Is Age of Empires 4 The Next Generation Of RTS? (Campaign Review)

I never really know what to write here, but I have been told that including talking points about your video, such as the fact that it's a review of Age of Empires 4, helps KZbin know what's going on. Honestly I am very nervous because I have never done a review before and there is a very real chance that this video is going to bomb because I missed something.
Oh well. Can't know until you try, right?
Do people actually read these by the way? I always assumed that nobody does, but I guess somebody has to. Are you a diligent person researching everything you can to make an informed choice? Are you just bored?
I'm bored. This video is taking forever to finish uploading. Do you think the GiantGrantGames logo in the Thumbnail is too big? Its a chungus this time. I am still experimenting with thumbnail size stuff to figure out what people like best. I think this one is too large but I gotta try everything before I know for sure.
Okay, the video has finished uploading now. I should probably let you go, but to say thanks for keeping me company while I waited for this upload I will let you in on something neat: LotV No Production is the wildest run I have ever done, and it's coming out on November 6th! That's going to be fun!
See you then!
You can support me here! / giantgrantgames
I also stream 5 days per week: / giantgrantgames
Second channel for Daily Content: / @giantgrantgamesarchives
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Campaign Story Style
2:32 - Factions and Core Mechanics
4:01 - Armies and Control
5:27 - Mission Variety
7:01 - The Worst Thing.
9:16 - Difficulty Curve
9:31 - Things I like
10:52 - Annoying Things
11:43 - Should you buy Age of Empires 4?

[@GiantGrantGames]

Hey guys, this is my first attempt at branching out into Reviews. I have no idea if people are actually interested in this and would appreciate some feedback!

[@huanquocmanh416]

Dew it mor

[@princedan3990]

So when are you doing rexxar campaign?

[@Thingymaljoo]

This was great - I would never say it was your first attempt. You were objective, expressed your opinion clearly and focused on things that matter. I especially appreciate the single player focus.

[@ExpertPeeb]

i will use your opinion to decide my purchase.

[@ro5o]

Yes, more of such reviews, please!

[@LoadstoneKnight]

Yes, people actually read the description.

[@pendekarmando1096]

Tbh, I read the description because of your comment

[@WonderlandGhost]

Same, I always read it

[@manuelfunesestepa9368]

I only read it because of this comment

[@TheArklyte]

It's more like 50/50. If people know that creator talks about things in the description, they look at it. If the creator instead promises to put links in the description, but never does and instead there is just his twitch info and advert link, people would rarely check it. And if person switches from latter to former, it'll take people some time to notice. But thanks to you, we did:)

[@rottenfruit7833]

@@TheArklyte "If the creator instead promises to put links in the description, but never does and instead there is just his twitch info and advert link" We call this one "pulling a Lowko"

[@sethb3090]

The Hundred Years War: "This campaign is _super unique._ You have a series of locations to defend, each of which is attacked by progressively stronger forces of enemies. "

[@Whiskers4169]

well thats the hundered years war for you

[@JeanLucPicard85]

Not having activated abilities (or only a few of them rather) is pretty much what AoE players want, the series has always been focused on macro and broader strategy. Micro is still rewarded in competitive play, just not on SC2 level.

[@zaxtonhong3958]

Really? From what I understand from AoE2, the game is FAR more reliant than micro and macro. Mostly because controlling surrounds is way more beneficial than the AI doing it

[@zonetropper]

@@zaxtonhong3958 You've clearly never watched trash wars or you believe clicking a formation button to dodge a magonel shot is more clickity than manually splitting your marines/zerglings from storms or aoe dmg. Micro in aoe2, vanilla aoe2 is more intense than de2 but the most you have use is flush archer+skirm battle which is just focus fire on vills for raiding while avoiding tc fire.

[@RMJ1984]

You could argue that, if the population cap wasn't still 200. Like if it was actually higher than Starcraft 2 a game that came out in 2010, or Starcraft 1 which came out in 1998. Imagine if Age of empires 4 was a next generation game. Where you had 1000, 2000 population cap. Huge armies like in history, doing battle and leaving actual gore, blood and stuff on the ground. Instead we live in the sad timeline, where we got Age of Empires 4 the mobile and tablet game...

