Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

Narax

Educated
Joined
Aug 28, 2020
Messages
96
Apparently the inclusion of Crazy Horse in the original game was politically incorrect, so they're replacing him with a fictional character. I didn't know he is the prophet muhammad for natives
An Interview with Age of Empires III: DE voice-actor, Tokala Black Elk

ncleFrank_Close_FeatureLogo.png


Chayton Black and his Lakota uncle survey the plains in a cinematic from AoE III: DE
With less than a month until the arrival of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, we’re taking a closer look at the changes coming to the ‘Shadow’ storyline while introducing you to the voice behind its newest character: Uncle Warbonnet!

The historical personage of Crazy Horse—a leader of the Oglala band of the Lakota who died in 1877—originally appeared as a character in the Age of Empires III expansion, The WarChiefs. After feedback from our Indigenous consultants, we recognized the need to remove this revered figure from the narrative and replace him with a fictitious character invented by the lead writer of the new ‘Shadow’ storyline: Anthony Brave. In Anthony’s own words:

“I think a game can have Crazy Horse in it, but it has to be done right: with great care, thought, and research from the beginning…not just in how he is represented, but also with the kind of context the game creates. In this case, it just didn’t seem very dignifying for someone of his standing. I would also add that if you wanted to depict Crazy Horse, you should reach out to his maternal family to get permission.”

The character Anthony came up with to replace Crazy Horse is Uncle Warbonnet: the uncle of the ‘Shadow’ storyline’s hero—Chayton Black. Chayton is the son of Amelia Black (the protagonist of AoE III: DE’s ‘Steel’ campaign) and Uncle Warbonnet’s late brother. Raised on the east coast of North America, Chayton is seeking out his Lakota relatives when the story begins. Finding them alters his life forever—though you’ll have to play the new ‘Shadow’ campaign to discover exactly how…

HISTORICAL FACT: The warbonnet was a headdress worn only by a warrior who had shown great courage in battle, and was worn as a symbol of his high standing in his band.
tokala.jpg


Tokala Black Elk
Tokala Black Elk is an actor (Yellowstone), voice-over artist (The Revenant and Westworld), and an activist who has appeared before Congress to represent the Lakota Nation. He is also a certified teacher of the Lakota language, and now adds the role of Uncle Warbonnet (aka Uncle Frank) to his resume—a brand-new character appearing in the reworked ‘Shadow’ storyline of Age of Empires III: DE.

♦ ♦ ♦

WORLD’S EDGE: Hi Tokala! Where are you from?
TOKALA BLACK ELK: I grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the southwest corner of South Dakota. I am a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, though our name for ourselves is Lakota.

WORLD’S EDGE: What does Tokala mean and what is the history behind your name?
TOKALA BLACK ELK: Tokala has 3 meanings.

First, it is the Lakota name for the smallest Fox in North America—the Kit Fox.

Second, we had a Warrior Society named for these little foxes; it was said that they used to pack up like wolves and could defeat a black bear when working together.

Third, it is a Warrior from the Kit Fox Warrior Society. That last one is my name’s meaning: “Warrior of the Kit Fox Warrior Society.”

WORLD’S EDGE: How did you get your start in acting?
TOKALA BLACK ELK: By complete accident. I drove someone else to an open casting, but my car AC had just died whilst it was about 104°F [40°C], so I decided to wait in the air-conditioned waiting area. When I went inside, the Casting Director said, “You’re next,” and pushed me into a room with the Director. I had no sides [a.k.a. the audition script], no resume, nothing…but I ad-libbed and was cast in the role of a villain.

WORLD’S EDGE: What is your dream role in a movie?
TOKALA BLACK ELK: I don’t have one… I do have an acting dream, though. I’d like to wear pants in several films in a row. Movie breachcloths are always made by Costumers rather than an actual guy wearing the thing. I wear a lot of leggings and breachcloths for period films, but when I get to wear pants I’m either portraying a modern person, someone in the future, or someone from a different world, altogether. (I have no problem wearing leggings and a breachcloth; I just think I can also act with pants on.)

