti-cheat crackdown that banned map hackers. That praise sits alongside the patch anger described under balance.

The Crucible roguelite modeLow

The Crucible is a roguelite single-player mode that, by reviewers' account, came with the Dynasties of the East DLC, and they say it gave single-player fans a reason to return. "Crucible is a great feature for single player enjoyers," one wrote. The catch is that it is paid content ("Why is the crucible a dlc?"), and reviewers reported crashes and progress problems in its first weeks.

Tutorials that teach why, not just howLow

Some reviewers praise the tutorial and the Art of War challenge missions for explaining strategy, which made the game feel less daunting for newcomers.

Where players are split

Balance and big patch changesHigh

Some players, especially those who play 1v1, call the game well balanced across a large roster and praise the developers for quick mid-season fixes; one wrote "after the siege rework, it is the most balanced it has ever been." A siege overhaul that reviewers date to October 2024 (some call it the Season 9 update) set off a wave of angry reviews from experienced players, who said it left cavalry and camels dominant and siege units useless: "What used to be a game with a lot of viable strategies just became a game with only 1 play style." Later complaints focus on DLC civilizations that launched overpowered, with the Golden Horde, English longbows and Abbasid camels named most often. Some casual players add that constant changes make the game hard to keep up with.

Skirmish AIMedium

For some players the AI is a good sparring partner across many difficulty levels. Other single-player reviewers disagree, and their complaints point in opposite directions. One group says the AI stalls and stops building or attacking: "the AI will attack at most only once, then it will horde is army around its base and never leave." Another says even the low settings rush too hard ("On easy mode you get smoked by massive raiding parties very early") or that the jump between difficulty levels is too steep. Reviewers also say AI allies are passive and that AI behavior changes from patch to patch.

New civilizations and variant civsMedium

New civilizations are welcome, and players ask for more (Vikings, Spanish, Portuguese and Southeast Asian civilizations come up). The variant civilizations, versions of existing civs with new mechanics, split players. Some enjoy them; others see them as reworked versions of civs they already own sold as new content, and wish "the devs should have made completely new civs using some of these interesting variant mechanics."

Campaign format and lengthMedium

The campaign around the documentaries divides people. Some find the narrator-led story distant compared with earlier games' named characters: "This game just has an emotionless narrator, narrating the whole thing with visuals more akin to an episode to the History Channel." Others call the campaigns too short, too few at launch, or missing for many civilizations, and some ask for co-op campaigns. Some players who bought the DLC campaigns, Sultans Ascend in particular, praise them.

Art style and graphicsMedium

Most reviewers who mention visuals like them: detailed towns, landmarks, water, and readable units in big fights. A minority, several of them players with only a few hours, find the style cartoonish ("It looks like a mobile game.") or dated, and a few want blood and corpses back.

Difficulty and pace for casual playersLow

Players agree the game is easy to learn and hard to master. Reviewers who want a relaxed builder say matches move too fast and online opponents are intensely competitive, while players who enjoy the ladder call that the point. This group overlaps with the players asking for a pause and gentler AI.

What frustrates players

Crashes, disconnects and no way to rejoinHigh

Negative reviews raise this more often than anything else. Players describe mid-match crashes, desyncs, "fatal scar" errors and launch failures, and the lack of a reconnect option turns each one into a lost match, lost ranked points, or a teammate left playing alone. "Fix the stability. Add reconnect. This should be a priority, not a feature request," one reviewer wrote. Others say the game stopped launching after an update, and some who paid for the Anniversary Edition say they cannot play it. In May 2026, reviewers reported server outages and lag after a patch. Players with years in the game say the missing reconnect has been requested since launch.

Content behind DLC and the price of itHigh

Reviewers object to how much sits behind paid DLC: civilizations, maps and the Crucible mode, all visible in menus whether you own them or not. "Half the game is locked behind DLC including maps. I'm going back to AoE2," one wrote. Others say the base game felt thin for its price and recommend buying it and the DLC on sale. Some find the editions and bundles confusing about what they include. Buyers of the bigger expansions are generally happy with what they got; their complaints are about the lock-in and the cost.

Team ranked: leavers, lopsided matchmaking and cheatersMedium

Team-game players describe teammates who quit or go AFK in the first minutes with no penalty, which hands them a likely loss. One veteran wrote "80% of games end early - no matter if ranked or casual, because players leave." Others describe big skill gaps between teams; one said "I'm level 40 ish and I get matches with people under level 50 on my team and people over level 200 on their team." In April 2025 one reviewer wrote that the developers had hidden opponents' ranks, so players could no longer see or avoid mismatches. Map hacking and cheating appear in FFA and ranked complaints ("It's difficult to go even a match or two in a row without cheaters on FFA Nomad."), though other reviewers say an anti-cheat update in late 2024 cleaned much of it up. Toxic chat comes up less often.

