Submitted 4 weeks ago by Zagorath@aussie.zone to games@lemmy.world
https://strategyandwargaming.com/2025/01/16/every-age-of-empires-game-ranked-from-worst-to-best/
cross-posted from: aussie.zone/post/17009439
The list, according to the article:
- Age of Empires: Mobile
- Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (Nintendo DS)
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition
- Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
- Age of Empires IV
- Age of Mythology: Retold
- Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Mobile is undoubtedly the worst. It’s unbearable. Hardly even a game.
I’ve never played the DS game. I might put Age of Empires Online in this spot instead.
It’s unfortunate, to me, that 3 ended up this low. It’s not my favourite, by a long shot, but it’s functional and fun. Which is more than can be said for the DE version of 1. I love the bones of 1, but the DE was terrible. So terrible that they tried releasing it again in the Return to Rome DLC for 2.
Which leaves us with the 3 good games. Being the mod of !aom@lemm.ee, nobody should be surprised that my favourite is Myth. 4 is actually my second favourite, and 2 is only in 3rd place. But Myth still has too many bugs and missing polish features. Even though it’s my #1 favourite, if I was asked to list which I think is the best, I’d put it in 3rd.
I had the DS game when it was contemporary. It’s good but it isn’t an RTS.
It crashed a lot too. Which was odd for a DS game.
I haven’t played the remake, but the original AoM is the only RTS I’ve ever played for more than a game or two. Is the Retold version a real upgrade? Worth the cost of buying again?
It’s a huge improvement over the original. They’ve made a bunch of balance improvements without infringing on the unique identities of each civ (which is unfortunately what happened when they tried to do balance changes to the 2013 Extended Edition). The graphics are all new and now look how the game is in your nostalgia, rather than…how it actually looked. You can build bigger armies, and reuse god powers (for a cost). There’s improvement in quality-of-life features, like modern hotkeys, as well as tools to assist with scouting and eco management, if you’re a lower-skilled player who gets overwhelmed by all the multitasking.
I’ve absolutely loved my time with aoe IV since its release! Was happy to see Mythology Retold come to fruition, was a childhood game. The franchise is healthy and it’s cool to see, both aoe2 and aoe4 have great numbers everyday
Morons. AoE3 is amazing and gets shit on for no good reasons. AoE1 is exactly what not aging well looks like coupled with a shitty re-release. I’ve always felt AoE2 is mega overrated.
I genuinely do love AoE2 and would rate it among my favourite games of all time, but yeah I think it gets a little overrated.
4 is better, IMO, and Myth is just great.
The AoE2 community gets pretty damn toxic if you dare suggest that, though. Or even if they get a whiff that you might be saying good things about other Age games at all.
Different, unrelated franchise. Age of Empires is real-time strategy. Civ is turn-based.
Civ V is my most-played civ though. It was a great game.
spamfajitas@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
The list missed the disappointment that was Age of Empires Online. Because who doesn’t love microtransactions and live service in their RTS? Apparently it’s still playable on a fan server.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
I’ve heard that Online is actually a pretty good game, once stripped of its monetisation strategy. It seems to have a decent community of loyal followers with Project Celeste.