This "stop nagging us about removing simple things that were in our games since the 90s, we'll add them later" industry mentality makes me glad Elden Ring came out like it did much more.
@@DWTerminator You forgot to mention how during AoE 4 development Relic was more interested in promoting CoH 3 which personally to me was already a red flag considering they released more info about CoH 3 than about next installment of AoE 4 even few weeks before launch. And the best they nerfed their own game engine to run on single cpu thread which is kinda hillarious when you take into consideration that CoH 1 iteration of the engine could use up to 3 cores.
Current players as I'm posting this comment, according to Steam Charts: AoE2DE at 28972 while AoE4 is at 11087. 30-day average for AoE2DE is 16558 while AoE4 is at 8359. Hell, even the 2013 "HD" version of AoE2 is sitting at 4403 current players and a 30-day average of 3016. In case your math isn't very good, that makes AoE2 around twice to three times more popular than AoE4. There is no realm in which AoE4 is "as popular" as AoE2.
3:56 The image you refer to was from the Collector's Edition from Age of Empires 3. Some thought this was the actual plan Ensemble followed but Sandy Petersen wrote back in 2008 on Heaven Games that this was just pure speculation on their part. And actually, the last new game before AoE 4 was Age of Empires Online. When Ensemble was closed, Microsoft founded Robot Entertainment that consisted largely of former Ensemble employees and during early development, Online was codenamed AoE 4. AoE Online is btw back these days as "Project Celeste" with all F2P elements removed.
AoE Online wasn't a major release in the series. It was a pretty weird F2P spinoff that nobody really considered a "proper" AoE game precisely because of those crappy F2P elements.
I never understood how some dev thought that throwing the player into a tutorial on startup was a good idea. Just do a pop-up window when first starting the game asking you if you'd like to play the tutorial. Not to mention that such a thing already existed whenever you wanted to play hard difficulty singleplayer or jump straight to multi
Wow, you summarised pretty much all my thoughts on this game. I really wanted to like AoE 4, even the multiplayer side of it but the state it launched was abyssmal and it improved at a snails pace. And when patches came out it was mostly just a change of numbers. I already moved back to AoE 2 for a good multiplayer experience because it doesn't need much refinement anymore, it even gets content faster and its future looks so much more promising. Another reason to go back to AoE 2 is the fact that often enough I don't want to play multiplayer but the game gives me an endless supply of single player to have fun with. AoE 4's single player is well, as you described. You could already see Relic's condescending way when the game was in Beta and they talked about zooming out. They were telling people that you couldn't play the game properly if you zoom out too much and only after a lot of protest they implemented that option
I just downloaded it, even at first campaign mission I am dead bored, feel restricted, couldn't drag or choose army. what the heck devs were thinking? This game is not even close to AOE3, forget the 2nd. I feel bad for this franchise.
Definitely a Fair analysis especially on launch. And as a fan you should he disappointed of how they handled it. At its current personally love aoe 4. Its really engaging, especially the multiplayer. Regardless of how you compare to aoe 2, aoe 4 is still a great game on its own.
I haven't watched the entire video yet but another thing that pissed me off with AoE4 was the god awful UI. It literally looks like someone designed it for tablets or consoles and then adjusted it a tiny bit for desktop computers. For some dumb reason modern games literally cannot comprehend PC interface. Hell, the game's art direction itself looks like a cheap mobile game.
To be fair to CK3... none of Paradox's games have anything better than a "somewhat serviceable" UI. That said, yeah UI designers these days seem to have no idea what they're doing.
@@DWTerminator Consolization is something that was embraced back to the late 90s/early 2000s, even games like the original Ghost Recon and Raven Shield for PC were very "compatible" with console gaming in mind, with their easy to use commands. It's neither better nor worse for me, they both have their pros and cons, just a different take.
You said, "It literally looks like someone designed it for tablets or consoles and then adjusted it a tiny bit for desktop computers." Well, it was designed for consoles, and the game will be coming to console by next year.
A general rule of thumb I use is to not get a game until at least a year or two after it releases. I primarily played aoe3 with friends and family, and just recently started playing aoe4. Honestly I think it is in a much better state now. Especially due to the modding system, which makes all those cool game modes you were talking about available to anyone. This is very nice since despite being much more skilled then the rest of my family and friends, I can still play with them and have fun. Overall would recommend trying it out again.
I definitely feel your pain. My dad and I played AOE2, AOE3, COH1, and COH2 for countless hours. When AOE4 was announced, we were very excited. I bought the game, and played through the campaign. After that, my dad asked me whether I liked it, and whether he should buy a copy himself, and play with me. With a broken heart, I told him "no, this game just isn't very good..." Here are some things I disliked, that you didn't mention in your video: -The cards on the UI (for units, buildings, and upgrades). I hate the over-simplistic artwork style of the UI cards, the ones from previous games were so much better. The ones in AOE4 made me think the UI department either got lazy, or weren't given a proper budget. -Unit behavior during combat. It's atrocious, your melee units prioritize enemy melee units first, and ignore nearby enemy ranged units, even ones within swinging distance. Thus your melee units won't attack ranged units until either all nearby enemy melee units are dead, or you babysit them constantly. -The design of the 3D building models. I hate them, town centers look like crappy estates with a pitiful front yard, rather than the majestic, grandiose, central base of operations from previous games. Military buildings in AOE4 look too similar to each other, all of them are just square buildings with some props outside for distinguishing (training dummies for barracks, targets for archer ranges, stables for horses). Worst of all, the blacksmith and armory buildings look nearly identical to each other. All buildings in previous games had unique architectural designs, you could recognize their purpose, and tell them apart from just a quick glance. Sorry, this comment got a lot longer than it should have, but I needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in this video. The AOE franchise, and its fans, deserve better...
