I reviewed now most of the available new content and I want to give an honest review of all new things. I play aoe since a little kid and have a very emotional relationship with the game. Things got heated because of the 3 kingdoms, and I can understand that because also my hype died when I saw this, but it is easy and unfair to not review everything else because of one (even though it’s a mayor) thing.
First the free update:
All of this is nice and except for some purist, everyone appreciates this.
New elite skins are well designed (just would have preferred the maya keeping his arrows). Nobody even asked for this, yet if was exactly what the fanbase wanted. One can therefore understand if the devs go new unexpected ways. Sometimes its awesome, sometimes not. There is always a risk.
I give new elite skins 99/100 points
New Monks: Devs, thank you so much for this. Finally, the Saracens don’t have monks but imams. It’s exactly what was needed. Also, the new monasteries are well designed and fitting. Only one comment: if a converted monk picks up or lays down a relic, he changes religion. Maybe this can be fixed.
I give the new monks 99/100 points. Maybe we can get regional skins for casern, archer and stable units next?
New castle skins: same here. Fans did ask for this and devs delivered. Thank you for this!
I give new castle skins 100/100 points
New animals and plants: this is an amazing addition to the diversity of this game. This also includes the new terrain and elevation options. Real Asian maps are now possible. Chickens are fun. I relay like them. Some don’t like them but come on, it’s something new and nice. Also, the new predators give some more real felling to some maps with not all wolfs and bears are the same.
I give new animals and plants 100/100 points. Please give us more of that in the future for Africa, America and maybe Australia. (We have an Australia map after all).
New scenario editor items: I guess many did not look at this yet, but the possibilities to give Asian Maps / Missions an authentic look are now much much bigger than before. The Hall of Heroes, new eye candy, flags and the new Yurts are absolutely beautiful.
I give new scenario editor items 100/100 points. Keep up the good work!
New modding options: it honestly is to much to write here. The options are now endless. We can have traps, burning and bleeding effects which opens the door to unlimited custom civs and scenarios.
I give the new modding options 100/100 points
New regional units: rocket carts, Lou Chuans, Fire Lancers are what was needed to give the Asian civs a more unique identity, same a s the elephants for the Indians. I love every of the units and appreciate the effort of the devs.
I give new regional units 100/100 points. Please do the same with the African and American civs.
The Jurchens: They could be my new favorite civ. I played against them in the Xie An Scenario, and man this was fun. Dogeing the rockets of the rocket chart while keeping in mind they explode a bit later was super exiting. Also, the grenadier and the unique unite are well designed and fun to play with or against them. I hope you will give them unique voice lines, and it will be perfect.
I give the Jurchens 100/100 points
The Khitans: Well, its seems like they are more Tanguts to me. However, the Civ design itself is quite good in my opinion. Reflecting damage, healing while fighting and bleeding damage all makes this enemy something to fear and easily underestimated. The mounted Mounted Trebuchet is a really nice unite because it leaves burning ground or buildings behind that still adds damage for a while. The Pasture is a very nice addition, that hopefully will be added to more civs in the future. I don’t know what lead to the decision to unite the Khitans and Tanguts. I guess the Tanguts were too small and short lived? I would have preferred to have 2 Civs but the 1 Civ itself is fun to play and I hope they will get a unique voice line and not copy the Mongols.
I give the Khitans 80/100 points
The 3 Kingdoms: Now we come to the not so well received part. Lets start with the positive: the new (non hero) units look well designed both esthetically and functionally. If they were a Chronicles Civ, I would have given them most likely 100 points. However, they are not in Chronicles and therefore need to be measured in comparison of the other aoe2 Civs. In the Interview short before the announcement, it was said, that a small Duchy would most likely not have what it needs to be a aoe2 Civ. Well the 3 Kingdoms are basically this: A small and short lived part of the old Chinese. The fact that they are outside of the timeframe of aoe2 is not the biggest dealbreaker in my opinion. They represent like the romans the old system that started the Meadville era in that region. I do play in single and unranked multiplayer with and against Chronicle civs and I like it, however in ranked they seam a bit out of place, mainly because of the hero unit. I haven’t seen enough videos and I didn’t test them in scenarios enough to give a final verdict, but I think it would have been better if they would have been only 1 Han Civ that develops to one of the 3 Kingdoms depending on the choices of technologies and instead we would have gotten the Tibetans as another civ. I think that would have led to less harsh reactions. I keep an open mind for now and lets see if I get to like the 3 new Civs more but for now:
I give the 3 Kingdoms 45/100 points.
Last point the campaigns:
Here I need to wait of course for the release. The Xie An Scenario was nice, so that will give some points and I am sure the 3 Kingdoms campaigns will be designed well and innovative like always. However, the fact that Jurchen and Khitans, as well as the reworked Chinese and Koreans have no campaigns feels like a missed opportunity. Including the Japanese, we have now 5 big Civs that don’t have real campaigns, leaving us with the Mongols as the only campaign to visit this area. I understand that it would be a lot of work for one DLC to add so many campaigns and therefore I think it would be a good idea to have a DLC that adds the Tibetans (rename them if its so problematic) and gives many campaigns to this region.
So I can not give points here yet and will wait for the release, but it misses at least 40 points here already due to the missing medieval campaigns.
Summary and Conclusion:
elite skins 99/100 points → awesome, good work!
new monks 99/100 points → awesome, more like this please (regional unit skins)
new castle skins 100/100 points → awesome, good work!
new animals and plants 100/100 points → awesome, more like this please (Africa Amerika Australia)
new scenario editor items 100/100 points → awesome, more like this please
new modding options 100/100 points → awesome, more like this please
new regional units 100/100 points → awesome, more like this please (America and Africa)
Jurchens 100/100 points → more Civs like this please
Khitans 80/100 points → good but please mix less relas Civs into one in the future.
3 Kingdoms 45/100 points → you sure had good intentions, but please don’t repeat this mistake
Campaigns tba → add more for the Civs that don’t have Campaigns yet.
Finaly I would like to say that despite the fact, that I don’t like that the 3 Kingdoms in this form, I buy the DLC. Why? Because protest is good and believe me that protest was heard for sure. It is on all channels like youtube, the forum, reddit. But not buying the DLC will show MS the wrong picture: That DLCs for AOE2 are not wanted anymore. And to be honest, the Devs gave us many many things that are awesome in that update and most of it for free. But that will not pay their salaries, and I want a lot more DLCs in the future. So I forgive them for this mistake, thank them for all the good things and hope for more better content in the future.