Age of Empires Online is a spinoff in the Age of Empires series that was released on August 16, 2011. The game (a RTS and MMORPG hybrid), made by Gas Powered Games and later Robot Entertainment (composed by former Ensemble Studios employees), is intended to enable players "to create a living, growing online world, shared with friends and friendly rivals around the globe, while players can develop their own persistent online civilization, which grows even when the player is offline and watch as it progresses from a village to an empire. They can embark on quests along the way, alone or with friends, and to "immerse themselves in epic tales, quirky characters, adventure, history and strategy". The game also includes added Live Achievements. Initially released with just the Greek civilisation, the Egyptians, Persians, Celts, Babylonians and Norse have since been added. The free-to-play model has also been revamped, allowing persistent players to earn in-game currency to purchase paid content without paying a dime.
On January 3, 2013, it was announced on the official blog that Online would have no further content added, though support will be continued for the game. Online was shut down on July 1, 2014. Before that date, it was widely believed that Microsoft would shut down the Games for Windows — Live service (which Online relied upon) that same day, but the company later announced in June 2014 that only AoEO is shutting down that day, not the entire GFWL service.
In between the closure and the announcement, no new players could join nor could the premium currency be purchased with real money, though it could still be earned in-game by users already present. However, in 2017, an independent group of developers, using Microsoft's publicly-released development kit under a non-commercial license from Microsoft, revived AoEO in the form of Project Celeste, a server emulator that features all the content and online features that was released in the game's official lifespan, with the team planning to add the unreleased Roman civilization based on what was provided before the shutdown. A year after the release of the Romans, the developers have revealed that they are currently working on creating and releasing the Indians as the eight playable civilization. Project Celeste can be installed using either the old Steam installation for AoEO or a standalone version.
The game's official website can be found here, while the community forums can be found here.
Tropes being used include:
- Age of Titles: Continues the trend from the previous Age of Empires games, obviously.
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: The Neanderthals were going to be added as a playable culture... if it wasn't an April Fool's joke. While it obviously was just humor, this probably is a Mythology Gag to the original Age of Empires game which starts off the player as a caveman in the Stone Age before successfully developing into a mighty Iron Age civilization.
- Allegedly Free Game: Was this upon launch, with new civilizations and even basic game features (like PvE and skirmish mode) being either behind a paywall or they required obscene Level Grinding. However a year before getting shut down, this game had "Empire Points" which served as ingame currency that remedied the problem. Thankfully, Project Celeste does away with this and now the game is completely free to play.
- Amazon Brigade: Celtic Headhunters are the sole female military unit in the game.
- Anachronism Stew: Granted this game focuses on Antiquity, however this is a very large and vague time period. The first notable example is the Norse vikings which are from the Medieval Ages though they could possibly be stand-ins for the Germanic tribes people that inhabited Europe during the times of ancient Greece and Romenote Also the Babylonians are co-existing with the (Zoroastrian) Persians and Romans, despite being disposed by the former in 540 BC and their empire fell way before the latter was founded in 27 BC. To say nothing of the Egyptians, who are mostly based off Dynastic Egypt which was ancient even to the Greeks and Romans themselves.
- Due to attempting to encapsulate as broad a time period as possible, civilizations will often have elements drawn from vastly different points in antiquity regardless of which section they are focusing on. For example, while the Greeks are based on Classical Greece, their campaign takes place in The Trojan War while their Advisor units are all from the time of Alexander the Great and the Successor Kingdoms on the other end of the timeline. Meanwhile, the Romans predominantly focus on The Roman Empire, but their campaign focuses on the early Republic while involving figures from the late Republic like Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
- The campaigns are another example especially when compared to each other. The Greek campaign culminates in The Trojan War (1194-1184 BC), the Egyptian campaign follows King Narmer of the First Dynasty (around 3150 BC), the Celtic Campaign ends with the Gallic Invasion of the Balkans and the Siege of Delphi (279 BC), and the Roman Campaign primarily focuses on the founding of The Roman Republic (specifically before the Gallic Sack of Rome in 390 BC), but features figures from late in the Republic's existence such as the First Triumvirate (Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus) and Mark Antony (59-31 BC).