Agree 100% I was so disappointed when this game came out after all those years waiting for a new aoe they made the model design and UI in this game look so goofy and bad the weapons stick out as looking huge compared to their body it looks terrible almost cartoonish i couldn't get into it the design in this game is just bad i much prefer the art style of aoe2 and just went back to playing that.
Exactly! The art style really bothers me, its like they just went full cartoon. I don't care about a unit living or dying if its just a drawing, I always felt that the older games made the units seem much more alive
@@rafaelrmaier Reminds me literally of C&C Generals and Red Alert 3 design from like 15-20 years ago. They all look like reskins of each other. And once you've seen the buildings once or twice they all look similar.
I like the game and a lot. There’s some stuff like the lack of a map creator that I find extremely disappointing but I also enjoy what’s new and I think it’s more immersive than Aoe2. I like the asymmetrical gameplay and how it makes the mongols feel more accurate because of it. the siege gameplay is more interesting and it reminds me of a fast paced version of stronghold. Although it sucks the game still doesn’t feel quite finished and it’s an example of the whole “release now patch later” mentality that really sucks among modern game devs, I think the game has a very good foundation and I think it will do very well in the future unlike the new battlefield where I feel like they completely destroyed the basic foundation that makes a good battlefield game. Also I think keeping it in the medieval period was the right move. Sure we already have 2 but I feel like the game does enough different to where it still feels like an upgrade, also I feel like if they went into ww1 to modern or something the game would feel too different and I don’t really think a modern setting is even very good for how age even plays.
All this talk about esports focus and seasonal updates makes me question what even the target audience for this is? It really sounds an awful lot like an early access game in disguise coupled with a multiplayer medieval RTS game just having the AoE ip slapped on to it.
Funny part is that most of the competitive players just went back to AoE2 because AoE4's competitive play is so lacking. And yes, it's clearly an early access game masquerading as a finished product. It's utterly pathetic.
I feel your pain, I was so exited for AOE IV I had really good memories with the series since my dad introduced me to the rts genre when I was little with the 2nd game and also Warcraft 2….the ps1 port😅, and I really loved them, and to see this series fall from grace like this is very heartbreaking considering it took so long to finally get another game in the series, im not even mad at how bad the game is…im just sad 😞
My friend and I were planning to play coop campaigns in AoE4 for a while after completing coop on AoE2 and AoE3. But yellow ribbons, cannon balls hitting like a snowball, and the general style bugged me out. Guess I'll skip this one completely Ps: Im originally an AoE3 fan so Im usual to a gsme having problems. 3 had plenty of them. But as you said it had soul
This is the review I've been trying to find and waiting for the 4 years since this game's launch. An old school RTS point of view that sees and values things from the franchise's past and was frustrated with the lack of basic features and OG Age of Empires content. I was and still am VERY dissapinted with the lack of a custom map maker mode at launch. The one they ended up making for the playerbase is really meh. It took forever for them to give it to us. I wanted to build a giant realistic castle with a mote and propper castle defenses, not "put a giant castle wall there, and then wall off this area between trees, and, oh good my exposed farms are under attack! " I'm also really unhappy with the campaign mode, not at all what I wanted. A basic history lession and honestly, they had a few commonplace misconceptions and I was in shock that they didn’t do proper research. The same studio is doing a remake of Age of Mythology. That was my game when I was a kid. My mother originally didn't want to rent it for me because it was T for teen, but a year later she finally rented the gold edition that included the Titan expansion and I was super hooked. I loved the hell out of the game and played it all summer until it had to be returned. Then she got me the base game version and then the titan's expansion version of the game a few years later. Then about 15 after that I bought it on Steam. When. I was a kid I was absolutely horrible at the game. I couldn't get past mission 8 of the base game's campaign and I couldn't hold back the Norse titan in the Titan's campaign. I still had tones of fun though lol. I loved making custom maps, and then as the years went by they got more complex and detailed in their design, scripting, structure and objective. They've all been lost to time but I made some epic maps over the years. :D I love the hell out of that game. 20 years later I've since moved on and into many different genres and I've gotten into much more complicated and complex strategy games like Total War Warhammer 3 & its Immortal Empires, but Age of Mythology will always be my starting point for my love of history and strategy. I'd probably be a completely different person if I'd never picked it up. Nostalga wise that game is a 10/10 and still holds up really well in 2024.
Most of the points are valid, BUT... this game could have been much worse than it is (it launched as an Early Access basically) and after S2 update it became actually playable even for a semi-competitive AOEII veteran as I admire the more realistic representation of medieval combat than AOEII. It takes time, devs are very slow, but AOEIV is moving in correct direction at least.
