Recent reviews by ritzrisay

game is practically unplayable xD

Arthur Morgan, Gunslinger of the Van Der Lin Gang. A young boy who grew up with a life that was spotty at best. Bank Robberies, Train Robberies, Cattle Rustling, Shootouts with rival gangs, all while the Law was breathing right down his neck. Looting, and Robbing from the plains and back to the snowy mountains with a price on his head. A life of crime and destruction laid in his path. Pay attention to the story line of this sequel of red dead redemption, and stay on the right side of the law as long as you can. After all, a true cowboy is not measured by his gun slinging but his ability to weather any storm.

Rockstar has really outdone themselves in this sequel.
Art: 15/10 - Out of this world and stunningly beautiful
Music: 15/10 - Totally badass, blows the original out of the water (especially towards the end!).
Story/Plot: 10/10 - Straight to the point, and effective with choices made during the campaign
Gameplay: 8/10 - Not a shooting gallery but a happy medium that is more realistic (bullets can run out for once). It is also harder to play on PC primarily for Fishing but it does not affect the gameplay as much once accustomed
Deadeye: 6/10 - Make sure to pay attention to the meter and cores, theres a minor sway that you will need to get used to that is part of the gameplay even while outside of DeadEye
Hunting/Fishing: 7/10 - You will need to look up a few guides to understand how it works

A total upgrade from the original AoM. The maps, units, buildings, animations have all been overhauled with a complete new look, detailed textures, and most importantly the same exact feel of gameplay that you had in the original AoM. Many bugs have been eliminated from the campaign and general gameplay. Unit collisions and the unit AI issues still persist from the original AoM but not with all units (for instance grouping your army with larger units and smaller units often blocks the army path because of the larger unit pathing being different).

In many cases if you are planning on using titans, colossus, hydras, giants, it would be best to not assign them to the same army and have them move seperately as they have their own pathing from smaller units.

Campaign was very enjoyable to play through, they did reduce the number of missions as well as cut scenes which may be disappointing to the most dedicated to the AoM series. However, it does not affect the overall story or gameplay.

I have not yet seen what the AoM team does with Immortal Pillars - aka Tale of the Dragon (the famously worst DLC of the Age of Empires Franchise). However, based on the gameplay thus far it has been very promising and I look forward to see how many improvements will be made from the original.

I'm gonna keep this review short and sweet to the point. Despite its age, this game kicks ass, the storyline is so damn good that it overshadows all the bad aspects of the game. Character voice acting and placement throughout the campaign as you play along are perfectly executed and I found myself speed running until I ended up finishing the game unintentionally.

There are a few annoyances particularly with the janky movement and combat in the game. Unlike many other open world games, yes you are basically forced to be running from location to location as there are no reliable teleport locations that are easily accessible for use (outside of Chapter 3-4). The game does also sometimes just crash which makes you lose all your progress although very rare. Be sure to get in the habit of saving often with the F5 key and you'll love playing this game. Orens are short when you start so abuse the save feature and gamble your way up in orens that you will need early on (F5 on wins to save, F9 on losses to go back to what you had).

My biggest suggestion/tip is to buy and read books as early as you find them so that you are not forced to go back and collect materials when all you had to do was read a book to unlock the materials for you to collect from the ground or straight off monsters you kill(you will thank me later). For my first time playing Witcher 1 I am very happy and impressed. Great job CD Projekt Red! :)

Was fun for about an hour, got very boring and repetitive after. Good game to add to your collection when on sale.

Now before anyone tries to shut this review down, I want to first say this is an amazing game. I learned so much more in this game of Age of Empires than any of the games before it.

I really hope in making of this review that the devs and the community can take this review with a grain of salt on the user experience and what it feels for a first time player of this game as someone who has played AOE games before.

Cinematics: (10/10)
The effort that went into the historical story telling during the campaign and the cinematics themselves are marvels to this franchise and provide the player an indepth look into a history through a 3d model re-enactment with a few cutaways to the present day location of the areas of interest found around the world and that have occurred in history. Many of these sites you can visit today and provides a lot of added value to this game.


