After 18 years, classic RTS Age of Empires 3 is now free-to-play, sort of

18 years after its original launch, the classic RTS Age of Empires 3 now offers a free-to-play version, bringing quite a bit of new life to the game's dedicated community.

Age of Empires 3 launched way back in 2005, taking the historical RTS series to the Americas for the first time. As part of a broader revival for the series in recent years, we got Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition in 2020, and that remaster continues to get support in the form of regular updates and even brand-new DLC packs.

Now, AOE3 Definitive Edition offers a free-to-play version on Steam that includes a lot - but not all - of the full game's feature set. It's a similar model to that of games like League of Legends that offer a rotating selection of characters to free players - here you get access to a rotating selection of civilizations, starting with the French, Haudenosaunee, and Russians. You can take those into both single-player and multiplayer games.

You can only host games on one of eight maps, but you can join games hosted by other players on any map. The one notable restriction to online play is that you can't join ranked games in the free version. If you want more crafted single-player content, though, your options in the free version are more limited. You'll only get access to one of the game's eight campaigns and one of the six historical battles.

You can get more details in the official announcement, or check out Reddit, where one fan has made a breakdown of what's available in each version of the game.

Time to revisit the best strategy games out there.