@@DWTerminator not an excuse, but it was anniversary, release date was set, hype was built up, etc. game was NOT ready yet M$ probably insisted to be launched on that date. Just my TWO CENTS.
@@DWTerminator Microsoft, or Xbox Game Studios as it's called now, should've brought Ensemble Studios back from the grave and get most, if not all the old development team to return for developing games again such as Age of Empires IV, Halo Wars 2, and beyond.
Relic Entertainment should've never made Age of Empires IV in the first place due to their lack of vision and zero enthusiasm for making this game. I've heard the development team in Relic Entertainment are more focused on working and promoting their upcoming game, Company of Heroes 3 than Age of Empires IV, which is a complete red flag here. I do wish Microsoft, or Xbox Game Studios as it's called now, would bring back Ensemble Studios and re-hire all of their best development team who've worked on Age of Empire series since 1997!
Very good and wholesome review man. I am baffled by so few likes it has. I guess with our belowed franchize going to shet, at least we get reviews like yours where we don't feel alone in that this game is a crime against original devs and their ideas
I appreciate your review but I disagree with you. I play AoE4 right now and I think the game is great. I played AoE2 and did not like it. It is not bad and all the issues you have complained about have been addressed. The civs have character and even though they are similar, they are very different and favor different strategies. They even released 2 new civs and they are so unique and interesting. People till complaining about the game at this point are just crying over nothing. Go play AoE2 if that is all you want but I the fact that the civs are more asymmetrical and that the counter system is more pronounced make it fun for me. And I dont think AoE2 is bad or anything but for me I just could not get past how all the civs felt the same. The techs felt all over the place and the mico was just tedious. AoE4 is a great game and I have fun playing it and there is nothing wrong with the game to justify the hate it gets even to this day after most of the issues have been solved and they are still supporting it. And it is being supported by the same people balancing Aoe2! I hope AoM comes out great as I would love to play that game.
I agree with the majority. I recommend looking at the new Patch (fixes) and Mods (for different types of gameplay). Majority of the problems mentioned are fixed, even colors. It's a good game, give it a second try. 👍
Did aoe2 need mods, patches, updates, or any other shit to make it good? No, it didn't. Also, mods? Are you fucking with me? What is age of empires a fucking Bethesda game where you need mods to make it enjoyable? Do you realize by saying you need mods to make this turd any good is basically a HUGE middle finger to lifelong fans of age of empires such as myself? No, if you are saying that it is completely okay for Relic to release a unfinished, pile of shit, and then expect other people to clean up after them, then no, no one should play this game. Nobody should buy an unfinished product at full price. It's appalling to me that companies can release unfinished games at full price, and charge 60 fucking dollars for them. I say 'fuck that shit!' I'm gonna buy an actual finished product, like aoe2, for 20 bucks instead. Honestly, l don't know why you are advising folk to waste their money on this. It saddens me to the depths of my soul.
@@DWTerminator It's on Ebay for around 10 dollars. Just seeing this game made me think of how complicated Castle Strike's animations were compared to AoE4.
It's different, but at least Militia-line isn't a trash meme and every civ can build every type of unit unlike in aoe2 where certain unit trees are so useless they shouldn't even be enabled. AoE4 has a lot of rock-paper-scissors bonus damage bullshit which is kind of a lame mechanic if it's overused as much, but it's the same in all AoE games I believe.
In the ~23 years of experience I have with AoE2, I have yet to find a unit that was useless. Some can be pretty situational, but none are outright useless.
It's not so much the competitive players ruining things as the developers just paying *way* too much attention to what those competitive players want, and not enough attention to what the vast majority of their player base actually wants.
@@DWTerminator Exactly! TBH this is the same shit that ruined MOBA's. DotA was a very fun game when you could stack bashers until you could permastun someone. Being balanced is not the same as being fun, especially on the entertainment industry
I am 19 years old, but l have been playing age of empires since I was 2. In fact, age of empires 2 was my first strategy game. Ever since l played aoe3, l have been waiting for the aoe game that took place in the modern day. Instead, we all get this piece of crap. DW, l hope never have to play this game again. Long live aoe2!
Most of the errors or content lacking are already fixed or added to the game. Give it a try now, cause most points you mention are outdated and only apply to the game at launch
@@DWTerminator I watched the full video and you don't say that almost near the end. Most people are going to get confused (specially considering most people dont watch full videos) and will think that is the state of the game nowadays, which would be false. By the way, before the update you could play any of the campaigns. The update result is that you can choose any of the maps because every of them are now unlocked. But before the update you could choose which campaign to play, believe me. While I agree in most of your points, I think this video should have been uploaded in the release of the game. Now most of the points are outdated.
