Best way to experience the campaigns

[MpfiveDeacon]

I'm currently playing through Age of Empires definitive edition and am wondering what would be the best way way to play AOE 2? I've played some of the original but never got too far. I have the original game and it "runs", I also have definitive edition as my father finds it easier and the family share allows him to play it but I myself haven't touched DE once. I have no problem with playing old games I don't care about graphics or hi-fidelity sound all too much. So what I am really asking is which version provides the better campaign experience, (I'm also not apposed to patching or work-arounds).

[WindBlownLeaf]

Personally, I like the old versions. Haven't replayed the campaign, so I can't speak to bugs.

[mmmcheesywaffles]

I still play the HD version [2013] for the Achievements. I'm steadily earning them with only about 30 of the 100 wins left to score plus a couple of others.

I have also been steadily working through DE and find many of the little UI tweaks have really improved the gameplay. Also most the campaign has be reworked and I personally think it is usually for the better.

[Devang]

Overall DE. It has more campaigns. The legacy campaigns are rebalanced with increased pop space etc. The newer campaigns are created by some of the best in the business

Classic versions have the iconic voice acting for cutscenes and some fun exploits. IIRC there are mods to get the classic voice acting for DE

[cornucanis]

DE for sure. There are some really great QoL changes in DE that apply very well to campaign play. Most notably: The ability to automatically reseed farms indefinitely without paying up front, and the ability to default produced military units to defensive stance (which is generally preferred when playing vs AI.) Of course there's also the consideration that DE has all the previous campaigns plus a few extras, so you're getting more (official) campaigns to play in the end.

[Xautos]

Add in Return to Rome (when it comes) which brings A1DE to A2DE, that adds a number more campaigns and hopefully the pathing issues are fixed along with other issues that plague that DE version and you are looking at something particularly amazing.

I'm a stubborn hold out with AOE1 and ROR and AOE2 HD but i am actively looking towards A2DE, i'm just hoping there is a sale at some point soon and news on Return to Rome is positive.

[Krosis Priest]

Have to say that the DE campaigns are really the best option there is. All the charm of the original versions, but they've had some small-to-moderate improvements which make some missions a lot better. (Especially the 75 population cap in the original campaigns was painful)

The campaigns from the new DLCs are mostly among some of the best as well, they have that classic approach but with a lot of fun modern mechanics that make them a lot more varied, and the storytelling is equally excellent.

(The campaigns made after The Conquerors and before Lords of the West are mostly... less great imo, and often feel like they were made to be "hard" first and actually good second)

[mmmcheesywaffles]

Where the original AoE2 had campaigns with triggers, they were mostly very linear. You simply followed the lead around the map and reaped the preset benefits.

DE brings many campaign scenarios with multiple triggers that actually allow you to make real choices.

[FloosWorld]

引用自 mmmcheesywaffles：

Where the original AoE2 had campaigns with triggers, they were mostly very linear. You simply followed the lead around the map and reaped the preset benefits.

Yeah. I think the most non-linear scenario from the original campaigns is Attila 1.

[MpfiveDeacon]

引用自 Xautos：

Add in Return to Rome (when it comes) which brings A1DE to A2DE, that adds a number more campaigns and hopefully the pathing issues are fixed along with other issues that plague that DE version and you are looking at something particularly amazing.

I'm a stubborn hold out with AOE1 and ROR and AOE2 HD but i am actively looking towards A2DE, i'm just hoping there is a sale at some point soon and news on Return to Rome is positive.

If I have to pay for it already owing the original and DE I will have a problem with it. DE already lost so much of the charm of the original. I would pay 20 dollars though if I get new cg cinematics though.

[MpfiveDeacon]

Thanks for your opinions, having done some research of my own I'm leaning towards playing both, DE seems to lack, well acting in exchange for authentic voices and the artwork looks less appealing to me, I find the hand drawn style much better than the almost animated stuff in DE. It's a case where I think where either way I'm missing out on something and even with mods I can't have my cake and eat it too.

Age of Empires definitive edition was a much easier choice, save for the lack of cutscenes, the campaign and faction changes have drastic and mostly beneficial effects although playing Greek on mission 4 in Babylonian campaign is better than playing Babylon in DE. Actually having a navy is nice, thankfully in DE Babylon has fire galleys (which weren't present in the original campaign) but they can't really help a landing.

I just don' see big changes in AOE2DE, the supply is nice but 75 does allow for 30-35 villagers and 40-45 military which is really all you need, things just get slow sometimes, unlike in AOE where you only have 50 and having more than 5 on each resource harms you're ability to make a competent army and not wait around for hours on resources or micro like a madman with a small army of monks. I don't know tell me if I'm wrong

[mmmcheesywaffles]

I was slow taking up DE too. However, now I have played many hours of DE I have to say going back to the 2013 version is not so appealing. Once I score those 'bean counter' Achievements in 2013 I doubt I will load that version again.
DE offers many small UI tweaks that just make the game a little more fun to play. Command I enjoy using is the aggressive march to a point. So much easier to fight through ambushes as my troops now stop and put up the needed fight rather than die slowly being whittled down from behind by inferior enemies. An example was seeing a group of my archers get ambushed by ONE longswordsman and he killed at least 10 before I saw what was happening. With the Attack Move command the same archers would spread out and quickly kill him off, then regroup and continue their march forward. When I go back to 2013 I really miss being able to send a batch of archers to a front line castle without worrying if they will get there

[Vick]

DE is definitely a better option.

[SoulSteppe]

Plenty of people covered the right topics. Also to mention, the 2013 version has a campaign that is not present in DE. That is the El Dorado Campgaign, which was completely removed in favou of the Incan campaign.
Plus, some of the campaigns such as Bari are completely revamped in favour of DE.

[MpfiveDeacon]

引用自 lord1cyrus：

Plenty of people covered the right topics. Also to mention, the 2013 version has a campaign that is not present in DE. That is the El Dorado Campgaign, which was completely removed in favou of the Incan campaign.
Plus, some of the campaigns such as Bari are completely revamped in favour of DE.

interesting but I don't have 2013 though I have the disks and DE
It does suck that they would swap a campaign and not allow one to play both, it's just stupid.

[FloosWorld]

引用自 MpfiveDeacon：

引用自 lord1cyrus：

Plenty of people covered the right topics. Also to mention, the 2013 version has a campaign that is not present in DE. That is the El Dorado Campgaign, which was completely removed in favou of the Incan campaign.
Plus, some of the campaigns such as Bari are completely revamped in favour of DE.

interesting but I don't have 2013 though I have the disks and DE
It does suck that they would swap a campaign and not allow one to play both, it's just stupid.

El Dorado has been made available in DE via a mod