TA is the sort of game that I find refreshing whenever I get a little burnt out on games. It's definitely got places where it shows its age, but it and its successors just feel right in a way that a lot of other strategy games don't.

Its resource economy is probably one of the best elements: I don't think there's another strategy game out there (barring its successors) that handles the system so fluidly. It almost feels more like a grand strategy game like Europa Universalis or Stellaris in the fact that you're more setting goals than making transactions, and you don't need to micro it as much as you do in something like Age of Empires.