A worthy successor, built with the basic framework on AOE2, but with elements of AOE3 (more unique civs, age-up mechanics, etc.), and a few of its own innovations (scouts herding sheep, stealth in trees, etc.). This follows the formula, but is different enough to allow you to enjoy it and still go back to the other ones for something different. The campaigns are fun and well-designed. The Art of War stuff is good. The Masteries are a good addition. The amazing sound effects and unit vocals deserve a special shout-out (get it?). Overall, a lot of pluses.

Not much in the way of bugs, but it does lack some basic features (no random civs, no way to select just military units when drag selecting, no live score, etc.), which will hopefully follow soon in patches. Forcing you into the tutorial from the get-go, without even giving you the menu first, is a bad idea, imo (it was also a very slow, tedious tutorial). The graphics are questionable at times, and the default graphics settings are bizarre (it scaled things down to 67% for me, so everything was very blurry, even when everything else was at max settings). Performance is not great either. I can feel my PC struggling at medium graphics, when it can play the other games at max without issue (and arguably AOE3 has better, more realistic graphics than this).

I think most of the minuses can and will be addressed, and even if they"re not, the pluses still make this an enjoyable addition to the series.

EDIT: The new expansion makes the game even better. Definitely worth getting.

Now ... where"s our Age of Mythology?

A worthy successor, built with the basic framework on AOE2, but with elements of AOE3 (more unique civs, age-up mechanics, etc.), and a few of its own innovations (scouts herding sheep, stealth in trees, etc.). This follows the formula, but is different enough to allow you to enjoy it and still go back to the other ones for something different. The campaigns are fun and well-designed. The Art of War stuff is good. The Masteries are a good addition. The amazing sound effects and unit vocals deserve a special shout-out (get it?). Overall, a lot of pluses. Not much in the way of bugs, but it does lack some basic features (no random civs, no way to select just military units when drag selecting, no live score, etc.), which will hopefully follow soon in patches. Forcing you into the tutorial from the get-go, without even giving you the menu first, is a bad idea, imo (it was also a very slow, tedious tutorial). The graphics are questionable at times, and the default graphics settings are bizarre (it scaled things down to 67% for me, so everything was very blurry, even when everything else was at max settings). Performance is not great either. I can feel my PC struggling at medium graphics, when it can play the other games at max without issue (and arguably AOE3 has better, more realistic graphics than this). I think most of the minuses can and will be addressed, and even if they"re not, the pluses still make this an enjoyable addition to the series. EDIT: The new expansion makes the game even better. Definitely worth getting. Now ... where"s our Age of Mythology?