I’ve been playing a lot of 4 lately and I tried to go back to 2 tonight.
Couldn’t do it. It’s so… primitive. The sound effects, music, voices are so much better in 4 it’s night and day. And the graphics are so much better in 4. And there’s so many things you go to do but then you remember they’re not there.
4 took me a long time (years) to warm up to but once you get used to it it’s really hard to go back.
(Still love 3, though).
Ur right but AoE2DE mean my childhood, and I’m nostalgic. And I think most of them are the same too.
Mostly because of nostalgia. For me it’s plus history interest. Honestly, I think if someone recommended me AoE II around this time, I could never get into it based on how we people’s mindsets are developing, and I doubt many would either.
As for the graphic part, I find most games nowadays have an oversaturated coloring - units and buildings look like …toys. At least AoE II do not.
I play it more for the campaigns, because the scenarios are huge… but in terms of multiplayer and mechanics it became obsolete since 2002… In multiplayer I like to play AoM, 3 and 4 more…
AoE II DE has so much single player content (campaigns) compared to AoE IV, which is a big reason why many people, including me, have played AoE II DE more. Also, AoE II DE is huge on mods from what I can tell, which helps AoE II DE for many people.
Multiplayer I haven’t touched from AoE IV at all and have zero plans to do so. With AoE II DE, I played multiplayer with co-op campaigns when it was new and also some AoE I from RoR when it was new, but I haven’t played multiplayer for AoE II DE since then. AoMR and AoE III DE are easily my favorites for multiplayer with comp stomps.
We had a similar topic last year on the AoE 4 part of this forum:
Let me quote my reply to it:
Graphics are highly subjective imo as they are not really comparable. AoE 2 is a 2D game with prerendered graphics and imo in that category it’s still one of the most beautiful games out there as that style tends to age well over time, see also Caesar 3 for example.
AoE 4 on the other hand is a very good looking 3D game that imo looked ugly and a tad washed out on release before they changed how things were rendered with one of the season updates iirc. I remember having to use the sharpen function of my GPU to actually improve 4’s visuals.
Music is also subjective. I personally prefer a “classic” soundtrack the older games had but can also see why other prefer the dynamic option AoE 4 went for.
Sound design on the other hand is really well made in AoE 4 and probably the best the series had so far.
That being said - the AoE series does not work like your average annually released series where the new game must replace the old one. If Microsoft decides today to shut down AoE 2 DE’s servers, people would then just go back to Voobly as they already made mods that allow you to play with the DE content on the old CD Version.
I played a lot of AoE 4 about half a year before its release as part of my work for its companion book and I think this period sadly spoiled the game for me. The game indeed improved the past 3 years but overall I still see the aspects where it didn’t improve a lot from the time when I very actively played it whenever I boot it up. But I’m absolutely happy for the people that have fun with it as at the end of the day, we’re players of the same franchise. 
Edit: Something I forgot to mention - AoE 2 is in a somewhat unique position that is attracts both SP and MP players solely due to the sheer amount of content it has accumulated over the past 25 years. The only other Age game that comes close to this is AoM mainly due to how narrative-driven the base game campaign is.
Not really because as for (competitive) MP, AoE 2 is still the most played in the series, whether it’s ranked or playing custom scenarios. With mechanics I think you refer to activatable abilities?
A lot of civs are missing in AoE4
Thats %100 true aoe2de is so outdated and primitive i thinked about playing but when i see the gameplay i remembered how out dated it is and i didnt played it.
First of all animations clunky and slow.
Units all look the same.In aoe4 every unit has their special looks.
Shift click lines dont exist in aoe2.
Buildings can block you,you can make wall with them which is bad.
Unit pathfinding is weird.
Trade cart has big collision when you do trade they hit eachother make traders stop for sometime.
The thing i like in aoe 2 is their campaing chosing shown on the real map.
When garrisoned it add arrows equal to range damage of that unit but it probably dont fit in aoe4 so its ok to not have that in here.
Aoe2 tech tree is far better.Unit costs and stats all shown.
Some folks prefer older games.
That’s all there is to it, I think.
Personally, I find it very hard to get back into old games (this includes AoE II). Going back to Star Wars Dark Forces, it’s a classic game. Or even trying to replay KotOR, or Jedi Knight. I’m a massive Star Wars fan, and these games are still too outdated for me to properly enjoy anymore.