[@SephirothRyu]

However, AoE4 does not have cheat codes that let you spawn sports cars with machine guns or other silly things. Huge fail. Sometimes you just want to steamroll an enemy army in a nice shiny "lamborgunny."

[@frozenfeet4534]

@@RMJ1984 it expands the playerbase by offering the game to more low end computers. yes high end gaming pcs can do insane stuff but a lot of people don't have the resources for that especially if they've been playing aoe since the 90s and are old now, not likely to be invested in a gaming pc. also 1000-unit armies make micro flatly impossible because the entire screen is filled with units that get stuck on each other

[@H3Vtux]

"I happen to know a thing or two about rte campaigns." Heh. Yeah.

[@smobasi3367]

Just a small bit

[@lisaruhm6681]

rte?

[@AlephTTM]

"It's not even a PNG" Literally unplayable!

[@acehughj4527]

Ah my favourite kind of description. It's nice when content creators write their thoughts, it's a relaxing read reading into someone basically talking to themselves. Plus it helps with the algorithm. Some KZbinrs try to put as many possibly viral keywords inside a jumbled mess of a paragraph, although it's dubious if that works.

[@a.seecharan6139]

It used to

[@gideonmiles7161]

The Narration was something Age 2 did pretty well starting out each mission with a personal stylized historical narrative about a historical event by someone else the event wasnt about, it was always someone else from the period looking on at the events and figures happening, there were voice lines for each character about in game events which made it great but I suppose they thought even those were still approximations

[@frozenfeet4534]

oh man i HATE that about this campaign. video games aren't documentaries. they're exercises in immersion. so fucking immerse me! bring back the bawdy aoe2 tutorial scotsman and im sold. i want king harald taunting me from the top of the hill so i feel better about murdering him in broad daylight. i want to be personally, directly responsible for wiping the shit eating grin off the khan at the ugra river. thats what video games are for!! that's what they do, that's their narrative potential! how do you miss that

[@mrguysnailz4907]

aoe3 also did it well, even though they went a little bit ahistorical. The lack of characters and iconic voicelines is disappointing. I still have some iconic aoe2 campaign lines burned into my consciousness from when i was a child, such as "Kushluk: Run away! Run away!" or "Saladin, where are you going with that great army?" "The blood on La Hire's sword is almost dry!" "Help! Crusaders are attacking our trade routes!" "Behold! The horde of Genghis Khan approaches!"

[@EinFelsbrocken]

@@mrguysnailz4907 All of those lines just echoed through my mind as I read them. Oh, the nostalgia.

[@Goremize]

@@mrguysnailz4907 I really miss when games were made with the passion they were made with back then, 20 years ago we had some solid stuff that would put everything made today to shame. The real problem is, the current generation doesn't know this, and puts up with low standards that are produced by producers who only care about the bottom line. So they assume that the low standards are good standards without even knowing how good things could be and used to be.

[@jordinagel1184]

It’s a different style more than anything. As an upcoming history teacher, I actually appreciated the heavier focus on actual historical events (not that AoE2 didn’t, but you know what I mean), as well as all the extra side content and overlay with the real locations of the events (where possible). Definitely less personal though, that I cannot dispute.

[@devolo5947]

This was a great review, if anything i would recommend bringing the style of humour your commentary in your challenge runs has to reviews as well, rather than just giving a "professional" analysis, it makes it all the more entertaining whilst not deviating from how informative the video is, definitely looking forward to more ^^

[@ganis6020]

Totally agree. What makes the difference between this review and the 1000 others on KZbin is Grant himself. The guys at the mineral line will not believe this.

[@esupton783]

Yeah, let the channel trademark style permeate the content, gives a vibe that won't turn regular viewers away, and if someone finds it by chance they're more likely to stay if they decide to watch other videos

[@jaeusa160]

But how much of the campaign can we do without things dying...? [Fry squint]

[@gorkemaykut5230]

Campaign ends at mission one

[@TheArklyte]

It's middle ages. No matter how you micro, majority of your units will die due to natural causes before the battle even begins...

