Why is Age of Empires 2 your favourite game in the series?
I consider the original Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires 3, Age of Empires Online and of course Age of Empires 4 part of the series. Not talking about the Mobile Spin-Off games that have different gameplay.
I assume many of you haven’t tried all of them, especially not Age of Empires Online.
Age of Mythology also doesn’t have a definitive Edition yet.
The most interesting ones are AoE3DE and AoE4.
I’ve read many posts and comments about X being the one reason why AoE3 was/is less successful than AoE2, but it’s always a different reason.
For AoE4 is very similar to AoE2 so it’s easier to pick the reason.
Potential reasons:
time period
featured civilisations and parts of the world in maps
graphics/visuals
game mechanics
single player content
technical issues and performance
bugs and balance issues
lack of content
What’s your second favourite?
Age of Empires (Definitive Edition)
Age of Mythology
Age of Empires 3 (Definitive Edition)
Age of Empires Online
Age of Empires 4
I only like Age of Empires 2 (Definitive Edition)
0voters
Depending on the replies I’ll turn this into a survey later.
There are a lot of potential game mechanic differences.
I’m most curious if the reasons why most people prefer AoE2 are also the same reasons why other people prefer the other games in the series.
I would bet other people prefer other games due to the visuals and/or variety, most detractors say aoe2 is too samey. Since they don’t go to the effort of learning how much of an impact the differences in civs actually makes.
The fact units look the same between civs, leads people to think they are exactly the same in play.
Compare to aoe4 for example, where the civs are actually more similar in many ways, but players thought they were actually more unique than aoe2 partly due to aesthetics.
And finally any poll here has a small sample size, you will get more accuracy on Reddit with the larger community.
I like the campaigns and mod creation stuff for AoE2, as well as the art style and things like that. Not to say I don’t also like MP, but SP is one of the things I really like about AoE2. AoE4 might actually be my second pick after the free week sale swayed me, largely on the back of the fancy mechanics.
I don’t think that people think that.
In AoE3 a Russian Musketeer is noticeably different from a British Musketeer.
Also AoE2 is the most popular game so I assume the average AoE3 players know AoE2 better then AoE2 players know AoE3.
If you think this forum is too small why are you here? Why make any threads here with that logic?
The poll is not the important part about the thread anyway. That’s why it’s at the bottom.
I think AOE2 is simplier, 2D is easy to read. It feels snappier, more logic (arrow, bullets and cie are more realistic) I played it since 20 years. Good period of time also ! I love monks and onagers, those units are not good in others AOE.
AOE3 was too cartoonish for me, and 3D didn’t add much, I found the game a bit messy, not easy to “read”. No real campagn even if I liked them.
AOE4 got very great campagns and videos, but the 3D is not very effective for me, it’s too close to AOE3 DE even if it’s a bit better. Also the lack of civs is a bit disappointing. The worst for me is the lack of realism… graphism are too cartoonish even if it’s good for readability. But the arrow/siege that can’t miss is a deal breaker for me, not realistic at all. And finally the game feels slow + editor is “hard”.
I like this game, my first pc game ever… but I wouldn’t say AOE4 lacks realism compare to AOE2.
Knights don’t charge and have no lance
You can go full archers armies
Siege proyectiles are too slow, specially cannons
Not to mentions weirds tech trees that makes britons use xbows as their meta while they didn’t use it irl
And to be fair, after playing Total War, all AoE looks cartooney to me
But what I love about AOE2
+40 civs!
Lots of SP content (houndreds of missions in dozens campaigns)
Lots of maps
Also I agree non guided arrows are more fun (but I want to say siege can miss in AOE4)
people have literally said it, have you spent any time in any of the other forums? its said a lot (and agreed on) generally when a SC player talks about aoe2 in the aoe4 forum
You mean the other way round?
Because your points are all about AoE2 being unrealistic.
That is a dilemma that a lot of new games have. After 20 DLCs in a Sims, Civilisation or Crusader Kinds is hard to switch to a successor with none.