I like modern titles. Clunkiness really stands out to me personally. It’s a preference / aesthetic thing. I don’t think it really speaks to the quality of either old games, or new games.
simplicity is a positive sometimes…
Im showing aoe3 regulary to friends and try to teach them the basics… but man… this game is so complex
So i always wonder if we shouldnt have started with aoe2 instead. Im enjoying 3 a lot more than 2, but i also wasted a LOT of time in it and understand the mechanics… I guess this would apply to aoe4 vs aoe2 aswell
So @CagierNebula24 is experienced with aoe3 and 4 … but 90% of aoe2 community isnt and wont understand what they are missing out
Edit: i guess the majority is also more casual and just wants to run 1 or 2 quick matches after a long day of work and they dont have the time to explore games in depth
You mean as in setting waypoints that allow you to order the unit to go a route you define? That exists in AoE 2. They recently added the same function as in AoE 4 that you can also do this with building rally points.
That was actually part of medieval warfare and AoE 2 isn’t the only game in the series to do this. It’s in every Age except 4.
They recently reduced collision size for Trade Carts to tackle bumping.
And there are folks like me who enjoy both old and new games for different reasons and couldn’t care less when a game came out because I think the “Old = Bad” approach some people have is a bad one.
I’m somewhat able to think myself into the zeitgeist of the time a game came out which is why I also still enjoy rather obscure games such as FMV games from the 90s. 
It is and that’s something that’s extremely underestimated.
I recently noticed that myself again when I played Unreal Tournament after Epic allowed the OldUnreal Team to provide the games for free. It’s rather primitive in design compared to modern FPS but this is actually a plus as the game makes the most out of it with its limitations.
I didnt see that in other replays its still a flag not a line indicates where it goes.
There is no such medieval warfare in aoe4 they thankfully made that mistake right.
Its still bad pathfinding bad too they bump into eachother and trying to find a way.
Ah I see what you mean. Yes, that’s not in AoE 2 but otherwise rally points function near identical.
It’s not a mistake tho, it’s a design choice of AoE 4 to not do that. And as said, in real life medieval warfare, using buildings as part of a wall was quite common, especially with houses of the “lower population”. It’s similar to people complaining about Castle drops whereas that was also part of medieval warfare.
But happens less frequently than before exactly because the collision size has been reduced.
A large portion of the aoe2 player base is in south america and other developing countries. I live in 1 of them so I can tell you that here most people don’t have internet at home, hardly anyone even owns a laptop and if they do it’s a very low spec incapable of running aoe4.
The amount of people with a home internet connection and a computer capable of running aoe4 is a tiny fraction of the population.
Most people play in places where they rent computers by the hour and these are also very low spec so in most cases I think people just cannot play aoe4 and so they stick to the game the computer is able to run which is aoe2. Sure they won’t come out and say I only play aoe2 because I’m broke but it is the only game in the franchise that many people are able to play.
This also explains why aoe4 dlc is the best selling ever despite many more people playing aoe2 than aoe4.
Oh, for sure.
My “last played” games on Steam are Infinitode 2 (cute little tower defense with very neat cross-platform play with my phone), AoE IV, Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and Yu-Gi-Oh! 
I still play AoE2 in Single Player for the Campaigns and “Custom Campaigns”, many of them have a beautiful eye-candy and a great “Narrative”. The historical part is what I love the most. Since AoE2 is very old, with enough civs and editor content to make historical recreations, accumulated mods and everything, they give you a wonderful experience.
But for “Multiplayer” no. AoE2 never really suited me for its multiplayer. And there are many points against it:
Many of these problems no longer exist in AoE IV:
Interestingly, since the game is new, the visual mod option is limited, and it’s harder to produce 3D campaigns, there isn’t much Custom Campaign content for AoE IV yet.
In fact, there isn’t an option to create a Custom Campaign, only Custom Scenarios:
Well, that’s true.
Back in the day, having a computer in 1999 was a luxury, but almost all of them ran AoE2. Then, when they started teaching computer courses in schools, it became a social obligation to have one at home, and you could install AoE2 on it.
However, things have changed since 2011, and to keep this short: Now there are regular PCs (generally older generations without a gaming GPU) and “gamer PC” (with a gaming GPU), and only the gaming ones run AoE IV
Currently, at least in my country, all the older versions of the current generation, “Without a gaming GPU” and generally 5 or 6 generations before (Intel g5 or g4), are sold at 900 or 800 soles (250 or 300 dollars depending on the exchange rate). If you want a GAMER, which currently runs most base games with 4 or 8 GB, it’s between 2400 and 3000 soles (750 or 900 dollars).
