Try Warhammer 2,3 at least.
There are games like Manor lord, LOTR BFME Reforged (in-development - see unit arts)
Graphics is graphics. The game type does not matter.
For god’s sake, we are in 2024 now, not in 2008.
Technologies advanced, better AI, GPU’s are cheaper etc.
I wish we could get a demo to test it out first, it’s hard to make out with these pictures. For now I hope we won’t be getting collapsing buildings somewhat… sink right into the ground or so with the ships like AoE3DE or AoE4.
Warhammer visuals do look impressive but they are not a true base building RTS game.
Manor Lord is like single player, right? Might be a bit of a difference there though.
AoM:Retold will have a total of 12 players at any given time mass producing their units.
I think LOTR Reforged looks okay? I might be looking at the wrong picture though but this is it, right?
To be honest, I think Retold’s Cerberus looks better lol…
Either way, this isn’t AoMII. If it was then you might have a point. It is just a “remake” of the original game. So obviously some styles and influences from the old game will carry over.
The Greek screenshot has been shared on social media, but is more zoomed out, has fog, slightly different unit placements, and shows Triremes and Scyllas.
There is also a zoomed in one of Atlantis. Interesting to note that the water looks different.
If I’m not mistaken, there were a couple of closed beta tests for AoE 3 DE starting as early as February/March 2020. I expect something similar for AoM Retold.
That being said - to make sure that you’re invited for such beta tests, make sure to sign up as an Age Insider: Age Insider Program - Age of Empires .
I personally think the graphics looks just as good as it could be considering it’s in the same engine as AoE 3. I think maybe some people expected a new graphical engine like a new game would get like AoM 2.
If AoM Retold is successful we will most likely see AoM 2 with even better graphics and features is my bet. Regardless I hope that they don’t only focus on the look, but also pathfinding, and making the game feel up to date in today’s standard because that will ultimately decide if people will stay for the long run or not.
I don’t want to see AoM Retold turn out like AoE DE, forgotten and not in a good state. RIP AoE DE.
The engine is being improved for each game though. There have been improvements made for AoM R, such as the introduction of ray-tracing (only supported by GPUs since ~2018) for better reflections & AO, and a better particle system. I’d say the art direction is the bigger decider on how the game looks rather than engine. For example, I’m preferring the more detailed look of the grass in AoE3 DE over AoM R, but this is an art style choice rather than a game engine limitation.
I just hope they’ll keep AoE 3’s physics engine.
xd
Why you show a screenshot from early beta footage of a game that looks way better now?
New Cerberus looks like a plastic toy!
Don’t worry, we know why 
Its hard to nail down what works and doesn’t in this art style because some stuff looks spot on and others looks plastic and too shiny. Color saturation is odd in some places. I feel like overall the models and textures are where they should be, but the color saturation feels a bit too bright where aom classic looks to have a bit of a lighter, “cooler” color saturation. If they could fix the color saturation and get rid of the plastic look i think the graphics would be almost perfect for retold.
The other thing to keep in mind is they rebuilt all the assets in the aoe 3 de engine. So this isn’t simply a higher texture/poly reskin, they had to rebuild everything from scratch so not everything is going to have an exact match.
I think the proportions make it look a bit cartoonish to some people. Would like to see more realistic proportions, but apart from that I like the graphics.
U know u will probably be able to make a mod to make it look more realistic. Like literally u throwing shit arround being "cartoonish"and instead of thinking of a solution u complain about it
I assume he is Gen Z you know the generation who complain, can’t give suggestion/ideas instead, lack constructive criticism and if you criticise them they act like woke snowflakes. And I know that’s a harsh generalisation. but it’s so exhausting to discuss/chat with such ppl…
I guess you never played the original game. The graphics are the same but better.
The game was never realistic: It has godpowers and mythological beasts.
At least we don’t have to watch Minotaurs that are obviously humans with a cow mask and overweight Nidhoggs anymore.
Maybe I’m just not looking at it the way you are, but these don’t look cartoonish to me.
Funny that people forget you have something like Graphic “styles” and are forgetting how much time some of these realism style graphics can take to make, thats One of the reasons why Playstation 5 has almost no games because they are chasing that realism to much
I Think the game is looking great but in this case its not about realism vs cartoonish. The issue here to me is color saturation and plastic looking buildings. Both i think are easily fixable and could make what already appears to be in the right direction look a lot better
