With Dune being the hot thing on the web at the moment, now would be a great time for a review series on the Dune RTS games? Most of us discovered the series through the Westwood games. :D The Spice Must flow!
Broo how time flies. I remember when the announcement for Age of Empires IV came out, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take a while." Then the animated trailer came out, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take a while." Then the gameplays started to come out, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take a while." Then the beta, more previews, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take another while." Suddenly right now, I'm like, "What?? It's already released? You serious?? How long have I been under this rock??"
@@Zade_95 great video by the way, Zade! I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but I think I fully agree with the points you've made in the video. The thing that I dislike the most in the game is the "modern simplification" in the UI. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition suffers the same problem, although not as severe as the one in Age of Empires IV.
After the DoW III disaster, I'm still sceptical about Relic's work. But since AoE IV looks good, I really hope they will work on Age of Mythology once they're done with AoE IV's expansions.
Poor Relic. I heard that was a choice from the higher-ups to turn what was going to be a real RTS into a terrible MOBA then, in a panic, they kind of half-turned back towards making it sort of an RTS but also sort of a MOBA and it was just fucked. The art direction and most of the animations look awesome, but I played about 10 minutes of 3 and have logged in about 300 or so hours in Soulstorm.
@@Laneous14 You're talking about Dawn of War 3 right? Yeah, thats one of the most disappointing games I have ever played. Soundtrack was nice at least.
@@Gallic_Gabagool well the Graphics and Animations are good. Not so sure about the rest. Maybe try it you could have a bit of fun with it for a few rounds. I expected a mix of 2 with the scale of 1. instead of got something weird
The very last page of art books for Age of Empires 3 features a picture of Age of Empires 1-5, Ensemble's future plans. 4 has art of a WW2 soldier and 5 has a future soldier. I wonder if the studio stayed open, would 4 takes place right after the Civil War till the end of Vietnam. Maybe a subtitle like End of Empires like how 2 is call the Age of Kings.
@@Zade_95 With Relic's experience with Company of Heroes, it would be interesting to see if they can merge the smaller feels of CoH with the larger grand army size of AoE.
It's just scary when they do this , cos it smells of mis management in the background , but we'll never know. Or maybe the current zeitgeist has conditioned me to think so.
@@vigneshmoorthie922 well all thanks to digitalization. When anyone bought CDs the games had to ship at Gold Status. Havent heard Gold Status for maybe 6 or 7 years now. And Beta has replaced Demo, instead of Beta meaning Half a Game like it did 10 years ago. Now because patching is so easy and people are so braindead, companies decide to just willingly fool the customer as nobody really cares anyway and fixing a game 3 years later isnt illegal somehow I.e. not the companies fault but the customers fault for being zombies that happily preorder exploitation
When I saw those unit icons, I immediately thought about the Firefox logo. And then you came with the Firefox thing yourself. I love you. At least the game compensates that with the building looks and the surrounding roads, gardens, etc. God that looks great.
Can't remember how I even discovered your channel. Wonder if there are any other rts guys other there with similar review based channels. Anyway something I dislike about the newer AoE's is the lack of corpses and skeletons. Let me see the aftermath dammit!
I honestly wouldn't mind seeing an Age of Empires game go back to the series' roots and do Age of Empires 1 only more modern. I also wouldn't mind seeing Age of Empires do a Rise of Nations and run the whole gamut from stone age to industrial revolution, allowing for longer FFA games that provide good reasons to trade and make alliances with other players. The ability to raid in order to steal resources would also be cool, but that might be a little too much of a departure from the gameplay of older games.
The most important thing to me in an RTS is the campaign. I'm too old and there are too many good games to play to waste my time on learning intricate RTS mechanics to not suck in multiplayer. The only game where I had patience doing so was Starcraft 2. If the campaign has a great story and atmosphere like Homeworld, or just great mission design like Starcraft 2 or Company of Heroes then I'm in. I was never a fan of AoE 2's campaigns and it seems to me that we have a very similar thing here, so I'll pass. Possibly my last hope for a modern RTS lies in Homeworld 3 not being fked by Gearbox.
@@marekkos3513 Deserts of Kharak surely has the tone and atmosphere down and the objective design and variety is decent too. It also has some solid mechanics with terrain advantage and obstruction as well as special abilities. Certainly a good pick for best campaign. For me it would be either Original War, Sacrifice or Homeworld Cataclysm.
Man when you want a good RTS campaign then Age of Mythology is a must have for you. The voice acting and music is fantastic. A at times extremely calming game with tons of missions and inengine cutscenes and good mission variety like starcraft 1 had. (Can also gladly recommend Starcraft 1 campaign atleast the human and zerg ones) Then also Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun with its unique artstyle and atmosphere and maybe C&C 3 including kanes wrath. Warcraft 3 also has fantastic campaign. But the remaster looks like Ass
I got the game day 1 and wasn’t the biggest fan. Age of Mythology is my favorite RTS of all time and I like the gameplay more. That being said, the game has been growing on me and I think it’s a great thing for the RTS genre. It’s taken me awhile, but I’m really starting to like it. Now I’m just waiting for AoM2
I agree with most of this, but I think theres big issues with presentation, beyond the terrible UI design. There are 4 animals in this game. Sheep, Deer, Boar and Wolves. On Every. Single. Map. Wheres the different wildlife in each environment like in every other age games? Wheres the nice random clutter? The maps feel dead and lifeless, especially compared to AoM and AoE3 where the maps had way more personality and looked way better despite the lower graphics fidelity. They gave a bunch of environment options for the (severely lacking) skirmish maps, which is nice, but its only a coat of paint, theres no real difference between any of them. Wheres the history articles for everything, like in the other games? They've but a bunch of effort into documentary videos for the campaign, which is nice, but it's missing the content present in every other game in the series. The campaign was a huge misstep for me personally, I enjoy the story campaigns, but these just feel like unengaging random scenarios. And perhaps the biggest thing, the sountrack is TERRIBLE. Sure, its era and civ appropriate, but its all just so tedious. Wheres the catchy tunes the series is famous for? Its all just slow, plodding ambient tracks that barely change between ages broken by extremly generic orchestral battle music. Totally ruins the experience. Are there even any fun cheats?! The bones are there, the gameplay is good, and I appreciate that thats where they put the effort in, but the overall presentation is terrible and makes the whole experience fall flat, even if it is mechanically effective.
