Age of Empires IV In-Depth Review and Critique
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- Опубліковано 17 січ 2022
- Hey folks! In today's video I offer my thoughts on Age of Empires IV.
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Timestamp: 15:10 to skip straight to thoughts on ranked / competitive multiplayer. - Ігри
I wish you did more videos. Your voice and skills for presenting reviews are so good
I agree but something to consider is that maybe more videos wouldn't allow for the same qualities.
Like with this Age 4 review, I'm happy it was created after having significantly experienced the game, and after the launch hiccups and hype.
Most reviews are out on the following days of a game release, which brings less insights on how good a competitive multiplayer game can (or can't) develop to be.
Thanks, I really appreciate it!
Agreed on the campaigns. These missions themselves seem to lack the craftsmanship to the very extreme.
When I think back on some older campaigns, you got sometimes a completely black map with town center, and that was awesome to explore. Age games lose their charm at the very moment fog of war is not everywhere. If I enter a campaign map with whole map revealed, I don't like that one bit.
I wait this video for a long time, it's very nice written, well done, i think you can add chapters to your videos it's not a huge work and help a lot the viewers to know what topic will be covered !
Good idea! I'll look into this.
Great video and review, thank you for your time and effort!
Thank you!
Nice hearing your thoughts on this game. I havent had much time to play since the initial launch, but it's been cool watching a lot of both rts vets and completely new people get into this so hopefully they can support it like they have with 2 (even if it comes slowly). I dont think this game will ever be for me to play with how it's designed and some of the ways its changes dont necessarily work, but I do really appreciate that it exists in 2021/22 and can appreciate all the people who do enjoy playing it. It was funny listening to some Starcraft players talk about how this game is kind of perfect for an older rts player who wants something more mindless and less demanding as a break. It seems to be doing fairly well so hopefully they can fix it up while slowly adding in features that should've been there at launch. I do wonder how much the last couple years have affected their ability to playtest and polish more.
Yeah it's an unfinished game and the asymmetry is superficial. Pretty much sums up what I subconsciously felt.
So glad I found your channel through your Banjo Kazooie review. I have no interest in AoE (I'm just no good at these types of games) but I thoroughly enjoyed the video regardless. Looking forward to whatever you do next!
I figured this was probably in the works, been looking forward to it.
Thank you!
Game’s just really bland. Personally I hate the cutscenes, which are just a bunch of B roll with a narrator giving me the most vague possible historical context. Excruciatingly boring imo
25:29: "Take any individual game and it seems pretty simple. What makes it complicated is what the player chose NOT to do, and why they chose not to do it." This point is golden, and it's why I don't like aoe4 relative to 3 (never played aoe2 competitively for comparison unfortunately). Can apply this to aoe3's card system as well. On the surface, it looks like people just choose one order and execute it every time, but the reality is that there are hundreds of valid permutations made available by a good deck. Just don't feel like I have that many options in aoe4 so it gets boring, and unit selection is extremely boring.
Also nice coverage on the issues with their asymmetry.
I can imagine a world where aoe4 gets a large expansion and becomes a really solid game.
Love your videos and your speed. Excellent Work!!
Thank you!
I enjoy hearing detailed feedback. Thanks for making the video.
Thank you!
Been binging your stuff lately. Truly wonderful stuff. I wonder, has this game gotten attention by the devs in the past year? Perhaps you could make an update video, if so.
Glad to see you back. About that aoe2 meso civ comment, can someone explain to me what is that about. I only play aoe2 casually, so I never really noticed those issues.
love these vids thank u
Thank you!
Nice vid! but a have a question. do you think its going to be fixed? or are they just gonna tweak the numbers not the core gameplay?
I hope so! StarCraft II made major design changes in Legacy of the Void and several later design patches. There's precedent! No idea if Relic/Microsoft will pursue it.
@@brownbeargaming well they own blizzard now so maby thats a good thing.
Great review!
Yes. I waited for this!
I'd love for you to take a detailed look at the new civs in AoE3 DE, Sweden, Inca, Hausa, Ethiopia, USA and Mexico
Amazing
Thank you! Love to see someone reviewing with a lot of experience
I personally recommend watching in x0.75 speed.
Well, well, look who's back!
Good to see you!
This is fair, though the game is getting better in recent and upcoming updates. A map/scenario editor is coming in the spring update, they improved clicking and fixed other bugs, and updated balance. The recent N4C tournament was great to watch, the meta there was quite dynamic and skillful. So yes, the game is incomplete and updates are too slow, but I'm looking forward to how the game develops and improves eventually.
(They're also nerfing keeps and offensive buildings, thankfully, as buildings will take 50% more damage during construction. Offensive keeps are currently too strong imo, can't fight under them due to boiling oil (which will also be more expensive), and trebuchets take too long to kill them especially when repaired. It was a big part of BeastyQt's play in the tournament.)
That being said, I do want to mention you did an excellent job at analyzing the mechanics and the shortcomings of the game. But as you also said, the multiplayer feels very fun to play, at least to me currently. Coming from Starcraft 2, I love the lack of busywork (macro) mechanics like mules, injects and creep tumors that are just better the more you manage to keep clicking, and don't interact with your opponent. A lot of Sc2 is uninteractive, even worker harass to a degree, because it happens so fast. It's skill, but not interesting.
There is still a lot of skill you can apply in AoE4, and even top pros still make a lot of strategic and micro errors. After all, skill, skill expression and skill ceiling means that you can do a lot of things to outplay your opponent (as well as mistakes that better players won't do), and I feel there is quite a bit of room for that in AoE4. Slower battles also mean more repositioning and effects of reinforcements, less swingy fights that decide the game in 2 seconds, and there are more levels of unit counters than in Starcraft 2.
