Age of Mythology Beta: Impressions & Review

My thoughts and review of the Age of Mythology Retold Beta early access last weekend.

1:00 Gameplay/QOL
4:08 Hotkeys
4:35 Balance changes
5:25 Multiplayer experience
5:50 Campaign
7:03 Graphics
8:22 Audio
8:40 Improvements
9:48 Overall impression

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Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

[mullerpotgieter]

I think the issue with the voice acting is that its a lot more subdued. These are supposed to be larger than life characters and gods. They need more gravitas

[mteinsten]

Microsoft needs to know that "La hire's sword is dry" and "Arkantos, awaken" is an emotion.

[ZippydaSquirl]

The voice acting reminds me of when they changed La Hire from a bloodthirsty maniac to a bored Frenchman in AoE2

[Cynndora]

it's not necessarily the voices that are bad, it's more the direction and inflection.
Arkantos in the original sounds like an experienced veteran who's seen it all and then get's wrapped up in his own odyssey, he also has his fair share of sarcasm and scepticism, you can see this clearly when listening to Agamemnon's siege plan for troy.
the new arkantos sounds like he's fresh out of the academy, and athena has lost her otherworldly tone.
I imagine one of the first/most popular mods for the game is just going to be replacing the new VA with the old one if microsoft don't do it themselves.

[gdbyemisterA]

one thing i really dont like about the campaign is the lifeless photos they show of who is talking, the AOM campaign always had characters who were speaking be very animated, making it very clear who was talking at any given time. Yes, maybe thats just my nostalgia talking but its the thing that jumped out at me most.

[rioplats]

Really loving the gameplay and in-game graphics. But I think it shouldn't be underestimated how much the campaign matters to AoM fans. The voice acting is one aspect (an option to use the legacy voices would be ace), but there's also the gaudy character portraits that show up during dialogue, lack of timing on the musical beats missing some comedic moments in cutscenes, and other small but cumulatively important changes that means the game isn't quite where I personally, and many others on forums and online, want it to be. I'm sure that we'll be able to mod those things in though, for our own enjoyment. Just wish that new players can experience it like that too though.

[miamesa]

I'm just happy that the French voice acting is straight up just the old one, it was amazing, and still is

[PlagueOfWasps]

Really looking forward to a Spirt of the Law series giving me all the number crunch on my beloved AoM!

[theearliestboltactionrifle]

They have already increased pop limit by allowing you to build 16 houses instead of 10, which raises your population with 3 town centers from 160 to 220.

[muskatDR]

Maybe they could add an option for old voice acting in the campaigns? The only thing AoE2: DE really missed the mark on was the voice acting, yes its more "realistic" but i did enjoy the overdramatic old voices more

[jimchen]

A huge buff to the Greeks is that heroes can be created while villager is queueing

[joitalianstyle]

7:34 the nostalgia hit hard with that song

[theleo]

I think AOE2 should have a "Civ WONDER Bonus", which is like a Civ Bonus you only get if your Wonder is standing. I'm a big AOM veteran and I love all the changes so far.

[bmqww]

Wish rise of nations got the same treatment and we could play that game in modern form ....

[Schmitty]

The biggest problem with the voice acting is that the direction/tone seems off a lot of the time. Some lines should be said sarcastically, or with condescension etc etc... but in the remake they are just spoken flatly. I doubt they will redo what they have already done with the remake, but I hope that there are options in the future to have the old VA.

[jamaalrobertson]

Played for about 10 hours straight and it was absolutely electric the entire time.

[martinalejandroarguelloira]

Something really good would be a different fight animation when two titans fight each other.

[juanfisi]

Im happy, this game was for a time 90% of my personality growing up!

[robotTgoat]

The Pop-up portraits and pauses don't help the dialog sections either, hopefully the game is mod friendly enough for a community fix

[devangnivatkar]

'Let's attack Red'

Ok

<Earthquakes you>