It's plainly obvious in the video that I'm playing the latest version (as of making the video, which is the season 2 update). I explained the problems the game had on launch, specifically *said* those were issues on launch, and at several points throughout my discussion of AoE4 mention that some, but not all of them, have been patched. And I *did* make a video right around the game's release... which I also mentioned in the video. ua-cam.com/video/uFxhsg3I7ls/v-deo.html
Strongly disagree, at least not in the current state of the game. Could have been true in the begginning months but developers are not entirely in charge of management desicions like when the game is released, Microsoft is. So maybe the game came out not entirely as de the developers wanted, with a few missing things, but they have catched up at this point. Those buggy starting months may have costed a bigger playerbase though. Also about the campaign, its the only thing i think is greatly done since the beggining, gotta disagree with that one as well.
I made it abundantly clear throughout the video that I've played the current version (hell, all of the AoE4 gameplay footage was recorded on the current version). It's now almost 10 months after release and they still haven't "caught up." And now it's looking like Relic has practically abandoned AoE4 in favor of working on Company of Heroes 3. Frankly Relic could've made AoE4 far better if they wanted to, but everything they've done makes it seem like they simply didn't care.
If you saw this and AoE 2 side by side there's no way you would think 4 is the newer game. It looks and plays like what people probably think AoE1 did if they never played it.
I literally said all of that in the video, outside of the running on modern PCs thing since I can't personally confirm that with my rig being the same as it was on launch.
More like Age of Scampires. Good game designers and developers have left the industry over a decade ago. Good Story Writer even longer. As in they went on another planet entirely! I pretty much gave up on modern video gaming. Retro gaming through Emulation and excessive Modding if possible for variety and new experiences reasons, is the only lifeline thats keeping me engaged in this hobby.
I'm fine with it if it's just on the minimap, if the color is based on the faction itself and so I can avoid it by not playing as that faction, or something like that. It's just one of those weird personal dislikes that I can't rationally explain.
I see your point, even if, let's admit it, it's a minor issue compared to all the other issues you pointed out. Thanks for playing that game so I don't make the mistake to do it.
It's annoying on its own. The real issue is that such a simple, basic feature that's been in the series since the first game back in 1997 was not only missing on launch, but took them 9 months post-launch to put into the game. It's a prime example of how underdeveloped the game is and how out of touch Relic are with the series and its fans.
@@DWTerminator On that I agree. Relic's last good game I played was Space Marine back in 2011. Didn't try COH though. Also, I have a timid hope for Homeworld 3. It's not developed by Relic, but some devs worked on the first two games.
Company of Heroes 1 is excellent, though to be fair it's more or less a grounded and more refined Dawn of War 1. CoH2 has a lot of problems though. And I really don't know what to think on Homeworld 3. They seem to be banking pretty hard on nostalgia (what with "Adagio for Strings" in the trailer and all) but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
This "stop nagging us about removing simple things that were in our games since the 90s, we'll add them later" industry mentality makes me glad Elden Ring came out like it did much more.
AOE4 is a direct microcosm of modern gaming
It really is. Such a shame.
@@DWTerminator You forgot to mention how during AoE 4 development Relic was more interested in promoting CoH 3 which personally to me was already a red flag considering they released more info about CoH 3 than about next installment of AoE 4 even few weeks before launch. And the best they nerfed their own game engine to run on single cpu thread which is kinda hillarious when you take into consideration that CoH 1 iteration of the engine could use up to 3 cores.
This is interesting information.
I knew this game wasn't going to be it when arrows would always hit their target..
after 2 years , AGE4 is actually very much as popular , as Age 2 after all.
Current players as I'm posting this comment, according to Steam Charts: AoE2DE at 28972 while AoE4 is at 11087. 30-day average for AoE2DE is 16558 while AoE4 is at 8359. Hell, even the 2013 "HD" version of AoE2 is sitting at 4403 current players and a 30-day average of 3016.
In case your math isn't very good, that makes AoE2 around twice to three times more popular than AoE4. There is no realm in which AoE4 is "as popular" as AoE2.
In addition to this, it pretty much looks like the devs paid leading AoE2 streamers into the team to bind them to silence.
3:56 The image you refer to was from the Collector's Edition from Age of Empires 3. Some thought this was the actual plan Ensemble followed but Sandy Petersen wrote back in 2008 on Heaven Games that this was just pure speculation on their part.
And actually, the last new game before AoE 4 was Age of Empires Online. When Ensemble was closed, Microsoft founded Robot Entertainment that consisted largely of former Ensemble employees and during early development, Online was codenamed AoE 4. AoE Online is btw back these days as "Project Celeste" with all F2P elements removed.
AoE Online wasn't a major release in the series. It was a pretty weird F2P spinoff that nobody really considered a "proper" AoE game precisely because of those crappy F2P elements.
@@DWTerminator fair
I never understood how some dev thought that throwing the player into a tutorial on startup was a good idea. Just do a pop-up window when first starting the game asking you if you'd like to play the tutorial. Not to mention that such a thing already existed whenever you wanted to play hard difficulty singleplayer or jump straight to multi
Wow, you summarised pretty much all my thoughts on this game. I really wanted to like AoE 4, even the multiplayer side of it but the state it launched was abyssmal and it improved at a snails pace. And when patches came out it was mostly just a change of numbers. I already moved back to AoE 2 for a good multiplayer experience because it doesn't need much refinement anymore, it even gets content faster and its future looks so much more promising. Another reason to go back to AoE 2 is the fact that often enough I don't want to play multiplayer but the game gives me an endless supply of single player to have fun with. AoE 4's single player is well, as you described.
