Quick Look: Age of Empires Online

I played a lot of AoE 2 and just started up an Egyptian civ in this version.

Once you get into the actual missions this hits similar beats in terms of gameplay. The artistic style is the most noticeable change at first glance. AoE 2 obviously used older tech(ie sprites) but also had a more realistic style and overall tone whereas this game uses a more "cartoony" exaggerated features look.

The way units are upgraded seems a lot different too. In the older games there was just a huge tech tree to move through and upgrades to units came from structures in the game such as an armory as you progressed through the ages. In this it seems like most upgrades come from equip-and-forget items... Interesting, but I feel like it will take away some of the feeling of accomplishment... I haven't actually got to play around with it yet in my own game, so I could be totally wrong.

Overall, I am enjoying AoE Online and looking forward to what they do with the free-to-play model.

That "extreme" army is small in aoe2.

Brad's frantic right clicking really got on my nerves!! It's all go hereherehereherehre here! No wait, theretherethere there!

Silly camel hopping...

Oh, you so goofy.

Despite my hatred for games that are nickle and dimmed I thought I would give this game a fair chance and at least give it a try. I downloaded it on 5 separate occasion from GFWL and every single time the game would not connect online so I could never play it. Not a good start from my perspective.

This is a really good game, and like they said if your gonna stick with one faction it's only $20 for a pretty awesome game.

If you're going to make a game free to play, make it free to play. Their huge promo on the game being free to play and the end result being a demo that makes you pay to get access to almost everything just sours me on the whole thing.

They would have been better off just saying it's $20 a campaign/civilization or something.

• Shift-click a unit to queue 5 of it
• Mark more than one building and queue a unit to queue one in all buildings (can be combined with tip above)
• Buildings can also be grouped with ctrl+0-9, can be combined with tip above
• Hold shift while placing a building to build more than one building, will be built in order
• As mentioned earlier, walls can have gates

I'm a bit disappointed by how many people are claiming this is just a "dumbed down" version of AoE, they're clearly just judging it by the art style, which is really unfair. My only complaint about the game is with the pricing structure.

I do prefer it over the typical F2P model, at least you aren't buying gold or anything that gives you any kind of advantage.. but I do feel the different civ's should have been a little cheaper.

@Deathpooky said:

If you're going to make a game free to play, make it free to play. Their huge promo on the game being free to play and the end result being a demo that makes you pay to get access to almost everything just sours me on the whole thing.

They would have been better off just saying it's $20 a campaign/civilization or something.

This. If this is where "free-to-play" games are going, then color me uninterested. I kind of wish I could just play a set price for the game because it looks pretty cool. Paying 20 bucks to play as ONE civilization is a huge rip off.

I played Age of Empires II for many, many years, and still view it to be my favourite RTS game. I really don't know what to make of an MMO, free-to-play (but not free) AoE.
 
Brad not having played any AoE is insane. I guess he won't mind me saying I've never played any StarCraft then.

This looks really good, but I'd rather pay $50 for a complete game, than $20 per civ basis, and then get hit up for DLC expansions later on.

This looks cool.. If only Valve or Blizzard made it, so I could get it on my mac. Oh well.

I know neither of these guys have played an AoE game before, but I love listening to them talk about features that have been previous games like they are new.

I played a insane amount of AoE and AoE 2 back in the day, yet this doesn't interests me at all.

@gbrading: Weird how so many people seem to have only played a ton of War/Starcraft, C&C, or AOE, but often not more than one of those. I was always a Blizzard RTS guy for whatever reason.

This looks cool. Not enough for me to play it "free" though. I might jump in with a premium Celtic civilization when they add them.

This is NOT the game to be whining about historical accuracy on, but this applies to all games. It feels odd to me that Greece is always an important faction instead of Macedonia. Greece never really had an "empire" and never had all that much land.

It's just too much money for a civ when you know for sure that more are coming. If they wanted to do it like that they should have waited until they had all 4 ready, then at least it wouldn't be such a hard pill to swallow.
 
Edit: And pricing virtual goods higher for international customers is a fucking huge dick move on their part too.

Its totally AOE 2 with mmo features.

This game looks Great, to bad the Free To Play thing isn't free. 

Game looks boring, but the Quick Look was even more boring. Not funny, not entertaining. First one I haven't been able to watch all the way through. First time for everything though.

Game is FUN! Some usefull info in this QL, didn't know you could rotate the buildings!

FUI: To make a gate, click on a section on the wall and then you can click "convert to wall"

This is the first free to play game that I'm actually considering buying in to. It's so much fun.

Super boring Quic-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Area of Effect  Online!

I know it's a stretch, but Brad shoud really try out Age of Empires 2 sometimes.

That game defined RTS for me, and no other game has captured that feeling since.

