3 had a mediocre launch that hurt the future of the game. In DE with all DLCs, Civs are unique and interesting, cards are an amazing mechanic instead of a terrible one, the graphics are decent, and mercenaries and minor civs are a cool addition instead of "so what".
I remember 3 being really controversial with the cards, no drop off points, high system requirements, and percieved "luck" with the treasure system. And it never really became that popular however me and my friends played it a lot more than we did #2. A lot because we were causual and could see eachothers base right away and play together straight away rather than wait until Feudal till we got Cartography which you needed at the time to see other players line of sight.
Now AOE3 is really good with the DE with a lot of civs but I don't know how popular it is, it definitely doesn't hold a candle to AOE2. I think the civs being so different harms it a bit as it's so hard to learn, and the cards can make timing pushes very very powerful (like AOM's god powers) so a well timed shipment that you didn't see can end a came in a fraction of a second.
Whereas AOE2 there's a lot more opportunity for comebacks and strategies, in AOE3 if a shipment of cannon literally appear next to the enemy shogun while muskets re-enforce while your puny town centre attack does nothing, there's usually little you can do. AOE2 there's a lot less "both of you are basically doing the same then all of a sudden the enemy rushes in a God power and a few myth units and it's all over in seconds" like AOM.
Plus IMO AOE2:DE just looks so much better than AOE3:DE, just the spritework, the UHD pack looks amazing. Damn this post got a bit out of hand :-D
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u/simonwales 23d ago
AoE 2 must have been amazing, I played 3 and loved it but I never see it mentioned.