This new update contains a substantial amount of content, and it is quite clear that some of it has received a great deal of care and attention. The units for the two new civilizations are a good example, as are the new mercenaries and Native units. In many cases, you can clearly see that the developers put thought and effort into the visual design.
But at the same time, some of the other new content is of a completely different quality. In some cases, “rough” or “rushed” barely seems strong enough to describe it. There is a striking gap in quality between these carefully designed additions and some of the other newly introduced units.
With that in mind, I want to give some feedback specifically on the unit visuals of the content outside the two full-fledged new civilizations.
Looking at these units, there are far too many cases where existing assets have simply been reused, combined, or recolored, often with very little attention to historical appearance or visual quality.
Take Meiji Japan as an example. The Meiji Restoration itself introduces some interesting gameplay mechanics, which I really like. However, apart from the Musketeer, most of the units are basically reused assets, and the correspondence with their real-world historical appearance is rather weak.
The Grenadier uses the American Musketeer model, while the Skirmisher uses the Portuguese Cacador model. The two cavalry units reuse the German Uhlan and the American Carbine Cavalry models, respectively, with what looks like an East Asian face simply added on top, even the normal maps of these faces is painted backwards. Even the Meiji musketeer is the only relatively “new” addition, but the conical hat sits too low—the unit wouldn’t be able to see anything.
Another example is the Chinese Tigerman. The model is reused from the Coyote Runner. But, developers, did you actually look at the model after applying the new texture? The texture on the back is visibly misaligned. Mind you, this is an obvious misalignment—it really ought to be considered a bug. Also, have you stopped to consider whether it’s appropriate for a wolf’s large tail to be pressed against the tiger?
Similar issues can be found in the post-Prussian Revolution content. The Lithuanian Dragoon currently uses the British General model from the Indian campaign. Of course, this particular case is a bug caused by an incorrect developer path, but even setting that aside, the combination of the new texture with the game’s Age IV Musketeer shako—which has little historical basis—still feels extremely rushed.
The Prussian Musketeer, meanwhile, simply uses the Mercenary Fusilier model with a very basic recolor and a new hat.
The Livonian Revolution has similar problems. Apart from the Teutonic Knight, which has a new model, the Musketeer simply reuses the Hospitaller Musketeer model with a very basic recolor. The mounted knight also uses the existing Armored Cavalry model.
The recolored Mamluk is another particularly obvious example. The model appears to have basically just been recolored, while the horse uses the game’s existing European Elmeti asset with a few symbols added on top, rather than using properly designed Middle Eastern heavy cavalry tack and equipment.
I could understand all of this if it were only happening in the beta. After all, that is exactly what beta testing is for. But the problem is that there are simply too many examples like this. There are large numbers of newly added units that appear to have been handled in the same way.
What bothers me is not the fact that existing models are being reused.
Reusing assets is perfectly reasonable. Asset reuse is completely normal in game development, especially in a large RTS where it is obviously unrealistic to create an entirely new model for every single unit.
The problem is that, in this new version, reused assets often come with three problems at the same time:
1st, an existing asset is reused directly.
2nd, the result does not fit the historical appearance very well.
3rd, even if we completely ignore historical accuracy, the final result still looks poor—and sometimes frankly amateurish.
At that point, it no longer feels like sensible asset reuse done to save development time and resources. It starts to feel like someone simply picked an existing model that was “close enough,” changed the color or face, and put it into the game.
Some of these units honestly look like low-quality skin mods. I don’t mean that as an attack on modders, but the overall approach feels very similar to the kind of thing you might see from an inexperienced modder: take an existing model, change the texture, and call it a new unit.
If there wasn’t enough time or resources to create a proper new model, I would honestly rather see the unit omitted than have a visibly rushed version added to the game.
I have always been very positive toward the Age of Empires III development team. Anyone who regularly sees my posts or discussions will know that I have spent a long time praising the developers and defending their design decisions. I have also been quite willing to accept compromises in historical accuracy when they were clearly made for gameplay or practical reasons.
That is why this disappointment feels particularly strong.
I can accept something being historically inaccurate.
I can accept the reuse of existing assets.
I can even accept that, due to development time and resources, not every single unit can have a completely new model.
But if you decide to add a new unit, it should at least look like a properly designed and polished new unit. Even if it is not 100% historically accurate, it should still look coherent, convincing, and visually appealing.
If there isn’t enough time or resources to make a decent model, I honestly think it would be better not to make one at all than to release something that looks obviously rushed.
This may be the first time I have really found myself on the “critical” side when it comes to the developers’ attitude toward the game. I also understand that not everyone will agree with me.
But honestly, this time I am genuinely disappointed.
I sincerely hope this is not going to become the standard for future DLC, and I hope these issues can be addressed seriously either before the full release or in subsequent updates.
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Another long-standing issue that I really have to complain about: What exactly is that hat on the German Uhlan in the Definitive Edition?
Historically, Uhlans wore the distinctive Polish four-cornered cap, the czapka. So what did the game turn it into? Some kind of… hexagonal truncated prism?
What makes this especially baffling is that the Uhlan is already an extremely common unit, and the developers have kept giving it to more and more civilizations over the years. And now, with this update, the unit has been given to Japan as well.
And here’s the really strange part: ever since the French Revolution update, the game has had an actual, proper Polish four-cornered cap model. Yet after all these years, they still somehow never replaced this obviously incorrect model, which seems to be a leftover mistake from the early development of the Definitive Edition, when the developers simply did not understand what the historical Uhlan looked like.
I seriously…
This is an extremely common unit. The historical error is incredibly obvious. And now this same incorrect Uhlan model is being used for Japan too.
How is this still not fixed?
