What I’d like to highlight is…
Age of Empires 4 uses the engine from the game Company of Heroes…
This part is really strange…
Because Company of Heroes has the best operators I’ve ever seen in an RTS game. Really detailed.
Not to mention the realistic physics effects.
And all of that, it seems, was removed when making Age of Empires 4.
I don’t know if the team wanted to speed up production and not make certain animations and more severe physics effects.
But everyone remembers that SEVERAL animations were bad and that over the years they were improved… Examples of some animation corrections that I remember:
The arrow was following a straight trajectory (It seemed more like a gunshot than an arrow, because no matter the distance, it traveled in a straight line.). But they managed to adjust it for a more realistic effect.
The siege engine called Bombard, when packed, did not have wheels; it literally “surfed.” After a long time, they added wheels.
They improved the animations of the horse’s lance for thrusting.
The Handcannoneer has gained a new reload animation.
The crossbowmen have gained a new reload animation.
They made a melee combat animation for the elephant (this came recently now).
As far as I remember, they also improved the infantry’s running animation (that attack where you throw yourself forward).
However, all of this and much more has been improved over the years! But it shouldn’t have been like that… They should have done the animation well from the beginning and not need to fix it later.
So the feeling is that Age of Empires 4 isn’t using its full potential!
If Company of Heroes 1 and 2 seem incredible, why didn’t Age of Empires 4 do that from the start?
Of course, Age of Empires 4 can still be updated and change a lot, but honestly, I believe that won’t be the focus. Since we have a lot of work for future new DLCs, which also demand a lot of attention and time.
But there’s that feeling… that we could have gone much further in terms of animations, graphics, and physics.