Disclaimer: I know it’s closer to AOE2 than to AOE3! I just mean to point out important things that are different from AOE2 which many people seem to be missing in their criticism.
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Far more resources in the late game (ideal villager number in aoe4 is around 80, in aoe2 it’s typically upwards of 120, depending on the civ and the units you’re making. Sometimes it’s as high as 160 if you’re going for really powerful units)
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Projectiles always hit (in aoe2 every projectile can be dodged. Personally this is the one aspect of AOE4 I dislike intensely)
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Unique units are more important and can be made in normal military buildings
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Keeps work like AOE3 forts, making all sorts of units instead of only the unique unit
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Neutral trading posts on single-player maps (trade itself works like in aoe2 but there are no neutral trade posts in aoe3)
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Units attack buildings with torches like in AOE3
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No split formation (which enables weird dodging and insane micro in AOE2, personally I’m glad it’s not in AOE2)
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Units don’t get a new name/completely different visuals when upgraded (e.g. Archer->Crossbow, Spearman->Pikeman, etc. in AOE2), instead they just get a new prefix (e.g. Elite Longbowman, Veteran archer…) just like in AOE3 (e.g. Pikeman → Veteran Pikeman)
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Civs are far more unique than in AOE2, both visually and gameplay-wise, but less than AOE3 (a healthy balance between variety and how easy it is to balance them. How many times has Sweden had to be rebalanced ever since AOE3DE was released? Also, this makes it easier for the devs to add more civs later on, it’s not a coincidence that AOE2 has 39 civilisations. Not saying the civs should be as close to each other as in aoe2, I’m very glad they aren’t, but where I’m getting at is there are trade-offs either way)
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Gold access in the late game is relatively easy thanks to neutral trading posts and unique civ mechanics like briton farms generating gold and the chinese tax collector (a middle ground between aoe2, where you eventually run out of gold and have to rely on selling wood/food and relics, which generate the equivalent of 1 villager on gold each, meaning that you have to transition out of gold-costing units, and aoe3, where factories and plantations/paddies secure your income in the long term and gold scarcity is never an issue)
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Farms require drop off points but don’t expire like in aoe2, making economy management much easier
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Several military units have special abilities, like is the case in aoe3. The only case in aoe2 of that is Serjeants which can build towers
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Landmark age-ups (aoe2 doesn’t even have age-up politicians like aoe3 euro civs, aging up is only a tech at the town centre)
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An as of yet unreleased masteries system, which should allow for some level of customisation that doesn’t exist in aoe2, just not as central to the game as home city cards are in aoe3
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Multiple victory conditions in the standard multiplayer game mode (most AOE2 games are played strictly with the conquest victory condition whereas AOE3 games typically have the trade monopoly victory to prevent cockroaching)
And lastly, not something that is closer to one game or the other, but AOE4 comes with a full redesign of the rock/paper/scissors model, with crossbows and archers fulfilling very different roles and sword-and-shield infantry countering archers instead of being hard countered by them. This alone makes the game play very different vs AOE2.