[@runtergerutscht4401]

@@TheArklyte peasant: exists Common cold: allow me to introduce myself

[@wilkatis]

In this game? No can do. Proper micro is near impossible thanks to allies body-blocking your units, enemy hitboxes like to overlap and take priority over your own troops when clicking on said troops (unless you drag-select at which point it will be a group selection due to how close they all are), or even just the amazingly slow response to your commands.

[@CongaYT]

"If you want the soundtracks they're already up on youtube" Well said Usually indie titles have soundtrack dlc specifically to support the musicians but I feel confident saying that isn't the norm with larger titles

[@beetroot3211]

I liked this review, it was quite short and it showcased some of the things AoE did right and some of the issues it had really well. After watching winter's review too it really seems like they went for a cinematic experience with this one, through and through. Can't wait for november 6

[@squashiejoshie200000]

Not at all. This game was 90% built for multiplayer and 10% for campaign.

[@friendlytalbot4050]

I feel like I agree with you on the documentary-style narration, that it works in between missions, but in actual missions, it feels kind of detached. But that's the feeling I got overall. It was very immersion-breaking for me, and the weird artstyle remniscient of Civilization 5 and 6 kind of took me out of it. It plays like AoE, but it doesn't really feel like it. Still, it has a lot of interesting presentation and cool documentaries that do work as a bonus feature.

[@tau2213]

Thanks for the review, Grant! Personally, to me, the campaigns in the original AoE 2 have always been a pretty mixed bag. Though they had a more 'personal' approach to characters, rather than the documentary thing (which I do enjoy but I can see it will be divisive), the missions themselves have a lot of AIs with infinite resources or who are scripted to build very simple compositions, like 'this one only builds longbows and 4 rams'. And the difficulty of missions is all over the place. I remember in the... Dracula campaign? The first three missions were mostly just an A-move with little resistance, then suddenly you are dropped into a town with real bad defensibility with 3 aggressive AIs surrounding you. For me, the campaigns are... fine for playing once. The real meat of AoE 2 for the majority of the playerbase, backed up by statistics from MS, has always been skirmish versus the AI and I have personally been enjoying AoE 4's skirmishes and comp stomps a lot. Would you be willing to make a little follow-up discussing the skirmish modes and all the stuff they offer? In the long run, those are what people will be playing.

[@SoulMrGame]

Yeah, then ppl criticize AoE 4 campaign, they usually forget how most of the AoE 2 campaign are unbalanced as fuck, or with very similar objectives and mechanics (Level of Legacy of the Void similar)

[@braynaguilar8567]

I basically only play skirmish too

[@seawind930]

I've always thought of Campaigns in RTS as fun ways to introduce the different factions with neat stories, not as the main gameplay of the game.

[@mrguysnailz4907]

@@SoulMrGame the DE camapaigns really stand out as top quality.

[@matheuskawata7841]

@@SoulMrGame Getting late to the discussion, but the Definitive Edition did a lot of fixes to Campaigns that were considered very unbalanced. The Sforza Campaign was redesigned completly, Dracula one got a lot of fixes for maps that were ridiculously unabalanced( Maps 4 and 5 come to mind), the Inca Campaign also changed completly+some of the maps from the Battles of the Conquerors got changes( like Honfoglálas). DE's dev team fixed a lot of shit that came from the previous interations of AoE2,, which helped to revive the game that to this day continues to receive balance tweaks, expansions and extra content. I hope that AOE4 brings in more people back to the RTS genre, just like its "elder brother" did recently

[@marsiumouse]

Looking forward to Nov 6th! LoTV No build sounds like a ton of fun

[@luketalbot2643]

This was a refreshing change from your usual video schedule, I hope we end up seeing more reviews!

[@Biosonic42]

Actually really like the review format Grant. Nice change of pace from your usual stuff. Been enjoying AoE 4 campaign so far and you definitely put a lot of my thoughts about it into very succinct and well though out points. You definitely had a few ideas about the game and viewpoints I hadn’t considered, I think greatly helped by your experience with RTS in general. And yes, people read the descriptions ;)

[@Fearun9033]

I really, really enjoyed this review. I certainly hope you will do more! Even if they are retrospective reviews of older RTS games and how they hold up today.