On the animals, this game takes place mostly in Europe and Eurasia am I right? Even Aoe2 had a limited selection of fauna for those landscapes. As for the history encyclopedia, they actually didn't include that in the AoE DE remaster, whcih infuriates me a bit. It seems however that AoE DE was a half assed enterprise to get it out of the way so that they could get into the real honey jar.
I'm sorry but you seriously sound like a very old gamer that loves his old games way too much to see the positives on newer games. I think the history articles are significantly less compared to what's on offer atm. Don't tell me that you prefer small article pages of very miniscule information compared to the documentary videos, which mind you, is not just the campaign videos, but also bonus videos that you earn whenever you finish a campaign mission, which gives you informations with actual depictions, like trebuchets and stuffs. Not to mention they actually employ real historians and reenactors, in which they perform the actions incredibly well (shooting bows, horseback riding, etc). The documentaries being the campaign seems to be the point of contention. A lot of players seems to dislike it because it doesn't make you feel engaged with the characters in the campaign, but it is really interesting for others like me who absolutely enjoys history. You considering the soundtrack as terrible is just strange. Which catchy tunes from the series that you really adore so much that you can't appreciate era / civ appropriate music? The soundtracks are immersive, and they managed to capture the feel really well. And cheats? Really? I get that a lot of players must have migrated from older games from the series, and AOE 2 and 3 is incredibly old now, but this feels incredibly nitpicky, and no AOE sequels will ever satisfy you, no matter how great.
@@HendyVelarius Ignoring the "very old gamer" comment, maybe I should explain since apparently your reading comprehension is lacking. First of all, I never said the documentary videos were bad, but that dosent mean that a major feature of the entire series, the history articles, should be absent. Secondly, I specified that a story based campaign was my personal preference, not that it was inherently bad. Thirdly, I never said there were not positives, I agreed with the review for the most part that it's an excellent title. Just because I have criticisms dosen't mean I think it's a bad game. Hell, if I did I wouldn't have played enough to notice what I found lacking. The soundtrack IS terrible. You can still have era and culture appropriate music and it still be good, games manage that all the time, just look at the entire rest of the series, Civ, or any number of titles with historical settings. In this case the music is incredibly boring and forgettable, and does nothing to enhance the experience. Music taste, like taste in games, is subjective, but what they've chosen simply doesn't work well with an Age title in my opinion. Funny cheats are a staple of the series. They've been in every game, and some have carried over between them. Somehow in AoE4 I doubt you can have the occasional fun game where you bulldoze the map with a monster truck or lazer bear. Maybe it's nitpicky for you, but these are features that have been removed in a main series AoE game, content that is lacking from it's predecessors. Just because they don't have a massive impact on the gameplay loop does not mean it's ok that they are missing or sub-standard. And for the record, I am satisfied with AoE4, it's a good game, and a welcome addition to the series, but that dosen't mean it's perfect either.
This is Age of Empires II 2: Exactly Age of Empires II Edition. Instead of pushing the timeline further they went back to medieval times. At leas AoEIII did something more interesting here with the timeline but had to miff it with the card stuff.
age of empier 3 was the best empier at war and i am sad they dint go the dirctionen. the line about MP is also my case. the only MP RTS i play is wargame and some times suprime commanter.
Tens of thousands of people playing this when it released... Very positive reviews... Pretty much universal acclaim... "Genre is dead too little too late". How about we all just play video games and stop trying to crush every release with buzzwords and hypetrains to the abyss?
I wish it was Age of Empires 2: 2 honestly. It’s sad to see how much less popular Age IV is when compared to Age 2. It’s just not there yet. Needs probably another full year of updates at the very least.
Greetings from Australia! Thank you very much for these RTS videos. I've been thinking about revisiting the AoE series and it was your videos that finally convinced me to get back to them. Picked up AoE II DE a few weeks back and hope to gather the remaining games in future.
This would be great if it came out in year 2000, i really don't think it has a place in 2021 it's just to outdated for me, you see and feel how old this game is...For me this is not fun, and visually not pleasing at all. Maybe they should have named it age of empires 2 resurrection or something.
Hey Zade, really loving your videos (the SupCom one with Chris Taylor is gold). Many of us who pre-ordered AoE IV and have been playing since the closed beta have seen a worrying trend of people not playing anymore. AoE IV has lost ~90% of the player base since launch and it's just 6 months old. I'd love a follow up video from you with your insights on what do you think could be happening. People getting bored? Game too simplistic like SupCom2? Bugs? Unbalanced civs? Multiplayer focus?
I think a lot has to do with the undeniably unfinished state the AAA game was released in. Competitive players had to deal with some heavy bugs and balance issues in the beginning that were getting addressed by the developers only shockingly slowly. Casual players who play skirmish and campaigns don't care much about that, of course. What they want is new content. And that is largely absent to this day because the devs had to work on bugs first. Their communication is also surprisingly bad which doesn't give me much hope for the title for the future. I think they're gonna shift their focus on the real cash cow which is AoE2:DE.
I was really worried this would be another Dawn of War III job, but it seems more like a AoE II remake/reimagining, which looks fun if not reinventing the wheel
Uh no, politicians and influential people only apply to empires in the original AoE3 and Warchief, which is taken from AoM style. Asian Dynasty, the 3 empires from it can choose to build from a list of landmarks that they pick in whichever age they want. If you want to see unique age up and play style, try Wars of Liberty mod for AoE3.
