Do people prefer this to Definitive Edition?

[mc_sprocket]

I own both, and I wonder this almost every time I play them. I am wholeheartedly on the side of the originals for one and three, but I can't seem to make up my mind about 2. And if you ask on reddit or something, the answers are inevitable strongly in favor of DE's superiority since most people populating that forum are DE players, so I thought I'd ask here.

I have DE modded so that sounds, music, campaign voices, are all as close to the original as possible, but with the graphics and everything else it still feels significantly different. And from my (admittedly limited) exposure to the new campaigns, just Algirdas and the reworked Alaric, they seem to just take forever instead of actually requiring very much strategy.

If multiplayer was a factor, I would probably be more on the side of DE, but the ROR update made it unplayable for me, and I'm very bad at PvP anyway. Which do people think is better? Or does anyone prefer the CD version with UserPatch to both of these?

[Laptop]

I suspect you prefer the original due to the fact you were younger and played this one first. If you had 100 people and asked them to play both games for the first time in the same room I suspect they'd pick the newer, more modern DE version.

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by Laptop:

I suspect you prefer the original due to the fact you were younger and played this one first. If you had 100 people and asked them to play both games for the first time in the same room I suspect they'd pick the newer, more modern DE version.

That would probably be the case for a lot of people, but strangely enough, I don't think nostalgia is much of a factor for me. I started playing AoE2 pretty late and only had HD for maybe a year before I bought DE.

[[deleted]]

Some do, I like it since I grew up with it.

[Flammablezeus]

I prefer the less sanitised HD version. I don't like that the "definitive" edition still doesn't even have basic corpse decay like HD and the original. Corpses and blood just sink away and disappear after a moment. It's super weird and makes everything look too pristine. Not to mention that it takes away any visual feedback you have for combat hotspots and such.

A lot of the visual changes look weird too. The animations look too smooth for how rigidly units move, buildings collapse in slow motion, and the water looks very out-of-place. Almost looks like an asset flip game.

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by Flammablezeus:

I don't like that the "definitive" edition still doesn't even have basic corpse decay like HD and the original.

There is a good mod for this, but you're right; it should be in the game by default, and I don't think it looks as good as the old ones even modded back in.
It's a shame, because I really like certain aspects of DE, and I don't think it's a bad game or anything like that, but I wish they would've just given us the QOL improvements and the new campaigns and left the rest mostly untouched. Perhaps I could appreciate it more, too, if Microsoft hadn't messed up 1 and 3 so bad because they had to rush to get the money from 2, or if the DE versions didn't prevent the old ones from ever going on sale again.

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by Mattmoo:

HD is a nice balance.
It’ll serve you for a few years, at least.
Definitive probably isn’t all that it’s worth. =)
Plus, was AoE ever meant to be 3D or modern… Other than 3? I dunno.

DE is nice for certain things, but it seems like there are far too many downgrades to go with the upgrades (sure you can mod music, sound effects, corpse decay, campaign voices back in, but why should you have to?) And who knows, maybe if not for the tech limitations in 1999 they would've gone for a more 3D look, but I quite like the look of the original sprites.

[mc_sprocket]

This discussion has been very one-sided so far, so sorry about that, but another thing about DE I just noticed is that the villager (or at least trade cart) pathing is much more annoying. This is especially exemplified in the last Barbarossa scenario, where your whole objective is getting a trade cart from point A to point B. In HD, the cart would go exactly where you told it to. In DE, it sees an enemy watch tower, gets scared, and runs away. I had to reload my save so many times because I hadn't taken out every single watch tower, and my cart, three feet from the objective, refused to go through the final gate, instead opting to turn around and go back towards the enemy units.
This might be the more "natural" behavior, and I doubt it's nearly as annoying in any other scenario, but I thought I'd point it out.

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by Mattmoo:

Otherwise, exactly as far as such upgrades are concerned.

