Age of empires 2 the conquerors cheats: Blocked IP Address — GameFAQs

How To Activate Cheats & Every Code In The Definitive Edition

By Mark Hospodar

Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition has cheat codes ranging from useful to downright hilarious that every player should try at least once.

Even after twenty-two years, Age of Empires II is still massively popular with fans. Its blend of real-time strategy coupled with historical immersion makes Age of Empires II a title that fans want to keep coming back to again and again. Many of the scenarios belonging to the game’s single-player campaigns can be quite a challenge, especially on the higher difficulties.

RELATED: Age Of Mythology: Every Cheat Code

When things become a little too hard, the temptation to cheat can be hard to resist. Games in the Age of Empires series often contain a plethora of cheat codes that can make various aspects of the gameplay a breeze to overcome. Every code a player will ever need to conquer any obstacle in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edtion is included in this list. To activate a cheat, simply press Enter to display the chat function. Type in the code exactly as shown and press Enter again to witness the desired effect.

5/5 Resource Gathering Made Easy

One of the prime gameplay elements of Age of Empires II is resource-gathering. Nothing in the game can be built without first acquiring the necessary amount of resources. As any longtime fan of the series will surely know, these resources include Food, Gold, Wood, and Stone. Villagers must collect these four commodities at a fairly steady clip in order to maintain the edge over an opponent. This can be a time-consuming process, especially in the early game. Why wait when these helpful shortcuts can be used instead:

  • cheese steak jimmy’s
    — 10,000 Food

  • robin hood
    — 10,000 Gold

  • lumberjack
    — 10,000 Wood

  • rock on
    — 10,000 Stone

  • ninjalui
    — 10,000 Food, Gold, Wood & Stone

  • aegis
    — Instant Construction

In Age of Empires II, 10,000 units of any resource is a massive sum. Villagers barely need to be trained at all using these codes. The last code on the list eliminates another impediment to the player’s progress by instantly spawning any building under construction. Bases and armies will spring to life in no time using these nifty tools.

4/5 Manipulating The Environment

Age of Empires II also allows for the game world to be manipulated in various ways. These cheats won’t exactly be tremendously helpful, in a traditional sense. The purpose of these codes is to inject a little bit of humor into the game. There are also options to disable the in-game taunts in case those get a little too annoying. Don’t expect to become extremely powerful when utilizing these cheats:

  • natural wonders
    — Control the Wildlife

  • woof woof
    — Turns Hawks Into Flying Dogs

  • !mute
    — Silences Taunts

  • !nomute
    — Reestablishes Taunts

RELATED: 10 Pro Tips For Age Of Empires 3 That You Need To Know

When controlling members of the human race gets too boring, try giving the wildlife a chance. Fans can fulfill their dreams of playing as a wild boar, sheep, or camel. Ever get tired of watching those annoying hawks fly across the screen? Turn them into dogs wearing capes instead! Dogs that fly, of course.

3/5 Instant Winning (& Losing)

Winning in a video game is always fun, but it usually requires some bit of work on the player’s part first. Making progress «fair-and-square» is typically where the sense of accomplishment comes into play. Winning in Age of Empires II can be downright hard sometimes. There’s no worse feeling for a gamer than having to restart from the beginning after hours of solid progress. It’s in those dark moments when these cheats might just come in handy:

  • I r winner
    — Win Instantly

  • black death
    — Kill All Opponents

  • torpedo[number]
    — Kill a Single Opponent (Note: Insert that opponent’s number from the diplomacy screen after «torpedo»)

There’s a range here on how brutally efficient the player wants to be in their victory. The first code will simply conclude the scenario in a victory for the player. The second will obliterate all enemies on the map, effectively achieving the same result. The last one eliminates only certain enemies. Conversely, maybe the player himself has had enough? Sometimes, rage-quitting feels like the right thing to do. In that case, try out these self-destructive codes:

  • Resign
    — Lose Instantly

  • wimpywimpywimpy
    — Kills the Player

2/5 Tweaking The Map

The mini-map in Age of Empires II provides a wealth of information. However, not everything is immediately visible. Scouting is crucial to get the lay-of-the-land in the early game. Knowing where the enemy is located and how they intend to attack is vital in many campaign scenarios. It’s also helpful to scope out where the resources are located. Surprises are undoubtedly unpleasant, so it’s often just better to know for sure where and when things are going to happen. These codes prove to be lifesavers:

  • Marco
    — Reveals the Entire Map

  • Polo
    — Removes the Fog of War

  • noui
    — Disables UI

RELATED: 10 Pro Tips For Age Of Empires Players

The first code removes the black terra incognita on the mini-map so that the general terrain becomes visible. The second one eliminates the lingering fog of war from the map, allowing the player a complete view of the battlefield. The third simply disables the game’s UI.