Personally my biggest gripe with IV is that it starts you in the medieval dark ages. I would have loved to have another game that goes from Stone Age onward. I cannot even remember which AoE it was but the one I remember playing in that little LAN in a friend's attic with three other friends let you start in the Stone Age and even back then that was so cool to me.
Controversial opinion: Age of Mythology and Halo Wars are far better than any empires game. They both offer abilities/units that change the gameplay from the original formula. They built off the same formula as they were made from the same game studio. The addition of god powers, leader abilities and skills, and fixed town centers makes the gameplay more interesting.
My one issue with aoe games since AOM was how the scales went out of whack. In aoe2 the houses compliment the unit size...the castles are enormous and tower above individual units . In AOM..RON..and all entries since the unit size is such that they tower over houses and castles look undersized. I wish theyd go back to the larger size buildings as it does make the prospect of tsking out a castle that much more daunting when one sees the sheer size of it. Hell the walls look 6 feet high in the new games..
FINALLY got around to watching this, been a crazy week. If it's 'Age of Empires 2: TWO' I'm immediately sold, I've missed this franchise so much. Also, agree on the quality over quantity note - Command & Conquer, Total Annihilation and even Dune 2000/Emperor all proved how effective well rounded factions can be, compared to literally throwing in every country/faction you can think of. Tbh, I can see where people are coming from with the mobile game comparison - everything graphically (including lack of blood) seems to have been designed to be visually 'soft'. Soft lighting, buildings, unit models, etc. AoE II is far grittier by comparison. Great video as always!
On your point about AoE IV not being innovative, the RTS genre has been overrun with excessively innovative games. AoE III was very innovative; it was also significantly less popular than AoE II. C&C 4 was _innovative,_ it was also an abomination. AoE IV is a return to form.
Do a should you play black and white 2 in 2021! It's a game developed by lionhead studios (the ones that did fable), kind of a neat rts game in my opinion
I played during the MP beta and consider it a good game, but I'm still not sure it's $100 NZD good. Maybe with the work that went into the campaigns it is, but I'm probably going to wait till either all my mates jump in or there's a sale
This is a big improvement from the earlier Beta in so many ways, but it's still not great. The graphics do look poor for a game in 2021. Yes, they are miles better than the previous AoEs and an improvement on the earlier Beta, but it's still not ground-breaking in anyway and is comprehensively out done by games 5 or more years old. The textures are OK at best too, but nothing that makes me say wow. Battle physics and animations are the biggest disappointment for me and are just bad. Absolutely nothing of interest. Copy and paste units doing the same swing an hit over and over until a units health goes to 0 just doesn't cut it in 2021. A very quick glance at the RTS element of Total War games proves this. Cavalry charging from the rear or side against infantry sends models flying, but against the front and the cavalry are committing suicide. Dragon lands and does an animation where it tosses a small model miles or does a finishing move on anther large unit. All of this is missing. All you get is someone just swinging their weapons over and over until the red bar goes to zero - really poor effort here I'm afraid. And it's not just about the visual element, these things effect gameplay in a HUGE way, to have ignored them is a real shame.
No map editor makes this a bust for me. As for new RTS, we're not getting a new Battle for Middle Earth game but I feel that series changed up a lot of stuff in regards to gameplay. 2 went back somewhat but having more than two factions was preferable. And that hero editor!
yea i can appreciate what they are doing with AoE 4 but i will wait till i can see the future plans for the game (DLC and such) aside from that all of my free time is spent on American conquest bought the game during the Halloween sale, the game still look pretty for a 2003 game but the game need tweaking for newer windows and i heard the game wont work in 11.
@@Zade_95AoE 4 or American conquest? AoE 4 is a newer game so i think it should work with win 11 no problem, but if you mean American conquest then great i feel kinda sad tho with the passing of time the older games that i still play will not work on newer windows
Emperor: Battle for Dune is one of my all time favorites. Unfortunately it's not even possible to purchase it today due to copyright disputes and it's possible that there's no hope for a new dune game until those get resolved. It's really sad, considering the recent resurgence in rts announcements, as well as the new movie which could really boost the interest in any dune game coming out.
Just looked at the price on steam and was shocked. From what I've now seen of the gameplay, its comes under the category of 'wait for a 75% off sale'. Having said that, is it worth playing for just the single player experience?
Not a fan of subscription models, but makes sense to play for longer than the steam refund time limit. Does the skirmish game, with AI players, provide a decent amount of challenge/fun?
These movies for the campaign seem way less fun than in C&C... :p Points for originality though, I could see that kind of thing as an intro for each faction in the next Civilization
'Oh, I'm not sure about getting it, it looks like it went too modernized, especially the menu lacking in personality and clarity in the screenshots--' Aaaaand you took the words out of my mind again. though you put me at ease enough about the actual gameplay to get the game, I've been starving for something new yet familiar. I've got to ask, though, out of curiosity, especially looking at some of the other comments about Dune: Do you ever get an old dev for any of the games you review reaching out to you? Not even to do content, persé, but just to let you know they watch your stuff?
Good question, there's been one or two over the years but definitely not a regular occurrence. I think one of them was trying to market there new companies new game to lol
Alright. Finished the review proper and I will say there's 1 thing I'm half surprised you didn't mention, a silly little thing, yet a big thing for Age of Empires in particular... Cheats. Does the game have those classic Age of Empires cheats? Can I get a sports car with a bazooka cruising around, or a Canadian laser bear?
Also, just got a chance to play it-- I found another little feature missing: The x button to spread folk out or make them auto explore, unless it shows up after the tutorial
The problem with wanting AOE4 to innovate is that you will be triggering the Fck out of tens of thousands of AOE2 fanboys. It's why AOE3 was hated. Just for the sake of being different. I would have loved an innovative AOE4 but i can see why Relic, Microsoft, and so on played things safe. And i guess that played out well in the end.
AOE 3 is the best one. Idiots took away my field guns and imperial musketeers. As soon as I saw that this game was going back in time l knew it was going to be SHIT.