WORLD’S EDGE: Is there a historical Native American figure you would want to play?
TOKALA BLACK ELK: Several. There are so many amazing stories about Natives that Hollywood has not tapped. There are World War 2 soldiers that changed the outcome of many battles—and maybe even the war itself. The majority of those have not had their stories set to the big screen or television.

I also always wanted to play “American Horse,” because that guy had style with his trench coat, sideways hat, six-shooters, and giant warhorse.

WORLD’S EDGE: Have you ever known someone like Uncle Warbonnet?
TOKALA BLACK ELK: I based his voice and demeanor on my late great-uncle, Thomas Black Elk. So, I suppose yes, I have!

pre-order Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition so you can meet Uncle Warbonnet this October!
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Fake outrage baiting aside, I tried the beta, and well, I don't know what to tell you.

Age 3 was perfectly fine as it is. As is par for the course, they've created a new god-fugly UI, but unlike Age 2's auto-farms, there's no standout ease of use feature that makes it worth the Beamdogification.

Supposedly added more pixels to things, but where with Age 2 you could plainly see the difference, here, eh, not so much.

I suppose you could get it if you really wanted new civs, or just for a more functional MP lobby.
 

FreeKaner

Prophet of the Dumpsterfire
Joined
Mar 28, 2015
Messages
6,908
Location
Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿErdogānīye
Age 3 was an unbalanced mess, honestly. Home city progression to unlock cards was also a huge and unnecessary obstacle. Removal of home city level obstacle to cards, better MP lobby and balance patches are going to be good enough. AoE3 was already 3d and had good artstyle so graphic improvements aren't going to be huge but UI could be a bit better as there is way more information in AoE3 units (which I would say is a weakness of the game).
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-iii-definitive-edition-doesnt-feel-very-definitive/

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition doesn't feel very definitive
A new mode and new civs don't exactly transform the series' black sheep.

As an army of invading Ottomans wheel their massive cannons up the beach towards my Maltese fortress, I'm transported back to the first time I played Age of Empires 3. It might not be the best in the series, but its bombastic take on the new world means that it remains resolutely my favourite. On that basis, its definitive edition should be a welcome update, but based on what's present in the new version, I'm left wondering whether it even needed changing.

Age of Empires 3 is the most recent mainline game in the series, but in many ways it's also the one that's aged most poorly, its central narrative an unfortunately-romanticised take on European colonialism and Manifest Destiny. As the Definitive Edition's opening cutscene rolled by, scenes of British redcoats backed by lines like 'Destined to Conquer' had me squirming uncomfortably, but developer Forgotten Empires has at least addressed the game's subject matter. The first time you open the game, a message states that the team has worked with Native American and First Nation representatives to combat some of its harmful and inaccurate stereotypes. I'm not equipped to break down the effectiveness of those changes, but I'm glad that the issue hasn't been entirely glossed over.

Beyond narrative changes embedded in the main questline, the Definitive Edition's biggest update is its new look. HD graphics that immediately makes it feel fresher, brighter and more colourful. That certainly plays into its romanticised history of the New World—zoom out and you can watch the grass get crushed beneath the feet of your advancing armies, focus in and you're closer to the action than ever, almost level with every cutlass swing or puff of musket-smoke.

But here the changes don't seem as impactful as they do in the remasters of Age of Empires 1 or 2. The definitive editions of those games scaled them up for modern displays in a way that was almost transformative. But with AoE 3, the effect is far more limited.

The new version is pretty, but it can't hold a candle to modern RTS games or rely on the charm of an old, now-classic style. Changes to the UI, too, are uneven. Some are genuine quality-of-life improvements, like timers that illustrate the progress of your unit queues or building upgrades. But other times, I regularly found myself glancing frantically around the screen, looking for information I thought I knew the location of. The HUD might look more modern, but I found it far less intuitive than the original.