1/5 Interesting Unit Spawns

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition has its fair collection of heroes. These units, although they often need protecting, can still pack a hefty punch. However, none of them can hold a candle to these wacky unit spawns (Note: Make sure a Town Center is present for these codes to work properly):

  • how do you turn this on
    — Cobra Car

  • alpaca simulator
    — Alfred the Alpaca

  • furious the monkey boy
    — Monkey

  • to smithereens
    — Saboteur

  • I don’t exist
    — Penguin

  • catzor
    — Cat/Shark

  • I love the monkey head
    — Useless Villager

Having trouble breaking down a medieval castle gate? Summon a sports car and blast it to pebbles! What about summoning a nearly invincible, talking llama? That can be arranged too! The best among them, however, may just be the «catzor» cheat, which spawns a unit that depicts a cat riding a shark equipped with jetpacks. They also shoot laser beams, in case players needed any more convincing.

NEXT: Age Of Empires 4 Wishlist: Everything We Want To See

Age of Empires 2 Cheats

  1. Commands.gg
  2. Age of Empires 2 Cheat Codes

Below is Commands.gg’s searchable list of all 23 Age of Empires 2 cheats for PC and Mac. These cheat codes include those from Age of Empires 2 HD, and work with the expansions: The Forgotten, The Conquerors, and African Kingdoms.

In Age of Empires 2, you can open the cheat console by hitting ENTER on your keyboard. After typing in a cheat code into this box, hit ENTER again to send it. Cheat codes aren’t case sensitive, but you must spell them correctly (including any punctuation such as apostrophes).

Some cheat codes in this list are exlusive to the HD Edition of AOE 2, these are indicated with the HD Edition badge. Additionally, cheats that are exclusive to «The Forgotten» expansion are labelled with The Forgotten, those exclusive to «The Conquerors» are labelled with The Conquerors.

Age of Empires CheatsAge of Empires 3 Cheats

Search our database of all 23 Age of Empires 2 cheat codes by typing the name of a cheat, or something to do with a cheat (e.g. «unit», etc) into the search box below.

HOW DO YOU TURN THIS ON Copy

This cheat code spawns a «Cobra Car» at your Town Center. The Cobra Car is a powerful unit that can only be obtained via cheats. It has 500 HP, rapidly firing explosive ammo, but have a tendency for friendly fire.

TO SMITHEREENS Copy

This cheat spawns the «Saboteur» unit at your Town Center. The Saboteur is only available via this cheat code, and has the same looks as the Petard unit. Whilst it still has the Petard unit’s explosive and self-destructive tendencies, it is more powerful, and has a blast radius 5x the size of Petard’s.

NATURAL WONDERS Copy

NOTE: The effect of this cheat code can’t be reversed, save your game before using it if you wish to switch back. This cheat will put you in control of the «Nature Civilization», which all animals, etc belong to — allowing you to control animals and other parts of nature. As this switches your civilization to nature, you are unable to switch back to your original civilization.

I LOVE THE MONKEY HEAD Copy

This cheat code spawns a «Villager Male Dave Lewis», or VMDL for short, unit at your Town Center. The VMDL unit is only obtainable via cheats, and moves extremely fast. VMDLs have no armor or attack bonus — their insanely fast movement speed makes them good for exploring, but not so much anything else.

