Tschumi
Member
A few days ago, in the runup to release, I made this thread about what I was, and WAS NOT, going to be looking for in Age of Empires 4.
I'm now a few hours into it - I've not been able to put all my time into it - but i've gotten far enough into the Norman campaign to know some small amount of what can happen in this game, and I've decided I know enough of my first impressions to talk about them here.
I'll edit in a few screenshots etc tomorrow to reduce the wall of text.
Firstly, in bullet point form...
Positive points I was looking out for:
- Connections to Age 2. I think these are there, but they've been over stated by the wider audience. It looks very much like a successor to Age 2 (rather than Age 3) partially because they are set during identical time periods, but also because the technical limitations of Age 3's unit models etc have been resolved enough that 3D models in 2021 look a lot like 2D sprites from 2001.
- Patched Pathfinding. I've not actually had any problems with pathfinding, other than with a few moments of confusion cenetered around large stone walls that don't break the game.
- Series-correct Unit vs. Building Scale. Yep, this is fine.
- Multiple historic campaigns with voice acted briefings. Yep, there are a number, set in various regions. I'm going to love playing these and I'll feel bummed out when I've completed them.
- A wide FOV. Yep, that's here.
- The largest maps the series has yet seen. This is hard to quantify because I'm not doing anything exhaustive to measure maps, all I know is that the more scripted, linear campaign missions generally seem to involve many encounters rather than the one or two encounters one would get in Age 2.
- A solid framerate (...). I haven't been able to test this, there's a bit of stutter when the camera pans (DF highlighted this) but I've not tried a heavy AI load. So far it's been running very smoothly and the laptop I'm using has a 920.
- Globetrotting content. Yep, that's here.
- The same general gameplay pacing. Yes, I'm glad to note that I can take my sweet time, which I like to do. There is some urgency because the attacks ramp up in size, if not frequency, so you need to get ahead of the curve, but it's all good fun.
Things I was worried about:
- Uneven framerate. As I've said before, I haven't had much real trouble, but I haven't tested it too much.
- Small maps. Not a problem.
- Bad FOV. Not a problem.
- Underwhelimg Campaign Options. If all the campaigns are only 6 or 8 missions long I might be underwhelmed and pine for additional content. Then again, I think they'd have to be waaaay long for me to not feel this way.
- Fountain of youth mentions. No, and somehow I doubt it. Fucking yay.
- Slow patching. I dunno about this, so far I'm okay with it as I've said.
Small Issues I may have pick up on:
- Cavalry charges. It's a bit early, but they seem to lack some of the bite of, for example, Total War charges. I understand that this must be done to preserve balance, and AoE isn't a game for that kinda bombast, but yeah it'd be nice if they did provide just a small sense of percussion.
- Formation orders. It's a bit unintuitive. There is a default formation, then it can be set into line, V, or scattered formation, where a unit will remain until you click off that formation, at which point they'll revert to that default bunch. It's, just taking a bit to get used to. It's not particularly important though because formations aren't looking to be quite as important as matchups in this game.
- The UI. This is purely an 'early days' issue but I'm still getting used to the new UI they've thought up.. Everything makes sense, but not immediately, it can take a moment to figure things out. It might help some of you to know that when you've got a villager you first have to hit 'Q' before all the build options have a hotkey legend pop up. This is a holdover from AoE2, but I guess you might not know that.
A few words to the things that I don't consider important by am sure some 'tyros' will try to make a big deal out of.
If this was a brand new IP, you could harp on about novel gameplay and unprecedented unit counts, but this is Age of Empires and Relic have treated the IP with great respect. It's historical, it's grounded in realism, you're meant to micromanage small groups, not giant divisions like Total War, which isn't even an RTS anyway. The limited zoom out is fine, considering that the models and gameplay have been designed for a certain level of detail, and particularly considering fog of war which would render a more zoomed out view kinda pointless anyway.
