Hello everyone,
I would like to make post to discuss about impact of AoE II on AoE IV and share our thoughts.
Today, like 2 hours ago we watched AoE Fan Preview. We saw AoE IV gameplay, new civs, campaigns and new stuff coming to AoE II and AoE III. And I don’t know if It’s just me, but when I saw gameplay - It kinda killed my excitement for new game and new DLC for AoE II was bigger fish in that video. The only one thing that I loved is fact that we are getting to the base game Indian civ - the Delhi Sultanat. In AoE II to see Indians in game ( not modded ofcourse ) we had to wait more than 10 years, in AoE III in second expansion with proper campaign. And from gameplay I believe and hope they are getting campaign. And yeah, campaigns… In AoE IV we are getting only 4! campaigns. While in AoE II with the newest DLC we will hit around 35! campaigns.
My second issue with the game are graphics. Some say that AoE IV looks too much cartoony. In my opinion cartoony graphics are not a problem as long as it looks good ( but in AoE IV imo it’s not ). While watching gameplay I saw that - probably it was English knights - their swords were wider than knight himself. To compare that with AoE II graphics, when I saw first gameplay of AoE II DE, I just love it so much. Just look at those beautiful Cataphracts:
Even simple units like Spearman looks eye-friendly. While in AoE IV I couldn’t find any unit that will catch my eye. I noticed that now knight have lances ( that brake upon a charge ), but I think, AoE II knights with just sword and kite shield looks much better. Last thing about graphic is UI that for now looks really dull. While even in first AoE from 1997 the UI is decorated with mosaics that changes with what culture you play.
Third thing which I’m really worried about is game balance. We see that English, Indians or Chinese have huge while Mongols lacks access to them. Maybe early agression would make Mongols strong, but in long term they looks pretty defenseless. I also have mixed feelings with that all magic sparcles or things like mass conversion shown in video.
I also hope things like “you can’t build too close enemy” will not be implemented.
Edit: I would also like to mention hills. While in AoE II we clearly can see if unit have high ground in AoE IV terrain is closer to that one from AoE III where high ground doesn not metter.
Please note:This is not attack on AoE IV or something, my opinion is ofcourse based on unfinished game and some thing probably going to change. I would like to see what You guys think about AoE IV.
AoE4 is a lot more “interesting” in the way its a new game, with new things, AoE2 civs in the other hand have the same base blueprint so it’s not gonna be a great improvement to the game. But still I want to see the DLC and this is already a classic, while we don’t know if AoE4 will be good or not.
Original AoK had 1 tutorial campaign and another 5, so 4 campaign is not that bad either. Also the norman invation of england was not cover in AoE2 (beside the Hasting mission)
Graphics, yes they look weird, but at least I see heavy cavs with lances instead of swords and every faction have different units so no plated champion for meso civs or western cavalier for chinese. I like it.
Balance, well, will see… no game is 100% balanced and I expect a lot of balance patches, I just hope is not too broken on release, but even in this game we saw things like SL or coustelliers on release, so I’m a little worried too.
I highly agree. AoE IV will came new fresh mechanics. I hope that they will well implemented in game.
Yes, I agree that AoK had 6 campaigns. But we have already Definitive Edition. And my point is that AoE IV needs to not be better than AoK, but better than AoE II DE and AoE III DE to catch people eye. If AoE II ends up superior to AoE IV, there is no point to get new Age.
But as You said. In AoE IV every civ will be completly unique. I hope it will be done well, but for now AoE II looks better imo even when I see european knight in chinese army.
All I’m saying its you don’t need so many campaigns on release, I have this particular game for like 6 or 7 months and I have played 5 campaigns (2 of them from AoK) more than enough time to add a dlc if the game is good.
At least at first they should focused on interesting histories that were not covered in the AoE2 DE
Norman England is a good start, maybe a chinese one will be there too
I love AOE2 its basically the only game I play at the moment.
That said I’m very excited for AOE4, and personally I’m liking what I’ve seen so far.
If AOE4 is great I’ll be very happy. If it bombs… I’ll just happily keep playing AOE2 so honestly for me I’m just excited that the community is active and the developers are still invested in my favorite franchises.