FURIOUS THE MONKEY BOY Copy

This cheat spawns the cheat unit (only obtainable via cheats) «Furious the Money Boy». Furious the Monkey Boy is a powerful unit that looks like a monkey, having 99 armor (both melee and pierce) and a 999 attack bonus against Standard Buildings, making it great for destroying settlements. The Conquerors

I DON’T EXIST Copy

This cheat spawns the «Penguin» unit. Unsurprisingly, the Penguin unit is only obtainable via this cheat code, and is a powerful unit that looks like a.. you guessed it: penguin. HD Edition

ALPACA SIMULATOR Copy

This cheat code spawns the «Alfred the Alpaca» unit. Like the other units spawned by cheat codes, this can only be obtained via cheats and isn’t available without them. Alfred the Alpaca is a very strong unit that headbutts enemies — it also has 100 attack bonus for Standard Buildings, and Stone Defenses. HD Edition

CHEESE STEAK JIMMY’S Copy

This cheat code gives you 1,000 more of the food resource. In AOE 2 HD Edition, it provides 10x more (10,000 food).

LUMBERJACK Copy

This cheat code gives you 1,000 more of the wood resource. In AOE 2 HD Edition, it provides 10x more (10,000 wood).

ROBIN HOOD Copy

This cheat code gives you 1,000 more of the gold resource. In AOE 2 HD Edition, it provides 10x more (10,000 gold).

ROCK ON Copy

This cheat code gives you 1,000 more of the stone resource. In AOE 2 HD Edition, it provides 10x more (10,000 stone).

MARCO Copy

This cheat will show the entire map (all black areas will become visible/discovered). Using it again will toggle its effects off, returning your map back to the way it was before.

POLO Copy

This cheat will disable Fog of War (FoW). Typing it again will re-enable Fog of War.

AEGIS Copy

When you have this cheat enabled, building, gathering, training, and researching is instant. This is a toggle cheat — typing it once will turn it on, typing it again will turn it off. Two important notes: units that are involved in constructing a building when you enable this cheat will die, and this cheat also affects the AI/other players (and they generally are better at utilizing this than a puny human like you, so it’s best to use this for a short period of time).

I R WINNER Copy

This cheat makes you instantly win your current game.

RESIGN Copy

This cheat makes you instantly lose your current game.

BLACK DEATH Copy

This cheat code kills everyone, you and your allies included.

WIMPYWIMPYWIMPY Copy

This cheat makes you commit suicide, causing you to lose the game.

TORPEDO[#] Copy

This cheat will kill/eliminate a specified opponent. Replace [#] with the numer of the player/AI you wish to eliminate. TORPEDO2 would kill the player with starting position 2.

WOOF WOOF Copy

This cheat replaces all birds with the «Stormy Dog» unit. The Stormy Dog unit is almost the exact same as regular birds, with one subtle difference — it’s a flying dog!

!MUTE Copy

This cheat disables taunts.

!NOMUTE Copy

This cheat enables taunts.

NINJACONNOR Copy

This cheat gives you 100,000 of the following resources: food, wood, stone, and gold. The Forgotten

What was Age of Empires III and what was the re-release — Games on DTF

We recall the most controversial part of the series in honor of the release of Definitive Edition and talk about its no less controversial re-release.

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In the circles of gamers, the Age of Empires series is perceived exclusively within the framework of the second part. The first was quickly forgotten, Age of Mythology is still more of a spin-off, but the debate around the third is still burning — the game turned out so different.

Despite excellent press reviews and generally good sales, the Age of Empires II triquel failed to repeat the success. Many were scared away by the less popular setting (the colonization of America, gunpowder weapons, the industrial revolution) and the huge number of changes compared to the previous part. Age of Empires III can be put in the same category as Heroes of Might and Magic IV, Serious Sam 2 and DmC: Devil May Cry — it was so different from the classic games of the series and divided fans into two camps. The developer studio, Ensemble Studios, closed after hard work on another strategy, Halo Wars. nine0003

After the release of Age of Empires III and two major add-ons, the series essentially died out: only many years later did the HD re-release of Age of Empires II come out, and relatively recently the Definitive Edition of all the main games in the series was released and Age of Empires IV was announced by Relic studios. The latest release in the franchise is Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, a massive update to the old game with new models, cutscenes, game modes, nations, and more.

In honor of this event and the 15th anniversary of the original Age of Empires III, we tell you what was good about the game, why the fans did not like it so much and how the re-release turned out. nine0003

What was Age of Empires III

The third part of the series covers the period from the end of the Middle Ages to the colonization of the New World with the subsequent formation of the United States. Armored knights and trebuchets were replaced by musketeers, sailboats and cannons. And along with the setting, the gameplay has changed beyond recognition.