[@anmi-1645]

Great to see you branching out into different kinds of content keep it up and hope you enjoy it!

[@LiciTheCrawler]

Good review, wouldn't mind seeing you review more RTS games (both old and new) in this style

[@TheSunGamer101]

Honestly I’m just excited for the rts genre to be making a comeback. SC2 will always have an incredibly special place in my heart, but it being the only offering for a decade was a bit much

[@maxhigdon7738]

Please continue to do reviews, I always enjoy seeing content creators who branch out into reviewing because usually, they branch into reviewing games in fields that they love and do it from a place of wanting the genre to grow while providing seasoned advice and critics. Also, this review was well structured and nicely paced so keep up the good work GGG!

[@jeeeeeeeeeeezus]

I love your review. Unbiased, not sponsored review is hard to find. Reviews from people that know what they're talking about, even more so. And beyond that, your personal touch of actually bringing in your personal opinions beyond "it's good/it's bad" made watching it enjoyable.

[@luckybuns7628]

Very cool! I loved how it was all informative while still having the more fun/less serious side towards the end

[@BarcelPL]

I like your review style. One caveat - when you review music/sound design, please put more examples in video (samples of the narrator, ambient music samples, battle clutter and so on.) Overall great, hope to see more :)

[@nickroland4610]

Solid review! I really appreciate you pointing out things you liked and disliked so concretely. A good reviewer is one who aligns with your personal tastes, and that is easier to discover when the reviewer makes it clear what things they thought were worth mentioning specifically, without relying on broad strokes and sweeping statements.

[@Anon-yz1xr]

Yeah I've got zero interest in MP, but the AI cheating resources is a big deal breaker for me. I didn't have a whole lot of hope for 4, so I'm not too torn up about passing over it. I still have campaigns on 2 DE to beat on hard anyway.

[@zonetropper]

The review is mostly the campaign ai. I think you can't execute great campaign design without giving the ai an advantage in terms of lot of resources at the start, or big amount of units as that ties with the difficulty as well. Skirmish ai also cheats but this requires more observation to see how much obvious it is.

[@Laneous14]

I'm still grinding through SC2 coop for my RTS fix.

[@Reno11234]

Starcraft 1 did this too for the most part. I remember using a hack that let me see other player's income in real time, and the CPU's income would increase regardless of them having workers. They might have changed it in SC2, but i can't say.

[@ricardobacelo5076]

why the hell nobody talks about how fucking bad is the projectiles in this game? is soo damm ugly

[@dosbilliam]

That AI thing's been a problem for a while. I remember once playing a mission in the Joan of Arc campaign in AoE2 where I blocked off one of the two chokepoints on the map since it involved a giant river, than dropped a couple of castles at the one closer to my base and waited. The AI kept sending villagers to attempt to harvest resources on my side after harvesting all of the stuff on their side, along with some rather weak attack waves that barely made it past said castles. Took HOURS to bleed them dry, but it was a simple task because the AI was brain-dead. :P

[@coldblowcode]

The ai in DE is actually incredibly good on the harder difficulties, but in skirmish matches, I can't speak for the campaigns as I've never touched them.

[@WonderlandGhost]

They updated the the ai and all the campaigns in de

[@robertgheorghe3661]

The ai in de version is one of the better versions of any rts game

[@runtergerutscht4401]

In other words: there is hope that they update the aoe4 AI to be good

[@dosbilliam]

@@coldblowcode This was on Normal. I imagine that the intent was "resources on map exist; go harvest and bring back" regardless of anything that was in the way. :P

[@ThanhLe-ti8nx]

Love to see you give impression/review on the other Single player RTS game in the future. Success of any RTS always start with a strong/solid single player content.

[@keizan5132]

I always read descriptions. Thanks for the announcement of the next great challenge!

[@TheDiamondcrossbow]

Yay another video! Absolutely love ur videos! regardless of the content, Your personality always brings me back!

[@LuxisAlukard]

I read video descriptions, just to let you know =) Nice video, I find it useful and entertaining!

[@michaelrytter1911]

Great video Grant, and as usual great content :D Yes, we read the description. Remember not to burn yourself out again, and when the next video comes out we will love it!