I despise the way they did armor in this game, heavy/light armor. 60 longbowmen shooting a paladin...doesn't kill it... just...so...meh. aoe2 de is just superior in everyway to me It took them half a year to release a semi major patch, and to add a ranked ladder when their casual que already had a hidden mmr matchmaker. No 2v2 or 4v4 ranked que either lmao. Super unbalanced stuff and abuse filled first 6months until patch. The campaigs being locked until you complete the previuos one is beyond silly. Had to slog thru the whole english campaign which didnt interest me in the slightest to play other ones...
If anybody is interested in Age of Empires franchise I would still recommend AoE2 Definitive Edition. Compared to what you'd have to pay for AoE4, you're getting so much more for your money. Plus, AoE2 is the quintessential Age experience and AoE4 was not able to improve on that.
i disagree about the UI. Yes, yes, lots of older games had a more thematic quaint look to them. But I rather have something readable, clear, and clean to interact with. So many old game design UI tends to have so much wasted space and 'busy-ness' in the textures.
No. I do not recommend it. The game is unfinished and is not a great sequel. This lacks so many things that are not in AoE 2 & 3. They left out colors, personalities of ai, map editor, and several other stuff. They do not even have some of the stuff that is promised, like competative ranking. There are things that are supposedly within the game that do not work. Do not buy the AoE 4.
AoE4 not for me. It doesn't bring much of anything new to the game and dumbs the AI a bit. Basically a ripoff but worse than AoE2. They could have done better, but didn't. To be totally honest there was alot of stuff you said about AoE4 that made me feel that AoE4 is Awesome when it isn't. There is some stuff that you mention like the house wall is gone and made it seem good when I think what that option is gone now. During the whole video you did the same thing as before telling bad things about AoE4 and making it seem Awesome or good when it was a turn off for me.
John 3:16 For God so love the world he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved! Repent from your sins for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!
With Dune being the hot thing on the web at the moment, now would be a great time for a review series on the Dune RTS games?
Most of us discovered the series through the Westwood games. :D
The Spice Must flow!
ya there are quite a lot of dune RTS games... including the very first RTS
I second this.
Emperor battle for dune loved that game, and the soundtrack is insanely good
Yes please!
@@webkilla Herzog Zwei!
Broo how time flies. I remember when the announcement for Age of Empires IV came out, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take a while."
Then the animated trailer came out, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take a while."
Then the gameplays started to come out, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take a while."
Then the beta, more previews, I was like, "Eh, it's going to take another while."
Suddenly right now, I'm like, "What?? It's already released? You serious?? How long have I been under this rock??"
A WHILE HAS ARRIVED
@@Zade_95 great video by the way, Zade! I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but I think I fully agree with the points you've made in the video. The thing that I dislike the most in the game is the "modern simplification" in the UI.
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition suffers the same problem, although not as severe as the one in Age of Empires IV.
I want to say my tastes have changed over the years but here I am playing Red Alert 2. Something about AoE 4 just doesnt work for me.
Same here, except make that Tiberian Sun.
After the DoW III disaster, I'm still sceptical about Relic's work. But since AoE IV looks good, I really hope they will work on Age of Mythology once they're done with AoE IV's expansions.
Yeh I'm glad it looks like they might be turning it around with this and COH3. We shall see!
Poor Relic. I heard that was a choice from the higher-ups to turn what was going to be a real RTS into a terrible MOBA then, in a panic, they kind of half-turned back towards making it sort of an RTS but also sort of a MOBA and it was just fucked.
The art direction and most of the animations look awesome, but I played about 10 minutes of 3 and have logged in about 300 or so hours in Soulstorm.
@@Laneous14 How do you compare it to 2?
@@Laneous14 You're talking about Dawn of War 3 right? Yeah, thats one of the most disappointing games I have ever played. Soundtrack was nice at least.
@@Gallic_Gabagool well the Graphics and Animations are good.
Not so sure about the rest. Maybe try it you could have a bit of fun with it for a few rounds. I expected a mix of 2 with the scale of 1. instead of got something weird
The very last page of art books for Age of Empires 3 features a picture of Age of Empires 1-5, Ensemble's future plans. 4 has art of a WW2 soldier and 5 has a future soldier.
I wonder if the studio stayed open, would 4 takes place right after the Civil War till the end of Vietnam. Maybe a subtitle like End of Empires like how 2 is call the Age of Kings.
Yeah, would've been very interesting to see. Would love to talk to an ex dev about that!
@@Zade_95 With Relic's experience with Company of Heroes, it would be interesting to see if they can merge the smaller feels of CoH with the larger grand army size of AoE.
Hopefully they will add the necessary UI changes and the ranked ladder in time. This lack of features at launch is quite disturbing.
Yeh I think they've said ranked isn't far away
It's just scary when they do this , cos it smells of mis management in the background , but we'll never know. Or maybe the current zeitgeist has conditioned me to think so.
They need time to balance the game before ranked is available. Right now (as of release) French are broken af. They need to nerf the early Calvary
@@vigneshmoorthie922 well all thanks to digitalization. When anyone bought CDs the games had to ship at Gold Status. Havent heard Gold Status for maybe 6 or 7 years now. And Beta has replaced Demo, instead of Beta meaning Half a Game like it did 10 years ago.
Now because patching is so easy and people are so braindead, companies decide to just willingly fool the customer as nobody really cares anyway and fixing a game 3 years later isnt illegal somehow
I.e. not the companies fault but the customers fault for being zombies that happily preorder exploitation
I would love an AOM Definitive Edition.
You and me bro. And a total overhaul of the Chinese DLC.
It holds up pretty well after the Extended Edition re-release.
Inject it into my veins
@@CommanderBohn Give that DLC the same treatment, that "the Forgotten" got in AoEIIDE.
@@TheratMr8 as the AoEDEs and AoEIV showed, we can have both, we can have both
"and to be frank one of your only options in the big budget RTS genre right now" feels bad man :(
What did they spend the money on. Surely not the game.
