More information has emerged today on Age of Empire's latest reincarnation as a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online strategy game with upgradeable capital cities, player trading and co-op missions. Read on for details
The new info comes courtesy of GamesRadar's preview of the game. Every player in Age of Empires Online will have their own capital city that can be upgraded using resources mined from the local area. Resources and troops can then be traded with other players in neighbouring territories, and used to level up your township even further. A collection of single player missions can be completed to earn more resources, and a co-op mode will let you team up with a friend to take on neighbouring civilisations on the world map.
As well as growing your capital city, you can advance along the tech tree to unlock new items and bonuses that can be given to individual units, making them more powerful in combat. There are also single-use consumables earned in battle that can be used to heal and empower units at crucial moments, turning a rout into a victory. Two playable races have been revealed so far, the Greeks and the Egyptians. The races have different starting points, technologies and units to control.
The game will be free-to-play, but the highest level of the tech tree and customisable player versus player battles will be locked off to those who haven't upgraded their game to a premium account. There are also plans for expansion packs in the future.
For more information on the game, check out GamesRadar's preview. For screens and videos of the game's colourful art style, head over to the official Age of Empires Online site.