Design: (5/10)
Their use of colour is not very elaborate and this goes into the simplistic design of the unit models that went into this game further adding to the bland and generic look and mediocre feel to the game. From the moment you start the game you are introduced to a mobile gatcha game style UI with blue background embosed with gold print. Every single civilization has the exact same UI along with the units which are nearly forgettable by their bland coloring models. The unit models are so bad that I could barely remember or differentiate many of the units and only by foot, vehicle(such as siege), or by horseback.

This also goes into the maps, landscapes, which also have a very bland and generic feel regardless of the location. The engine used for this game for unit models and the map itself is more meant for a mobile game than a AOE series. It is hard to explain but this game almost feels like if Clash of Clans (Mobile Game) had an Age of Empires mod installed without the noticeable unit models.

Gameplay: (3/10)
I have played the entire AOE franchise. AOE, AOE 2, AOE3, Age of Mythology, and now AOE4 nearby back to back by the time I've made this review. The biggest problem that sticks out to me in AOE4 is the gameplay. It is unbearingly boring. I found it to be a total drag to finish each and every campaign and scenario just to reach to the end of the storyline and for completion. The game engine utilized just does not match the look and feel of an Age of Empire game. Nor did I feel much effort went into the voice acting, audio, and retelling of the story although they are re-enactments of history.

There are also issues with explaining how each of the civs are different, Mongols especially I did not even realize you were required to construct an "oovoo" on top of a stone resource. Yes you receive a dialogue in a chat box explaining this in the game. Yes you are given hints provided on screen. What isn't identified to the player is HOW STONE IS RECEIVED. If you have played in any of the Age of Empires game, this ovoo construction looks exactly like the "Community Plaza" you get in AOE2. I assumed for a good hour or two that the ovoo was constructed near a base similar to a community plaza and I'd only need to assign workers to it to generate stone. I'm 100% sure I am not the only one who made this mistake.

Historical Campaigns: (5/10)
While these campaigns were amazing in each of their own right, they have a major shortfalls due to their similarities and repetitiveness. The Normans and The Hundred Years War campaigns both involved English and French troops around the same era. A total of 16 scenarios shared of the same thing, units, and maps. Land to sea and Sea to Land elements were completely left out this time around. Additionally, they couldn't have picked a more boring point in history where it involved mostly clans and infighting amongst clan leaders in England and Barons seeking control with the French and/or against the French. The Rise of Moscow and The Mongol Empire also faced similar issues and shared histories, however we also happened to encounter the Chinese Civ in The Mongol Empire Campaign which also allowed us to see new units, buildings, and more which is refreshing to see.

Age of Mythology is one of the best RTS games out there. The campaigns are second to none. My only complaint is the Tale of the Dragon DLC, a big surprise on how poorly it was made. They did China really dirty in this franchise even in the AOE3. They definitely could have made an amazing campaign out of Tale of the Dragon but instead you get a really sloppy art job on pixelated dragons that look like a blowup party dragon at some kids birthday party. The storyline in Tale of the Dragon is the very cliche evil advisor/king's aid who is plotting to overturn the emperor's rule and the entire plot felt very short, rushed, and could not really build any feelings towards any of the characters. Surprisingly there were also no cinematics in the entire campaign! If you are buying this game and are questioning about this DLC, its safe to say you can skip this and not waste your money, you are not really losing anything. I even got a few bugs from this DLC that have existed long before, bigger armies crashes the game in this DLC. Problems with Scenario 3, units bugging into the walls and getting stuck behind buildings when they were able to walk through before, Scenario not completing when you have done the objective, and the list of bugs goes on. This DLC made this game frustrating to play for the first time so I highly do not recommend the DLC.

The amount of creativity and artwork in this game is unbelievable. I just picked up the Age of Empires series and I decided to give this a try and I was in for a ride. You might be thinking it doesn't appear to be that good graphically and the maps/characters look like they were drawn on MS paint. But in this RTS game, it doesn't matter and you are sucked into the storyline/plots where the game's theme meshes really well with the environment and character development. A lot of big triple A developers should take lessons from this team. Its one of those games where you feel completely immersed and you are already part of the story. This is probably the only game today I'd pay good money for because of the sheer quality of the storyline and campaign.

