I don’t think. What had saved AOE2 from its failure It was the dedicated base of modders Who created infinite scenarios, skirmish Maps, campaigns, new units for this game. The casual gamers Will Always play skirmish and co-op because they want a bit slowly rythm: less stress.
In this way you can often zoom in on your units and seeing Battles more close. This Is the reason why many people (i suppose casual gamers) are saying graphic Is bad.
I don’t Say that the competetive scene Is not importante because there Will Always be people Who play only this modality. But it’s not the most important base for many RTS (also Company of Heroes has the most of people Who play only campaigns and skirmish: a Relic designer confirmed this during an italian interview).
Streaming Is important too but thousands people Who Watch them Will not necessarly be Buyers.
You cannot select a single unit from the UI. This has nothing to do with Pro Players and Casuals, this is a flaw that is unacceptable for a RTS in 2021. And most of the shortcomings are like this. The lack of competitiveness will, however, lead to the game being less relevant in the media and for streamers.
They have a game with a big, no with a huge name, but the game itself does not correspond to that. Basic stuff is missing and you feel like it was dumbed down for a controller. And this is what I consider a disgrace. If you wanna make a game like that, do not call it AoE 4. But if you do, you better deliver something that lets this franchise and the whole genre shine. This is a chance missed. And it annoys the hell out of me. The gameplay lacks simple stuff as balistics. What the actual heck? Every shot is a hit. This is insufferable.
Most of the critizism are minor things that still can easily be fixed until or shortly after release.
UI, controls, tweaking and balancing numbers.
What I do admit tho, if you like the game or not, is that alot of positive and negative critizisms about the game come to the same conclusion really often:
It just doesn’t feel like a 60-80€ game.
Either the campaign and new civs are absolutely huge, or it feels like a more streamlined and thin version of an Age2/3 DE merge.
AoM is my favorite in the franchise (not counting AoE4 because it’s not full release yet). Making an AoM 2 would be absolutely awesome, but I think we should wait for after AoE4’s development process. If you think it’s a disaster, then let’s let them improve the game instead of immediately wanting a new one. Any game can improve into something great. Take it from No Man’s Sky and the new Battlefront 2.
Personally I loved the AoE4 beta, but it needs a lot of work.
I love the game so far. It is just about everything I was hoping for - a faster paced aoe 2 with a modern look. Aside for minor stuff that will hopefully get fixed either before launch or shortly after (zoom, hotkeys) my only real concern is civ variety, and that will surely be improved upon with dlc down the line.
But even as it stands now, I can’t wait to get back into the game!
man I liked it too but as many others have mentioned already the game lacks a lot of basic things that we know will not fixed in 1 month… plus we have been posting those same problems from 1 year ago even 2 and they are not fixing those basic problems after all that time… I cant support a developer that dont listen or dont have good comunication, they can tell us something or bring us some updates more clearly but they just dont…its obvious why they dont…
trust me I wish it was a hit, and I will support once I see better signals of ´´listening to people´´ because the game has a lot of potential and I am afraid they are not taking real advantage of it…
I see your point of view. The game definitely lacks from what we’ve seen, but hopefully it will succeed in a month. We’d know more if the devs spoke, but we’ll see I guess.
I think you’re over estimating the impact of the game having issues on day 1. Especially for a game like this, which aims for longevity and continued support from devs.
For better or worse, this is how the industry operates now. It’s pretty common for a game to be patched several times in its first week.
Let’s not forget the mess AoE2DE was on its launch. AoE3DE literally deleted random files from your pc. I guess we can all agree that both games are in a good state right now.
If AoE4 was released as it was in the last beta, it’s would be already in a better state than those two games.
I believe a lot of the issues that people are complaining about will be solved by Oct 28th, and other issues will be solved afterwards.
I know a lot of AoE4’s issues are related to design choices, and not just bugs, but at the same time, most of these issues seem easily fixable (granted “fixing” them doesn’t require redoing the art).
I believe the interaction with the community should increase after release as well. The devs are under pressure right now. Every second spent talking to us is a second not worked fixing the game’s issues. In the end, if the game is better at launch, it won’t matter that we complained and they didn’t answer now.
You posture is right, imo. You shouldn’t buy the game until it is in a good state for your liking.
With all the other lack-lusting features I’ve mentioned, I will say that the sound design in this game is actually pretty decent, so I will give the Audio Department a prop for their awesome creation. I’ve also noticed several details such as the flags wavering in the wind, as well as the forage bush and trees wiggling instead of being static, so I will recognize several talents being there; despite not being very fond of the art-style or graphics of this game.
The individual theme for each civilization do sound resounding and pretty true to life. Prop to the musicians and whoever researched the classical instruments used during that time.
In short, this game was developed for pre-teens playing on X-box. So, Relic dumbed down the game and scaled down the game, and destroyed the realism of the game. Relic will be remembered for this EPIC failure just as they have been marked by history for what they did to DoW series. They are becoming known to be the killer of the great RTS series. Shame on them for ruining the best RTS franchise in the history of mankind.
Honestly now you are just talking trash. The game is great and a lot of fun and they will probably have fixed most issues early 2022 when they make the first major update they have already announced.
Don’t even get me started on how good the sound and music design is, holy shite. It’s so ■■■■■■■ insane to play an age game with this level of audio after playing the same 1999 game for 20 years.
Game is not a disaster, and I think that’s what some critics are struggling with.
Does it have some things that I would like improved, sure, but what I keep hearing and I have experienced is that the game play is pretty fun and there are no significant bugs, that is the main thing. The battles are kind of epic, especially the sound effects of soldier screaming and weapons clashing. The wall dynamics are also definitely a step forward. I was in the closed beta and the stress test, and I kind of miss playing AOE4 even though AOE2 DE is my favorite.
I think this will pull in a new audience, I think that’s what MS and Relic are hoping for. They don’t really want to cannibalize an established franchise (AOE2 DE). I think this will hit the sweet spot of “Easy to learn, hard to master.”
We will see how big a sales success this is, but I think it will be reasonably successful.
I think AoE is to RTS what Half-Life was to FPS.
It revolutionized the RTS genre with original game and is considered by many to be the GOAT of RTS at least in medieval era as it is not fair to compare AoE to CoH or other WW2 or space RTS.
It’s not faster paced tho…
AoE4 is as quick as other AoEs at best, and takes twice the amount of time per production/tech at worst (measured in real life time).
It’s because the game is fixed on 1.0 gamespeed while other AoEs are beeing played at at least 1.5 gamespeed.
Pair that with time increase in production and you actually have exactly twice the amount of production time needed per barrackunit compared to AoE2s rack macro at 1.7 speed.
That also shows in timings of certain builds.
A late feudal 12 minute push in AoE4 therefore would be at least 18/+ minutes ingame time in AoE2 (fast+) which is castle knight rush territory.
It happens really often that even after 40 minutes in AoE4, players are still playing at 110-120 supply while having good macro.
AoE4 therefore is not only the slowest AoE by far, but also a really slow RTS in general.
I wouldn’t necessarily categorize it as such. AoE4’s Feudal Age is significantly more action packed than AoE2’s. The pacing is similar - and perhaps we will get an “Empire Wars” like mode for AoE4 down the road as well to skip the Dark Age, but I wouldn’t call it the slowest AoE myself.
I love Aoe but I can’t take this seriously.