[@shirayuzu]

Nice video tho, would love some of your humor from other videos too, cause i love it everytime thinking how you would make it. The sound effect and performance are good, thats a good news, because it'd be almost impossible for dev to update those things early, others can come later and its a blessing knowing it, thanks alot

[@HarleyLatex]

ok since you took the time to upload this long video (yes I read the description) , I can take the time to write my ideas about it I really liked your review. This was so much better than most of the stuff you see on youtube. No need for playing the angry card or hypeing it up in the heavens. You just give an idea, about good and bad stuff. God how I miss this kind of content. Thanks for taking your time.

[@Funinabox09]

I want you to know that I seriously love your videos. I love your style and you are super good at it, too. This is the video that pushed me over the edge to pledge on patreon. Keep doing what you're doing!

[@DJfrostyx]

Grant that was so good. Can't believe this was your first review. Please do more, you're really talented and your dedication is apparent. And please don't let perfect get in the way of good, it will just delay your videos too much for little benefit.

[@Scourge24]

"What even is it, it's t- it's too yellow!" We're on the same page. I got used to it eventually but it was like... it was almost jarring, how visually loud the effect is for something as rote as setting a rally point. Would've felt less out of place as an objective marker or, I dunno, maybe a neat effect when reviving a downed hero unit. Some event or location worthy of being struck by a giant yellow space ribbon.

[@woollama]

I really enjoyed this review, thanks for making it. I'd love to see more from you

[@-Raylight]

I'm so happy that AoE4 is quite successful so far. I'm hoping this will bring golden age of RTS. It's not perfect compared to AoE2DE but it's really good. I hope they fix the broken stuffs and more QoL

[@aveomnissiah2896]

I do hope for golden age of RTS but I don't think it going to happen anymore the player base is simply pitifully low compare to those popular game out there. Maybe the golden age might happen again one day in the future due to technological advance in gaming industry but not real soon that for sure.

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Why do you need new ones?

[@devin6968]

@@aveomnissiah2896 as much as I would love a RTS resurgence it feels like the genre has almost hit its peak and cant evolve much further.

[@someonespotatohmm9513]

@@devin6968 A better controlling supcom style game?

[@justanothercommenterwithan9089]

@@devin6968 some for of pre set formation button like setting a group of units to do a pincer formation, get half of them to loop round back or smash straight forward with a button can make micro way more friendly and add some flash to the combat could be a new mechanic rts could adopt

[@OMIMreacts]

GGG is such a good reviewer. Please more reviews! I have hardly seen such a well articulated review.

[@ryanbeck6672]

Reviews from you sound good to me. You have already established yourself as someone who has experience and expertise with RTS games, as well as a unique perspective since it's clear you enjoy seeking out every ounce of novelty you can from them by constructing challenges to change the intentions of the game. Because you have experience and a unique perspective that shows new perspectives in how to play the game. If you continue to do reviews in the future I would love to see what sort of challenges or ideas the RTS made you consider, though I know the audience would likely think of that as a promise to do it in the future unless you said something about it. Thank you for your thorough review. I hope the experiment works out.

[@ishanr8697]

Thanks man, you saved me wasting time on researching the game and possibly money. The crummy AI definitely makes it a hard "no" from me.

[@DarkPlay134]

i understand your feeling but is a hard "no" not a bit too ... yeah ... hard? AI can be fixed through updates so gibe it time and look into it in a few months again? but maybe i am just weird here. have a nice day

[@sanderkiki]

yep same for me, this AI that is build for cheese is no-no for me, at leat until they upgrade it

[@dragonscaleshields]

Multiplayer is the only reason to get this game. But even that is very unbalanced.

[@Supergoon1989]

Ditto. The AI is so bad that it really should have been fixed at least a little bit before release. Stuff like 7:35 is unforgivable, a game shouldn't be released in that state, this is just sloppy, It looks like they don't even care. just *SLAM* 'there's a game. It's OK. give us money now. we just want money' - :(

[@priver1835]

@@DarkPlay134 I'd argue that the mentality of "we'll fix it in post" is the problem, not the buyers. Spending money on a product that'll *probably* work right at a later date is irresponsible

[@armelior4610]

Just discovered you made reviews as well. Good job, I hope there will be more coming... even older games would be cool since new RTS game releases aren't exactly common nowadays.