The formal minimun monthly salary in my country is 1100 soles (300 dollars), and the informal and more common one can be 600 or 700 soles per month (150 dollars). Unless you save up for months or have a really good job, you’re not going to buy another gaming PC.
That’s why today, if you need it for school, some parents buy their kids a non-gaming PC, depriving them of the wonders of AoE IV and limiting them to Indies or deadly dangers like LoL and mobile games.
These two are fixable if devs eventually go for unit skins depending on Architecture. They already do that with Kings and Trade Carts and also with American Monks.
Actually, there aren’t limitations given that a) Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds on the same engine has individual skins for all civs and b) the three new civs from the Chronicles DLC also have completely new skins. It’s doable but probably lower on the priority list.
You’re not obliged to use them. I play ranked in AoE 2 but all I ever use is a small trees mod. I don’t like the identical pine trees, cube or flat building ones.
This is not a limitation but a design choice. They’re balanced out by having a higher cost in general + some siege units like Mangonels or Bombard Cannons having Friendly Fire. The same way, the Karambit Warrior only costs 1/2 population but is fragile.
The Age series is not a history simulator. The games are based on history. (Side note: I wasn’t sure what you meant with Brulote, but I think you mean Demolition Ships?)
Mangonels and Scorpions exist in the 3rd Age. Also, having more powerful siege in the 4th Age actually makes the building the 3rd Age is named after (Castle Age) a threat.
Do you have replays of the vanilla game at hand? Because I think it was rather Hun Wars on Arabia dominating most of the time.
So it is in AoE 2 as well and also in AoE 3. It’s always up to preference.
Fixable in a possible future, 25 years after the game was released. Yeah, i make my aprecciation seeing the past, not a possible future. If not, i would say that AoE IV is the best game for have Spanish civs (with isn´t even released or confirmed).
When i say limitation, not refering to hardware, but "Money and Time limitations". As I remembered, the original devs of AoE2 wanted many things for the Conquerors Expansion, but they have limited time to release the product and can´t complete the mesoamerican skin pallete (for that reason they have Unique Priest model, and unique Trader cart). They even planned a Tibetan civilization, but for marketing reasons they were forced to make the Korean one at the last minute and so with no time to make new models, instead of giving it Hwacha, they have a "Hawcha hidden in a cart" that releases only 1 ballista shoot.
Like i´m not obligued to play a multiplayer ranked that i didn´t like.
What I like about Vanilla, Conqueros, DE, in Single player is creating your nice city and creating unique units in Castle Age and making cool combos in Imperial Age.
In competitive multiplayer, on the other hand, the thing is to win no matter what, even if you don’t use unique units or have the prettiest city, or needing mods, and it’s a style that never caught my attention.
However, custom games with MODS, FFA multiplayer, or with enough resources to produce armies of the composition I wanted, were fun in their time, I think it’s the multiplayer part that I enjoyed the most.
¿What it the complain here? If is based of history, obviusly have to have hystorical elements.
In the spanish translation of the game, the Fire ships are named Brulotes.
As in AoE2 all civs had a similar roster of units, in naval combat they simplified it to add fire ships to all civs, instead of only Byzantines, to be the counter to galleys, but historically not all civs developed ships with flamethrowers.
Understandable as the knowledge limitations of the devs at that time (there was no internet and you couldn’t get history books online) didn’t allow for more complex sea combat or with different historical units per civ, but it was fun in its own way, and i didn´t think it need a change.
But thas was the past, and the topic of the post was why someone preferred Aoe IV to Aoe2, so, this is a reason. Now, In AoE IV they correct this with Dromons being a Unique Unit of Bizantines.
Yeah, its a preference. I still like the four games (Ao2, Aoe3, Aoe4, AoM) in its own ways. Take care.
RTS playerbase is an interesting kind, you see, even devs of old noticed they tend to have 1 main game and just sparingly play any other RTS before retreating back to their main one, once you invested god knows how many hours on one or 2 specific games it gets real hard to add any more to the pile
i’m victim of that myself i should know
its also the familiarity with control scheme as well as how much control you have and how responsive that is, then you have camera and so on, these points is where i got burned quite badly by aoe4 during betas and not all of them have been adequately addressed thus far
i can play aoe4 just fine for a match or 2 against AI, my prefered way, but eventually the unaddressed defficiencies will make me back away
that feeling of smt being off about the experience