To fully understand the changes that Age of Empires III brought, it is worth remembering what the second part was like. Age of Empires II, in its pace and mechanics, is more reminiscent of city-building strategies like Stronghold: you develop your fortress city for a long time and painstakingly and fight with your opponent in the very late stages of the game. nine0003

The whole idea was that initially the series was conceived as Civilization in real time, and your city was something native, your own. Something that you have spent a huge amount of resources and time on and that will be very disappointing to lose under fire from catapults. This is a game about slow meditation, long planning, cunning diplomacy with neighbors, and last but not least, large-scale battles of hundreds of soldiers.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

In the triquel, the developers wanted to do something completely new: according to their idea, only a third of the mechanics were to go from Age of Empires II to the sequel. The rest of the game design of the game is borrowed ideas from other popular RTS, successful mechanics from Age of Mythology, a spin-off of the main series about mythical creatures, and completely new finds.

Age of Mythology

As a result, Ensemble Studious was so carried away with innovation that the third part was hardly similar to its predecessor. Realizing the future catastrophe, the developers asked Microsoft to rename the game and release it as a spin-off in the spirit of the same Age of Mythology. But they were refused, which is why the essentially too experimental project became a licensed part. nine0003

And if Age of Mythology was remembered as a spin-off beloved by many, the sequel of which fans still dream of, then Age of Empires III became a stumbling block — new players fell in love with it, and old ones could not forgive the fact that the sequel almost forgot its own roots.

What is it that Ensemble Studious changed in the series formula? Almost everything. Age of Empires III deviated from the unique path of the series and went more like copying strategies from Blizzard (Warcraft III, Stacraft): a much faster paced game, early aggression and a significantly reduced focus on the base. nine0003

The city has ceased to be a «native fortress» — both for reasons of game design, and because of the setting. The fact is that now each base is like a colony of a certain power in the New World. Therefore, even the largest city resembles a modest village, and the walls can hardly withstand the onslaught of the enemy: after all, gunpowder guns have already been used, which in the real world, with their appearance in a couple of hundred years, sent stone castles into the past.

In terms of gameplay, due to a decrease in the number of resources (in the third part there is only food, wood and gold) and an increase in the pace of the game, the role of the city has been significantly reduced: now it is a base in the spirit of Warcraft and Starcraft, in which you hire troops for battles. They became the main focus of the third part. nine0003

In exchange, the colonies received a completely new mechanic for the series — deliveries. Every nation has a capital somewhere in the Old World that sends cargo to their colonies. It works like this: for any useful action like building buildings, training soldiers, searching for treasures (more on that later), or destroying enemy units, you get experience. It is converted into supply points — one package per point. And the supplies themselves are useful bonuses: units, a resource box, or some kind of unique improvement. nine0003

Each nation has a set of supply cards, from which you can build a deck of up to 25 cards, divided among the first four eras (on the fifth, imperial age, one-time supplies recharge and can be ordered again). This idea added a completely new layer of gameplay to Age of Empires III: it is important not only to be able to play for a certain nation, but also to choose the right bonuses for it.

Deliveries change the gameplay for a nation a lot, especially after additions. Let’s say you mastered the game for Prussia: you got used to its units, understood the pace and development tree, and worked out tactics. However, with the help of cards, the gameplay for this power changes dramatically: for example, you can fill the deck with gold mining bonuses and paid mercenaries, turning the army of Frederick the Great into a mercenary army from all over the world (Swedish pikemen, Scottish riflemen, black reiters, Caribbean pirates, and so on). ). Or invest in maps of the economy, which will cause the Prussian workers to start collecting resources in the blink of an eye. nine0003

Another change written into the setting is the explorer hero. In addition to the starting base, you have at your disposal a powerful character with a small set of abilities. This is more of an elite unit than a full-fledged hero in the spirit of Warcraft III. It is needed for the first eras, when the players do not yet have armies, as well as map exploration and treasure hunting. The latter are scattered around the area, like relics from Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology, and bonuses are issued for their collection: resources, improvements, or even units. So you can save an Indian driven up a tree or find a fighting dog in an abandoned cart, which will become your unit. nine0003

Finally, the third «colonial» change is trading posts. In order to encourage players to explore early and interact with each other, special places have been added to the map where you can build your representative office. They are divided into two types: roadside trading posts and buildings near the settlement of local residents. The former give resources every time a courier, stagecoach or train passes by them. The latter allow you to study unique technologies and hire units of local residents that do not count towards the total troop limit. That is, you can create an army of 200 units and add 15-30 natives to them. nine0003

The number of resources has been reduced to three, but there are more ways to extract them. In addition to natural sources (food from bushes, mills and animals; wood from the forest; gold from mines), materials for development can be obtained from factories, which can be ordered in the fourth, industrial age. Also, resources are brought by trading posts, supplies, treasures, unique mechanics of nations and other sources.

