Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (2020)

I've finished original game a while ago, but remember almost nothing about it, so I was quite happy when Microsoft announced AoE4 and remakes. Nowadays RTS genre is almost forgotten and every new game (even a simple remaster) is a good news.

I like that this game is quite different from AoE2 (which is a great game without a doubt). For instance, civilizations there have more unique features and it's interesting to try various gameplay. Also, there are strategic objects on the maps such as trade outposts, native villages and treasures and it forces you to explore the whole map. And what I liked the most is the fact that there is more story-driven campaign and not just a bunch of scenarios. It's not the most exciting story, but it's far better than what we had in the AoE2.

Playtime: 28,5 hours. I played the original for dozens and dozens of hours.

Intro

AOE 3 is a real-time strategy game. You start with a town center and some villagers, gather supplies, construct buildings and recruit soldiers to fight the enemy.

The definitive edition has new factions and updates a bunch of stuff like graphics and the UI.

The Good

I'm old enough to have played the original AOE back in the 90s. It was a really solid RTS and the historical aspect set it apart from the fictional fantasy/sci-fi/modern settings of Star/WarCraft and Command & Conquer. AOE 2 was more of the same, just a lot better.

AOE 3 however, felt like a breath of fresh air. I adore the hometown system. You build a deck of 25 cards that give various bonuses (units, buildings, resources, upgrades, tech). By gaining XP you can order one of these cards to be delivered. XP is gained from controlling trade routes and by killing enemies. It's such a great system and i wish more games had adopted it. Deck-building, or at least proper deck-building, makes a game more personal and adds variation.

AOE 3 had nice maps too, though the roundness took some getting used to. Discovering treasures is a lot more interesting than just finding sheep. Guardians in all shapes and sizes were a fun addition (anything from lizards to cowboys). The maps also seemed more varied than AOE 2, but i might be misremembering.

The best part of AOE 3 were the factions. There were so many of them all with their own litle quirks. The Dutch had to buy settlers with precious gold but could build banks to generate it. The Chinese had buildings that periodically produced free units. Native Americans could gain a variety of things from dances. Very few strategy games had such an amazing variety in units and mechanics.

The Bad

The worst thing about AOE 3 is the map selection for skirmish games (i never cared for other game modes). A full-screen selection screen with thumbnails of each map would've been way better than clumsily flipping through maps in a drop-down menu. It's also a shame you can't select from multiple randomised options or apply some sort of filter (e.g. must have a trade route).

Also the game lets you start skirmishes with too many players for the chosen map which means you automatically lose when it loads. Wtf?

Conclusion

AOE 3 is still a great game, once you figure out attack move is under... z?

9/10