:(
I have been waiting for a decade for a RTS that is my cup of tea. Doesn't seem like i will be back any time soon.
I think the draught started around the time of Dawn of War 3, didn't it?
Let's all pray that Homeworld 3 will knock our socks off.
When I saw those unit icons, I immediately thought about the Firefox logo. And then you came with the Firefox thing yourself. I love you.
At least the game compensates that with the building looks and the surrounding roads, gardens, etc. God that looks great.
😂 my man
And they can hear the feedback and change the ui
The sandbox is a nice feature, you could build cities just for the look of it like townscaper
Yeah I love it. So cosy
Can't remember how I even discovered your channel. Wonder if there are any other rts guys other there with similar review based channels.
Anyway something I dislike about the newer AoE's is the lack of corpses and skeletons. Let me see the aftermath dammit!
And blood
Couldn't agree more, need that back!
My favourite games are the RTS games. Since the death of C&C and Blizzard, there are few options...AOE 2 and 3 DE and now AOE 4.
But age of empires compared to some other choices that came out over the years just is too simple and especially feels so similar every round
Company of heroes 1 and 2 are pretty damn golden.
I honestly wouldn't mind seeing an Age of Empires game go back to the series' roots and do Age of Empires 1 only more modern. I also wouldn't mind seeing Age of Empires do a Rise of Nations and run the whole gamut from stone age to industrial revolution, allowing for longer FFA games that provide good reasons to trade and make alliances with other players. The ability to raid in order to steal resources would also be cool, but that might be a little too much of a departure from the gameplay of older games.
The most important thing to me in an RTS is the campaign. I'm too old and there are too many good games to play to waste my time on learning intricate RTS mechanics to not suck in multiplayer. The only game where I had patience doing so was Starcraft 2. If the campaign has a great story and atmosphere like Homeworld, or just great mission design like Starcraft 2 or Company of Heroes then I'm in. I was never a fan of AoE 2's campaigns and it seems to me that we have a very similar thing here, so I'll pass.
Possibly my last hope for a modern RTS lies in Homeworld 3 not being fked by Gearbox.
I think Homewolrd Desert of Kharak has one of he best campaing I have ever seen in any rts game.
@@marekkos3513 Deserts of Kharak surely has the tone and atmosphere down and the objective design and variety is decent too. It also has some solid mechanics with terrain advantage and obstruction as well as special abilities. Certainly a good pick for best campaign.
For me it would be either Original War, Sacrifice or Homeworld Cataclysm.
Campaign is good if you payer in hard.. otherwise don't bother
Man when you want a good RTS campaign then Age of Mythology is a must have for you. The voice acting and music is fantastic. A at times extremely calming game with tons of missions and inengine cutscenes and good mission variety like starcraft 1 had. (Can also gladly recommend Starcraft 1 campaign atleast the human and zerg ones)
Then also Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun with its unique artstyle and atmosphere and maybe C&C 3 including kanes wrath.
Warcraft 3 also has fantastic campaign. But the remaster looks like Ass
"must be a reason why I'm king of my castle" - Zade while playing Aoe 4 probably.
I got the game day 1 and wasn’t the biggest fan. Age of Mythology is my favorite RTS of all time and I like the gameplay more. That being said, the game has been growing on me and I think it’s a great thing for the RTS genre. It’s taken me awhile, but I’m really starting to like it. Now I’m just waiting for AoM2
I agree with most of this, but I think theres big issues with presentation, beyond the terrible UI design. There are 4 animals in this game. Sheep, Deer, Boar and Wolves. On Every. Single. Map.
Wheres the different wildlife in each environment like in every other age games? Wheres the nice random clutter? The maps feel dead and lifeless, especially compared to AoM and AoE3 where the maps had way more personality and looked way better despite the lower graphics fidelity. They gave a bunch of environment options for the (severely lacking) skirmish maps, which is nice, but its only a coat of paint, theres no real difference between any of them.
Wheres the history articles for everything, like in the other games? They've but a bunch of effort into documentary videos for the campaign, which is nice, but it's missing the content present in every other game in the series.
The campaign was a huge misstep for me personally, I enjoy the story campaigns, but these just feel like unengaging random scenarios.
And perhaps the biggest thing, the sountrack is TERRIBLE. Sure, its era and civ appropriate, but its all just so tedious. Wheres the catchy tunes the series is famous for? Its all just slow, plodding ambient tracks that barely change between ages broken by extremly generic orchestral battle music. Totally ruins the experience.
Are there even any fun cheats?!
The bones are there, the gameplay is good, and I appreciate that thats where they put the effort in, but the overall presentation is terrible and makes the whole experience fall flat, even if it is mechanically effective.
On the animals, this game takes place mostly in Europe and Eurasia am I right? Even Aoe2 had a limited selection of fauna for those landscapes. As for the history encyclopedia, they actually didn't include that in the AoE DE remaster, whcih infuriates me a bit. It seems however that AoE DE was a half assed enterprise to get it out of the way so that they could get into the real honey jar.
I'm sorry but you seriously sound like a very old gamer that loves his old games way too much to see the positives on newer games.
I think the history articles are significantly less compared to what's on offer atm. Don't tell me that you prefer small article pages of very miniscule information compared to the documentary videos, which mind you, is not just the campaign videos, but also bonus videos that you earn whenever you finish a campaign mission, which gives you informations with actual depictions, like trebuchets and stuffs. Not to mention they actually employ real historians and reenactors, in which they perform the actions incredibly well (shooting bows, horseback riding, etc).
The documentaries being the campaign seems to be the point of contention. A lot of players seems to dislike it because it doesn't make you feel engaged with the characters in the campaign, but it is really interesting for others like me who absolutely enjoys history.
You considering the soundtrack as terrible is just strange. Which catchy tunes from the series that you really adore so much that you can't appreciate era / civ appropriate music? The soundtracks are immersive, and they managed to capture the feel really well. And cheats? Really? I get that a lot of players must have migrated from older games from the series, and AOE 2 and 3 is incredibly old now, but this feels incredibly nitpicky, and no AOE sequels will ever satisfy you, no matter how great.