You could already see Relic's condescending way when the game was in Beta and they talked about zooming out. They were telling people that you couldn't play the game properly if you zoom out too much and only after a lot of protest they implemented that option
Typical relic being typically bad at programming.
I just downloaded it, even at first campaign mission I am dead bored, feel restricted, couldn't drag or choose army. what the heck devs were thinking? This game is not even close to AOE3, forget the 2nd.
I feel bad for this franchise.
Definitely a Fair analysis especially on launch. And as a fan you should he disappointed of how they handled it. At its current personally love aoe 4. Its really engaging, especially the multiplayer. Regardless of how you compare to aoe 2, aoe 4 is still a great game on its own.
I haven't watched the entire video yet but another thing that pissed me off with AoE4 was the god awful UI. It literally looks like someone designed it for tablets or consoles and then adjusted it a tiny bit for desktop computers. For some dumb reason modern games literally cannot comprehend PC interface. Hell, the game's art direction itself looks like a cheap mobile game.
AoE4 and CK3. Jesus... mobile was a mistake.
To be fair to CK3... none of Paradox's games have anything better than a "somewhat serviceable" UI.
That said, yeah UI designers these days seem to have no idea what they're doing.
@@DWTerminator Consolization is something that was embraced back to the late 90s/early 2000s, even games like the original Ghost Recon and Raven Shield for PC were very "compatible" with console gaming in mind, with their easy to use commands. It's neither better nor worse for me, they both have their pros and cons, just a different take.
You said, "It literally looks like someone designed it for tablets or consoles and then adjusted it a tiny bit for desktop computers." Well, it was designed for consoles, and the game will be coming to console by next year.
A general rule of thumb I use is to not get a game until at least a year or two after it releases. I primarily played aoe3 with friends and family, and just recently started playing aoe4. Honestly I think it is in a much better state now. Especially due to the modding system, which makes all those cool game modes you were talking about available to anyone. This is very nice since despite being much more skilled then the rest of my family and friends, I can still play with them and have fun. Overall would recommend trying it out again.
I definitely feel your pain.
My dad and I played AOE2, AOE3, COH1, and COH2 for countless hours. When AOE4 was announced, we were very excited. I bought the game, and played through the campaign. After that, my dad asked me whether I liked it, and whether he should buy a copy himself, and play with me. With a broken heart, I told him "no, this game just isn't very good..."
Here are some things I disliked, that you didn't mention in your video:
-The cards on the UI (for units, buildings, and upgrades). I hate the over-simplistic artwork style of the UI cards, the ones from previous games were so much better. The ones in AOE4 made me think the UI department either got lazy, or weren't given a proper budget.
-Unit behavior during combat. It's atrocious, your melee units prioritize enemy melee units first, and ignore nearby enemy ranged units, even ones within swinging distance. Thus your melee units won't attack ranged units until either all nearby enemy melee units are dead, or you babysit them constantly.
-The design of the 3D building models. I hate them, town centers look like crappy estates with a pitiful front yard, rather than the majestic, grandiose, central base of operations from previous games. Military buildings in AOE4 look too similar to each other, all of them are just square buildings with some props outside for distinguishing (training dummies for barracks, targets for archer ranges, stables for horses). Worst of all, the blacksmith and armory buildings look nearly identical to each other. All buildings in previous games had unique architectural designs, you could recognize their purpose, and tell them apart from just a quick glance.
Sorry, this comment got a lot longer than it should have, but I needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in this video. The AOE franchise, and its fans, deserve better...
Agree 100% I was so disappointed when this game came out after all those years waiting for a new aoe they made the model design and UI in this game look so goofy and bad the weapons stick out as looking huge compared to their body it looks terrible almost cartoonish i couldn't get into it the design in this game is just bad i much prefer the art style of aoe2 and just went back to playing that.
Exactly! The art style really bothers me, its like they just went full cartoon. I don't care about a unit living or dying if its just a drawing, I always felt that the older games made the units seem much more alive
@@rafaelrmaier Reminds me literally of C&C Generals and Red Alert 3 design from like 15-20 years ago. They all look like reskins of each other. And once you've seen the buildings once or twice they all look similar.
Remappable keys ?! Wow, these modern gamers sure have some weird priorities...
I legitimately wouldn't be surprised if somebody at Relic complained about the fans being "entitled" for wanting such basic features in the game.
I like the game and a lot. There’s some stuff like the lack of a map creator that I find extremely disappointing but I also enjoy what’s new and I think it’s more immersive than Aoe2. I like the asymmetrical gameplay and how it makes the mongols feel more accurate because of it. the siege gameplay is more interesting and it reminds me of a fast paced version of stronghold. Although it sucks the game still doesn’t feel quite finished and it’s an example of the whole “release now patch later” mentality that really sucks among modern game devs, I think the game has a very good foundation and I think it will do very well in the future unlike the new battlefield where I feel like they completely destroyed the basic foundation that makes a good battlefield game. Also I think keeping it in the medieval period was the right move. Sure we already have 2 but I feel like the game does enough different to where it still feels like an upgrade, also I feel like if they went into ww1 to modern or something the game would feel too different and I don’t really think a modern setting is even very good for how age even plays.
