I’d definitely recommend just brushing through the tutorial if you’re newer to the series, as it covers the very basics of troop movement - “well done,” booms my omniscient narrator as I move my main guy to the next flag objective - and those are key to AoE III. “Your explorer has just set foot in the new world,” the narrator bellowed, before shouting through the instructions. I’m a loyal fan of Age of Mythology and have less experience in the Empires area, so after gazing in awe at the beauty of the starting menu, I began by double-checking what was what in the tutorial - and realised I had the volume up a tad too high. Marching my armies across the snow in Alaska leaves a fading trail of footprints, and the whole game seems so much more detailed that I can practically see each individual hair on Gentle Pete the Pet Bear, my friend and ally from the campaign. Each glistening ocean wave, the berries on the fruit bushes, the clumps of leaves and vegetation, are all represented with vivid, vibrant colours. That’s likely the first and strongest impression you’ll get when you start the game up, now that it’s arrived on Xbox Game Pass. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is beautiful.

Age of empires 3 gameplay