@@HendyVelarius Ignoring the "very old gamer" comment, maybe I should explain since apparently your reading comprehension is lacking.
First of all, I never said the documentary videos were bad, but that dosent mean that a major feature of the entire series, the history articles, should be absent.
Secondly, I specified that a story based campaign was my personal preference, not that it was inherently bad.
Thirdly, I never said there were not positives, I agreed with the review for the most part that it's an excellent title. Just because I have criticisms dosen't mean I think it's a bad game. Hell, if I did I wouldn't have played enough to notice what I found lacking.
The soundtrack IS terrible. You can still have era and culture appropriate music and it still be good, games manage that all the time, just look at the entire rest of the series, Civ, or any number of titles with historical settings. In this case the music is incredibly boring and forgettable, and does nothing to enhance the experience. Music taste, like taste in games, is subjective, but what they've chosen simply doesn't work well with an Age title in my opinion.
Funny cheats are a staple of the series. They've been in every game, and some have carried over between them. Somehow in AoE4 I doubt you can have the occasional fun game where you bulldoze the map with a monster truck or lazer bear.
Maybe it's nitpicky for you, but these are features that have been removed in a main series AoE game, content that is lacking from it's predecessors. Just because they don't have a massive impact on the gameplay loop does not mean it's ok that they are missing or sub-standard.
And for the record, I am satisfied with AoE4, it's a good game, and a welcome addition to the series, but that dosen't mean it's perfect either.
This is Age of Empires II 2: Exactly Age of Empires II Edition. Instead of pushing the timeline further they went back to medieval times. At leas AoEIII did something more interesting here with the timeline but had to miff it with the card stuff.
age of empier 3 was the best empier at war and i am sad they dint go the dirctionen. the line about MP is also my case. the only MP RTS i play is wargame and some times suprime commanter.
Tens of thousands of people playing this when it released... Very positive reviews... Pretty much universal acclaim... "Genre is dead too little too late". How about we all just play video games and stop trying to crush every release with buzzwords and hypetrains to the abyss?
I wish it was Age of Empires 2: 2 honestly. It’s sad to see how much less popular Age IV is when compared to Age 2. It’s just not there yet. Needs probably another full year of updates at the very least.
Greetings from Australia! Thank you very much for these RTS videos. I've been thinking about revisiting the AoE series and it was your videos that finally convinced me to get back to them. Picked up AoE II DE a few weeks back and hope to gather the remaining games in future.
Hello fellow Oceania friend :) Enjoy, and thank you!
This would be great if it came out in year 2000, i really don't think it has a place in 2021 it's just to outdated for me, you see and feel how old this game is...For me this is not fun, and visually not pleasing at all. Maybe they should have named it age of empires 2 resurrection or something.
Btw civ 3 just celebrated twenty years the other day.
Hey Zade, really loving your videos (the SupCom one with Chris Taylor is gold). Many of us who pre-ordered AoE IV and have been playing since the closed beta have seen a worrying trend of people not playing anymore. AoE IV has lost ~90% of the player base since launch and it's just 6 months old. I'd love a follow up video from you with your insights on what do you think could be happening. People getting bored? Game too simplistic like SupCom2? Bugs? Unbalanced civs? Multiplayer focus?
I think a lot has to do with the undeniably unfinished state the AAA game was released in. Competitive players had to deal with some heavy bugs and balance issues in the beginning that were getting addressed by the developers only shockingly slowly. Casual players who play skirmish and campaigns don't care much about that, of course. What they want is new content. And that is largely absent to this day because the devs had to work on bugs first. Their communication is also surprisingly bad which doesn't give me much hope for the title for the future. I think they're gonna shift their focus on the real cash cow which is AoE2:DE.
I was really worried this would be another Dawn of War III job, but it seems more like a AoE II remake/reimagining, which looks fun if not reinventing the wheel
Haha me too. Feel better about the Future now!
the thing about using landmark for age upgrade isnt new.. it was in aoe 3
The choice wasn't though right? It was always the same?
@@Zade_95 oh my bad i forgot it was selecting politician sorry
You're good! 🙏
Uh no, politicians and influential people only apply to empires in the original AoE3 and Warchief, which is taken from AoM style. Asian Dynasty, the 3 empires from it can choose to build from a list of landmarks that they pick in whichever age they want.
If you want to see unique age up and play style, try Wars of Liberty mod for AoE3.
Do the Dune series, especially Emperor Battle for Dune!
I will!
Personally my biggest gripe with IV is that it starts you in the medieval dark ages.
I would have loved to have another game that goes from Stone Age onward.
I cannot even remember which AoE it was but the one I remember playing in that little LAN in a friend's attic with three other friends let you start in the Stone Age and even back then that was so cool to me.
That was likely AoE1, (went from stone age to iron age).
I'm playing age 4 everyday, but also I'm watching the 2019 mongol vs english trailer everyday. where is that 2019 game???
Controversial opinion: Age of Mythology and Halo Wars are far better than any empires game. They both offer abilities/units that change the gameplay from the original formula. They built off the same formula as they were made from the same game studio. The addition of god powers, leader abilities and skills, and fixed town centers makes the gameplay more interesting.
Thanks for this, your videos are always great.
The AoE series passed me by and I wasn't sure whether to give this a go, I think I probably will now
Cheers!
Excellent presentation again, as always. Thanks for sharing, and Bravo!
Cheers! Much appreciated
AoE2: *build fence to reroute enemy*
AoE4: *enemy brings ladders*
AoE2: NANI!?
I was literally "ten years old" when Age of Kings came out and I bought it (my Mom bought it, honestly) lol...
Your comment hit home with me.
