Campaigns are Lifeless

The thing I was looking forward to the most in this whole game was the campaigns. Especially when it was the most marketed thing. However, it’s been the biggest disappointment out of everything in the game. I don’t fault the narrator at all because she did a great job in trying to make it interesting. But listening to history in one UK accent tone, hearing her pronounce everything wrong is so cringe worthy. I’m so glad the cinematic s are more than just golden wireframe theatrics. You have people acting out as characters.

But having just this narrator constantly talking adds no depth to story. It just feels like a learning tutorial for each civ.

Just like in Age of Mythology you have the learning tutorial with the narrator telling you exactly what to do.

And it doesn’t help at all that when you get into the game, instead of some amazing voice acting of the characters leading you through the story, you have these boring, tutorial style mission pop ups. I cannot believe such a uncreative campaign was the main focus of the marketing. Did you not get inspired by the amazing campaign narrations of the past? Especially AoM and AOE III? I waslooking forward to Joan of arc speaking in her French accent. Or Subotai with his mongol accent. I don’t mind you have that documentary style cinematics, But then the ingame should do some creativity with the voice acting and the use of characters.
It does not make me excited to move forward in the mission. I’ve never felt this way in an AOE campaign instead of the learning campaigns.

There is no depth to this story. It’s shallow and lifeless. The biggest disappointment in this whole game.

Overall this game has been a very shallow experience for me.

  • Over simplified UI
  • Over simplified Units dipped in paint buckets of player colour
  • lifeless campaign.
  • Removal of fun physics and animation
  • Ghostly siege weapons

There’s nothing here for the single player or casual player to get immersed in or follow a story. It’s just shallow and empty.

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As a Brit, this is kind of funny to me. What’s wrong with the pronounciation?

There’s nothing here for you. This single player, relatively casual player is enjoying it just fine. And sure, you might predict that given my post history. But the reverse also applies, so let’s not turn this into a “you like it / dislike it because I knew you would”. My point here is you’re trying to talk for other people, and you shouldn’t.

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I’ll be honest with you.
The character voice acting in all the older games were pretty bad.
And at worst, bordered on being pretty offensive.

They’ve taken a documentary approach to telling a grand narrative of the civs we play so I think its fine to have a narrator explain what’s going on. I wouldn’t say the campaigns are “uncreative”.

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The way campaigns were done in the past made the topics so much more interest g. So many people got into history or mythology because of the way it was narrated. It was genius. And it made sense hearing Genghis Khan pronounces as “Chengis Han”

The way they did it, it was convincing that a French or a mongol was actually leading you through the story.

Lack of creativity and lack of depth.

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Are you the type to watch every international movie in an English dub? And watch them butcher all the names and everything?

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It made sense because we were playing very specific characters and their journey.
Plus the quality was pretty laughably bad. But it grew on us because of nostalgia + the goofiness of the games in general.

I love AoM but I would never say the voice acting was good quality lol. It still makes me chuckle today.

I don’t believe it!

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It’s nothing about the “nostalgia” if it’s the thin gthat sucked you into the game from the first time you played it.

That’s the thing. The voice acting IMMERSED you into the story. You were guided a long and you were doing things to forward the story. So and waiting for the next one just to see what happens.

It was exciting. I played AoM many many many times because of it. I never liked the multiplayer or single player of AoM. It was the campaigns for me.

Having someone tell you “oh btw this happened” and then just doing missions that feels like you are playing any old game is not what you call good story telling.

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Its a different type of storytelling.
You want specific characters playing in a setting, whereas the Aoe IV campaign is more about describing the history of the events and politics that took place.

The campaigns were great yes. But we seem to attribute different emotions to these memories. I don’t think the voice acting made it more immersive. It more felt like I was watching a goofy sitcom. The setting and characters and mechanics is what made things interesting for me.

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Interesting that I played AoM on portuguese when a child and the dub was very good.
Playing the original doesn’t give the same feeling. I think many others that doesn’t played it in English, would rather have strong memories of the dub. Even this Melagius cutscene.

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It’s not story telling. It’s just “here’s what happened, now play the game.

Like the learning campaigns.

Atleast the William of Wallace learning campaign in AOE II
Was more creative with William narrating.

The AoM learning campaign was boring af and something I never wanted to play again.

Why?

Because it was just likeAOE IV style.

I can’t be expected to speak for every language dub of the game lol.
I can only speak for the english one.

As i’ve stated many times. They are literally trying to teach history with the campaign. They aren’t bothering with theatrical displays because they want to display history in as accurate a fashion as possible.

If you’d rather have a more theatrical approach thats fine. But to say the other approach is “uncreative” is just wrong.

Arkantos fighting the Poseidon statue, and turning into a God.

Chiron’s death in the underworld.

It’s not the usual gameplay that made it exciting. It was the STORY

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like ok?
That stuff will never happen in a historical game lol.

This isn’t about the personal feelings of William the Conqueror or Henry etc.
Its about the large movements of history. That is why we don’t focus on those people as characters.

Once again you are fine to prefer a different type of storytelling.

Well in AOE II, the way they narrated the
Teuton soldier on his journey with saladin. Teaching you the ways of the saracens, taking you through the conquering of Jerusalem. And the voice acting in game guiding you through.

El cid, trying his best for his king and giving up his life for loyalty. Even though it was narrated by his wife, the king speaking to el cid, and the soldiers guiding along.

Or even La Hire’s famous but cheesy quotes.

Imagine La Hire’s lines in some UK English accent. I’d snore like insane.

That’s creativity.

Not playing a movie scene and then just playing standard games. That ain’t creative at all.

Hearing the soldiers dissapointment in the siege of Paris when the king only gives like 3 useless troops.

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La Hire’s famous and cheesy quotes aren’t historically accurate. That is the thing.
We have to create fictional characters out of historical figures because we actually have no idea about what they said, felt, and did in specific instances. We would literally have to be there to know.

And doing so, although entertaining, is not historically accurate.

You can’t arbitrarily decide what is creative or not. Documentaries are creative and fun to watch without needless inserting characters.

Just say you prefer a different type of storytelling. Or just that you dislike the approach the campaigns took. Its that simple.

I’m sorry, if I was going to go on a tirade of how many historically innaccurate things are already in this game, I’d just have to pick out all the things mentioned in previous forums, justified people as “omg it’s a game. They need to make it entertaining”

Prime example is Joan of Arc holding a sword.

If you wanna use that excuse, then it invalidates everything mentioned previously.

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Oh, sorry, I thought you meant the pronounciation of the regular English voiceover! My bad :slight_smile:

I haven’t reached that part of the campaign. And to my knowledge it is debatable.

It’s in the trailer, Joan of Arc charging down a hill with a sword.

There’s a forum that is closed with over 300 posts all debating this. The argument is more centered around the game being a game and not warranting 100% accuracy.

Even the devs talked about how it was an intentional design choice despite historical innacuracy.

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