Though the depths and base-lines appear warped like some cheap kingdom building mobile game.
Its like the graphics-team was on drugs or something, the warped depths looks like something out of Alice in wonderland.
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I would say the combination of extreme colours and unrealistic human/items proportions, do lead to a cartoon impression by AoE4.
here to compare with Medieval 2 Total War, 14 years old game.
Medieval 2 Total War looks not only much better
I never have seen somebody call it cartoony.
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but you miss that this is neither STRONGHOLD nor TOTAL WAR what matters is that this style is realistic and fits perfectly into the concept of the game. guided by ur logic, we can say that the economy and resources are not appropriate, so maybe in that sphere we could copy Stronghold and so on… I think at the core this game does not need to be a 100% realistic simulation of medieval life but to continue the old recognizable AOE concept and this graphic choice fits perfectly
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None is arguing for 100% realism.
Graphics can deviate further and further from the norm…
It will affect some purchase-player-market groups in various ways.
Personally I think its a rash gamble.
Time will tell.
Either way, I am looking forward to seeing results on the tech-line of armies AoE2 players share so much positive feedback about.
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For colors : Desaturation - then it looks pretty good. Keep in mind that they will implement a saturation-slider most likely and the shown footage is pre-alpha.
For proportions : Most of them are fine - the others are for a better visibility (e.g to see the unit type)
Age4 doesn´t look cartoony, it colors look bright and with a friendly atmosphere(as it was intended for this series by the original devs)
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It looks like a modern version of aoe 3 style.
Aoe 4 isn’t cartoony Stronghold Warlords is.
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I would say A because im hyped af
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People are still talking about game being “cartoony”? Good lord. PEOPLE! It doesn’t matter how game looks it has to be fun! Why are you most of you keep forgetting that? CIV6 is still the fastest selling game in the CIV6 franchise despite it being cartoony. If AOEIV is cartoony then Here I made an extensive list of AOEIV vs other “Cartoony” games.
Just ignore the noise that’s coming from minority. No matter what Relic does, they won’t be able to impress everyone. You all can argue as much as you want about graphics being cartoony, I will be more focused on the gameplay and if they keep the AOE forumla intact. I would hate to see Relic using their shoddy gameplay mechanics in this game too.
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So is PONG. 
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Total war however has squads that hold manners so its easy to see but aoe has individual units so it kinda needs to either 1.make them large and Disproportionate to building, or 2 if your making the game 3d where the units are really small like in aoe 4 you need to make them colourful and have exaggerated features making them easily recognizable.
from what I heard in terms of hardware with the game Colors
- light and colorful doesn’t use a lot of the hardware usage
- Realistic graphics use a lot of the hardware usage
I guess it makes sense
but I still question about it
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AoE II DE has filters. Maybe AoE IV can also use it?
Friendly reminder that they already said there will be options to tweak the saturation among other graphics settings.
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It’s not only a problem of “extreme colours”, but cartoony/toy unit design.
Just take a look at some other modern RTS.
I did play recently a free demo of iron harvest, a game that was financed by kick starter, so basically its made by no name indie team King Art, that makes an RTS for the first time ever.
Age of Empires 4 simply does look inferior and unprofessional compared to Iron Harvest.
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Tough words there, specially when you are calling Relic “unprofessional”. Really?
You could have said it in a more correct way: visually it feels less realistic in comparison with games like Iron Harvest. Then I would have answered you with a “that’s right, definitely not the most realistic visual style”. But calling it “inferior and unprofessional” because that… it looks like an irrational tantrum imo.
Back to when AoE IV was firstly announced, I expected a gorgeous, realistic visual style that would push the RTS genre to a new level, like you, it seems. I kinda felt a bit betrayed when the trailer came out and was able to see the cartoonish style. But I realised something: AoE IV is not a simple sequel. AoE IV is the return of a legendary franchise after a freaking long absence, and they want to make it accessible to the most people possible.
And I am not talking about gathering kids around AoE IV with the cartoonish graphics, I’m talking about it being able to correctly run on as many computers as possible. Can you imagine thousands of units clashing in the battlefield, flaming castles and fortresses crumbling down smoothly with a super-realistic visual style on most computers? Impossible. If you look carefully to Iron Harvest-like games you’ll see how can they afford that realistic visual style: there are not thousands of units in the battlefield, nor huge fortresses or cities. Like in Company of Heroes, there are a several squadrons and some tanks or artilleries here and there, and only a few camps and buildings. You cannot simply put a whole medieval environment with huge sieges and battles with that level of realism without needing a powerful machine to properly run it. And limiting the long-waited return of Age of Empires to the people who has a really powerful computer would most probably damage the game sales.
So, I think that we should take it with an “Ok, let’s wait until we see how does it look with the graphics settings at maximum level of detail and realism, maybe it will look realistic enough”. I really think that we should wait until they show us more of the game in motion, because only showed us a little gameplay-esque (I don’t buy it as clean gameplay, that’s for sure) trailer that is definitely not enough to know how its going to be. And, personally, after that huge amount of years since AoE III, visually it looks really good even with the cartoonish style, just look at the light effects and the animations.
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Yeah, looking at the Iron Harvest clip, a lot of it is obviously pre-rendered cut scene, for the gameplay parts there is about a dozen units on the screen at any one time. For a game like AOE, in 8 person online multiplayer match there might be situations where there is over a thousand units to render on screen simultaneously. That needs different approaches for sure.
So I would agree this for sure impacts the total level of photo-realism achievable, especially when they want to keep the user base to a broad range of PCs, You cant only sell the game to people who have PCs costing thousands of $.
Personally, do the AOE 4 graphics shown blow me away, no. Do I think it looks bad, no, I think it just looks ok. Like others have said, there will be a range of graphic settings to modify the aesthetics. If you don’t like these game models, perhaps the different nations architecture is more to your liking.
I think it also isn’t too far away from the visual style of the past AOE games. I mean, why are you complaining about these graphics when AOE 1 & 2 almost look like 10 pixels moving around. Get some perspective guys.
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Well lets compare AoE4 to some other AAA Strategy games.
Where you have thousands of units.
The question is, are people going to pay for a game, that looks clearly inferior ?
Yes, Microsoft is bad at managing. Look for example at recent example with streaming service mixer.
Early this year they did pay for a famous streamer like 20 million dollar’s and now announce to shut it down. We are talking here about a simple video streaming service where you need some potato PCs to run servers.
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I think they do repeat with this “art style” the same mistakes as by their previous games.
-not only it does look lazy, in real play those “aggressive intense colours” start to be blurry.
You see, you are going to spend some time with the game, very concentrated by the way.
and aggressive colours are hurting eyes, for many people.
try to watch for example this picture longer than 5 min.
this is the feeling people do get from AoE4.
@RadiatingBlade edit: Please do not post distracting images.
That’s why in professional designed RTS games, colours are calm and clear.
it has nothing to do with people have potato PCs. a game can look good and run well.
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is meanwhile over 10 years old and looks light years ahead
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yup, because there is an apparent mismatch between the aesthetic and atmospheric visual/audial approach between the announcement and the gameplay trailers.
They certainly do not match, it is as if they refer to different games.
I wonder whether something fundamental changed to the direction of the development process in the interval.
Perhaps the bright, friendlier art style was mandated by MS after revising some of Relic’s ideas (?)
After all Relic’s games are known for their grim style.
Also, I wholeheartedly agree with the reasoning behind the need of high accessibility.
As far as I’m aware from what’s been made known, the plan is to create a game that can be played the same on a relatively low-end laptop or a high-end gaming rig. At least that’s what was stated at WindowsCentral.
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