I was diamond and shortly master in Starcraft 2, and I never felt I made as many decisions and interesting plays as in AoE4, it was just playing out the same game plan every time, for the most part, and seeing who has better macro and micro. But I did just switch to AoE4 and play it for the first time during the N4C tournament, so maybe I'm in the honeymoon phase ^^
We'll see how the game develops, maybe they'll even add new civilizations and change some mechanics. Otherwise I guess we have to wait for Frost Giants' upcoming RTS ;)
Quality!
Nice video
Thank you!
I prefer your slower more nomal paced videos as i am not a adhd adderall riddled zoomer with a warped mind. Personally i find videos like that insulting and condescending, and very annoying. Which is why i'm happy ive discovered your channel! Terrific video
I fit that description though and I still prefer these slower-paced videos. In my personal experience, the fast drek that plagues the internet today is actually harder to follow and less engaging precisely because it sends my "ADHD" mind into overdrive
Ive been waiting for this.
Could have been after aoe4 left early access but relic and microsoft shot themselves in the foot here
v useful and v well tht out. i'll back off for awhile
Rushing opponents grants even more rewards.... That is not what I was hoping to hear.
+
Age 4 is dowgrade to age 3 and can't hide that it's a copy of age2
Tried technicial stress period on steam / didnt like the game (tried the free weekend on steam) its stil lacking so much / also clicking on things has something to do with the camera i was forced to rotated my viewpoint to click on serten things. (*i was able to get 350 gold or something a donkey trip on 1 multiplayer 4 vs 4* basicly i became daddy big bucks for the team).
AI is stil clunky with serten animations...
Workers tend randomly stop dowing a task...
Workers stop building sometimes if a army is in the way or something else.
Landmark buildings can sometimes be usefull as frontline defences but barely anybody wants to build them on the frontline.
Or you have no use for them once its build...
I stil dont know if i wane buy this 50% off.... My currrency that would be 25 euros for this PC title.
in every aspect it feels less intressting and more a casual play it true and done thing.
Single player campain i did was the normads but it felt to easy even on higher difficulty.
Also some of the maps i just scouted around and found empty areas with no value on the map.
Basicly it feels like the person who created serten maps tended to slack of on the remainder of the map as long as the player stays inside the story orientated map areas its fine... and it will do.
Something that was less noticebale in AGE 2 DE yes some maps block you of from areas but they would always fill the maps up with something of resource value (like trees).
Anyways getting outside the boundaries on serten maps and you can feel a lot is not there. in Age 4.
I think im gone have a long sleep about it.
Qaulity of Age 2 DEF is just way better and yes it has a longer history then Age 4 but sadly i cant feel tickled the right way.
Also a lot of the campain missions feel like the storyteller is forcefully holding my hands and forcing me to not use my own brain....
easyest brutal explanation i have it just feels DUMBED down...
Owh yeah Gold in compleetly broken and overpowerd in Age 4.... basicly set up a descent market trading route fully protected and you can be cash daddy for the entire team if needed... in MP
but even in single player it was totaly broken when i cheesed my market outside the mission boundaries to get more gold a trip then they thought you would need in the mission.
dont remember which map or mission exactly anymore but i was able to get 186 gold a donkey trip once i found a corner in the map that was compleetly empty because they didnt add anything there (outside story boundaries of the map)...
Owh yeah i dont think Age 4 is lacking Macro of you're army but its more there are barely any systems to properly control your'e army or put them in a serten battle setup you could do in Age 2
Sadly i dont see anybody talk about that a lot...
*in age 2 you can acctuly make a sqaure formation battle setup with monks in the middle and spears + schield man outside outer ring / + inner ring with archers* if you slowly march that setup into a base its realy hard for the defending party to break it up properly. (its like a slow push tactic) but once you add some siege next to that it becomes a real issue for the enemy.
*cant realy do that in age 4 + you cant even seem to get the monks properly protected they just hang on the back until they get sniped out or accidently murderd because you cant put them in a proper battle setup... even if you try to marco them its a waste of time in some occasions to even try and rescue them in the heat of combat... because 1 missclick and the army stops fighting or basicly loses its primary target and becomes a loony very frustrating AI*
So yeah ergh Age 4 so many steps back so little improvements.
being a week from possibly a major patch, it would be fair to wat for it bfr reviewing... also much new stuff come in march...
I wouldn't expect any of the stuff I mentioned (aside from the bugs) to be addressed in the near future, since it's mostly core design stuff. It'd be great if they did, though!
I wish they had spent more time making the game awesome instead of all that useless cinematography. Seriously do not care. Give me good gameplay and mechanics, give me amazing unit and building variety. Give me awesome graphics. I feel like they did the opposite sadly.
Is medieval ages again, I don´t gonna to buy AoE2 again, simple as that.
Shit take that whining about the campaign was hard to listen to whaaa I have too many unit options, whaaa these missions are too long give me 1/3 the mission, whaaa I have to build a base in a rts game, whaaaaaa I couldn’t beat the army so I had to abuse the leashing mechanics sounds like whine-alot-itis
youre whining actually
how the campaign got a value of 2, probably only for the cinematic videos. is funny.
for how much you mention stuff, pretty much make it sound like the game is garbage.
but to be fair, you barely like much of anything that isnt a perfect stable of the genre.
I enjoy and have spent hundreds of hours in many different games! Sadly, I wasn't a fan of the campaign gameplay in this one.