All of the Age of Empires series had similar traits, from the original Age of Empires to Age of Rome, all the way to Age of Conquerors. They all had similar character movement, similar user interface, and most importantly the same style.
What made the Age of Empires series so unique was the user friendly interface, the NON EXISTANT zoom option - which now exists. When I accidentally move the zoom button, it ruins my view. This is why I never played RoN, Empire Earth, etc. The protected treasure, the bears, wolves, c'mon guys ¡V you are making this mythical, and that's definitely not Age of Empires!! I am one of the people who bought all the Age of Empires series when they were being RELEASED, and I am so disappointed that my friend and I feel like we were betrayed. This has become Age of Mythology I am not flaming this demo, but I'm definitely not hailing it. It's definitely a sellout to real Age of Empires veterans. The villagers and soldiers can barely be distinguished. The environment has been TOO animated, the grass is horrible. Is this Diablo I ask? The whole concept of Age of Empires is gone. The entire user-friendly interface is gone. Age of Empires was game play with decent graphics, now it's just animation. We used to laugh - saying the houses are smaller than villagers, but now we see that when the houses were smaller it gave you better visual ability. Coin? Give us back stone and gold! The Wild West was KNOWN for mining gold, not mining "coins", this is what I mean by "it's not realistic." I should name my explorer Will Smith, they turned this into a movie, not a game. What next? The big giant spider eats my town center - excuse me - my horse on wheels (or is that a donkey) that carries my town center. We can't build town centers; I think that would be enough in making my point. Age of Mythology fan boys should not be allowed an opinion here, due to the fact that the game they play uses a totally different style. It would be unfair if I was to go when a new Age of Mythology game was being released, and to ask for it to be like Age of Rome. Obviously I would a moron if I did that, because the concept is different. The mother-nature trail that can be upgraded into a train, that is just ridiculous. I can't even begin to describe the unrealistic feeling of this. When I saw the screenshots, I was like "hey, maybe we will build the railroad", obviously I was wrong, and so were many others. (Not to mention that I can walk through the carriage and the train) - is this Ghost Busters? Why am I playing the Rescue Squad? In other words, why am I rescuing Native Americans from trees? This is too much for me. I was hoping that the animation wouldn't ruin the game, but it did. I know that people with Age of Empires experience know that this is a lost cause. All ES had to do was upgrade AoC, and all the REAL Age of Empires fans would've been happy. A Very dissapointed player, [This message has been edited by VrD (edited 09-10-2005 @ 10:49 AM).]
Denis