Saves, progress and achievements broken by updatesMedium

Players report that updates invalidate saved games, that campaign progress and achievements fail to register, and that dailies, masteries, seasonal rewards and profile editing stopped working for them. "Hard to endorse a game that pushes required updates that break ALL your saved games," one wrote. Another says saves become unavailable after a few days, even in weeks without an update: "I consistently loose my saved games and no longer care to play it." Multiplayer games, including co-op against the AI, cannot be saved at all ("Not possible to save in custom casual multiplayer game is lame."), which makes long sessions risky.

No tactical pause or game-speed control in single playerMedium

Single-player fans want a tactical pause and speed settings, as earlier Age games had. "No tactical pause. Has been requested by many, but completely ignored by the devs," one wrote. A parent explained the stakes: "Not for parents.... the fact you can't pause the game v AI for longer then 30 seconds... makes it horrible when you have kids. Had to refund." A few others call the missing pause or speed setting a dealbreaker.

Anti-cheat that blocks single-player trainers and modsLow

Since an anti-cheat update that reviewers date to October 2024, offline and skirmish players have reported that tools like WeMod and Cheat Engine stopped working even in games against the AI, which ended the huge custom battles some of them played for. "If i want to use cheat's in a single player game that i paid for i should be able to do that," one wrote. These reviewers ask for an offline exception rather than the removal of anti-cheat online.

Camera, controls and pathingLow

Recurring smaller complaints include the limited camera zoom ("My only real complaint is how closely zoomed in the camera is."), unit pathing and units that chase into bad fights, missing unit stances, no building rotation, and menus that feel slow or cluttered.

Performance on older or mid-range PCsLow

Some players report memory leaks, stuttering in long matches and late-game slowdown; others say it runs smoothly even on older hardware.

Handheld session limitsLow

Steam Deck and other handheld players were angered by an update that, according to reviewers, limits any session that includes a handheld to four players and small maps: "With the new update, any game session that includes a handheld device, the game is limited to 4 players and micro/small maps."

Online requirement, no LAN and a fixed population capLow

A few players want offline play without an internet check, LAN multiplayer like the old games, and a population cap above 200 for big custom battles.

3. The player conversation

The tone is warm and nostalgic. Most of the positive reviews are short endorsements, and the longer ones come from Age of Empires II veterans or newcomers to RTS who say this game won them over. Negative reviews tend to be specific and often angry, and some open by saying the writer loves the game before listing what broke it for them.

Different groups raise different problems. Ladder players and team-game regulars write about balance, the siege overhaul, leavers, matchmaking, cheaters and reconnects. Single-player and co-op players write about the AI, pause, saves, campaign length and the anti-cheat blocking trainers. Negative reviewers with only a few hours most often compare it with Age of Empires II or III; others dislike the art style or could not get the game to launch.

The mood moved in waves tied to updates. Reviews from the last week of October 2024, when players were writing about the siege overhaul and the anti-cheat update, dipped sharply, with veterans protesting the patch while other players said the anti-cheat had banned map hackers. Reviews written from late 2024 through October 2025 recommend the game at 86%. In November 2025, as reviewers wrote about the Dynasties of the East DLC, a smaller dip followed, with complaints about an overpowered Golden Horde, Crucible crashes and lost progress. Reviews written between April and mid-October 2026 recommend it at 82%, as complaints about server problems in May and the handheld limits in June added to the long-running requests for reconnect, pause and better AI.

4. What the developers could do

1. Add reconnect and rejoin for crashed or disconnected players. The missing rejoin turns every crash or desync into a lost match or lost ranked points, and stability is the complaint negative reviews raise most often.
2. Keep saves and progress intact across updates, and allow saving multiplayer games. Reviewers lose campaign runs, achievements and progress after patches, and co-op players cannot save long games against the AI.
3. Penalize early leavers and tighten team matchmaking. Team-ranked players describe frequent early quits with no penalty and lopsided skill gaps, and some want opponents' ranks visible again.
4. Add a tactical pause and game-speed control to single player. Single-player and parent reviewers call the short pause they describe and the fixed game speed a dealbreaker.
5. Rework the skirmish AI's difficulty curve. Players describe AI that stalls after one attack on one setting and overwhelms them on the next, plus passive allies.
6. Test balance changes and new DLC civilizations more before release. The siege overhaul and overpowered launch civilizations each set off a wave of negative reviews from experienced players.
7. Make DLC less of a wall. Reviewers object to maps, civilizations and the Crucible mode sitting behind paid packs that are advertised in the menus, and to editions that do not make their contents clear.
8. Let offline single-player use trainers and mods, and lift the handheld session limits. Both were described as features players had and lost through an update.