And even if it was possible to release an AoE4 with 20 civilisations, you have to learn all of them at once, already a huge task for 8 while most Expansions only have you lean 2-4 new civilisations at once.
Wasn’t that a lot closer to AoE4?
Archers and Crossbows being separate lines.
Spearman since Dark Age but Man-At-Arms only in Castle Age.
Knights with lances.
Onagers having to pack and unpack.
There are more AoE2 then AoE4 players though.
Compared to Starcraft even AoM civilisations are samey.
The point of this thread is the opposite anyway.
Why do more people prefer AoE2?
Not sure, I haven’t really played AoE4 since I don’t think it will run properly on my computer, and since there’s no demo version I can’t find out without buying it. I tried the open beta but the graphics flickered too much to make it bearable, and I didn’t figure out if I could fix it before the beta ended.
But I think the answer is probably yes, but only superficially, and it’s actually closer to AoE1.
It was free to play last week, you missed your chance.
Was it performance issues or just bugs? The release version of AoE4 seems to run pretty well on most peoples machines.
AoE4 got a lot of inspirations from the development of AoE2 not only for units but also for things like packing and unpacking of buildings for the Mongols or resources for destroying buildings. Both were considered for AoE2 but didn’t make it into the final game.
The AoE2 Beta still had a lot of AoE1 assets in it and funny things like the Blacksmith being the drop off for Gold and Stone.
I think for me it is: AOE2 > AOE3 > AOE1, even though I like all three of them. I never played AOE4, AOM, AOEO.
For me AOE2 > AOE1 because mainly because in AOE1:
the food in the dark age is so limited that you can be stuck in the dark age on some maps because you depleted all food sources nearby
you cannot build walls in dark age, and you cannot build gates at all
you cannot watch replays
For me AOE2 > AOE3 mainly because in AOE3:
Age 1 cards are too weak so AFAIK we should “always” to go ASAP to age 2, the choice of greed to get more eco while putting yourself at risk of early aggression is missing.
There are too many differences (appearance and stats) between units with the same function (like musketeers vs ashigarus vs tomowaks vs sepoy vs janissaries vs …)
I do not like some features such as stealth/invisibility and the native units
streams and replays are not very enjoyable due to poor UI (even though KOTOW had a very nice replay UI where we could see the villager pop and the military pop for both sides, a huge improvement).
Between AOE1 and AOE3, I tend toward AOE3 because AOE1 is “too close to AOE2” while AOE3 brings a nice “breath of fresh air” with the card system and the trading posts.
Some personal reasons are:
-2D graphics. I feel it easy to read and beautiful, specially for buildings and units (terrain effects in AOE3 are awesome however). 3D units seems to floating over the terrain.
-Units responsiveness. 3D units in general feel slow when you command an action.
-Time period. However the atmosphere, sounds and feel of the Aoe3 works so well. If the colonial period would hook me as medieval time, surely Aoe3 would be my favorite games of all times.
perdon me gusta responder estas cosas cuando no tengo nada que hacer jaja
bueno aqui voy
-Tarjetas de edad 1: Bueno pues depende las tarjetas funcionan segun el recurso por ejemplo en edad 1 te envias cajones de 300 de recursos en 2da de 600 o 700 en tercera de 1000 y en cuarta de 1600 guiate por esos valores, es por eso que hay cartas que valen recursos y eso se debe que el envio de esa carta sobrepasa el valor designado por el envio ejemplo: Envio de 3ra de 8 granaderos gigantes vale 1000 de oro y es que cada granadero gigante vale 250 de oro asi que estas pagando por 4 de ellos mientras te dan otros 4 y en cuanto a las cartas de edad 1 hay cartas como: Las de 2 iglesias para los malteses, las de 3 aldeanos, la de politicos avanzados, distribuitismo entre otras
-Las apariencias hacen que se sientan más unicas y sus estadisticas igual solo ve que si es infanteria con resistencia cuerpo a cuerpo y con poco rango da por hecho que es infanteria pesada a distancia, los mosqueteros son el estandar y el resto son variantes con diferentes estadisticas y con sus puntos fuertes y debiles
-El sigilo ahora puede ser contrarrestado por cualquier unidad, si la unidad esta a un rango de vision de 3 de cualquier soldado se revelara inmediatamente, las unidades nativas son interesantes ya que te permite realizar estrategias con ellos, y controlarlos puede darte cierta ventaja.