Company of Heroes 3 got released and it got mixed and negative reviews on launch on Steam. They are still working on the game.
Not remotely surprised.
@@DWTerminator I was excited about COH 3 when the trailers came out. Then they added a shop.
@@DWTerminator I think the player count declined because of the store and the game was unpolished and missing features on release.
@@DWTerminator Right now, there are mixed reviews and around 2000 players playing Company of Heroes 3.
All this talk about esports focus and seasonal updates makes me question what even the target audience for this is? It really sounds an awful lot like an early access game in disguise coupled with a multiplayer medieval RTS game just having the AoE ip slapped on to it.
Funny part is that most of the competitive players just went back to AoE2 because AoE4's competitive play is so lacking.
And yes, it's clearly an early access game masquerading as a finished product. It's utterly pathetic.
Esports needs to completely eliminated from RTS games.
I feel your pain, I was so exited for AOE IV I had really good memories with the series since my dad introduced me to the rts genre when I was little with the 2nd game and also Warcraft 2….the ps1 port😅, and I really loved them, and to see this series fall from grace like this is very heartbreaking considering it took so long to finally get another game in the series, im not even mad at how bad the game is…im just sad 😞
_"Warcraft 2 the ps2 port"_
Excuse me, the what now?
@@eusouocarameuirmao oh sorry my bad I meant the ps1 port, though there was a ps2 port of age of empires 2😅
@@time4manmode945 i had no idea that these 2 games had consoles ports at all :O
Is it true that AoE4 was unfinished at launch?
Blatantly unfinished.
My friend and I were planning to play coop campaigns in AoE4 for a while after completing coop on AoE2 and AoE3. But yellow ribbons, cannon balls hitting like a snowball, and the general style bugged me out. Guess I'll skip this one completely
Ps: Im originally an AoE3 fan so Im usual to a gsme having problems. 3 had plenty of them. But as you said it had soul
This is the review I've been trying to find and waiting for the 4 years since this game's launch. An old school RTS point of view that sees and values things from the franchise's past and was frustrated with the lack of basic features and OG Age of Empires content. I was and still am VERY dissapinted with the lack of a custom map maker mode at launch. The one they ended up making for the playerbase is really meh. It took forever for them to give it to us. I wanted to build a giant realistic castle with a mote and propper castle defenses, not "put a giant castle wall there, and then wall off this area between trees, and, oh good my exposed farms are under attack! " I'm also really unhappy with the campaign mode, not at all what I wanted. A basic history lession and honestly, they had a few commonplace misconceptions and I was in shock that they didn’t do proper research.
The same studio is doing a remake of Age of Mythology. That was my game when I was a kid. My mother originally didn't want to rent it for me because it was T for teen, but a year later she finally rented the gold edition that included the Titan expansion and I was super hooked. I loved the hell out of the game and played it all summer until it had to be returned. Then she got me the base game version and then the titan's expansion version of the game a few years later. Then about 15 after that I bought it on Steam.
When. I was a kid I was absolutely horrible at the game. I couldn't get past mission 8 of the base game's campaign and I couldn't hold back the Norse titan in the Titan's campaign. I still had tones of fun though lol. I loved making custom maps, and then as the years went by they got more complex and detailed in their design, scripting, structure and objective. They've all been lost to time but I made some epic maps over the years. :D
I love the hell out of that game. 20 years later I've since moved on and into many different genres and I've gotten into much more complicated and complex strategy games like Total War Warhammer 3 & its Immortal Empires, but Age of Mythology will always be my starting point for my love of history and strategy. I'd probably be a completely different person if I'd never picked it up. Nostalga wise that game is a 10/10 and still holds up really well in 2024.
As a gamer, I like to play RTS games for the fun. I watch the competitive e-sports sometimes.
I have a dream that someday a japanese faction will be introduce to AOE4.
Most of the points are valid, BUT... this game could have been much worse than it is (it launched as an Early Access basically) and after S2 update it became actually playable even for a semi-competitive AOEII veteran as I admire the more realistic representation of medieval combat than AOEII. It takes time, devs are very slow, but AOEIV is moving in correct direction at least.
It could certainly have been worse, but there's no excuse for the state it launched in.
@@DWTerminator not an excuse, but it was anniversary, release date was set, hype was built up, etc. game was NOT ready yet M$ probably insisted to be launched on that date. Just my TWO CENTS.
Hard to say exactly whose fault it is, though it's at least abundantly clear Relic are completely out of touch.
@@DWTerminator Microsoft, or Xbox Game Studios as it's called now, should've brought Ensemble Studios back from the grave and get most, if not all the old development team to return for developing games again such as Age of Empires IV, Halo Wars 2, and beyond.
Relic Entertainment should've never made Age of Empires IV in the first place due to their lack of vision and zero enthusiasm for making this game. I've heard the development team in Relic Entertainment are more focused on working and promoting their upcoming game, Company of Heroes 3 than Age of Empires IV, which is a complete red flag here. I do wish Microsoft, or Xbox Game Studios as it's called now, would bring back Ensemble Studios and re-hire all of their best development team who've worked on Age of Empire series since 1997!