[@songsong9558]

Yeap. People do read descriptions. For your first review it was great! Informative and entertaining. Also has your opinion and personality, which I feel really matters. Would love to see more

[@frankderr8323]

I enjoyed the video! I respect your opinion on RTS and I thought the video did a great job of painting a clear picture of how the game is.

[@Adoak1]

This was a very thoughtful review. I largely play single player in RTS so it is nice to have a review completely focused on it.

[@GIGroundNPound]

Yep, totally read them. And I really enjoyed your review. So much so I SUBBED. Well done!

[@Caedus46]

I wanted a review on this game and you delivered 😅 good stuff 👍🏻

[@redpandaluver8561]

I personally really enjoyed this review! It really lets your experience with the genre show as well as rely on your voice, which I find to be very nice as a narration voice, to keep the audience soothed while you explain your thoughts on the game! I love RTS games, but I am much more driven by personal narrative stories, so I don't think I'll pick this one up. I hope you'll do a review of the DLC's! Also, yes! We read the descriptions and I think the thumbnail is lovely.

[@Alphenis]

I just want to say that you review was interesting, clear, and straight to the point. Thank you.

[@szilarddobai2552]

Well, I really enjoyed this review, and I am hoping that in the future we will see more of them, even for indie games.

[@hipeoplhi]

Man I really don't like rts games but I could watch you play and talk about them all day. Thanks man keep doing you

[@SmugLookingBarrel]

I think this was a really fair and well thought out review, well done with it.

[@MythrilZenith]

Appreciated the honest take, the mostly spoiler free review, and both the good and the bad being highlighted. AI in AoE games has always been weird but it's disappointing that AoE4 seems like it's not just bad but doubling down on the blatant cheating, at least in the campaigns. Half the fun of beating older AoE campaigns is figuring out what moves you can get away with to cripple or trick the otherwise overwhelming AI, but it does feel a bit rough when the AI just blatantly acts in an extremely preset manner regardless of what the player does. Thanks for the review, I will most likely look into AoE4 but I'm not going to be in a massive rush to do so.

[@spinyslasher6586]

AOE II DE has one of the best AIs I've seen in RTS.

[@tntengineer2330]

Very well done review, and I'd encourage that you do more. Maybe a retrospective on the starcraft games someday?

[@highlander1193]

I really enjoyed this game, and I'm okay with the unit designs, tbh. The thing that I really struggled with was the architecture. Maybe I'm just dense and it'll take some getting used to, but I'm constantly finding myself clicking on all the buildings in my base to find a blacksmith, for example.

[@aeroth6008]

Great review! I was already cynical about aoe4 based on other footage and reviews I’d seen. Your perspective, although still ultimately critical, did add to conversation since it was designed for those who would only play the campaign. Your praise of the good parts felt genuine and cut through my cynicism opening my eyes to good qualities.

[@PMTP1990]

This review is better than any out there. I so agree with you. Thank you for this, priceless! And yes, sound is indeed the best about this game :(

[@andreicoman11]

Thanks for this, really found it valuable! Was debating whether to get the game or not after 10 years of StarCraft. Campaign sounds like a good buy by itself

[@sabetwolf]

The only thing missing from this review: How's the AI in custom skirmishes? I can understand AI being... well, trash for the campaign - if they want to tell a 'specific story' through essentially scripted events, then AI or not the same thing's gonna happen regardless. But if the AI is that dumb and just cheats their way through regular skirmishes, I'm not gonna be happy EDIT: I'm aware this is specifically a campaign review, but it would have been a nice bonus to include for those of us who play offline rather than multi. I did enjoy the review

[@aidansmith5282]

I don’t know if the ai cheats, but when attacking them I consistently found 5-10 villagers at each production building

[@Jabranalibabry]

I always read the description. If you check out some classical YT vids especially of RuneScape gameplay people would fill it with hilarious stuff. Loved this description 👊

[@6idiotsinabunker59]

i loved the videos after you beat a mission where you get to learn new things about the times

[@patrykpikulinski6135]

Good work on the review Grand. I feel informed about about the game, it's strong sides and flaws, it's problems and potencial ways, for it, to grow. Plus Your personal input, showing that you really played this game, makes it pleasant to watch. About the feedback: One, yes, people read the description🙂. Two, logo is fine, but if you make it a bit smaller, it might be even better. Tree, great that you try something new (review), You are a natural in it.

