Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition offers players a trial of this historical single & multiplayer RTS experience. *Note: To unlock all features of the game please see the “Base Game” product.
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is a strategy, base-building and rts game
developed by World's Edge, Tantalus Media and Forgotten Empires
and published by Xbox Game Studios.
Released on October 15th 2020 is available only on Windows
in 13 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese.
It has received 47,511 reviews of which 40,165 were positive and 7,346 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is free to play on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 version 18362.0 or higher
- Processor: Intel i3-2105 @ 3.1GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 973 with an average CPU Passmark score of 1830 or better
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GT 430, Radeon HD 5570, or Intel HD 4400 with an average Passmark G3D Mark of 570 or better @720p
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 42 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 2 GB VRAM
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
It's AoE III. If you haven't played the original: You get a solid historical strategy game with a fun mix of building and military gameplay, easy to get into in my opinion but with enough depth to keep you entertained for quite some time. There's a big pool of maps with different climate zones (including land, water and hybrid ones), and a good variety of historically inspired civilizations that all have some unique features that make them stand out from each other and keep the gameplay loop interesting. The game is fun both in singleplayer and in multiplayer, and there's also a story mode. As for the specifics: If you know how the original was, then you'll get better graphics, more maps and civilizations, the ability to form 4 teams instead of just 2, some interesting map-specific modes for multiplayer (such as Lost, where you start with essentially nothing and have to gather resources by looting treasure at first), new cosmetics for home cities (including those that didn't get any in the original), and AI that appears to be minimally smarter than before (the AI will now build forward camps, matches on higher difficulty settings are more challenging than in the original, and the AI is a bit pickier when it comes to giving you resources or following your commands - decide for yourself whether that's a plus or negative for you). You'll also get the usual: AI that still randomly decides to become completely useless and still can't handle water maps, and European civilizations that spam cannons as their main tactic on certain difficulty settings. Some further changes in the Definitive Edition: The home city level system is purely about cosmetics now - all cards/shipments are unlocked by default. The new maps are nice for variety and do feel fun to play on, though a lot of them look somehow less natural and much more constructed in design than the originals. The UI is new and even the classic version doesn't look exactly like the original one; the new layout needed some getting used to but I like it now. There are new voice lines for the AI, and I appreciate that at least in my language (German), they kept the original voice actors for the characters, and the new characters are decent as well. The new civilizations have some interesting features and are largely fun to play (or at least try out). I got the DLCs on sale, and their additional civilizations and maps have also been worth it so far. Multiplayer technically works fine most of the time, but especially in long matches with the maximum of 8 players, there seems to be an increased risk for the match to become 'asynchronous' and essentially crash. The game will then attempt to relaunch the match if the host chooses to do so, but it can only be relaunched with the exact same number of players as were left in the lobby when it crashed, and the transfer of the save file (or whatever it is that happens there) takes an eternity, at least in my experience. So far I haven't experienced a successful relaunch after a match became asynchronous, which is quite frustrating. I also see players being disconnected due to connectivity issues quite frequently, but I couldn't say whether that's a game-side issue or just their Internet connection. I've been playing on servers that have a low ping for me and I didn't personally experience any disconnects so far. There are some quite unimmersive skins in the game, and for some reason the game still shows them even though I chose the option to deactivate them in the settings. No idea what that's about. Also, at least for me, profile picture unlocks do not work except for the free weekly choice. All in all I'd say while there still are some problems and I was skeptical in the beginning, I was overall still pleasantly surprised by the Definitive Edition and think it does improve on quite a few aspects of the original, enough so that it makes it feel fresh again. Just one disclaimer: It was essentially announced that the game won't be receiving any new content updates (after another DLC had been announced about a year ago, which is now cancelled). I'm giving my recommendation because I think the game is still fun and worth its price in its current state, but it should be made clear to new players that the game appears to be in maintenance mode from now on.
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Quick review time! This updated version of Age of Empires 3 is a superior product compared to the original. While the improvement in graphics might not feel as significant when compared to the jumps seen in other definitive edition games within the franchise, this version is still a considerable visual upgrade over the original. The game offers a higher fidelity to historical accuracy (changes in uniforms of soldiers, names of civilizations and naval units), a larger representation of nations in the Americas and Africa, and reworked revolutions that make them far more viable and engaging. Additionally, the revamped UI and rebalanced bonuses for civilizations are much-needed improvements, making previously less popular civilizations more appealing and enjoyable to play. I have always loved the more modern take on Age of Empires, and the concept of building my own industrial empire in a new world has always been fascinating for a strategy game. This will always remain my favorite title in the franchise.
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Greatest RTS game ever made. Beautiful graphics. Clever mechanics. Very cool card system and so so so many strategies being made and executed every single day.
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I like that Age of Empire III has consistently improved since the first iteration. When I first bought DE, I found it to be undifferentiated from the original with some glaring bugs and issues. Now, I play nearly everyday thanks to some awesome upgrades to the UI, patching, and other quality of life updates. I'm very excited for the upcoming expansion.
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My only gripe is that they made some *very* unnecessary changes in the campaigns, mainly revolving around the censoring of certain words or phrases used to describe certain people. Like, I get that you want to be inclusive and otherwise show that you're not racist, but not only does it take away from the experience (especially since some of the censors are painfully obvious); it also makes it feel out of place with the time period this game is set in. So what if that's inaccurate or offensive by today's standards? You could always show a notice when you first boot up the game expressing that such stuff is not okay, and keep it in for the sake of authenticity; there's no need to do this censor BS that very clearly was thrown in last-minute, and is so obvious that it ruins some of the key moments of dialogue. Other than that, it still plays as well as I remember it, and I'm glad the gameplay was (mostly) untarnished.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 08 April 2025 21:19 |
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| SteamSpy data | 12 April 2025 07:16 |
| Steam price | 08 April 2025 21:19 |
| Steam reviews | 12 April 2025 14:02 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition
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- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition compatibility
Online players
4,447
Developer
World's Edge,
Tantalus Media,
Forgotten Empires
Publisher
Xbox Game Studios
Release
15 Oct 2020
Platforms
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