As well as the eurocentric base game, the Definitive Edition includes the Native American and Asian-focused expansions. It also introduces two new game modes. Historical Battles, which are one-shot attempts to capture real-life conflicts, offer story mission-level complexity in their scenarios, but strip back much of the linearity of the game's campaigns. The second new mode, The Art of War, is a series of little more than tutorial skits that explain a few of the RTS' more complex ideas in more detail, but are likely to already be familiar to anyone with more than a cursory knowledge of the genre.

There are also two new civilisations, the Swedish and the Inca. The Swedish benefit from slow, patient play. Early on, they have little to set them apart from many other European civs, but the 'annex' system allows certain buildings to be adapted, offering unique benefits, including several that can help muster a powerful army at short notice, excellent at enacting blisteringly-fast counterattacks.

The Inca are much more suited to a scrappy, skirmish-heavy playstyle. Limited by a low-tech army, a steady trickle of gold can allow you to accelerate into the mid-game, where hit-and-run attacks will allow you to heal up via warrior priests before heading back into battle.

But as interesting as the new arrivals are, none feel particularly transformative, and the result is that this Definitive Edition doesn't actually feel very definitive. This update feels like the least necessary of the trilogy, and while it feels cynical to suggest it, I can't help but feel like Age of Empires 3 has only been granted a definitive edition to maintain parity with the rest of the series.

The updates to Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 revitalised those games. They brought Age 2's five expansions under one roof and solidified the original's multiplayer scene. By contrast, a couple of new civs and game modes don't exactly stack up—especially when Age 3's only expansions are easy to find and its multiplayer scene is still active and accessible.

Perhaps the Definitive Edition will help a few more people come to love the most underappreciated Age of Empires game, but it seems a little too barebones to overhaul its reputation.
 

Zboj Lamignat

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
5,520
I'm posting this to ensure everyone that I deeply care about the representation of american attack helicopters in AoE3. This is an important issue, ok?
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,048
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Age of Empires 3 is the most recent mainline game in the series, but in many ways it's also the one that's aged most poorly, its central narrative an unfortunately-romanticised take on European colonialism and Manifest Destiny. As the Definitive Edition's opening cutscene rolled by, scenes of British redcoats backed by lines like 'Destined to Conquer' had me squirming uncomfortably

Reviewer's opinion completely disregarded right at this point.

Shut the fuck up about this bullshit, nobody cares. It's a game where your little people kill the other player's little people.
 

L'ennui

Magister
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
3,256
Location
Québec, Amérique du Nord
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-iii-definitive-edition-doesnt-feel-very-definitive/

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition doesn't feel very definitive
A new mode and new civs don't exactly transform the series' black sheep.

As an army of invading Ottomans wheel their massive cannons up the beach towards my Maltese fortress, I'm transported back to the first time I played Age of Empires 3. It might not be the best in the series, but its bombastic take on the new world means that it remains resolutely my favourite. On that basis, its definitive edition should be a welcome update, but based on what's present in the new version, I'm left wondering whether it even needed changing.

Age of Empires 3 is the most recent mainline game in the series, but in many ways it's also the one that's aged most poorly, its central narrative an unfortunately-romanticised take on European colonialism and Manifest Destiny. As the Definitive Edition's opening cutscene rolled by, scenes of British redcoats backed by lines like 'Destined to Conquer' had me squirming uncomfortably, but developer Forgotten Empires has at least addressed the game's subject matter. The first time you open the game, a message states that the team has worked with Native American and First Nation representatives to combat some of its harmful and inaccurate stereotypes. I'm not equipped to break down the effectiveness of those changes, but I'm glad that the issue hasn't been entirely glossed over.

Beyond narrative changes embedded in the main questline, the Definitive Edition's biggest update is its new look. HD graphics that immediately makes it feel fresher, brighter and more colourful. That certainly plays into its romanticised history of the New World—zoom out and you can watch the grass get crushed beneath the feet of your advancing armies, focus in and you're closer to the action than ever, almost level with every cutlass swing or puff of musket-smoke.