- April Fools' Day: Provides much of humor for the game's developers, e.g. the announcement of new civilizations like the Carthaginians, Scythians, Chinese and Olmecs. However, sometimes the hoax is actually genuine such as the addition of the ancient Hindus as a playable culture.
- Art Shift: This game is more cartoonish than the previous titles, whose graphics (prior to their Definitive Editions) are outdated because they are a product of their time with Age of Mythology being a spinoff (and the first attempt in the series at 3D graphics) while Age of Empires III is the most realistic looking due to the advancement in graphics technology.
- Artistic License – History: Due to the more cartoonish and stylized aesthetic, certain historical elements are not portrayed accurately.
- Somatophylakes are portrayed as Greek Versions of Roman Legionaries (with their respective Advisor being named Matius, a Roman-sounding name). The historical Somatophylakes were the bodyguards of Greek generals and did not necessarily resemble Legionaries. While there were several later Greek and Macedonian attempts to emulate the Romans, they did not necessarily emulate them to that extent.
- Pezhetairoi were Macedonian food soldiers known for wielding long sarissa pikes, but their in-game portrayal more closely resembles the Greeks as depicted in 300. A unit that more closely resembles the historical Pezhetairoi is the Phalanx.
- Hetairoi wield torches rather than xyston lances, with the only possible explanation being it serving as a nod to their role as building destroyers in Age of Mythology.
- Gaesatae are portrayed as poisoned Javelin Throwers. The historical Gaesatae were not associated with using Poisoned Weapons.
- Despite being based on Dynastic Egypt, the Egyptians have access to War Elephants and Siege Engines such as Siege Towers and Catapults, despite the fact that they only began using them under the much later Ptolemaic Dynasty. As a matter of fact, every civilization has access to Palintonons with the exception of the Celts and Norse.
- On that note, to make up for their lack of Palintonons the Celts and Norse instead have literal Stone and Log Throwers respectively, which are literal strongmen who push around carts laden with stones or logs which they then throw at buildings. It's safe to say this is outright implausible in real life and would make even less sense than giving them Palintonons to begin with.
- Cap: Level 40 is the maximum a player can reach. This originally very hard to do and players with low levels that played against more experienced (or more willing to spend money) ones got quickly squished. Because of this, later updates made it so that levels are meaningless in PvP mode which improved the game into being significantly more balanced.
- Color-Coded Item Tiers: In order from worst to best: Uncommon (Green), Rare (Blue), Epic (Purple) and Legendary (Orange). Please keep in mind though, only the first tier is shared between all the playable civilizations— the higher tiers are unique between the different cultures.
- A Commander Is You:
- Greeks: Balanced/Generalist. The Greeks have a balanced roster of units, especially in the infantry department. Their military tends to be well armored and strong if a bit expensive. Fortunately their economy is also easy to manage.
- Egyptians: Spammer/Technical. The Egyptians must build specific Temples to age up, which not only provide unique technologies but also allow them to recruit special priest units with unique abilities. While most of their initial units are weak, they also have access to War Elephants in the late game.
- Persians: Ranger/Gimmick. The Persians have a diverse array of ranged units such as Immortals to War Wagons which are reinforced by powerful cavalry such as Cataphracts. They also have unique Toggle Techs that they can research at the Academy, which buff certain capabilities while weakening them in others.
- Celts: Brute/Technical. The Celts boast strong heavy infantry such as Woad Raiders and Champions backed by priests such as Druids and Augurs capable of bestowing potent buffs. Despite their focus, they also have capable ranged units such as the Gaesatae and Longbowmen, though these are locked behind Advisors. However, their siege capabilities are limited, and unlike other civilizations they do not get cavalry until Age III and have only one kind of warship.
- Babylonians: Economist. The Babylonians have a predominantly economic playstyle, with their Ox Carts acting as mobile drop sites and their Gardens being able to trickle resources.
