I can finally talk about the game I’ve been playing for the past few weeks as the non-disclosure agreement has been lifted. It turns out that Age of Empires Online was the secretive project that Robot Entertainment had been working on, originally called Project Spartan.
Any fan of the series will immediately be able to tell where Age of Empires Online gets its pedigree from. Looking at gameplay and the historial period covered, Age of Empires Online seems to be a hybrid between the very first Age of Empires game released and Age of Mythology except with a few twists and many refinements.
You can also see heavy inspiration taken from Age of Empires III with the concept of a Capital city and plenty of gameplay additions from that release. However, whereas Age of Empires III was criticised for slowing down the gameplay, this has been rectified in Age of Empires Online. It almost feels as fast as the great classic, Age of Empires II.