The design of nations has changed. Age of Empires II had a rich choice of parties to the conflict, but the differences between them are minimal — a few units, special technologies and bonuses. The core gameplay remained the same. On the one hand, this is a plus — having learned to play at least one nation, you can easily switch to another. On the other hand, constantly playing for the same side of the conflict quickly gets boring. nine0003

Age of Empires III went from the opposite: there are only eight countries, but they are all completely different. Holland buys peasants not for food, but for gold, but it can build banks that slowly bring gold. Prussia can create the most efficient workers in the game, peasants with carts — but only with supplies from the Old World. In addition, with each package she receives free lancers, and in the barracks she can train powerful doppelzoldners with two-handed swords.

The Ottoman Empire creates peasants for free — no need to spend food on them. Workers spawn out of the Town Hall themselves, but slowly, making it hard to hit the economy in the early stages of the game. In addition, as infantry, the Ottomans can only hire Janissaries — expensive, but very powerful shooters with sabers. And, yes, in addition to the basic features, each nation also has its own set of supply cards with a number of unique bonuses that can change their gameplay. nine0003

In Age of Mythology, when moving to a new era, you could choose a god for yourself. This idea was borrowed by AoE III, only the gods were replaced by politicians, who do not have such a significant impact on the course of the game — they only give a single supply of units or resources

Innovation happened in the story campaign. In Age of Empires III, the focus shifted from a conventional historical digression to a fictional story about the Black family and their adventures through the centuries of history. The first campaign is the adventures of the Maltese knight Morgan Black in the New World. The second is the war of his descendant John with the Cherokee tribes, the British and members of the Circle of Ossus, with whom Morgan fought. And the third tells about Amelia, John’s granddaughter, who is building a railroad across America. nine0003

The history of the Blacks is more interesting both in terms of plot events and twists and gameplay: most of the missions set unique tasks, not limited to the banal destruction of the enemy base. Intercepting supplies at an enemy fort, earning reputation in a pirate settlement, destroying enemies with a huge stationary weapon, or helping an Indian tribe fight off invaders — there are very few missions in Age of Empires III without some interesting, memorable detail. In this approach, it can almost match the Blizzard games. nine0003

Well, pirates, of course — where would we be without them

Later two big additions were released to the game. The first, The WarChiefs, added three new Native American powers: the Aztecs, the Iroquois, and the Sioux. Everyone has a unique Fire Pit building around which workers can dance. The more of them, the greater the bonus that the pit gives. For example, increased unit production speed or increased attack for fighters. Also, all three powers see all trading posts on the map at the start of the game, and their workers can build new city centers from the very first age. nine0003

The old sides of the conflict also received new content, namely saloons. In special buildings, for a lot of money, you can buy mercenaries that were previously only available as a bonus from supplies. In addition, the revolution mechanic has been added: instead of going to the fifth, imperial age, your colony can declare independence and receive unique bonuses. Basically, it’s a «go all-in» choice: all workers are traded for combat militias, which basically means you lose your resource extraction — but you get powerful bonuses like the ability to build Gatling guns. nine0003

The plot of The WarChiefs is about father and son Amelia Black and has nothing to do with the story of the Circle of Ossus and its war for the Fountain of Youth and the gold of the Spaniards. Instead, events revolve around the relationship of indigenous tribes and the American Revolutionary War.

The second expansion, The Asian Dynasties, added three more nations: China, Japan and India. All of them have unique units and mechanics of the wonders of the world, powerful buildings with special bonuses. In addition, they can build embassies for the sake of European improvements and units that are bought for export — a special resource available only to three new nations. nine0003

In addition, the game has even more content (units, maps, mechanics) and a new story campaign, no longer associated with the Black family. Now the missions are again devoted to episodes from world history — the clan war in Japan, the discovery of the New World by the Chinese fleet Zheng He and the sepoy uprising in India.

