Ensemble Studios (Rest in peace) has achieved one of Bill Gates’ original goals with the 1999 release of this now beloved title. AoE 4 rarely has any of that.Let’s be clear on this one: Age of Empires was – and is – one of the best strategy games ever made. I also feel like the latest two AoE 2 expansions (not the AoE1 integration, the ones before that) have beefed up their campaigns significantly, often with multiple optional objectives and at times even multiple mutually exclusive main goals. It also limits your tactical options since hitting their economy and starving them out just isn't a thing. It just doesn't feel like they're playing by the same rules as you and that makes victories feel less rewarding and losses like bull. Plenty of times they're just spawning in army continously from the edges of the map. And the enemies rarely have an economy at all. You'd fight the same 1 or 2 civs throughout an entire campaign, leading to much less variety. In AoE 4, you're usually just fighting one enemy with 2-4 bases on the map. Each of them had their own economy and would at least seem like they adhere to the same game mechanics you did. Even the older AoE 2 missions often pitted you against 3-5 different enemy factions, often from multiple different civs as well. The mission design itself is also less interesting imho. AoE 4's campaigns are high production value but they do nothing to make me care about what's happening. And during missions, there are no character moments happening either. The campaigns also span much longer time periods so that you don't really get to know any of the characters before the next generation replaces them. There is no more personal connection, just neutrally presented historical facts. I felt involved.ĪoE 4 has a greater focus on historical accuracy. The stories told were also often embellished for entertainment value, with dialogues between your guy and the opponents during missions. So you'd be told a fairly personal story that usually revolved around just one leader with a therefore clearly characterized protagonist. In AoE 2, you always had an in-universe storyteller who would have some relation to the events. I've found the AoE 4 campaigns much less engaging.
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