-Aqui no dire nada las repeticiones las veo super poco xD
AoE 3: Because it is my first RTS and because the colonial period feels fresh between medieval and WWII RTS,the maps that are beautiful and super alive and the decks and customizations of the metropolises that also have their magic…
AoE Online: Because despite being cartoon, I played it and got very hooked on the game, in addition the classic period I like a lot and all its social component and charisma that it gives off…
AoM: for the mythology and the glorious and god-tier campaign of Arkantos…
AoE 2: for the number of campaigns (official and customs) and wonderful and nostalgic music it has…
AoE 4: for the troops on the walls, for the documentaries and because despite lacking the charisma of his predecessors,it has a lot of potential ahead and finally
AoE 1: for the disastrous pathfinding it has and for being very limited in its campaigns and mechanics, although it is appreciated for being the first AoE and because thanks to it there is also EE1 which is my favorite RTS along with AoE 3…
It’s not, AOE3 is my favorite, although I play 2 more often these days because it has greater replayablility and I experienced most of what I wanted to experience in AOE3.
Age 1 cards: I know they are supposed to be around 300 resources worth. It makes sense in itself, but because of that, I feel it is never worth it to stay longer in age 1. I go to age 2 with ~14 villagers every game, for rush, for FF amd semi FF. I like it more that in AOE1 and AOE2, you can delay age up to age 2 of ~5 villagers to get a smoother economy to jump to age 3, or delay of 1 villager to get a small lead without being too behind in military.
Stealth unit: I just dont like the concept, but in practice it should be fine as it got nerfed recently.
For the unit appearance: you are correct, it is cooler and more immersive, but its harder for me to recognize units type, especially for new civs. Unit stats difference are more annoying for me because then there are too many things to learn about the game (I have no problem with cards boosting a stat by 15% though).
These are just personal preferences that maje me like AOE2 a little more. Still enjoy playing AOE3 a lot, of course
Yes, they are different games and that’s fine… AoE 2 has a slower pace instead in the RTS and AoE later, it tends to be more dynamic and accelerated to be able to compete with shooters and mobas, which have games that do not last even 15 minutes…
AOE3DE is by far my favourite game in the series (until we get AoMDE or AoM2) but it’s far from perfect.
What AoE2DE does better then AoE3DE
Stone. I miss stone. Also my biggest Issue with AoM. Stone has basically be replaced by building limits, and that’s less fun. Also walls can be spammed.
Coin is less valuable then wood. That just feels wrong. Getting infinite Coin sources in Late Game as advantages but I feel like it’s too easy.
Eagle Warriors are their own unit type instead of the Coyote Runners (and other Shock Infantry) just acting like cavalry in AoE3.
No support of higher populations. This is something that can’t be easily solved because the houses of some civilisations produce resources and that would completely destroy balance if they could build more.
Boring upgrade names. Just “Veteran”, “Elite”, “Guard”, “Champion”, “Disciplined”, “Honoured”, “Exalted”, “Legendary” and “Imperial” prefixes. AoE2 has a little to much “Elite” too though, like all the unique units.
Some editor features (AoE3 has more over all though) like enforcing the civilisation on a specific player slot or making a unit trainable in a different building (or trainable at all).
It’s always harder to get into new civilisations. Especially when you don’t want to use the premade decks and you sit there for half an hour making a deck for a civilisation you never played.
AoE3 has more anachronistic stuff. Halberdiers and Gatling Guns are unlocked in the same Age!
Some of those things are obviously trade-offs. I prefer having Home City decks over not having them but it makes getting into a new civilisation a lot harder.