But here the changes don't seem as impactful as they do in the remasters of Age of Empires 1 or 2. The definitive editions of those games scaled them up for modern displays in a way that was almost transformative. But with AoE 3, the effect is far more limited.

The new version is pretty, but it can't hold a candle to modern RTS games or rely on the charm of an old, now-classic style. Changes to the UI, too, are uneven. Some are genuine quality-of-life improvements, like timers that illustrate the progress of your unit queues or building upgrades. But other times, I regularly found myself glancing frantically around the screen, looking for information I thought I knew the location of. The HUD might look more modern, but I found it far less intuitive than the original.

As well as the eurocentric base game, the Definitive Edition includes the Native American and Asian-focused expansions. It also introduces two new game modes. Historical Battles, which are one-shot attempts to capture real-life conflicts, offer story mission-level complexity in their scenarios, but strip back much of the linearity of the game's campaigns. The second new mode, The Art of War, is a series of little more than tutorial skits that explain a few of the RTS' more complex ideas in more detail, but are likely to already be familiar to anyone with more than a cursory knowledge of the genre.

There are also two new civilisations, the Swedish and the Inca. The Swedish benefit from slow, patient play. Early on, they have little to set them apart from many other European civs, but the 'annex' system allows certain buildings to be adapted, offering unique benefits, including several that can help muster a powerful army at short notice, excellent at enacting blisteringly-fast counterattacks.

The Inca are much more suited to a scrappy, skirmish-heavy playstyle. Limited by a low-tech army, a steady trickle of gold can allow you to accelerate into the mid-game, where hit-and-run attacks will allow you to heal up via warrior priests before heading back into battle.

But as interesting as the new arrivals are, none feel particularly transformative, and the result is that this Definitive Edition doesn't actually feel very definitive. This update feels like the least necessary of the trilogy, and while it feels cynical to suggest it, I can't help but feel like Age of Empires 3 has only been granted a definitive edition to maintain parity with the rest of the series.

The updates to Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 revitalised those games. They brought Age 2's five expansions under one roof and solidified the original's multiplayer scene. By contrast, a couple of new civs and game modes don't exactly stack up—especially when Age 3's only expansions are easy to find and its multiplayer scene is still active and accessible.

Perhaps the Definitive Edition will help a few more people come to love the most underappreciated Age of Empires game, but it seems a little too barebones to overhaul its reputation.

As noted in that article's comments section, the author bases most of his ideas about the new factions' gameplay from the Wars of Liberty mod instead of the actual AoE3 Definitive Edition. I don't know how trustworthy the rest of his claims can be if he can't be bothered to play the actual product he is supposed to be critiquing. Another self-inflicted blow for game journalism, unfortunate.
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-3-definitive-edition-review/

AGE OF EMPIRES 3: DEFINITIVE EDITION REVIEW
It doesn’t do everything smoothly, but Age of Empires 3 still offers the easiest way to get into this classic RTS series.

Age of Empires 3 was always a black sheep—the unloved mercenary of its series who'd never be accepted by the other troops no matter its achievements. It suffered by being the sequel to a genre-defining game that would turn out to be the best of a dying breed of real-time strategy. Then there was the fact that Age of Empires 2 was a masterclass in isometric pixel art—a lost aesthetic that, like a sturdy antique, shines beautifully with a bit of polish (as Fraser observed in his review). Age of Empires 3, on the other hand, was from an era of 3D graphics where everything in this genre looked kind of stiff and lumpy, but you didn't notice because much of it was hidden amongst the big pixels and monitor scan-lines.

A remastered Age of Empires 3 is kind of akin to watching historical battle reenactments on a 4K screen only to find that they're performed by creaky animatronic soldiers. The increased frame-rates and resolutions highlight the half-baked animations and seemingly unimproved textures of this 15-year-old game. There's an updated physics engine, but the only time it felt tangible was when a cubic chunk from a collapsing building bounced off a neighbouring building like a weightless block of polystyrene.