The most important advantage of the third part is aesthetics. Graphically, the game is still amazing: having become adept at 3D graphics after Age of Mythology, Ensemble Studious jumped above their heads. It is difficult to find a review that would not praise the visual part of the game: thanks to high-quality (at that time) models, great design and competent work with light, the game looked great in 2005 and has aged very well over the past 15 years — only interfaces drawn in fairly low resolution. nine0003

A separate achievement of Age of Empires III is physics. Cannonballs fired from the cannon roll along the ground and pierce houses. Buildings collapse and fall to pieces. And all the garbage, whether it be fragments of walls, cores or dead units, leave marks on the water if they fall into a lake or river. This level of physics development in an RTS will not be seen until the expansions to Starcraft II, which will be released in the next decade.

And, of course, the soundtrack. It was not until the third installment that Ensemble Studious was able to afford a real orchestral soundtrack with vocals, which is why Age of Empires III managed to create, perhaps, the best music in the series. Solemn, epic, sometimes very touching and melancholy — the soundtrack of the third part does not get bored even after several hundred hours of play. nine0003

Why players didn’t like Age of Empires III

Despite all its advantages, Age of Empires III was not the perfect game or the greatest RTS in the world. The gameplay has very poor readability. In Age of Empires I and II, you can logically understand that the archer kills pikemen, pikemen kill cavalry, and cavalry kill archers.

In Age of Empires III, everything is more complicated: the musketeer is a heavy infantry, averagely useful against everyone. The skirmisher is a light shooter with a long range and a bonus against infantry. However, both are «a man with a gun.» The fact that the second will defeat the first in an equal fight can only be learned from the description or personal experience. And in general, many details and mechanics are very non-obvious. nine0003

The game had (and still has) frame rate drops and unpleasant bugs. She has much higher requirements for reaction speed than the previous parts. There are significantly fewer nations than in Age of Empires II. Disappeared diplomacy, which was one of the most important elements of the previous parts. And the multiplayer, the cornerstone of Age of Empires, worked through crooked Microsoft services, due to which many fans cannot play with each other until now — it’s enough, for example, to forget the password or lose the mail to which your account is registered. nine0003

Also, the players did not appreciate the supply card system. To open them, you need to accumulate experience not only as a resource, but also as a global progression of the nation. Each has a global upgrade that unlocks new content. That is, if you want to build a deck of 25 cards with some cool late bonuses, you will have to get to them — for each side of the conflict separately.

It is ironic that the progression in a paid game, which was met with hostility in those years, is now in almost every project and no one is complaining anymore. But in 2005, Age of Empires III was one of the first to try to insert pumping into the game — and earned nationwide hatred. However, this negative is partly true — after all, until you reach the ability to make a deck of 25, not 21 cards, and open key bonuses, you will be objectively weaker in multiplayer. nine0003

In the end, as a continuation of the triquel series, it turned out to be too different — for old fans, accustomed to the unchanged formula of «Civilization in real time», it was hard to start playing a conditional Warcraft clone. Later, even the developers themselves admit that making the third part so different from the previous ones was a mistake. That didn’t make Age of Empires III a bad game, but it still should have been a spin-off rather than a licensed installment — for the same reason, Age of Mythology’s innovations didn’t scare off fans of the original series. nine0003

Definitive Edition

After 13 years (counting from the last expansion), Age of Empires III is back as a Definitive Edition: updated models, improved graphics and interfaces, bug fixes from the original, some nation reworks, balance changes, and even completely new content that was not in the original . Unfortunately, such a large-scale list of improvements did not make Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition a good remaster — the implementation and a lot of controversial decisions failed. nine0003

Let’s start with the good stuff. First of all, the visual part — all models have been redone from scratch in a higher resolution. They have sharper textures and much more detail. Plus, they added a lot of little things: for example, full-fledged grass that sways in the wind and squeezes under the feet of soldiers. By the way, not only the gameplay has been updated: cinematics and story videos have been completely redone from scratch.

Age of Empires III

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires III

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

The developers have tried to correct the balance of the original game: the French can no longer immediately hire heavy cuirassiers, and rather weak grenadiers have received an upgrade card — grenade launchers, thanks to which bomb throwers become a truly dangerous combat unit.

