It is evident that the Return of Rome expansion was a letdown for the community but I personally predicted this. The goal of the expansion was to try and replace DE while simultaneously making it more like AoE2 (big mistake in my opinion) and make it appeal to the notable Vietnam community by adding a Vietnam civ.
The core issue though is that because it is a hybrid of both 1 and 2 it does not appeal to neither diehard fans of AoE 1 or fans of AoE 2. By making it like AoE 2 you are alienating the fanbase you are trying to appeal to. The Vietnam community will not abandon their main game for this.
Instead DE should be refocused on and made with certain updates would be able to appeal to the large playerbase in the East that are still playing 1998 RoR. Making Classical mode playable online (maybe even it’s own ranked ladder), adding hotkeys for upgrades/age ups, adding the D3 gamemode, fixing the ai in free for all, possibly add the new Vietnam civ and maybe include some more exclusive brand new civs or a new unit. Most notably give players the option to play with the balance of the original games.
By doing things like this it will make DE completely outshine Return of Rome and appeal to the players you are trying to obtain. AoE 1 is an iconic game and very much deserves to be treated better than being reduced to a dlc that makes it play like a different game.
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I agree. I was excited for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition when it was first announced and had high hopes. Then after release, it failed to live up to expectations as development dried up. I had the same excitement for Return of Rome, but it really wasn’t what I was hoping for either. I just want to play a complete Age of Empires game experience set in the ancient era of history. I think the work CaptureAge is doing with the Chronicles series is great, but I can’t help but feel disappointed that it isn’t part of a new Age game. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition may technically “do everything better” but I want to play a complete Age of Empires. The franchise needs to go back to its roots and do a new ancient era Age of Empires right. I hope by the time the 30th anniversary rolls around, that this finally becomes a reality, even if only an announcement.
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You cannot just,say revive it. If really no one is interested in playing it then you cannot force people to play it
It’s not a fair comparison. Neither Age of Empires: DE or Return of Rome received the full definitive edition treatment like the other DE releases. Leaving Age of Empires DE and Return of Rome lacking all that players needed to enjoy them long term and then saying “no one played it” is a self fulfilling prophecy that players or devs which favor Age of Empires II will argue because it is convenient for them to do.
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The reality is this game is not attractive at all. Otherwise even with bad support people will love to keep playing. It is just really outdated admit it.
They could, I don’t know and this sounds crazy, release a new Age of Empires in the spirit of the original.
Outdated or not, constant support and new content will ALWAYS play a large factor in if a meaningful number of people will play any game or not. Plenty of great, once popular, online games are dead now because support ended.
The devs, Xbox, and even Microsoft as a whole, set AoE 1 DE up for failure. There wasn’t a big advertising push, there was virtually nothing in terms of post launch support, and there was no new content at all. The only post launch content for RoR has been the addition of less than half of the original campaigns.
You can’t blame it on solely being outdated when the most popular game in the series is outdated as well, yet has had a massive revival due to the last decade of new support and updates.
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Yeah, it’s no longer Age of Empires. It’s Age of Medieval Empires.
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Hey man! Totally agree. There is no real marketing promotion about the game and potentially the game could be more popular! For example, improving game interface, allowing in-game chat, giving access to external links like discord could attract more players.
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