DE from what I know though, does have some great stuff... Also you are on the 2013 discussions so I'd not be surprised that it's one sided, both must have their uses.

I was hoping for some amount of bias, to be honest, because I've seen the same question on reddit in the general aoe2 forum and the answer is always "just play DE" which is not helpful at all.

And you're right, both do have their uses, but I think the main use case for DE is multiplayer and they keep breaking that. I'll probably get around to the new DLC sometime, but hopefully they have the pathing a little better by then.

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by Mattmoo:

Actually - it's a good thing they added more for DE but can't blame ppl either way.
Then we have the fact that since some expansion it's become less like the (OG) game.

Yeah, I'm glad they could at least be bothered to add some new content; but you're right, there are only so many times you can change the way a game plays before it starts being completely dissimilar to the original.
And some of the new civs are cool, but a lot are redundant too. Obviously "Slavs" is something of a broad term for a non-homogeneous group of people, but to have Slavs already and then add in Poles, Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Bohemians is kind of weird. Sure, all these people had different cultures, histories, etc. but how pedantic are they going to get with including every kingdom to have existed within a span of about 10 centuries?
That's not something that really annoys me too much, but it's worth discussing.
Really I think that, even though I'd miss the old graphics, I could look past all this stuff if the game just played well. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have more hours in DE than HD right now. They just need to fix the pathing and leave it alone.

[mc_sprocket]

No I agree. I miss the days when you would buy a game and own it in that state forever. Wish they could've just fixed the kinks in HD instead of doing another remaster that feels more like a remake.
Do you happen to have a preference between the CD (with AoC) and HD? Really, I don't care for the HD DLCs very much, but if they play the same and HD has cloud save, I'll just stick with HD.

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by Matt:

Plus, was AoE ever meant to be 3D or modern… Other than 3? I dunno.

Age of Mythology is the link between AoE 2 and 3.
Also, AoE 2 DE isn't 3D, it uses 3D models that have been converted to 2D sprites, much like it was the case for the original :)

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

Also, AoE 2 DE isn't 3D, it uses 3D models that have been converted to 2D sprites, much like it was the case for the original :)

That is technically the case, and I think it's pretty cool the way they handled that, but it's still fair game to criticize the game for "looking 3D" and changing the aesthetic, I think, if you're so inclined.

[mc_sprocket]

Originally posted by Matt:

I’m about to find out…

Never try Definitive before.

Wish me luck!

Have fun. Make sure if you don't like it at first you give it a little time and try some mods before making your final judgement. And then kindly report back with your findings

[Dudely]

I bought AOE2 when it first came out and finding out we were getting the conquerors was my first video game hype. I still have the original guides that came with the game which were full of cool historical tidbits. Played hundreds of hours of the CD version, bought HD when it came out and put a few hundred more in.

DE has some faults but in pretty much every regard it's a straight upgrade (though I do hate the new campaign voices, which isn't really a knock since you'll only ever hear them once or twice). The civilization bloat is a little ridiculous and most new additions are largely unwarranted or justified (which was even becoming a problem with the HD DLCs) but the basic game is still there. The graphics look better IMO since they didn't go full 3d and a potato pc can play the game.

I would say update to DE. I have tons of nostalgia for the original version and HD so it's not that I'm a "zoomer" going after the latest product. I feel like they've done a great job updating it and don't see any reason to keep plugging away at HD.

[Your Waifu Loves You <3]

I play both games but my PC isn't very good to keep a good performance for DE edition (Or neither to play with 3D water in HD hahaha). Sometimes, when I am studying or working I feel bored and then want to play any scenario to relax and have some fun, so if I want to do that in DE I have to close everything and maybe restart my computer to close as many programs as possible, while with HD edition I don't have to do that because the game isn't so demanding. So, HD is a good and low demanding option to have some fun :D

Also, I have a 2012 Toshiba laptop and DE wouldn't run there, so I just have in that the HD edition and works fine :)