I have had zero issues with the graphics, save perhaps for some slight slowdown when panning the camera. I find the hotkeys to be even better than Age 2, and flicking my way around the map has been simple. I can't say I adore the visual style, but i do enjoy it hugely, in some cases the colours are a bit light, but it might be my fault for bumping brightness up a bit for a screen that's occasionally been a bit dark. There are many different weather conditions and map types, some of which will look more mist'y and washed out than others.
I understand that it's often more interesting to pick up on things to rubbish about a game - DF has made a thing out of technological criticisms that actually have barely anything to do with gameplay - but really, as I said in the first thread, if you're going to try and call this a shit game because you've a subjectively different take on it's presentation to people who like it, you're wasting all our time.
Three new points I'd like to point out:
FIRSTLY, You can really see some places in which Rare has brought in their own experience to boost the game. The missions are progressive and scripted in ways that remind me strongly of Company of Heroes, those fantastic sounds clearly come from the same well as the great Dawn of War soundscape. Hell, homeworld's narrative style is certainly present - indeed, supercharged. Relic have certainly stamped thier own touch on this game, to its huge benefit. This will probably be a big part of my 'final thoughts' post some time in the future.
SECONDLY, AI in this game is pretty cool. It is a gigantic upgrade on earlier games in the series. Every unit acts with a mind of its own - it seems - and you no longer have to micromanage things like aggressive vs defensive stance, they generally realise when they need not follow a retreat and zip right back into place, even if they've travelled a long old way. It's cool to ride a scout around the countryside then have a bunch of sheep bleat and hurtle towards him/her, a marked difference on older titles.
THIRDLY, I think the sound in this game is incredible - full, ethnically and period appropriate speech by your minions - not just simple words, you can hear your soldiers giving a whistle and saying "I've spotted an enemy!" or something like that in their own languages. It's amazing to hear Norman English and pick out some words from both English and French but have no idea what they're saying at other times. The new sound bytes for making villagers are familiar but fresh, and the sounds for making miltary units, etc, have a nice snap to them. It's a feast for the ears.
I'm now a few hours into it - I've not been able to put all my time into it - but i've gotten far enough into the Norman campaign to know some small amount of what can happen in this game, and I've decided I know enough of my first impressions to talk about them here.
I'll edit in a few screenshots etc tomorrow to reduce the wall of text.
Firstly, in bullet point form...
Positive points I was looking out for:
- Connections to Age 2. I think these are there, but they've been over stated by the wider audience. It looks very much like a successor to Age 2 (rather than Age 3) partially because they are set during identical time periods, but also because the technical limitations of Age 3's unit models etc have been resolved enough that 3D models in 2021 look a lot like 2D sprites from 2001.
- Patched Pathfinding. I've not actually had any problems with pathfinding, other than with a few moments of confusion cenetered around large stone walls that don't break the game.
- Series-correct Unit vs. Building Scale. Yep, this is fine.
- Multiple historic campaigns with voice acted briefings. Yep, there are a number, set in various regions. I'm going to love playing these and I'll feel bummed out when I've completed them.
- A wide FOV. Yep, that's here.
- The largest maps the series has yet seen. This is hard to quantify because I'm not doing anything exhaustive to measure maps, all I know is that the more scripted, linear campaign missions generally seem to involve many encounters rather than the one or two encounters one would get in Age 2.
- A solid framerate (...). I haven't been able to test this, there's a bit of stutter when the camera pans (DF highlighted this) but I've not tried a heavy AI load. So far it's been running very smoothly and the laptop I'm using has a 920.
- Globetrotting content. Yep, that's here.
- The same general gameplay pacing. Yes, I'm glad to note that I can take my sweet time, which I like to do. There is some urgency because the attacks ramp up in size, if not frequency, so you need to get ahead of the curve, but it's all good fun.
Things I was worried about:
- Uneven framerate. As I've said before, I haven't had much real trouble, but I haven't tested it too much.