Speaking of cards, now you don’t need to upgrade to open them. All of them are available from the very beginning, and the progression of the city only applies to the decorative elements of the menu screen of the selected nation. What’s more, there are three sets of supplies for all factions who are not familiar with deckbuilding. If you do not want to deal with this mechanics, you can choose one of the templates. nine0003

Two new modes have been added. The first is The Art of War. In fact, training with videos, where you can delve into the mechanics of the game and master them in practice. The second is «Historical Battles», separate story missions dedicated to episodes from history. Six large elaborate levels with unique conditions and exclusive units. In the «Historical Battles» you will have to survive the defense of Algeria from the troops of Spain, take part in the expedition of Francis Drake and even fight on the side of Yermak in the war with the Siberian Tatars. nine0003

The Ethiopia War Mission is a fun take on the MOBA theme. Troops of enemies and your Ethiopian allies are fighting on three roads-lines, and you need to help kill enemy units in order to gain experience for supplies and order new soldiers

Two full-fledged new nations appeared — Sweden and Inca. The first is a new European faction. According to the historical canon, the strength of Sweden is in mercenaries, for which there are many bonuses among the supply cards. Also, the Swedes have unique houses — torps, which slowly collect resources near them. The Swedes have very weak but cheap artillery (leather guns that existed in reality), which they can create not in the third, but in the second era. nine0003

Inca — an analogue of the Aztecs with their own unique chips. For example, a very diverse infantry and special priestesses who know how to lure opponents to their side in the spirit of Age of Empires II. In addition, combat units can dig into buildings, and Inca houses slowly produce food.

This is where the positive aspects, alas, end. All of the above improvements were not enough to outweigh the huge mountain of problems. Improved models and graphics are completely canceled out by spoiled lighting and the effect of «blurring» when the camera is farther away. Textures are constantly losing clarity, which is why models are sometimes inferior to the 2005 original. And the famous physics of destructibility has completely disappeared on ships — now they just completely go under water, when in the original they fell apart and sank in a huge pile of planks. nine0003

Reissues of the first two parts were made completely from scratch: the code was rewritten, the sprites were replaced with high-quality 3D models. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition has remained for the most part on the old basis.

AI didn’t learn how to find the path normally, and besides, it became even more stupid: AI gets lost on the water, sometimes it just turns off (units stand and do nothing for half a minute in the middle of the field), and your units don’t perceive hills at all — on sheer their hills have to be wound almost by the handle. In general, all the technical shortcomings associated with the microcontrol of units have not gone away — although they could have been corrected in 15 years. nine0003

Some unpleasant details of the original have been removed and the interface has been improved, but new ones have replaced old bugs: crashes, transitions to random campaign missions, frame rate drops, jamming and sound glitches. The old engine of the original from 2005 does not handle loads well in large battles and sometimes lags.

In the Definitive Edition, this was not fixed and only got worse: the game slows down almost always, especially when loading a level and in multiplayer. The latter, by the way, has become much better: now you can just get together with friends through Steam, the terrible Microsoft services are gone. However, the multiplayer still suffers from a crooked netcode. nine0003

What’s the scandal with the Indians?

One of the features of the reissue was the reworking of the Indian tribes. The fact is that in the original, the Iroquois and Sioux were aggressive tribes of savages who killed whites and danced around the fires. In reality, their names were Haudenosaunee and Lakota, and they have nothing in common with video game Indians — the indigenous factions were inspired by erroneous images from books and films.

After consulting with the descendants of these tribes, the developers completely reworked two factions and changed the story campaign, where American prospectors fought aggressive Indian tribes for gold and land. nine0003

In fact, the motive is quite positive — it is not very good to spread the false image of evil aggressors, especially when historically these same savage Indians were the victims. But here the implementation let us down: it is felt that this change was rather for show, so that no one swears at the developers.

The WarChiefs story campaign was changed as follows: the Indians in the story were turned into bandits, and the cutscenes with the aggression of the Native Americans and discussion of their atrocities were replaced with instructive conversations about the dangers of the white colonizers. The villain Billy was turned from a prudent and calm businessman into a typical loud redneck, ready to almost eat Indian children for the sake of gold. nine0003

The gameplay is also very sad, because a full-fledged rework of the faction did not happen. The Fire Pit was replaced with a community center, since in reality the Indians of the tribes represented in the game did not dance around the fires. Also, they did not extract gold from mines — it was never interesting to the indigenous peoples and has always been a passion exclusively for people from the Old World. Therefore, instead of mines, the Indians earn in special markets for the sale of skins.