The COH 3 trailers are gots of likes. The first North Africa trailer got a lot of dislikes. I am excited for COH 3.
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Mr. @DWTerminator a question if may I. Have you ever reviewed the Homeworld series? If not What's your opinion about it?
Haven't reviewed them yet. They're on the to-do list though.
This game is available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
DW how much do you actually use your nintendo switch compared to pc?
Not often. I mostly use the Switch when I'm away from the PC or the PC is being used for compiling videos or something.
There's an RTS called ww1 and I also thinking that would be like the fourth AOE
Very good and wholesome review man. I am baffled by so few likes it has. I guess with our belowed franchize going to shet, at least we get reviews like yours where we don't feel alone in that this game is a crime against original devs and their ideas
I appreciate your review but I disagree with you. I play AoE4 right now and I think the game is great. I played AoE2 and did not like it. It is not bad and all the issues you have complained about have been addressed. The civs have character and even though they are similar, they are very different and favor different strategies. They even released 2 new civs and they are so unique and interesting. People till complaining about the game at this point are just crying over nothing. Go play AoE2 if that is all you want but I the fact that the civs are more asymmetrical and that the counter system is more pronounced make it fun for me. And I dont think AoE2 is bad or anything but for me I just could not get past how all the civs felt the same. The techs felt all over the place and the mico was just tedious. AoE4 is a great game and I have fun playing it and there is nothing wrong with the game to justify the hate it gets even to this day after most of the issues have been solved and they are still supporting it. And it is being supported by the same people balancing Aoe2! I hope AoM comes out great as I would love to play that game.
I agree with the majority.
I recommend looking at the new Patch (fixes) and Mods (for different types of gameplay).
Majority of the problems mentioned are fixed, even colors. It's a good game, give it a second try. 👍
Did aoe2 need mods, patches, updates, or any other shit to make it good? No, it didn't. Also, mods? Are you fucking with me? What is age of empires a fucking Bethesda game where you need mods to make it enjoyable? Do you realize by saying you need mods to make this turd any good is basically a HUGE middle finger to lifelong fans of age of empires such as myself? No, if you are saying that it is completely okay for Relic to release a unfinished, pile of shit, and then expect other people to clean up after them, then no, no one should play this game. Nobody should buy an unfinished product at full price. It's appalling to me that companies can release unfinished games at full price, and charge 60 fucking dollars for them. I say 'fuck that shit!' I'm gonna buy an actual finished product, like aoe2, for 20 bucks instead.
Honestly, l don't know why you are advising folk to waste their money on this. It saddens me to the depths of my soul.
Simpletons, man.. anyone defending age4 is def not franchize fan, let alone a fan of any game with decent gameplay imo
I am just glad that l am not the only one.
@ Lucas
Hey, sorry for being harsh, didn't mean anything personal. If you like aoe4, then more power to you.
DW, your opinion on the (supposedly) upcoming _''Fallout''_ amazon tv show?
If it's actually a thing... knowing Amazon, it'll be a complete disaster.
@@DWTerminator Wow, is amazon prime _that_ bad?
Prime itself isn't bad, but Amazon's TV shows and movies have mostly been absolute crap.
Hey. Is it possible for you to review castle strike?
If I ever get a copy, maybe.
@@DWTerminator I have a copy of it, but the game is kinda rare at this point. Maybe I can send you a steam version of Warrior Kings : Battles?
I'll probably find a copy eventually. As for Warrior Kings, I already have both the original game and Battles.
@@DWTerminator It's on Ebay for around 10 dollars. Just seeing this game made me think of how complicated Castle Strike's animations were compared to AoE4.
So if I own 2 do you think I should upgrade to 4
Going to 4 would be a massive downgrade.
It's different, but at least Militia-line isn't a trash meme and every civ can build every type of unit unlike in aoe2 where certain unit trees are so useless they shouldn't even be enabled. AoE4 has a lot of rock-paper-scissors bonus damage bullshit which is kind of a lame mechanic if it's overused as much, but it's the same in all AoE games I believe.
In the ~23 years of experience I have with AoE2, I have yet to find a unit that was useless. Some can be pretty situational, but none are outright useless.
Yeah I don't get why they made this game at all with the the several AoE2 re-releases out there...
Ugh competitive players just ruin everything from computer games to table top games even to MMOs
It's not so much the competitive players ruining things as the developers just paying *way* too much attention to what those competitive players want, and not enough attention to what the vast majority of their player base actually wants.
@@DWTerminator sadly it's like that in table top gaming. Maybe one day it will change lol
I assume you mean stuff like Magic the Gathering because the tabletop games I mess around with don't have any kind of "competitive" scene.
@@DWTerminator Exactly! TBH this is the same shit that ruined MOBA's. DotA was a very fun game when you could stack bashers until you could permastun someone. Being balanced is not the same as being fun, especially on the entertainment industry
I am 19 years old, but l have been playing age of empires since I was 2. In fact, age of empires 2 was my first strategy game. Ever since l played aoe3, l have been waiting for the aoe game that took place in the modern day. Instead, we all get this piece of crap. DW, l hope never have to play this game again.
