AOE2 would be a big failure if it came out in 2018

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1

Everybody who played aoe2 knows the magic about it. It is the fact that it probably was one of the first multiplayer games you played with friends on LAN or with your dial in modem etc. Besides that it is well known that the music you hear around age 12 to 16 is going to be your music taste for live. The same could be the case with gaming as well.

The problem is that the technology of today is insane and the beautyfull games, together with good storytelling, create a ton of emotions (and adrenalin rushes) in gamers that simply can’t be made by (most) RTS games. And that may make RTS games something of the past. At least for somebody who is 14. What will he choose? The Witcher3 or aoe2? Battlefield 5, or aoe2, or Fortnite with a very big world event with a rocket launching in the midst of a 100 player battle?

I was watching a livestream of the current aoe2 tournament and i realised that it wouldn’t stand a chance against modern day games at all. Here are some reasons for it:
-It takes 20 minutes (for pro gamers) to get a decent battle going. Someone with ADHD won’t last longer then a few minutes watching it.
-The game looks are 3 out of 10 in any modern day review (even in HD, probably).
-The civs are very shallow, especially if you compare it to starcraft’s terran, protoss and zerg
 Every battle in aoe2 feels like a mirror match.

  • Modern day players want something spectacular to happen, things to explode, something they have never seen before (aliens, sci fi etc), a story that feels like watching a movie etc.

The total war series and starcraft deliver something spectaculair, will aoe4 be able to compete?

Those adrenalin junkies want something spectacular to happen on the screen!!

Hopefully aoe4 will do something spectacular.

2

Not sure what your point is and why you posted this here. So a game from '99 with obsolete graphics wouldn’t be a total hit if it were released today? Wow, mind blown!

Actually many intelligent people would choose AoE2 over some dumbed down handholding consolized games when you think about it.

Good luck with your Michael Bay movies, lol.

7 Likes
3

Color me puzzled as well. I still keep coming back to AOE 2 to this day, and lament the fact that there are simply no other RTS games with such a nice balance between combat and simple city building. Yes, there are titles that excel at one or the other, but AOE 2 is neat for how it does both well.

I also get confused when people keep bringing Starcraft up in this forum. This game was NEVER meant to be like Starcraft in particular. In fact, I’m pretty sure the original mandate was for “Civilization with a dash of Warcraft” (which ended up going a little in reverse). It’s also not meant to be a fast paced game.Neither, for that matter, is a proper Total War game if you factor in its empire building layer. So
again, where does the question of “well Starcraft makes for better streaming because of speed!” come in?

Furthermore, on the subject of streaming; no, I don’t think most of the AOE community is especially pining for a streamable game. It may not be a terrible thing, but most here play the game for fun on its own, not for the sake of streamed tournaments. Personally, I’d be just as happy with a game that’s fun and takes its theme a bit more seriously than Starcraft, which is only concerned with being an E-sport vaguely dressed up as a scifi warzone.

I also found battles to be way more dynamic if you’re facing off against someone who knows what they’re doing. Sieges in particular can be tons of fun.

Graphics? Yeah, they’re from 1999. AOE 3 however, still looks pretty neat, and it’s sort of a given that AOE 4 will use a modern engine, so again, not sure what the point is there. AOM and AOE 3 both looked pretty good when they came out, and yes, both had a fair bit of flash factor.

TL;DR: AOE is not, and never was, trying to be in the same sector as StarCraft. It does not need to be any more than Ground Control needed to be in Command & Conquer’s territory, nor any more than Rainbow Six ever needed to face off against DOOM.

4

What are you saying? A game with an old mechanics would not be any good? If so, then know RTS is another genre besides point n click where innovation didn’t happen that much. And frankly it doesn’t need innovation, they are fine without it, otherwise it will be a MOBA. And offcourse, Age 2 is bit dated, but compare to the rts of its time, it is still strong. Look at its competitive, they are all forgotten.

2 Likes
5

Yes AOE 2 is old, but it is still gold. I don’t think it will be failure. It will still have a crowd who enjoys classic RTS gameplay.

1 Like
6

I don’t want kids in my RTS game they are better in forints or GTA Online.

You can play another RTS like Empires Apart or AoEO have that 14 years old friendly. Even no blood.

Modern day games
 my god they are so boring, mostly of them and unfinished.
Total war delivers Red shell spyware, lol.

I want more modern rats but still keeping old school.

1 Like
7

Not that kids pay any attention to age ratings (I never did), but GTA5 is 17+ in N. America and 18+ in Europe, so it’s not - legally - aimed at kids. AoE IV will be PG or local equivalent and a lot of kids will buy it anyway.

How old were you when you played your first AoE game? How old were you in 1997 and 1999?

I was a kid when the first two games were released and enjoyed them; I learnt a lot from them and they helped me really get interested in History, as well as being very fun and addictive games.

Don’t be so quick to judge ‘kids’ playing AoE games – to some extent they’re self-vetting by nature.