Does this game have a future ?
Lets talk about , what makes this game "Online". Firstly, you get your own capital city. Game gives you quests and with these quests, you get materials which would allow you to rebuild your city, very much like farmville. There is also a lot of trading going around so you have to socialize with other people if you want to be succesfull in the game. It is essential that you gear your soldiers well enough and take part in this economy of the game and send your soldiers to battle as you go and defeat more powerful enemies.
Pros:
1) Socializing:
The game forces you to connect with other people, play coop and have trade relations so that you can complete your city and take part in the dynamic economy system of the game.
2) Races:
All the races have different type looking units now. There are going to be a lot more races then three. Three races, Greeks, Egyptians and Persians look all different from each other. In fact a new race, Celts are already in development.
Mixed:
1) Graphics:
This is the mixed part. I myself am extremely happy to play an age of empires game with my old laptop with a high fps. Furthermore, this much online features force your game to have "simplified graphics". However, Age of Empires sequels are mostly famous with their serious and realistic unit models. Graphics made of cartoony unit models and textures is a drastic change.
It reminds me Ikariam for some reason.
2) New price system:
I'd say its a greedy game. A lot of booster packs are being released and all of them costs money. Booster packs are pretty much like a DLC though and they add fun content. However, to get started all you have to do is to purchase a race premium pack.
You can get the most basic, cut down version for free and fool around with it. For 20$ (so within the price range of low budget titles which usually is 15-20$) you get most of the important unlocks and access to higher grade gear so pretty much the 'core' of game play is available, and finally microsimulations offer you vanity stuff or mission packs.
The game was supposed to be free-to-play. However, limitations for the free-to-play feature are so much, you can not be a part of the game.
Cons:
1) Questing:
Well the questing part is how you get new items and coins, which would help you gear your troops and make your own capital city. They are actually fun, they start easy and get difficult.
However, it gets repetitive after a while. You figure out the weaknesses ( which is not that easy ) of the AI do the same quests over and over again. It is still an Age of Empires game and you command different forces with each race, so the game is not repeating itself. Quests are.
I must add that, you can play most of the quests in co-op and elite mode. Elite mode is pretty much like the hard mode, which is very difficult and fun.
2) PvP
When all the races are different, it is difficult to find a common ground for all the races. It s a tough job balancing the game. They do what they can do to balance it though.. When the game is not properly balanced, it takes too long to find people while matchmaking. I'm sure this feature is going to be fixed with new civilizations taking place.
They soon will add the new skirmish system which is great. Also the Celtic civilizations is going to join the game soon.
Putting all these aside, the game has so much potential. If you don't mind the new cartoony graphics of the game, the game offers you LOTS of hours of entertainment. More and more civilizations may be added to the game. And yes, ALL THE RACES HAVE THEIR OWN VOICE FOR WOLOLO. In fact, anyone played Age of Empires itself will have no problem adjusting the game.
I just think everyone should give this game a chance and not judge it because of cartoony graphics.
Thanks for reading my review.