Recent reviews by Hjörleif

Not for me. Played only a few games then went back to AoE2.

Notably, this game is missing a lot of very basic features which an AoE2 player would take for granted by now (fully customisable hotkeys, save and restore functionality for multiplayer games, etc.).

What's left was not good or entertaining enough for me to stick around and wait for the basic features (which should have been there from the start) to be added piecemeal in updates.

Note that the release price was triple that of AoE2DE (despite not even matching key features... not to mention surpassing of course).

I have not had a chance to try these myself yet but I just have to write a review to correct some falsities in other review who have decided to disable comments on their reviews.

Quote from one of the top voted reviews:
"(all the other scenarios were previously available for free in the mod centre)"

Incorrect.

All the other scenarios both were and are currently still available for free in the mod centre. We have also received explicit confirmation of this (not only of that they are still free, but also that they will continue to be) after the release by the developers and the original mod maker himself: https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/workshop-content-sold-as-a-dlc-for-13-euros/249313/119

Expected counterpoint attempt: "Well how can that be, they're charging for them now?"
I guess you'll just have to abandon the straw man that they're the same identical scenarios to wrap your head around it.

Still works. 10/10

Day 1 review (thumbs down):

Me thinking about trying out RoR: *happy optimistic noises*

Me actually trying out RoR: *excruciating misery of spending hours on just trying to get the game to actually work and then figuring out why my simple tree mod has stopped working and which of my hotkeys have mysteriously changed (yes, seriously.), etc.*

I want to cut them some slack and tell you I like this DLC but it would be quite disingenuous of me when the reality is the past 8 hours of me "playing" this game has been almost nothing but trouble-shooting and it's been anything but fun.

Also, boo for outsourcing OG AoE1 campaigns to modders!


Day 2 review (thumbs up):

OK, phew, it was an outright pain in the butt to deal with all the issues but now when I've been able to just sit down and take in the offerings of this DLC, I absolutely love it. AoE1 as I'm able to try it through AoE2DE is gorgeous and loads of fun.

I use a lot of user generated content (mods) so I probably got the short end of the stick with all the issues. There are problems which affect everyone like hotkeys changing themselves and various bugs so keep that in mind. Note that the original AoE1 campaigns are *not* included but may be available as mods.

RIP old main menu mod, I hope we'll get it working again soon

Keeps crashing. Not enjoyable.

Edit: I'm changing review to thumbs up. Props to developer responding quickly. Reinstalling Ubisoft Connect worked like a charm and now I can play until I rage quit instead of until the game crashes. It is as it should be.

Really though, this title is great. I enjoyed it basically as much as I did eg. AC4, all of the usual things with a Ubisoft game from the early 2010s are there, the view points, the side missions, the chase scenes (I originally abhorred the driving missions (there's frickin 40 of them!) but when I came around to doing them I find myself genuinely enjoying many of them). If you can get it on sale for like €5 like I did it's superb. I got a good 50 hours of fun out of this game at any rate. If you enjoy 100%ing AC games like I do you'll probably also love this. If you find games like AC boring then this is probably not for you.

I booted it for the first time about half an hour ago and it's been a pain in the ass to do something as simple as set graphics settings and restart the game. The intro mission (that's right, not an intro cinematic, they have an *entire mission* you have to play through before even getting to main menu) I have to do. every. single. time. I. start. the. game.

Turns out if you have a non-English character in your Windows user profile name, Battlefield V cannot save any settings or progress and will give you first-time experience every single time you start the game. This was reported on in their forums as early as 2018........

That's right. It's been like that for three years and the developers have done nothing to fix it.

I paid €4.50 for this game, being 93% off. I could have gotten a beer at the pub instead - would that have been a better use for my fiver? I'm actually not sure.

https://youtu.be/pbcD5iUATGg

I don't need to say anything, this video explains it all

Edit: they've fixed two the most atrocious bugs now so I change my review from thumbs down to thumbs up.

I love this game, it was a solid push in a refreshingly new direction for the AC series, imagine a good AC game but as open-world and quest-diverse as Skyrim and yet also with big bosses and good enough combat and difficulty mechanic to play it like it's Dark Souls, well you've got Origins!

It also maximises the replay value of what it is, you can play the game over and over again with the same character keeping your level and just getting incrementally stronger if you wish. I know of someone who's spent over a thousand hours on the game this way.

By the way, when it comes to legendary gear: everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in the helix store you can get through in-game currency with the chance drop Heka chests so you can get everything in the Helix store without spending a cent IRL.

Pros:
- Better accessibility
- The two new civilizations are interesting
- More politically correct (if that's your thing)

Cons:
- Quite poor optimisation (my PC can run the latest Assassin's Creed better than AoE3DE on same settings and resolution)
- I'm not a fan of the new UI but I can respect what they're trying to do
- Unfriendly community (in my experience - I can't speak for anyone else)
- Bugs
- More politically correct (if that's not your thing)

Conclusion:
This is definitely for you if you are a hardcore AoE3 fan who don't mind living through the quirks and bugs of this new release. Otherwise, not so much. If you're curious about AoE3DE I recommend checking out Aussie_Drongo's
YouTube channel as he uploads a lot of enlightening content.

Almost decade later and still fun to play! I got the Special Edition for free upon release since I already owned the original Skyrim with all DLC.