So Age of Empires 3 isn't much of a looker. But its strengths lie elsewhere, in the myriad little conveniences and quality-of-life refinements that may make it more appealing to series newcomers than its predecessor.

The game follows much the same freeform base-building flow as the rest of the series: plonk down a town centre anywhere you like on a map, build villagers, and scurry around extracting food, wood and coin from the land that you use to build armies, improve your technologies, and wipe out your enemies.

One of the most joyous things about Age of Empires has always been the faction variety and the tradition continues here. You have 16 civilisations to choose from, and each has a host of unique units and quirks that make them distinctive. India has Sacred Fields that heal and buff units, the British get free workers for building houses, while the Russians can't shake their Soviet stereotype as a ruthless people-factory-cum-meat-grinder by producing infantry at an alarming rate.

There are two all-new civs in the definitive edition, both with some interesting bonuses; Sweden gets cheap mercenaries and charming wooden Torps that gather resources, while Inca can garrison military in many of its buildings and use priestesses to woo enemies over to your side.

Age of Empires 3 requires cohesive strategy, fast clicking, and the mental motivation to learn a thousand hotkeys. It doesn't suffer fools or the fumble-fingered, and even prologue missions can be gruelling without a refresher on the hotkeys for jumping to the town centre, queueing up villager production, and jumping between hero units. In this sense, even the campaign missions feel like warmups for online play rather than strong stories to immerse yourself in.

It may be demanding and intense, but Age of Empires 3 is also deceptively simple, and a whole lot less fiddly than its predecessor thanks to a mix of modernisations it made back in 2005 and now with the definitive edition.

Nostalgics can opt for a cleaner version of the original UI minus the excess of wooden veneer that boxed in the action in the 2005 version (I, for one, would like to have had the original UI in all its screen-hogging glory). For most, though, the 'Definitive' UI is probably the way to go, making those precious resource counters displayed large and clear at the top of your screen. Whatever your preference, the options are there, and you can resize the initially oversized UI too.

Further smoothing things out are various mechanical tweaks. You now only have three resources to worry about rather than the four of previous games, there's a big clear button that automatically sends you to the next idle villager, and you no longer need special buildings to store resources, cutting down on menial micromanagement. There's an enjoyable card system too, which lets you set up a deck between battles, then call in supplies from your Home City on a timer.

All this makes for a fast-flowing game that condenses centuries worth of military and technological progress into battles that last between 10 minutes and an hour. The fact that it squeezes five technological ages into just the colonial era means you don't see the same dramatic evolution as you do across the eras in Age of Empires 2 (which stretches from the Dark Ages to the Colonial era), but it's still a satisfying journey punctuated by flashy new units that reflect your progres.

The problems with Age of Empires 3 really start when you zoom in, seeing how messy and stilted things are up close. Combat neither looks nor feels great; try to execute a special move with a hero unit, and instead of shoulder-barging their way through to the front of the skirmish they'll back out like a scrawny kid at a metal concert and go all the way around, by which time your target may well be dead or gone. Send your cavalry to death-or-glory Rohirrim charge an enemy line and they'll stop just before impact, politely sword-swiping at foes who can turn to face you instantaneously without a turning animation.

This kind of stuff was understandable in 1999 in Age of Empires 2, but a bit iffy in 2005 when you already had games like Total War or Battle for Middle-Earth finding ways to make combat feel impactful. It's obscene in 2020. For a game gloating about its updated physics engine, it's strange that the physicality of its combat makes it seem like everyone's wielding weapons and armour forged from monopole north-facing magnets.

Age of Empires 3 remains a solid skirmish-style RTS that would fare better were it not released shortly after a game that's so clearly Microsoft's favourite strategy baby. Where Age of Empires 2 received several expansions over the last decade, including an all-new one for the Definitive Edition, there are no new campaigns here beyond the base game and its two expansions released at the time—that's 27 campaigns versus eight (twelve if you charitably count separate acts as campaigns). Maybe back in 2005 the in-game cutscenes and more cinematic feel were enough to make up for the lesser amount of content, but they don't offer much in the way of compelling storytelling or writing today (the cross-generational tale in the WarChiefs expansion being the best of a so-so bunch).

