During the PC Gaming Show at E3 2017, Microsoft and developer Forgotten Empires announced that the two are working together to bring the original Age of Empires to modern PCs. This will not simply be a port of the original game, however, but rather a spiritual revival of the original with all-new visuals.
So as to honor the game’s 20th anniversary, the idea is to recapture the feeling of playing the original real-time strategy (RTS) game rather than simply recreate the original game whole-cloth.
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To that end, this retelling of the first Age of Empires story will feature completely updated graphics, animations and textures that will support up to 4K resolutions. Plus, the soundtrack has been completely remastered and, to support modern online play, the game has multiplayer over Xbox Live.
The new Age of Empires development team has also promised to have refined key gameplay mechanics for the sake of modernization. For instance, animations have seen an increase from four directions to 32, changing some strategic considerations.
Age of Empires for PC will arrive later this summer, and you can sign up for public beta access right here.
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