[@poiuyt975]

Thank you for the review. I really value an opinion of someone whose content I'm already familiar with. After watching several of your challenge/mod runs of Starcraft I already knew that I was dealing with an actual gamer who know what he's talking about. I'm a single player fan, so I appreciate the focus on that part as well. I'll see how my budget looks in January and might buy the game then. Maybe they'll make some patches by then. :-)

[@agustinblasco9100]

The logo is kinda big but then again it's chungus in the profile pic too so it's coherent. Only a little bit smaller it's perfect. Great review btw

[@Avendros]

the description is very entertaining and as to the question why i'm watching a review of Age of Empires 4 and reading the description of it? Mainly because the video was made by you.

[@rWeendy]

many thanks for this. it feels like the first "real" review iv seen of this game.

[@kyruken6740]

Hey man, I follow your VOD channel so I'm pretty biased. But I really enjoyed your video and appreciated your insight on this since I'm wanting to dive into RTS games again. I adored the old AoM series and wish this would have been similar.

[@Windw00d]

I will watch any of your content Grant. You do a fantastic job. This was no exception.

[@4564568b]

I think the thumbnail size is just right ( I didn't even noticed it without reading description... Maybe it's the color hiding it .) Also I read the description only because someone say people do read them...ty that person.

[@xqt6339]

I know this type of video isn't the kind that gets the most traffic on your channel, but I do appreciate these.

[@zack2307]

Looking forward to the vid on the 6th. AoE4 has also grabbed my attention for the time being, interesting to see where it ends up in the current landscape

[@Orkillester1]

Good Review! Would love to see more like this.

[@trigger4535]

Loved it! More reviews would be awesome!

[@escapest]

You did really well man. You talked about the parts of the game that matters, told both positive and negative. Short-ish, informative, on point. Much much better than half hour long reviews where they talk, but say nothing of value.

[@marshmerry9819]

A very grantual review. Nah but for real though, I thought this was pretty great even if I’m not the biggest aoe wiz, and I also really liked that bit you had about the game’s soundtrack. You should def make more of these!

[@benji4197]

From watching much of your other content, you've always come across as someone who had a firm grasp on what makes up a good game. I have a bias going into this video because I already am familiar with what makes you pleased with a game. That being said, you come across as very objective, while not shying away from highlighting things you like. Your criticism is fair and valuable. I would very much look forward to see more reviews from you!

[@zaxtonhong3958]

(It’s because he was a game designer before starting KZbin)

[@bwax3135]

I like the logo size better in the thumbnail like this. It's bold, it's prominent, and it's instantly recognizable

[@BushidoKyn]

Your criticism on the battle feel, unit look and clunky AI are spot on. I really wanted to love this, but can't be bothered to even start it up after 4-5 hours of game time.

[@OryxTheDragon]

There are lots of professional game reviewers out there that are less qualified and do a worse job reviewing strategy games then you ma man. You're doing great. There might be some appeal to doing reviews of older games then new ones, but im sure you know the algorithm better so thats up to you. Im sure that there are people who would enjoy a retro review if it came to it. Also some people dont really mind when the game is not micro heavy. Personally, i love starcraft but cant really micro so i just build units that i dont have to micro and rush them in. I enjoy the spectacle of the fight more the active unit response. Cant wait for nov 6th. ^^ Keep up the great work!

