"Luo Yonghao rolled out, Luo Yonghao really didn't plant, Luo Yonghao got out, Luo Yonghao really didn't plant..."
From PDD and TeD's "Return to the Golden Age of Strategy Games" documentary, to The strategic "blockbuster" starring Luo Yonghao, to the linkage of "Military Base Camp", the recent online activities of "Return to empire" are lively enough.
This hilarity is mapped to the player base, not only to the top of the iOS free list, but also to the spontaneous spread of people on social media.
I am really not afraid of being kicked out by the group owner
But to be reasonable, how to carry out operational activities is secondary, the key is how gameplay it is. The "out of line" of the game at the level of gameplay and its recent various operations "whole life" reveal the same characteristics.
Just like Lao Luo's performance, this SLG does not have to go through the grid. It is this "out of line" design that not only resolves the pain points of SLG's "selling coolies" paving the way, but also revitalizes the game's strategy and operation mechanism. Fighting with flexibility and freedom and strategy is also quite a bit of a strategic end of the game. In addition, as a full-free real-time strategy mobile game jointly produced by Goose Factory and Microsoft XGS, "Return to Empire" deeply restores the classic content of the "Age of Empires" series, and at the same time creates a multi-civilization battlefield with excellent game quality.
"That's the smell"
For IP adaptations, we usually judge them by the two-tier criteria of "shape-likeness" and "god-likeness". The shape seems to focus on "looking" is the basis of IP restoration; the god seems to focus on "playing", reflecting the distinctive characteristics and essence of IP, and is the sublimation of the degree of reduction. "Return to The Empire" through the classic graphics, sound effects, characters, gameplay and terriers to play a "combination of fist", in this area to achieve "both form and god".
Entering the game, whether it is the overall art style, high-definition screen, or architecture, terrain appearance, it has a visual sense of "Age of Empires 4". The workers in the main city who were busy collecting grain and cutting down trees, and the various soldiers marching and fighting on the big map, were also old acquaintances and old actors. In terms of sound effects, the game uses a lot of original materials, including the sound of bells (beeps) after construction. This direct restoration of the audiovisual experience can quickly evoke the memory of playing empire in the Internet café. And these are also the premises for retrieving the end-of-year travel experience.
As for the sense of the empire IP, it is mainly achieved by restoring the classic gameplay and operation. In the game, you can build a city freely like Duanyou, collect logging and mine, witness the power of development and the changes of the times, trade with other players, or meet with soldiers. Especially in terms of operation and combat, you can see some very "empire", but very unSLG mechanisms, such as like the end game, the army travels freely, which to fight... Thanks to the precise control of the IP gameplay characteristics, "Return to The Empire" brewed the original god intention on the mobile terminal - "that is the taste".
Liberty City Building
When the prompt of "logging and logging" comes down the fingertips, we seem to be back in the imperial battlefield more than a decade ago.
Flexible battlefield has to be "out of line"
Nowadays, "IP adaptation game" is like "Internet celebrity", which is regarded as a derogatory term by many people. It is no wonder that such games are full of a large number of garbage goods such as skinning money, "cutting leeks", and destroying IP. But dominated by emotions, we have many illusions about this kind of game. Therefore, every attempt is like trying luck between "Ye Qing Hui" and "Ye Qing Knot".
In my opinion, IP adaptation can be used as a feature and selling point of a game, but it must not be separated from the support of gameplay. Like many excellent IP adaptation games, "Return to Empire" is still a work of outstanding quality after putting aside IP and fading feelings - compared with the real battlefield of the current mainstream SLG, this game exerts its strength from the flexible dimension of operation and strategy to further make the real battlefield "come alive".
Illustration of Return to Empire, created by Craig Mullins, the "Father of CG Painting" and illustrator of the Age of Empires series
Unlike the traditional SLG's grid map, where fights pave the way first, Return to Empire combines RTS maps with marching mechanics. Players do not need to go through the grid to fight, they can "out of the box" enclave at will, and fight wherever they want, which enhances the degree of war confrontation. In contrast, the traditional SLG, that is like Lao Luo in the short film, "don't look at the difference, he just can't beat."