Long live aoe2!
I don't know why you'd ever "have" to play AoE4 again, knowing how wimpy it is.
I meant to say that l "you" never have to play this piece of shit again.
Yeah I thought this game was awful. I was so sad :(
Most of the errors or content lacking are already fixed or added to the game. Give it a try now, cause most points you mention are outdated and only apply to the game at launch
This video was made *after* I tried it out again following the season 2 update. I literally said that in the video.
@@DWTerminator I watched the full video and you don't say that almost near the end. Most people are going to get confused (specially considering most people dont watch full videos) and will think that is the state of the game nowadays, which would be false. By the way, before the update you could play any of the campaigns. The update result is that you can choose any of the maps because every of them are now unlocked. But before the update you could choose which campaign to play, believe me. While I agree in most of your points, I think this video should have been uploaded in the release of the game. Now most of the points are outdated.
It's plainly obvious in the video that I'm playing the latest version (as of making the video, which is the season 2 update). I explained the problems the game had on launch, specifically *said* those were issues on launch, and at several points throughout my discussion of AoE4 mention that some, but not all of them, have been patched.
And I *did* make a video right around the game's release... which I also mentioned in the video. ua-cam.com/video/uFxhsg3I7ls/v-deo.html
@@DWTerminator I know. But you don't specify which issues have been solved and which not. Most of them have.
Strongly disagree, at least not in the current state of the game. Could have been true in the begginning months but developers are not entirely in charge of management desicions like when the game is released, Microsoft is. So maybe the game came out not entirely as de the developers wanted, with a few missing things, but they have catched up at this point. Those buggy starting months may have costed a bigger playerbase though.
Also about the campaign, its the only thing i think is greatly done since the beggining, gotta disagree with that one as well.
I made it abundantly clear throughout the video that I've played the current version (hell, all of the AoE4 gameplay footage was recorded on the current version). It's now almost 10 months after release and they still haven't "caught up." And now it's looking like Relic has practically abandoned AoE4 in favor of working on Company of Heroes 3. Frankly Relic could've made AoE4 far better if they wanted to, but everything they've done makes it seem like they simply didn't care.
Age of Empires? What about Age of Umpires? Where is the baseball themed strategy game?
Well thx god for X box game pass they are all there and CoH 3 its upon us and Relic its not what they use to be , sad .
Really well done video man, pretty much covered all my gripes. Really disappointed with this game :l. Modern gaming in general is just utter trash.
If you saw this and AoE 2 side by side there's no way you would think 4 is the newer game. It looks and plays like what people probably think AoE1 did if they never played it.
This info is so out of date. I didnt use patrol in aoe2 says enough 🤣
Out of date? The update literally came out earlier this month and they haven't announced anything since it released.
@@DWTerminator u can pick colour, change hotkey, run aoe4 on recent pc...
I literally said all of that in the video, outside of the running on modern PCs thing since I can't personally confirm that with my rig being the same as it was on launch.
Bought it and realised that is was... Boring... I love AOE2...
If you like Xerox-copy civs with 5℅-8℅ uniqueness for each
More like Age of Scampires. Good game designers and developers have left the industry over a decade ago. Good Story Writer even longer. As in they went on another planet entirely! I pretty much gave up on modern video gaming.
Retro gaming through Emulation and excessive Modding if possible for variety and new experiences reasons, is the only lifeline thats keeping me engaged in this hobby.
Dude why you no like playing as blue ? Red is enemy and yellow or purple is neutral. Everyones knows that. It's about as old as shooting red barrels.
I'm fine with it if it's just on the minimap, if the color is based on the faction itself and so I can avoid it by not playing as that faction, or something like that. It's just one of those weird personal dislikes that I can't rationally explain.
I see your point, even if, let's admit it, it's a minor issue compared to all the other issues you pointed out. Thanks for playing that game so I don't make the mistake to do it.
It's annoying on its own. The real issue is that such a simple, basic feature that's been in the series since the first game back in 1997 was not only missing on launch, but took them 9 months post-launch to put into the game. It's a prime example of how underdeveloped the game is and how out of touch Relic are with the series and its fans.
@@DWTerminator On that I agree. Relic's last good game I played was Space Marine back in 2011. Didn't try COH though.
Also, I have a timid hope for Homeworld 3. It's not developed by Relic, but some devs worked on the first two games.
Company of Heroes 1 is excellent, though to be fair it's more or less a grounded and more refined Dawn of War 1. CoH2 has a lot of problems though.
And I really don't know what to think on Homeworld 3. They seem to be banking pretty hard on nostalgia (what with "Adagio for Strings" in the trailer and all) but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
If you want everything like aoe2 then play aoe2.
Yeah, so why the fuck did Relic make a copy of aoe2 if aoe2 exists?
UA-camrs that depress me to no end DWT Terminator
AOE3 was bad but still finished camps. AoE4 didnt wanna finish anything.
At least AOE3 is based of a era more complex that the medieval ages.