If you want to play a game that does the campaign right pick this game up and play all the campaigns through. I haven't had this much fun in decades and it reminds me why I used to love gaming so much. The exploration, discovery, building your armies, mythical creatures, gods, heros, powers, relics, laying siege, and this game HAS IT ALL.

I could not drop this game and managed to finish all the campaigns in 1 go. I suggest you buy the extended edition as it includes all the greatest campaigns:

Age of Mythology - Campaign: Fall of Atlantis
Age of Mythology: The Titans - Campaign: New Atlantis
Golden Gift Campaign

For context, if you check my profile the majority of my screen shots are from all of these so you could get an idea what the game is like. All of these campaigns were really good, make sure to read the story line and do not just skip and skim through.

My only complaint is the Tale of the Dragon DLC, a big surprise on how poorly it was made. They did China really dirty in this franchise even in the AOE3. They definitely could have made an amazing campaign out of Tale of the Dragon but instead you get a really sloppy art job on pixelated dragons that look like a blowup party dragon at some kids birthday party. This DLC made this game frustrating to play for the first time so I highly do not recommend the DLC. I went into details about why in the review for the DLC store section.

TL DR; Best RTS storyline I've seen outside of Warcraft 3. Definately worth your money and playthrough. If not heavily discounted, try not to get Tale of the Dragon DLC, this DLC is not worth it.

The story in AOE3 is divided into 3 campaigns. Blood, Ice, and Steel which focuses on colonial era conquest of the new world (modern North America), Fire and Shadow which focuses on the Indigenous people reclaiming their lands, and lastly the Asian Dynasties which is separated by Japan, China, and India. The plot is somewhat tied in the first two campaigns but has no correlation whatsoever to the last campaign: Asian Dynasties.

The campaigns had created many memorable moments and cutscenes however the story had left much left to be sought after without any clear ending or end goal to be achieved. Much to the problem of Age of Empires is the premise of the game when creating the story mode. The character you play as; the supposed protagonist; often follows the same model of build, create, and destroy without as much of the discovery and map exploration element that AOE2 and AOE1 had before it.

Additionally, after the end of each act and campaign, we are presented with a new character and epilogue explanation which does not allow the player to grow any sort of attachment to the characters or give meaning to the plot of the campaigns as you are progressing through each to completion. Often times, I would feel the need to take a break or revisit the campaign because I am not satisfied that I am no longer playing the same character I had near the beginning of the campaign nor would I be interested in this current direction of storyline.

In AOE3 the storyline is thrust upon the player where you are forced to play through to completion to unlock the next act. It is almost as if it was treated less as a campaign with a story line but rather a series of short stories as campaigns. Warcraft 3 was released by 2002 before this was released in 2005 which also offers a lot of explanation to perhaps the reasons to why this project was rushed out the gate.

AOE had captivated much of the American market and consumers who had been playing the original. Many of the devs on Blizzard had been inspired by AOE and relied on creating a fantasy based lore storyline to grab the attention for their consumers. This Cult Classic RTS untouched by the greedy grubby hands of Activision, and for the highly popular RTS genre it was at the time, AOE was unrivaled until WarCraft 3 came to absolutely dominate the industry.

TL DR;

Unit movement, abilities, and game play had significantly improved in this version of AOE3. The story mode also has many cutscenes and a storyline, which although short on each act, created many memorable moments in each act and campaign. After completion of all campaigns, you are also presented with options of playing against the Computer as different countries, playing online multiplayer, ranked, as well as to play scenarios often times bringing a historical based event and recreating the scenario for you to complete with a specific challenge related to it.

I would rank this game a good 7/10; it leaves much to be desired and it has had its fair share of competition which knocks this game out the park. The devs were onto something with this release but they decided to diversify their focus away from a single story line.

Play HD Poker instead, this game is ass.