- Norse: Brute. The Norse also specialize in strong heavy infantry such as Throwing Axemen, Berserkers, and Ulfhednar who can also build structures. They excel at rushdown strategies, as they start with two different Scouts instead of one to allow them to explore the map faster and their unique Outposts are able to train War Dogs. Also like the Celts, their siege capabilities are weak, though their navy is a little better.
- Romans: Balanced/Elitist. The Romans have a flexible roster that revolves around a core of strong heavy infantry backed by auxiliary troops and powerful siege weapons, though the rest of their roster is not as good as that of the Greeks. They also have unique officer units that can buff surrounding units while holding themselves in combat, but are limited in quantity.
- Indians: Economist/Unit Specialist/Gimmick. The Indians specialize in War Elephants, even having their own unique building from which to train them, but the rest of their roster is quite limited as a result. Their Plantations are larger than regular Farms and can support two Villagers at once, they cannot gather from herdables but instead can task them onto Shrines to generate resources and spawn Monkey units, and their Gatherer Elephants gather much faster than Villagers. Lastly, like the Persians they possess mutually exclusive technologies they can research at the Monastery which can allow them to adapt to any situation.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Continuing the series tradition, each of the playable civilizations have Wonders- very large special buildings that can win a match if they aren't destroyed after a time limit. Wonders are based on real-world historical monuments build from (plus heavily associated with) said culture.
- The Greeks have the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.
- The Egyptians have the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- The Persians have the Gate of All Nations in Persepolis.
- The Celts have the druidic Tree of Life, surrounded by a Stonehenge-esque circle of stone megaliths.
- The Babylonians have the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, with a golden winged lion statue on top.
- The Norse have a large archetypical Dragonship (but obviously its placed on solid land instead).
- The Romans have the obligatory Colosseum (without any gladiator fights inside however).
- The Indians have the Great Stupa in Sanchi, a large circular Buddhist shrine made during the Mauryan empire's reign.
- Historical Domain Character: This game has Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon, Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Archimedes, Narmer, Cleopatra, Imhotep, Darius the Great, Brennus (the one who sacked Delphi, though a Quest Pack makes him a Composite Character with the one who sacked Rome), Coriolanus, Boudicca, Vercingetorix, Nebuchadnezzar, Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Mark Antony, Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Hannibal Barca and many others appearing as quest giving NPCs.
- Holiday Mode: What happens when there is a holiday like Christmas and Halloween is that players receive ingame cosmetic awards related for that day. Halloween for example gets jack-o-lantern pumpkins and ghostly statues, while Christmas gets decorated trees and snowmen.
- Instant Gravestone: Whenever a human unit dies, they will instantly transform into a gravestone which disappears after a few seconds. Complete with little white flowers on top (because they are pushing up daisies, get it?).
- Quick Melee: There are some elite and special units that can switch between ranged and melee attacks on the go, though of course the developers have made sure they are balanced gameplay-wise.
- Rags to Riches: The Egyptian village worker from this video trailer replaces the tooth he lost in a Greek raid with a golden one in the cinematic's end when he builds a new city and becomes a general.
- Shown Their Work: Despite the cartoony art style plus the Anachronism Stew mentioned above, the developers (being Ensemble Studios members) have done research to make the civilizations as historically accurate (even if gameplay clashes with this) as possible. This continues even with the game being closed by the original developers and then revived by the Project Celeste fans, the Indians are the first civilization added and made entirely by the fan community with one member being an expert on India's history and even hiring a cultural consultant helping make the ingame ancient Indians authentical.
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Spiritual Successor: Could be seen as this to the very first Age of Empires I game, and to a lesser degree Age of Mythology despite lacking the ancient mythological deities and legendary creatures. - Technology Levels: Copper, Bronze, Silver and lastly Golden Age. The buildings and units' clothes increase in size and become also visually more elaborate.
- War Elephants: Available to the Egyptians, Persians and Indians/Hindus.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: Food, Wood, Gold and Stone returning from the first two games.