In addition, paving the road itself is a very livery and time-consuming thing. Just imagine, it takes 5 minutes to occupy a piece of land, and if you want to fight 10 extra enemies, you have to hit the grid, wait, hit the grid, wait, wait... 10 trips a week, 50 minutes of non-stop paving.
In addition to directly attacking the traditional SLG pain points, the free marching mechanism of "Return to Empire" also greatly releases the flexibility of the battlefield. You can swipe and change the route of your army flexibly. Not to exaggerate, fighting in this game is to fight for hand speed and operation. It is also in this rapidly changing and strategic game that you can feel the pleasure of commanding thousands of troops.
Combined with the simultaneous operation of multiple units and the easier class switching mechanism, I can feel that whether it is the innovation of gameplay, or the heavy punch against the current SLG pain points, or the reduction of the burden on the operation, it is hoped that with a faster pace and more intense battle situation, the player's time and energy will be focused on the confrontation itself, returning to the original fun of the strategy game.
Multiple units operate simultaneously
Of course, the flexible battlefield of the game is also inseparable from the credit of the picture and the degree of realism. Since the birth of video games, developers have been constantly pursuing more realistic graphics expression, hoping to enhance the sense of substitution of games. Such is true of the hot SLGs on the market today, and Return to Empire is no exception.
Thanks to high-precision modeling and many black screen technologies, the game's picture quality, light and shadow effects and sense of object material are quite outstanding. There you can see the rugged texture of the majestic mountains; see the water and light of the rushing river; see the delicate and realistic grass and trees of the vast plains; see the flow of day and night, the overlapping of the four seasons, the rain and snow... "Return to the Empire" is not only a battlefield of bloody battles, but also a realistic and flexible living world.
It is worth mentioning that here you have to beware of your own eyes being deceived – the grass can be hidden. So on this battlefield, you have to be careful of the grass and beware of the "Old 6".
Explore SLG policy boundaries
Like many good SLG mobile games, Return to Empire uses classic strategy mechanics such as class restraint and martial arts skills. And on this basis, it is skillfully combined with its own characteristics to make the battlefield strategy more flexible and changeable.
For example, the organic combination of free marching and the restraint of the arms extends to the scheme of "praying mantis catching cicadas and yellow finches in the rear" - you hit my long sword soldier with a bowman, but you don't know that it is just a decoy of 1 strength, and my knight is ambushed in the grass on both sides.
Divine operations such as "I prejudged your prejudgment" are the most common in "Return to the Empire", and its strategic charm and the excitement of the engagement can be imagined. Of course, the free march itself is a very good strategic mechanism. Tactics such as luring the king into the urn, attacking the west with sound, encircling Wei to save Zhao, and taking advantage of the fire to rob him would be staged countless times a day in the battlefield.
At the same time, the deep combination of martial arts skills and real-time battlefield dynamics not only restores the war scenes and highlights the rapid changes in the battlefield, but also supports the melee of multiple armies, and even allows the generals to play the skill Combo and achieve a headwind reversal. This kind of realistic, multi-unit combination of strategic engagement mechanisms is almost unseen in the past SLGs.
Speaking of unique strategic mechanics, the multi-city gate city design of "Return to the Empire" is also one.
Each city in the game has 4 gates in the east, west, south and north, and can be used as a breakthrough in siege. This means that the city is no longer a point on the map, but a multi-dimensional real battlefield that can be attacked on all sides. Compared with the traditional SLG's "point" city pool, this upgrade from "point" to "surface" not only restores the real battlefield siege experience, but also raises the strategic dimension of game confrontation.
In Return to the Empire, we can see both the inheritance of classic strategic mechanisms and bold innovations such as the design of multiple city gates. Whether it is from the depth or breadth of strategy, this game is exploring the boundaries of SLG's gameplay, bringing you and me a more flexible and intense strategic confrontation experience.
epilogue:
As a genuine authorized mobile game of "Age of Empires", "Return to Empire" has built a grand battlefield with an original and full of imperial IP flavor, flexible battlefields that do not take grids and real terrain, three-dimensional city battles, flexible strategies that can play Combo, and game quality that is refined and deeply polished.
If you're a veteran of Age of Empires, or want to try a different SLG, or simply be drawn to Lao Luo's fun short films, you might as well try Return to Empire for yourself.