If you care little for single-player campaigns and are instead looking for a brisk RTS to play online with friends, then this is the path of least resistance into a genre stalwart, with plenty of quality-of-life touches that make it easy to acclimatise to (it's pretty sensibly priced on Steam too, and available on Xbox Game Pass). If you're an existing Age of Empires 3 fan, then this is the best way to play it going forward, even if the extent of the improvements reflects its status as the least loved entry in the series.

Although Age of Empires 3 requires less patience than Age of Empires 2, it's also less rewarding over the long-term, struggling to match the elegance of a game that's been updated and refined for 21 years.

THE VERDICT
70

AGE OF EMPIRES 3: DEFINITIVE EDITION
A modest remaster of a fun but flawed RTS that’s stuck in the ever-lengthening shadow of its predecessor.
 

Feyd Rautha

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
1,934
Location
Nestled atop the cliffs
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Just bought it! Gonna master the Swedish nation and defeat the turks and the chinese.

Swedes and Turks had good relations. Why would you defeat Turks instead of Russians and Germans.
hear ye! hear ye! you are only allowed to play historically accurate battles.

Does anyone know if they have put info on all the balancing done in this version compared to the latest version of the original AoE3?
 

Feyd Rautha

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
1,934
Location
Nestled atop the cliffs
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Great Steam review: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970088603/recommended/933110/

BeefSnakSti© said:
Where to even begin...

The cons and some comparisons to the original:

They have sacrificed core mechanics of the game in favour of historical accuracy despite never being a historically accurate game in the first place. The native civs can no longer tame animals, which was one of their coolest features, and the North American natives can no longer mine and are required to construct an additional building to be able to acquire coin. Changing things in the game to be more accurate and considerate towards people who were presented in the game in a way that was ignorant or even disrespectful is fine, great even, such as changing the names of the civs to what they actually call themselves, but changing core mechanics and lazily introducing them is not. This is an absurd and unnecessary change that is an insult to veteran players.

A major pet peeve of mine is the change from colonial era to commerce era. Are you trying to tell me that a game, that is built around the theme of colonialism, around the era of colonialism and who's entire gameplay is based around building a colony can't have the colonial era in it because it is too offensive. Was colonisation an awful thing for many people, YES, absolutely, but it happened and its what the game is based around, the game isn't making it out to be some glorious thing. This change of course does nothing to the actual gameplay so I'm not going to give up on the game just because of that but it is extremely idiotic and useless.

Home city progression has been almost completely removed. You can still level up your home city, however, it only unlocks the customization options for the visual appearance of your home city and no longer unlocks shipment cards, as you now start with all of them. While this works great for multiplayer as you no longer have to grind of out matches to get the cards you need to stay competitive, it is awful for singleplayer. There is no more sense of progress or goals to work towards and the main replayability of singleplayer is simply gone. This is the change that makes me just not want to play the game, I used to love unlocking and experimenting with different makeshift shipment decks as I worked my way up to the more powerful ones, but that is no more.

The UI is a complete and utter joke. The visual design of it looks as though someone made a bunch of text boxes in Microsoft Word and copied and pasted them onto the edges of the screen. The original AoE 3 had a UI design that was full of character and had amazing satisfying sounds to match. The definitive edition UI is completely soulless and had ear-piercing horrendous sounds mixed in with some rehashed sounds from the original version that somehow sound worse. To add on to this, the deck editing menu is nigh unusable, its essentially just a massive blob of the possible shipments you can use with very little sorting options. The original deck editor showed you what building the card type, what era you could get the shipments in and the progression trees all at the same time, allowing for easy location and identification of each card. In the definitive deck editor you can sort by age or by card type thats it, enjoy, and the cards are in a seemingly random order with no visual separation making it a long unsorted messy list of shipments that fit said categories.

