Returning after 15 years, is de any good?

Age of Empires: DE I - Discussion
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Planning to play through the campaign again having not played since I was a kid, is De actually better than the original? Or does it take away more than it gives from nostolgia?

-ive seen a few campaign bug posts about de in the forums (sepcifically the holy man mission). Does the original have less bugs?

-i don’t care too much for quality of life features I’m a slow player who doesn’t use hotkeys or anything fancy

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If you want buy it i suggest you to get the Steam version.
I own it on Steam and MS store and Ms store don’t work while on steam it runs fine.
See it as a graphical upgrade, still have some bugs but in my opinion it’s worth buying it if you liked AOE 1.
There is still a classic mode, where you can use the old graphics, but I’m not more sure if this also was possible for the campaigns, but the new graphics like looking fine too.
Keep in mind that also when not official confirmed, it seems like the game is abandoned, the last update was in April 2021, no more future information about AOE 1 has been posted from the developers.

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I like the DE game and find it better than the original. There are a lot of quality of life features (hotkeys, auto farm reseeding,…) making it enjoyable. So totally worth buying for me.

A potential problem worth mentioning is the AI: many people complains about it being too hard, especially if you start in Age 1 (stone age).

  • I have no problem with it as I became “decent” at aoe 2 DE (I can beat extreme AI), which translates into having no problem at all against a moderate AI from Aoe 1 DE.
  • If you play against AI and do not feel confortable, you can of course start in age 2 (tool age) to have farms and towers/wall without needing to age up. Or you can pkay on a bigger map, where AI is less aggressive early.
  • Some people also say that easy AI is too hard, way harder than moderate. From my experience, I play moderate and hard, and totally feel the diffuculty jump, and always get to age 2 way after hard AI, so I am weak to rushes. I tried standard or easy once, and it felt weaker than moderate.
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It’s better on a technical level, but the original (in HD) has as much charm in the campaign and skirmish, and multiplayer isn’t really anymore impressive than OG, so it wasn’t worth it for me, but it is if you really want to experience the game with the standards of AoE2:DE improvements.

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Of course, reworked scenarios, quality of life features, zoom and ability to play scenarios from original game on DE without issues. Now every civ can outrange a tower using siege.

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Most of the campaign bugs were in the release, i believe many of them have been fixed.
I have played the campaigns and I can say they are a lot more balanced than the original.
Also I know you said you didnt care about QoL features, but I’d suggest you do take a look at them as they are very helpful and do improve the gameplay experience more than the original.
Regardless, nice seeing players return.

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I forgot to say

Babylonians and Assyrians are stronger than ever

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