Age of Ensemble, Part 3: The Closing Chapters
12/18/2008 7:34 PM | 9 Comments | Page 5 of 5
Brian Reynolds is too big a fan of the series to see it end. "I certainly hope someone will get a chance to continue the Age series at some point -- they're some of my favorite games of all time, and I'd love to see both a 20th-century
Age IV game and a revisit to the ancient times of the first AoE using updated game mechanics, art, technology, and so forth."
Former
Computer Gaming World editor Jeff Green gives voice to many in his disbelief that Ensemble and its games will be separated. "I still can't quite get over the fact that Ensemble is gone or that Microsoft would do this to them. For many PC gamers, Ensemble was the jewel in the crown, the proof that Microsoft still gave a damn about PC gaming. For me personally, Age of Empires remains the RTS series I've played more than any other, and is also the one I've used most as a gateway to turn others on to the genre. Non-hardcore gamers who were afraid of
StarCraft's sci-fi or
WarCraft's fantasy could more easily accept Age of Empires' more 'realistic' setting, which right from the start was always beautifully realized in terms of art, animation and sound. And I will forever love them for introducing the 'idle peasant' button, which everyone else copied later."
Ensemble is proud that none of its games has ever sold less than two million copies. You can point to each title on its résumé and identify how it either moved real-time strategy games forward in significant ways or embraced the state of the art in the genre. They have a design that is immediately identifiable and distinct from the other giants in the field -- Blizzard, Relic and Electronic Arts.
But budgets and bottom lines have little regard for originality and no time for gratitude. As the Age games got more sophisticated and more attractive, they took longer to make. The corporate push -- from Microsoft, from within Ensemble and from a rabid fan base -- to keep the series going may have kept the team from diversifying its brands and skill set. Even the built-in hit of
Halo Wars, already late according to Dave Pottinger, is not enough to ensure the team continues.
And
Halo Wars, even though it is an Ensemble game, will not be the sort of game that they are known for. Tom Chick thinks it is an odd game to close on, given their legacy of elaborate economic/military games. That is how they will close, though, putting a period on an era that began with villagers trying to bring down an elephant and priests chanting cures over injured soldiers.