Basically this game is 20 bucks and it's just a glorified trial version before you pay for it.

@Milkman said:

@Deathpooky said:

If you're going to make a game free to play, make it free to play. Their huge promo on the game being free to play and the end result being a demo that makes you pay to get access to almost everything just sours me on the whole thing.

They would have been better off just saying it's $20 a campaign/civilization or something.

This. If this is where "free-to-play" games are going, then color me uninterested. I kind of wish I could just play a set price for the game because it looks pretty cool. Paying 20 bucks to play as ONE civilization is a huge rip off.

As terrible as it sounds, I can totally see the entire industry shifting in this direction. Imagine a future, where even on consoles, demos don't exist. Everything would be called "free" to play and devs would chop up their games episodically, level by level.

A terrifying reality. If this works for AOE, this pricing plan could essentially be applied to any game, sadly. I get the whole thing about increasing development costs and how companies need to realistically find a way to get more money out of the consumer, but this is just wrong. Its almost taking advantage of those of us with that strange compulsion to experience every part or aspect of a game.

This would essentially change the way I play games (as in I wouldn't play them).

So 1 Dollar = 1 Euro again. 
 
The $99 pack = €99 which is $141! The Fuck?!

love Jeff and Brad, but couldn't they have gotten guys who have played AOE before to do a comparison? Dave, Mike or Vinny? maybe even Drew?

Kind of sad about Jeff/Brad's lack of Age of Empires knowledge. This from two Command & Conquer fans? Come on now.

Ahhh, Brad was killing me trying to figure out how to build a gate. Click on the wall, then select Build Gate in the bottom right!!

@The_Moorasaurus: Thanks for the downloading tip, I'd never even thought to download QLs, but I'll make sure to from now on.

Strat games do not ql well. also the goths are the best civ every one knows that.

I'm surprised at how faithful this looks to the old AoE games. It actually looks like the good ole fun I had before with all the positive features that have been built up throughout the series.
 
That said, I have to echo the pay model being really.. iffy. I do not like my content being diced up under any circumstances. Especially when all of the content added up together costs much more than a normal game at retail. 
 
Anytime I see a game shove a pricetag at you for DLC right when you open up the game just makes me sick to my stomach and makes me not want to pay. Makes me feel dirty, like I'm supporting a quick cashgrab. Ruins the experience in every game that does it (Looking at you Dragon Age).
 
I might not completely write this off.. but I don't know. I'm glad to see the franchise isn't dead but I would have preferred a more traditional game.

Brad PLEASE play AoE2, I think you'd love it. It was far more traditional than this, you'd transfer from starcraft with ease.
Ignore the campaign and play skirmish if you try it.
Oh, and you can build faster with multiple workers assigned to construction :)

Looks neat. I Played a lot of Age2 when I was a kid so I might check this out.

This game made me respect Microsoft a lot less. The way they are implementing the "micro"transactions seems way overpriced...reminds me of horse armor DLC on an even bigger scale.

MEH!

Really excited for this to come out

As a big fan of the old AoE games, I downloaded this day one. Then I remembered my computer sucks ass, and it barely runs. Looks fun though.

Original Age of Empires was released in Oct. '97 and original Starcraft was Mar. '98. Respect your forefathers Brad. You also don't need to spam click to increase your APM in this game.

I don't know, I was a little frustrated with the combined lack of knowledge from the two on this entire series of games. That and making obvious mistakes/overlooking obvious things. Love you guys, but sometimes you make me pull my hair out. AoE, specifically AoE 2, is a holy name in my books.

biggest complaint, is having to use miscrosoft points, since they overcharge for them in canada, compared to the cost of points in the US.

For some reason I thought this was a browser-based game before I saw this video.

@Milkman said:

@Deathpooky said:

If you're going to make a game free to play, make it free to play. Their huge promo on the game being free to play and the end result being a demo that makes you pay to get access to almost everything just sours me on the whole thing.

They would have been better off just saying it's $20 a campaign/civilization or something.

This. If this is where "free-to-play" games are going, then color me uninterested. I kind of wish I could just play a set price for the game because it looks pretty cool. Paying 20 bucks to play as ONE civilization is a huge rip off.

As terrible as it sounds, I can totally see the entire industry shifting in this direction. Imagine a future, where even on consoles, demos don't exist. Everything would be called "free" to play and devs would chop up their games episodically, level by level.

A terrifying reality. If this works for AOE, this pricing plan could essentially be applied to any game, sadly. I get the whole thing about increasing development costs and how companies need to realistically find a way to get more money out of the consumer, but this is just wrong. Its almost taking advantage of those of us with that strange compulsion to experience every part or aspect of a game.

This would essentially change the way I play games (as in I wouldn't play them).