But they are built near the mine and consume its resource. That is, formally, the Indians are still mining gold instead of some unique mechanics or a new resource. Just now, in order not to offend anyone, you need to take an extra step in the form of building a shop for 25 wood. Instead of a quality rework for the sake of respect for a foreign culture, we got a lazy crutch that looks stupid. The Indians do not mine gold with a pickaxe from the mine, but trade with whoever, thereby earning money from the same mine. nine0003

And last but not least, the voice acting. The phrases of the indigenous units have been rewritten, as well as the heroes of The WarChiefs campaign. Not only are the units sounded extremely clumsily, but their audio mastering is also broken: all the Indians sound twice as quiet as the rest of the game, which is why they are simply not audible.

In addition to the Indians, the game terminology has undergone changes. The fact is that slavery and colonization are objectively terrible phenomena and shameful pages of human history. Because of what, their mentions were cut out of the game: for example, the plantations were renamed into estates, and the “era of colonization” into the “era of commerce”. nine0003

The motives of the developers are noble, but frankly stupid: if you hush up slavery and racism under the auspices of the «struggle for all that is good against all that is bad», then they will not go anywhere. And by rewriting history, you only deprive posterity of the opportunity to learn from it.

Although, history is a very controversial issue in Age of Empires. According to the developers themselves, all the games were made with a very superficial study of historical sources — the creators of the series studied only children’s books and science fiction for the sake of vivid and interesting images, rather than some kind of reliability. nine0003

Therefore, one could say that it is a sin to complain about the census of history in the game, where bearded janissaries in the middle of Siberia fight Japanese ronin in the service of Russia, which is ruled by Ivan the Terrible in the 17th-19th centuries.

In some places, the translation of the game slides into a frank promt

But there are two arguments against this position. Firstly, why in a game that is far from history and built on vivid images, they suddenly decided to make the Indians authentic? This is not fair in relation to other nations: since they decided to do everything according to the textbooks, then they will have to redo the whole game in a good way — there will not be even half of the historically reliable in Age of Empires III. nine0003

Second, removed references to colonization. It’s up to the developers what and how they want to mention. Let no one talk about colonization and everyone condemn it in every possible way, let there be estates instead of cotton plantations — their full right. But the problem is that colonization, slaves, war with indigenous peoples — this is literally the setting of Age of Empires III. Your base is a colony of a great nation from the Old World, supported by supplies.

It is impossible to talk about the same conquistadors without mentioning the genocide of the natives. It is impossible to talk about the new life of the American Pilgrims without thinking of smallpox blankets. This change is the same childishly naive stupidity as if in Total War: Warhammer II the slaves and all the mechanics associated with them were taken away from the dark elves, replacing them with some kind of «temporarily obligated workers» who, out of the kindness of their hearts, help one of the most violent factions in the setting. But no one will offend — and this is now the most important thing in video games. nine0003

Do the developers know that the key image of Age of Empires III, the conquistadors, is literally translated from Spanish as “conquerors”? It would be embarrassing if everyone forgot about it!

Of course, the problem of historicism, representation and respect for a foreign culture is generally the last thing in the discussion of the Definitive Edition. The controversial campaign can not be passed, the Indians, apart from the crutch with the mine and the degraded voice acting, have not deteriorated much. The problem is that in general the re-release came out lazy — and the «correct» representation also suffers from the fact that the matter was approached as if in a slipshod manner. nine0003

Curve technical part. Lots of old problems left. Very bad localization into Russian with errors and bad fonts. Curve netcode. The re-releases of Age of Empires I and II also had technical problems at the start, but they were fixed, and the games themselves were meticulously rebuilt from scratch. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, in turn, feels exactly like a “typical remaster” — new textures were simply pulled on the old game.

The only thing that saves it from harsh criticism and this very «typical remaster» status is a lot of really good changes and new content. Corrected balance, two new interesting factions, great missions in «Historical battles», videos reassembled from scratch.

On By alexxlab