Age of Empires is one of the best real-time strategy franchises in gaming, bar none! However, the content in this franchise is not endless and any big fan is bound to run out of AoE playthrough eventually. That creates a high demand for games like Age of Empires that would satisfy the needs of real-time strategy action that many fans of the genre have. Creating your own army, building a home base that would be able to survive attacks from the fearless foes, managing your resources, and going to war – all of these are essential qualities for any real-time strategy title!
Age of Empires is a franchise developed by Hidden Path Entertainment that has captured all of the qualities mentioned before and got the most out of it, hence its incredible popularity. The titles that you will find below have managed to do much of the same! Those games like Age of Empires are not necessarily similar in the way that they look but rather in the same feel of excellence that they radiate, providing some of the best RTS experiences in the world of gaming today!
Age of Mythology
Let’s start off the list with the obvious pick. Age of Mythology is essentially a spin-off from Age of Empires with a lot of the same development decisions being made in both games, as ought to be expected from two games that have essentially the same developing team behind them. Out of all games like Age of Empires, this one is most definitely the most similar one!
Essentially, it is the same game, however, Age of Mythology greets the payer with a mythological setting instead of the more realistic one you may be used to in AoE. You will be able to add creatures such as Minotaurs and Cyclops to your army, choosing creatures of myth as leaders, and face off against Kraken himself in a fierce battle! If you are looking for games like Age of Empires that would have mechanics and the whole gameplay as similar as possible, this ought to be your pick!
Warcraft 3
This masterpiece by Blizzard deserves a list of games like Warcraft 3 by itself! It is easily one of the best single games in the world of real-time strategy, no matter how much different it is from the game we are comparing it to in this list! It offers a much more otherworldly experience as nothing in the world of Warcraft 3 resembles the real world whatsoever!
Yes, it is quite an old game, being released all the way back in 2002. However, this giant among other games like Age of Empires has received a massive update as recently as 2018 which made the game compatible with the modern gaming monitors and made it look like a modern game, with the graphics being upgraded as well! With those changes now in place, Warcraft 3 is still one of the most enjoyable experiences in the genre right now!
Cossacks 3
Even though it was released as recently as 2016, Cossacks 3 is very much an old-school RTS experience developed by GSC Game World. It is essentially an HD rework of the first game in the franchise that was released way back in the early 2000’s and was one of the original games like Age of Empires back in the day. Unlike the first two games in the list, this one has a much more real-world experience, taking the player back to medieval times, much like the beloved AoE!
As expected from a game of its kind, you gather all sorts of resources, control regular workers, build your town, build a powerful army and go to war in a bid to dominate the whole surrounding area! The game features some of the largest scale battles ever seen in a real-time strategy title! If you wanted to take the size of the battles up a notch, this is the one among the games like Age of Empires that you should be looking at!
StarCraft II
Much like Warcraft 3, this amazing RTS title truly deserves a list of its own, comparing other games to the excellence found in this Blizzard title. Not only is it a great real-time strategy experience, but it is also one of the best eSports games of all time, one that was among the starting fathers in the whole scene of eSports! Playing the StarCraft II online is a free-to-play experience as well, meaning that you won’t even have to spend a penny in order to get a taste of the experience!
In order to get into the single-player campaigns for this game in the list of games like Age of Empires you will have to pay for the experience. However, if single-player RTS campaigns are your thing, it is much more than just worth the money! It provides a futuristic, outer space experience, something that you can’t get from any other game of this list! It is the best game if you want to take a tour away from the medieval RTS experience and test your skills in the future!
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6
Firaxis Games and 2K Games have teamed up once again with a goal to release one of the best strategy games in the industry today. With a team like that, there is no way that they could not end up succeeding! The result is not only another one of games like Age of Empires, it is one of the best games in the genre right now! It presents a classic style strategy game in a modern manner to capture the attention of both old school gamers and the flow of new ones coming in every day!
Once again, the idea is simple – gather resources, build a city, build an army, manage workers, etc. The way that it is pulled off, however, is pure game developing magic, keeping the player immersed and making them lose all track of time and space! Go back in time and witness history once again in a truly magical experience that deserves to be compared to games like Age of Empires!
The games above are all vastly different, each containing a very unique, one of a kind experience! There is no point in replicating the very same thing over, and over again. It simply gets old! Instead, you can immerse in different strategy experience, all of which carry the same aura that only great games have!