My one issue with aoe games since AOM was how the scales went out of whack. In aoe2 the houses compliment the unit size...the castles are enormous and tower above individual units . In AOM..RON..and all entries since the unit size is such that they tower over houses and castles look undersized. I wish theyd go back to the larger size buildings as it does make the prospect of tsking out a castle that much more daunting when one sees the sheer size of it. Hell the walls look 6 feet high in the new games..
FINALLY got around to watching this, been a crazy week.
If it's 'Age of Empires 2: TWO' I'm immediately sold, I've missed this franchise so much. Also, agree on the quality over quantity note - Command & Conquer, Total Annihilation and even Dune 2000/Emperor all proved how effective well rounded factions can be, compared to literally throwing in every country/faction you can think of.
Tbh, I can see where people are coming from with the mobile game comparison - everything graphically (including lack of blood) seems to have been designed to be visually 'soft'. Soft lighting, buildings, unit models, etc. AoE II is far grittier by comparison.
Great video as always!
That makes sense, definitely not as gritty as AoE2, but I still love the art style and think it looks great!
Ty Ghosty
Nice work Zade 👍
Thanks mate!
On your point about AoE IV not being innovative, the RTS genre has been overrun with excessively innovative games. AoE III was very innovative; it was also significantly less popular than AoE II. C&C 4 was _innovative,_ it was also an abomination. AoE IV is a return to form.
"Right. So I understand that some of you have been waiting on this review..."
YEP!
Damn right I did wait on you doing AoEIV ^^
Take up with Microsoft for not giving me review code until 12 hours before launch LUL
Age Of Empires IV: Age of History Channel
true, and I'm for it
I see you assaulting my walls, sir 😏
😈😈😈😈
Do a should you play black and white 2 in 2021! It's a game developed by lionhead studios (the ones that did fable), kind of a neat rts game in my opinion
I played during the MP beta and consider it a good game, but I'm still not sure it's $100 NZD good. Maybe with the work that went into the campaigns it is, but I'm probably going to wait till either all my mates jump in or there's a sale
Yup probably agree. If it wasn't for gamepass I'd hammer the price more I reckon
Hope they support this with new campaigns for a year or two
Yup me too 😁
This is a big improvement from the earlier Beta in so many ways, but it's still not great.
The graphics do look poor for a game in 2021. Yes, they are miles better than the previous AoEs and an improvement on the earlier Beta, but it's still not ground-breaking in anyway and is comprehensively out done by games 5 or more years old. The textures are OK at best too, but nothing that makes me say wow.
Battle physics and animations are the biggest disappointment for me and are just bad. Absolutely nothing of interest. Copy and paste units doing the same swing an hit over and over until a units health goes to 0 just doesn't cut it in 2021. A very quick glance at the RTS element of Total War games proves this. Cavalry charging from the rear or side against infantry sends models flying, but against the front and the cavalry are committing suicide. Dragon lands and does an animation where it tosses a small model miles or does a finishing move on anther large unit. All of this is missing. All you get is someone just swinging their weapons over and over until the red bar goes to zero - really poor effort here I'm afraid. And it's not just about the visual element, these things effect gameplay in a HUGE way, to have ignored them is a real shame.
No map editor makes this a bust for me. As for new RTS, we're not getting a new Battle for Middle Earth game but I feel that series changed up a lot of stuff in regards to gameplay. 2 went back somewhat but having more than two factions was preferable. And that hero editor!
I know the map editor is coming sometime soon(?), but yeah a shame it's not here on launch
yea i can appreciate what they are doing with AoE 4 but i will wait till i can see the future plans for the game (DLC and such) aside from that all of my free time is spent on American conquest bought the game during the Halloween sale, the game still look pretty for a 2003 game but the game need tweaking for newer windows and i heard the game wont work in 11.
I played on Windows 11 and worked great for me :)
@@Zade_95AoE 4 or American conquest? AoE 4 is a newer game so i think it should work with win 11 no problem, but if you mean American conquest then great i feel kinda sad tho with the passing of time the older games that i still play will not work on newer windows
Now we just need a proper command and conquer 4 , a new Dune RTS game , a new Generals and a new RTS game in general xD
we don't ask for much!!
@@Zade_95 We don't ask. We deserve it
Emperor: Battle for Dune is one of my all time favorites. Unfortunately it's not even possible to purchase it today due to copyright disputes and it's possible that there's no hope for a new dune game until those get resolved. It's really sad, considering the recent resurgence in rts announcements, as well as the new movie which could really boost the interest in any dune game coming out.
I was really hoping for a Skirmish Conquest mode like DoW Dark Crusade.
Yeah that would be a sweet addition!
Have you ever played the Cossacks games? If so, what are your thoughts on them?
I haven't, always been interested though! Hope to cover them one day :)
@@Zade_95 Yeah, seems like they would be your kinda thing based on what I have gathered from your tastes by watching your videos.
Just looked at the price on steam and was shocked. From what I've now seen of the gameplay, its comes under the category of 'wait for a 75% off sale'.
Having said that, is it worth playing for just the single player experience?
Yeah full price is expensive. Gamepass baybbbeeee
I don't think I'd pay $110NZD just for the campaign, but that's just me, others might feel different
For some reason, Microsoft made a big difference in prices in different countries. I live in Kazakstan, and I bought AoE4 for like 16.5$
Really looking for an argument huh
Will do, thanks!
Not a fan of subscription models, but makes sense to play for longer than the steam refund time limit.
Does the skirmish game, with AI players, provide a decent amount of challenge/fun?
What I want to know is if you can have CPU's fight each other like in AoE II and if there are cheats.
"You're too late...10 years too late"
This game is awesome!
These movies for the campaign seem way less fun than in C&C... :p
Points for originality though, I could see that kind of thing as an intro for each faction in the next Civilization
yeah maybe a little. still cool though, something different!
I realy think that the homing missile archers should have been pointed out during the gameplay section, its quite the problem in my opinion
I didn't find it much of an issue. I get it, though!