This only what I've discovered and thought worthy of mentioning in my mere 2 hours of playing the game. I've hear many other people mention how poorly optimized the game is but I have had no issues with performance as of yet, so be cautious in checking if your pc can actually run the game.


The pros:

The two new civs seem unique and interesting, haven't played with them enough to say for certain but I'm not really picky with how strong or standout they are, just happy to have new content.

The graphics are a decent upgrade, nothing ground breaking but they generally look nice.

Having achievements is nice, there aren't a lot of them but something is better than nothing at this point.

It's cheaper than the original AoE 3, which is nice.

yeah, that's about it, it's a ♥♥♥♥ show.


The Meh:

The sound revamps are overall higher quality and are likely more accurate but they take away a lot of the nostalgia of the original and are also a lot less satisfying (in my opinion).

The long list of changes to the native civs are great for recognising and respecting these cultures and for the most part don't really affect gameplay, however they ruin a lot of the games nostalgia (which is admittedly a sacrifice I think we can make) and a lot of it is lazily done, such the community plaza, where villages walk in circles for some reason and it looks ridiculous. The fur trading building used to get coin is gathered by villagers as if they were plucking berries... from the side of a building... built next to a coin mine... which they aren't allowed to gather from... but the fur trade drains coin from the mine? Very historically accurate, thanks devs. It's just looks stupid and is clearly not very thought out, but once again, doesn't affect gameplay so it's not that big of a deal.


Things they could change to make this better:

Major problems:

A big one would be to revert the any and all mechanic gameplay changes (not balance changes). I can understand if they don't want to do this because they have committed to it and don't want to insult the very people they changed it for.

Add the option to have level unlocked shipments and restore the progression mechanics in singleplayer

Make the deck builder the way it was in the original or add more features to make it less of a nightmare

Minor problems:

Add the option to use legacy sound effects

Allow for more in game UI customization

Make the main menu UI less of steaming pile of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥


Summary

I'm pissed off. I've played more hours of AoE 3 than can possibly be counted, accumulated over the span of over a decade and to see it's legacy end with this disappointing mess makes me extremely sad. I've been beyond hyped since the first Definitive Edition was announced as I was hoping that AoE 3 would get one, and I was even more hyped when AoE 3 was confirmed to get one. I am not hard to please when it comes to remakes, I would have been satisfied and given this game a positive review if it was simply a graphics upgrade with nothing else but they went ahead and made changes that no one wanted, removed content and sucked the soul, the character and the passion from the game, all in one fell swoop.


Some additions after seeing the comments:

People are thinking that I'm railing on the devs for giving in to offended people, I'm not, I'm fine that the changes to the names and appearances of the nations, buildings and other things make the game more inclusive. What I am not ok with is compromising the gameplay for the those reasons. It's likely my fault for giving off that impression as my paragraph on the whole colony renaming ordeal made it out to be a lot more serious than it really is.

I don't want to hate the game, I don't want to see it fail, I want to enjoy it. In it's current state, however, I don't see myself playing much of it and I would love to see that changed.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,083
Location
Bulgaria
So does this have any new campaigns like aoe2? aoe3 had pretty shit single so that is why i never played after its release. Its campaign focus was all about savages that i don't give two shits about.
 

Zboj Lamignat

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
5,520
49% positive on Steam, ouch. Guess 2 DE was their purple patch and things got back to 1 DE standards. I guess it kinda makes sense, considering how popular 2 is.

Don't give much shit about muh incloosivness, it's just that doing something like that for a 15yo quasi historical game about colonialism is painfully stupid and pointless.
 

thesheeep

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
9,939
Location
Tampere, Finland
Codex 2012 Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
That "colonial" nonsense is certainly cringeworthy, but I wouldn't really care what text is on a button if they got the rest of the DE right.
Well... give it a few more months, I guess.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom