Is it worth buying Age of Empires: Definitive Edition 1 instead of 3?

[PrinzPersia]

Hello.

So, I tried the demo version of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition 3, but unfortunately, the performance doesn't feel very good. My laptop only has a Quadro M1000M graphics card, and with Full HD at low graphics settings, I get around 30 FPS. Only at 1280x720 do I almost reach 60 FPS, but it looks pixelated and blurry on the game field.

Unfortunately, I can't get Age of Empires: Definitive Edition 2 because it's too expensive, but the third and first parts are currently on sale, which I can afford.

Therefore, I'm considering getting Age of Empires: Definitive Edition 1 instead, and I wanted to ask if it's still worth it this year or if the first part is too outdated?

And how is the level editor in that game?

Because I have never played Age of Empires before and am still a beginner, but I still have the desire to play such strategy combat games.

[Obdilord]

Honestly for a newcomer I don't recommend it even though I love AoE 1. The community in the West is barely alive for it. This is due to the game being more difficult and lacking additional features that later games have. Also the second game added a dlc that includes an updated version of AoE 1 that makes it play like 2, making it easier.
That being said if you get good at this game you'll have no trouble with later games. lol

The level editor ain't bad but not great. It will however run on just about anything so there aren't any worries there.

It does feature a bunch of scenario campaigns that can help introduce you to the game but more advanced tech will need to be looked up to better understand how to play at a decent level.

[FloosWorld]

Wait for Winter Sale and get AoE 2 + the Return of Rome DLC. That one adds AoE 1 as a separate game mode to AoE 2.

Edit, da ich gesehen habe, dass dein Name und deine Reviews auf Deutsch sind:
AoE 1 ist, abgesehen von einem kurzen Nostalgie-Trip, nicht wirklich gut gealtert. Einheiten laufen nicht in Formation, Upgrades sind recht unlogisch angeordnet (das Holzfäller-Upgrade gibt deinen Fernkampfeinheiten zusätzliche Reichweite) etc.
Das alles hat AoE 2 verbessert und mit dem RoR-DLC wurde AoE 1 als eigener Spielmodus in den Nachfolger eingebaut und profitiert von den Verbesserungen von AoE 2.

[James3157]

I like Age of Empires: DE more than RoR and in fact actually started playing this game recently again contrary to ported RoR which does not seem to have much replay ability besides its first three campaigns, skirmishes (but not everyone likes skirmishes), custom campaigns assuming the shared campaign mods are not broken (because if they are broken you are not allowed to play them due to an exclamation mark), and custom scenarios. I do not play Age of Empires: DE that much, but ported RoR is overall worse especially with its newest campaigns where its difficulty was nerfed way too much even for hard difficulty besides maybe Holy Man mission (first mission from Babylonian campaign and the only reason why it being nerfed is a good thing because this mission seems to be too difficult for some people on AoE: DE) and multiplayer. The only main reasons for buying RoR are the three first campaigns, achievements, and the Roman civ.

Everything else it adds (trading from market, female villagers, trade carts, gates, garrisoning, formations, and perhaps better pathfinding) are nice improvements, but at least in my personal opinion not enough to make it better than AoE: DE and you are allowed to trade resources (stone, food, or wood) in exchange for gold on AoE: DE from a dock if there is any water on the map if for some reason someone is worried about running low on gold. RoR was probably never intended to replace AoE: DE entirely which would also help explain why that dlc stopped adding campaigns and even if I were to be a little more generous I would rate RoR the same as AoE: DE but not higher than that game which would be a 6.5 out of 10 instead of 5.5 out of 10 (but not ranked higher than that because that is the same rating I have for AoE: DE). As for AoE III: DE I overall like more than AoE: DE, but similar to AoE: DE it has a similar problem where I do not play it that much and I have not been playing AoE III: DE as much as I used to despite it having frequent events. However, AoE II: DE is by far the best game of this series even if some people are not interested in buying RoR and if it goes on sale for a 50% discount it would cost only $17.50 at full price. Besides AoE II: DE if you must only chose one and do not want to wait for a 50% discount or think that even a 50% discount is not high enough in my opinion you should go with the full version of AoE III: DE first before buying AoE: DE.

[James3157]

Originally posted by Obdilord:

Honestly for a newcomer I don't recommend it even though I love AoE 1. The community in the West is barely alive for it. This is due to the game being more difficult and lacking additional features that later games have. Also the second game added a dlc that includes an updated version of AoE 1 that makes it play like 2, making it easier.
That being said if you get good at this game you'll have no trouble with later games. lol

The level editor ain't bad but not great. It will however run on just about anything so there aren't any worries there.

It does feature a bunch of scenario campaigns that can help introduce you to the game but more advanced tech will need to be looked up to better understand how to play at a decent level.

AoE: DE has the simplest and smallest tech tree from the entire AoE series. It is harder to learn how to play AoE III: DE civs than AoE: DE civs, but overall I like AoE III: DE more than AoE: DE. Even though I do not play both games that much because of me owning AoE II: DE plus most of its dlc that still does not dismiss the fact that while it is an opinion I do like AoE III: DE more than AoE: DE and more people are currently playing AoE III: DE than AoE: DE as well last time I checked on Steam. While its ranking varies last time I checked AoE III: DE was ranked 220 for played Steam games, AoE II: HD is ranked 280, and for AoE: DE apparently I did not scroll far enough down to find out how many people are still playing this game. While me thinking AoE III: DE is better than AoE: DE is an opinion it is a fact and not an opinion that a lot more people play AoE III: DE than AoE: DE.

[James3157]

Also worth mentioning that AoE II: HD still costs $20 on Steam at full price, it is still sold on Steam, and the only reason why it has a lower play rate than AoE III: DE and ranked at 280 last I checked recently is because it was abandoned, but I took notice that the peak of AoE II: HD used to be a lot higher at one point that was probably before AoE II: DE first came out. AoE II: HD might need to be factored in as well in addition to AoE III: DE vs AoE: DE, because it is $15 cheaper than AoE II: DE assuming that you do not mind playing both games. The only catches are that some people who eventually buy AoE II: DE might end up uninstalling AoE II: HD later once the basegame of AoE II: DE has been purchased and if you plan on buying AoE II: DE later then it is perhaps a waste of money to buy dlc for AoE II: HD meaning you only buy basegame of AoE II: HD and buy AoE II: DE later once you have saved up enough money. If you however decide to buy the HD bundle it costs $30 instead of $50, but the catch is that is only $5 cheaper than the basegame of AoE II: DE.

[Obdilord]

Originally posted by James3157:

Originally posted by Obdilord:

Honestly for a newcomer I don't recommend it even though I love AoE 1. The community in the West is barely alive for it. This is due to the game being more difficult and lacking additional features that later games have. Also the second game added a dlc that includes an updated version of AoE 1 that makes it play like 2, making it easier.
That being said if you get good at this game you'll have no trouble with later games. lol

The level editor ain't bad but not great. It will however run on just about anything so there aren't any worries there.

It does feature a bunch of scenario campaigns that can help introduce you to the game but more advanced tech will need to be looked up to better understand how to play at a decent level.

AoE: DE has the simplest and smallest tech tree from the entire AoE series. It is harder to learn how to play AoE III: DE civs than AoE: DE civs, but overall I like AoE III: DE more than AoE: DE. Even though I do not play both games that much because of me owning AoE II: DE plus most of its dlc that still does not dismiss the fact that while it is an opinion I do like AoE III: DE more than AoE: DE and more people are currently playing AoE III: DE than AoE: DE as well last time I checked on Steam. While its ranking varies last time I checked AoE III: DE was ranked 220 for played Steam games, AoE II: HD is ranked 280, and for AoE: DE apparently I did not scroll far enough down to find out how many people are still playing this game. While me thinking AoE III: DE is better than AoE: DE is an opinion it is a fact and not an opinion that a lot more people play AoE III: DE than AoE: DE.

AoE 1/DE difficulty does not come from how complicated the civs are. It is the opposite. Because the civs are very similar it means the game is balanced towards fundamental play rather than focusing on unique attributes of the civs.

Furthermore the difficulty is escalated because there are no Garrisoning your villagers to protect them from raids nor are their formations to help with microing your army. This means your micro skill is even more important than in other AoE games.

Also in 1/DE you have to wait till Age 2/Tool Age in order to build walls and towers except you also have to research them. Making defending a lot harder.

On top of that non-unit producing buildings and all upgrades/age ups lack hotkeys. So you have to group buildings but will still need to manually select upgrades/age ups.