Don’t know if you’re a horror fan or like the Alien franchise but Alien Isolation is releasing on mobile December 16, 2021
I got the email this morning! Will try review it I think
It's never too late;)
'Oh, I'm not sure about getting it, it looks like it went too modernized, especially the menu lacking in personality and clarity in the screenshots--'
Aaaaand you took the words out of my mind again. though you put me at ease enough about the actual gameplay to get the game, I've been starving for something new yet familiar.
I've got to ask, though, out of curiosity, especially looking at some of the other comments about Dune: Do you ever get an old dev for any of the games you review reaching out to you? Not even to do content, persé, but just to let you know they watch your stuff?
Good question, there's been one or two over the years but definitely not a regular occurrence. I think one of them was trying to market there new companies new game to lol
the title says it all
Here's hoping this convinces EA to bring back C&C. At the very least remastering RA2 and TS.
I tweeted them so they've basically have to now at this point
Did the first remaster even sell well enough?
you said nothing about 3D maps terrain with hill , and mountains , and also nothing about great sound and music ?
Didn't have time to talk about everything, both good points though :)
Alright. Finished the review proper and I will say there's 1 thing I'm half surprised you didn't mention, a silly little thing, yet a big thing for Age of Empires in particular... Cheats.
Does the game have those classic Age of Empires cheats? Can I get a sports car with a bazooka cruising around, or a Canadian laser bear?
Nah I don't think it does. Don't quote me on that though!
PHOTONMAN
Also, just got a chance to play it-- I found another little feature missing: The x button to spread folk out or make them auto explore, unless it shows up after the tutorial
Age of Empires 4 is the best RTS Game since Starcraft and Starcraft 2 :D!!!!
i agree with everything said here
What???, age 2 knight is just the longswordman sitting on a horse.
Just for fun, could you do one about age of empires online ? Check out Project Celeste, they resurrected the game and now all the content is free
Yup, planned :)
@@Zade_95 nice
Age empires 2 2 you say? That's a definitely a good sign
Soon it'll be age of empires 2 2 2
The problem with wanting AOE4 to innovate is that you will be triggering the Fck out of tens of thousands of AOE2 fanboys. It's why AOE3 was hated. Just for the sake of being different. I would have loved an innovative AOE4 but i can see why Relic, Microsoft, and so on played things safe. And i guess that played out well in the end.
I think aoe3 had a lot of good things but the card system fuck everything up.
You seriously think AoE3 was hated just because it was different? Seriously? That's really disingenuous.
AOE 3 is the best one. Idiots took away my field guns and imperial musketeers. As soon as I saw that this game was going back in time l knew it was going to be SHIT.
no, for the price, its not worth it.
Relic could have done a waay better job with this game.
the standards are gone.
7:36 damn.... I actually like all 6 of those logos
I don't mind them either in principle, but the fox is gone :((((
Should have been a modern era game and than the 5th game could have been Sci-Fi
No, absolutely not
Maybe not up to a modern era but something along the lines of Empires: Dawn of the Modern World could be interesting (which went up to WW1).
World have been bold, that's for sure!
I despise the way they did armor in this game, heavy/light armor. 60 longbowmen shooting a paladin...doesn't kill it... just...so...meh. aoe2 de is just superior in everyway to me
It took them half a year to release a semi major patch, and to add a ranked ladder when their casual que already had a hidden mmr matchmaker. No 2v2 or 4v4 ranked que either lmao. Super unbalanced stuff and abuse filled first 6months until patch.
The campaigs being locked until you complete the previuos one is beyond silly. Had to slog thru the whole english campaign which didnt interest me in the slightest to play other ones...
If anybody is interested in Age of Empires franchise I would still recommend AoE2 Definitive Edition. Compared to what you'd have to pay for AoE4, you're getting so much more for your money. Plus, AoE2 is the quintessential Age experience and AoE4 was not able to improve on that.
Compare this with the Company of Heroes series. This is definitely a downgrade to the RTS genre...
And a slap on the face to AOE fans
SHHHHHHHH-HOH
Does people actually want RTS this days :(
I have no interest in PVP tho I do like watching the videos.
Im not a fan of the archers and their homing arrows.
i disagree about the UI. Yes, yes, lots of older games had a more thematic quaint look to them. But I rather have something readable, clear, and clean to interact with. So many old game design UI tends to have so much wasted space and 'busy-ness' in the textures.
But it's not even that readable, to me the age 2 it's lot better looking and readable.
No. I do not recommend it. The game is unfinished and is not a great sequel. This lacks so many things that are not in AoE 2 & 3. They left out colors, personalities of ai, map editor, and several other stuff. They do not even have some of the stuff that is promised, like competative ranking. There are things that are supposedly within the game that do not work. Do not buy the AoE 4.
Looks worse than AoE I DE. Like a cheap mobile game. Good video, though Zäde.
Thanks mate
or 10 years too early?
intro too long, but good review
thankyou cat
AoE4 not for me. It doesn't bring much of anything new to the game and dumbs the AI a bit. Basically a ripoff but worse than AoE2. They could have done better, but didn't. To be totally honest there was alot of stuff you said about AoE4 that made me feel that AoE4 is Awesome when it isn't. There is some stuff that you mention like the house wall is gone and made it seem good when I think what that option is gone now. During the whole video you did the same thing as before telling bad things about AoE4 and making it seem Awesome or good when it was a turn off for me.
Sci-fi
Eh.. two is still the best one.
agreed
i just dont get why its so ugly, like aoe2 DE looks WAY better
Hit like if you want japanese faction too.
this game looks so shit, its like they only took stuff from aoe3 and forgot about all the other games
It looks like a shitty mobile game
You're being contrarian for clicks and its boring
How do you figure that 😂
If I was baiting for clicks I'd call the video AGE OF EMPIRES 4: A WORTHLESS CASH GRAB SEQUEL
John 3:16 For God so love the world he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved! Repent from your sins for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!
Sir this is a Wendy's.
Ah, you noticed the Holy Roman Empire in the game-good catch.