[@Kayther33]

I liked so much the review, idk which game you could do a review next (if you wanna do it, no?) but it was cool

[@samuelleonard7023]

The one thing that stopped me playing was after accidentally discovering just how much the AI cheats. On the Mongol campaign, I think it's the third mission, you have to destroy an inner city, outer city & a trade district. I went for the trade district first, built siege towers, put about 40 Men-At-Arms inside and went for the walls. They inside only had Spearmen & Archers, so it was easy for the Men-At-Arms to deal with. The Men-At-Arms started attacking the buildings in the trade district and then....about 20 enemy Spearmen + Archers spawned. And about every 30 seconds or so they spawned more Spearmen + Archers until a max number of both had been reached within the walls, around 30 I think, but once the Men-At-Arms had killed enough the game just spawned more. All my Men-At-Arms ended up dying but just before the last few died, I destroyed the gate with my knights, who I originally had sit out because I thought the Men-At-Arms would be more than enough to destroy the Trade District. After the gate was destroyed, the enemy units stopped spawning. I accidentally found a trigger that stops the AI from spawning in a mass of units, I also accidentally avoided said trigger, thinking I was smart to not destroy the gates. Really ruined it for me, if I had accidentally found that, how many small things such as that exist within the game?

[@jarrakul]

Very good review, full of useful insights and enough details to actually inform whether I buy the game. Thank you!

[@kgeo2686]

Dude I love that intro sentence. RTS IS awesome! XD And wait what? Am I one of those weird multiplayer only guys?

[@user-rh2wu2kc6j]

Thank you, Grant, for your work!

[@BattlePantaloons]

Cool new concept for a video. I hope it does as well as I know it can.

[@Reialine]

5:10 actually that's an age of empires thing, even multiplayer matches focus more on keeping your macro game while big battles unfold, the price of economy in victory value is harder than starcraft.

[@Kodiac]

I read the description and I loved this video

[@mxkiese]

Excellent review, thank you for that!

[@torylva]

"What I didn't expect was the history channel"? What, you mean that William the Conqueror was actually a vampire and his soldiers was augmented by alien technology?

[@Supergoon1989]

Shit man, I wanna play *that*, though!!

[@kchgamer1788]

Seriously, that history channel makes amazing games. Feels very age of mythology.

[@sethb3090]

I'm not saying it was aliens... But it was aliens.

[@weareharbinger914]

As a descendant of the saxons who went with him...did you not know that?

[@cyborg98]

+1 algorithm comment, I engaged with and enjoyed the content displayed on my screen. Joky banter aside, I can't think of any real complaints about the review, GGG. Maybe make the game's BGM during your talking points a bit louder? Was a bit difficult to hear it.

[@Guesswhonope]

Been contemplating this purchase since preorder options dropped. Appreciate the review, honestly looking forward to a new RTS since Warcraft3 Reforged bombed.

[@baizen1]

I liked the review a lot. Also you should definitely give the AOE2:DE new DLC campaigns a try, they are spectacular

[@grythm]

I usually read the description while the ad is playing, yep!

[@trassage]

The new format is wonderful and I'd love to see more of those. Plus your mind as a gamebreaker and mechanics exploiter can always show something not visible at the first glance but might be important. I say keep those up)

[@inkromancer_studios]

Hey GGG, been loving your campaign playthrough so far, but I wanted to give you a quick hotkey tip that might help you going forward You can set hotkeys to select every military building at the same time, there's also one for every tech building, and one for every town center I believe. If I recall correctly these are F1 F2 and F3 by default, personally I rebound them to 1, 2, and 3 for convienence sake, and set F2 to select all military units SC2 style. Pretty much every time you said "I can't believe there's not a hotkey for this" there was, in fact, a hotkey for it. You just have to do a LOT of digging to find them...

[@The-jy3yq]

If you have to find something relative to the game Not within the game itself (such as the many quirks of AoE 2 engine, y'know, SotL's and T-West's goldmine of content) But in the _main menu..._ ... It's bad

[@Othello484]

Great video. Your knowledge of RTS shines through. Thanks. Now that there have been numerous patches how about revisiting AOE4?

[@prysthaea7735]

I think that the thumbnail logo size is a little large this time yeah, the previous one (HotS no production) looks perfect. And yeah, I usually only read the description if I'm confused about something in the video, or just feeling anxious and want to fiddle without changing tabs. And I only started doing the former because I know people always get annoyed when comments ask questions that are answered in the description, and I don't want to look silly lol. Glad I could keep you company!

[@skeptic_lemon]

I read the description. I appreciated it!