Some positives first.
- Innovative mechanics and lots of scenarios.
I don’t think there’s much to say about these. They try new things within this sandbox without offending competitive players. I’m personally a bit interested in the potential new mechanics of water combat. If their experiments yield desirable results, the mechanism may be imported back into AoE2 itself. Hopefully one day the Fire Ship may become a Byzantine UU and there may be a new boarding warship to serve other civs.
I saw that the interface of campaigns is very different from the traditional one, so I guess there must be something different. Perhaps, the results of the previous scenario would affect subsequent scenarios, for example, if you complete certain objectives in this scenario, you may have unique advantages in the next scenario, etc. If this is true, the replay value will be greatly improved, and the large number of achievements is not surprising.
- “Chronicles” may become a new series itself.
The title of this DLC is “Chronicles: Battle for Greece”. Chronicles is the main title, and Battle for Greece is the subtitle. This means that if the response is good, there may be new sub-games also with Chronicles as the main title in the future, making it a series. Battle for Greece makes two Greek city-states into playable civs, which may also mean that the Chronicles series will be more suitable to focus on wars within the same culture than the AoE2 itself. For example, “Chronicles: the Three Kingdoms” would bring at least 3 new civs such as Wei, Shu, and Wu; “Chronicles: the Daimyos” would allow the samurai clans to present the Sengoku Period by their respective own civs; “Chronicles: the Heptarchy” brings the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms as various civs to present pre-Norman history.
Then, a few negatives.
- Sub-games that are not consistent with the theme of the main game.
Chronicles, like RoR, focuses on antiquity. These sub-games conflict with the main theme of AoE2 that emphasizes the Middle Ages, which puts games in the franchise that emphasize the same era as them may be in an awkward position. Apparently people were discussing AoE1DE’s situation when RoR was launched. We see this happening again.
(At least some) people feel that these sub-games do not belong in AoE2. In fact, they exist in AoE2DE just to take advantage of its engine, some graphical assets, and market size. They are borrowing the kitchen equipment and ingredients from a French restaurant to serve Chinese cuisine instead of opening another Chinese restaurant. Or, imagine that Nintendo introduces Pokémon sub-games as DLCs in The Legend of Zelda (Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom) because the engine is so amazing.
Like opening a jar of worms. Perhaps one day we may see the Dutch Revolt, the Napoleonic Wars, and the American Revolution in AoE2DE. Who knows.
- The embarrassment of Return of Rome.
Now, RoR looks like a crude copy of AoE1DE based on AoE2DE’s engine. Despite the addition of Lac Viet and new campaigns, RoR lacks a large number of old campaigns and cannot establish more distinct differences and uniqueness from AoE1DE. In comparison, through innovative mechanics, Chronicles has the antiquity theme of AoE1 (RoR) and the gameplay and structure based on AoE2, but is different enough from them to bring its own flavor.
In my opinion, the existence of sub-games is already embarrassing. Ironically, RoR embarrassed AoE1DE, while Chronicles embarrasses RoR. If possible, the thing should be to bring engine upgrades to AoE1DE (even though this is arduous work, but it is good for long-term operation), so that AoE2DE does not have to have an antiquity-themed sub-game, and then develop an independent game like “Age of Chronicles”, using the same or better engine than AoE2.
- No real extensions for AoE2.
People have believed for months that AoE2 would be getting a big expansion, yet this DLC doesn’t seem to actually expand anything beyond graphics for the main game of AoE2. In comparison, RoR at least brings the Romans to AoE2 players.
I’m not sure yet if the Chronicles civs will only exist in the sub-game like the RoR civs, or if they will also be available in casual rooms in the main game. I personally hope it’s the former, because the Chronicles civs are structurally different from AoE2 civilizations, and thematically very inappropriate. (One can tentatively argue for the Romans in the early Middle Ages, but not at all for the Athenians, Spartans, and Achaemenids.) If it is the latter, it means that the developers would rather introduce 3 new antiquity civs that do not fit the AoE2 theme, rather than 3 generally expected new medieval civs from East Asia, Africa, or the Americas.