- Small maps. Not a problem.
- Bad FOV. Not a problem.
- Underwhelimg Campaign Options. If all the campaigns are only 6 or 8 missions long I might be underwhelmed and pine for additional content. Then again, I think they'd have to be waaaay long for me to not feel this way.
- Fountain of youth mentions. No, and somehow I doubt it. Fucking yay.
- Slow patching. I dunno about this, so far I'm okay with it as I've said.
Small Issues I may have pick up on:
- Cavalry charges. It's a bit early, but they seem to lack some of the bite of, for example, Total War charges. I understand that this must be done to preserve balance, and AoE isn't a game for that kinda bombast, but yeah it'd be nice if they did provide just a small sense of percussion.
- Formation orders. It's a bit unintuitive. There is a default formation, then it can be set into line, V, or scattered formation, where a unit will remain until you click off that formation, at which point they'll revert to that default bunch. It's, just taking a bit to get used to. It's not particularly important though because formations aren't looking to be quite as important as matchups in this game.
- The UI. This is purely an 'early days' issue but I'm still getting used to the new UI they've thought up.. Everything makes sense, but not immediately, it can take a moment to figure things out. It might help some of you to know that when you've got a villager you first have to hit 'Q' before all the build options have a hotkey legend pop up. This is a holdover from AoE2, but I guess you might not know that.
A few words to the things that I don't consider important by am sure some 'tyros' will try to make a big deal out of.
If this was a brand new IP, you could harp on about novel gameplay and unprecedented unit counts, but this is Age of Empires and Relic have treated the IP with great respect. It's historical, it's grounded in realism, you're meant to micromanage small groups, not giant divisions like Total War, which isn't even an RTS anyway. The limited zoom out is fine, considering that the models and gameplay have been designed for a certain level of detail, and particularly considering fog of war which would render a more zoomed out view kinda pointless anyway.
I have had zero issues with the graphics, save perhaps for some slight slowdown when panning the camera. I find the hotkeys to be even better than Age 2, and flicking my way around the map has been simple. I can't say I adore the visual style, but i do enjoy it hugely, in some cases the colours are a bit light, but it might be my fault for bumping brightness up a bit for a screen that's occasionally been a bit dark. There are many different weather conditions and map types, some of which will look more mist'y and washed out than others.
I understand that it's often more interesting to pick up on things to rubbish about a game - DF has made a thing out of technological criticisms that actually have barely anything to do with gameplay - but really, as I said in the first thread, if you're going to try and call this a shit game because you've a subjectively different take on it's presentation to people who like it, you're wasting all our time.
Three new points I'd like to point out:
FIRSTLY, You can really see some places in which Rare has brought in their own experience to boost the game. The missions are progressive and scripted in ways that remind me strongly of Company of Heroes, those fantastic sounds clearly come from the same well as the great Dawn of War soundscape. Hell, homeworld's narrative style is certainly present - indeed, supercharged. Relic have certainly stamped thier own touch on this game, to its huge benefit. This will probably be a big part of my 'final thoughts' post some time in the future.
SECONDLY, AI in this game is pretty cool. It is a gigantic upgrade on earlier games in the series. Every unit acts with a mind of its own - it seems - and you no longer have to micromanage things like aggressive vs defensive stance, they generally realise when they need not follow a retreat and zip right back into place, even if they've travelled a long old way. It's cool to ride a scout around the countryside then have a bunch of sheep bleat and hurtle towards him/her, a marked difference on older titles.
THIRDLY, I think the sound in this game is incredible - full, ethnically and period appropriate speech by your minions - not just simple words, you can hear your soldiers giving a whistle and saying "I've spotted an enemy!" or something like that in their own languages. It's amazing to hear Norman English and pick out some words from both English and French but have no idea what they're saying at other times. The new sound bytes for making villagers are familiar but fresh, and the sounds for making miltary units, etc, have a nice snap to them. It's a feast for the ears.
