Nostalgia is a funny thing. I remember AoE being the pinnacle of strategical games, with cutting-edge game mechanics, extremely well-balanced gameplay and superb graphics. But that was years ago. As such, I was only expecting to be disappointed by the graphics.

I was wrong. I finished the game, but I was quite disappointed in how easy it all was, how exploitable some mechanics were and how I was always sure of victory before even levelling the enemy town centre. This could be due to underwhelming adversary AI? Oddly enough, I remembered the AoE AI to be hardcore. Nostalgia played a trick on me.

In multiplayer, it just becomes obvious that exploitability is due to the game and not the adversary. Some units are useless, some units are garanteeing victory. Huge let-down.

Played out the entire game, but just because I was hoping for things to get better. They didn't. Poor storytelling, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ escort/protect missions, leveling up is limited and not always necessary, ....

I'd rather not played it again and kept it as a good memory.

Nostalgia is a funny thing. I remember AoE being the pinnacle of strategical games, with cutting-edge game mechanics, extremely well-balanced gameplay and superb graphics. But that was years ago. As such, I was only expecting to be disappointed by the graphics. I was wrong. I finished the game, but I was quite disappointed in how easy it all was, how exploitable some mechanics were and how I was always sure of victory before even levelling the enemy town centre. This could be due to underwhelming adversary AI? Oddly enough, I remembered the AoE AI to be hardcore. Nostalgia played a trick on me. In multiplayer, it just becomes obvious that exploitability is due to the game and not the adversary. Some units are useless, some units are garanteeing victory. Huge let-down. Played out the entire game, but just because I was hoping for things to get better. They didn't. Poor storytelling, shitty escort/protect missions, leveling up is limited and not always necessary, .... I'd rather not played it again and kept it as a good memory.