Are AoE 3 & 4 worth it for their campaigns?

[Zero]

Just curious if they're up to par with II's

[BirbNotBird]

In short answer, nope in term of narrative and somewhat acceptable in term of gameplay.

It's odd that you ask in a biased community which will lean more into II before even touch III and IV.

III's campaigns are half fictional/half historical. You have an option of choosing main story (fictional) versus historical battles like AOE2. Fictional is revolved around one kid in a family tell an Assassin Creed's Odysseus. Historical battles is just cherry, just like AOE2 narrative.

IV's campaigns are kinda meh. Maybe into your forte if you are fine with any SP, but expect it to be lower standards than most II campaigns, but better than some of iI. IV is not that bad, it's narrative driven and that can make SP gameplay detach from main gameplay. At least they have good historical videos which give insights about technology of medieval time. IV's campaigns are like a documentary, so it can be boring and you can fall asleep, unless you like some Nomad's gameplay of scorched earth.

About gameplay, III and IV plays very differently from II, so no, that is going to be figured out by yourself. In my opinion as a casual SP who will rarely ever touch MP scene, I would advise researching carefully, before buying III or IV. Pick them when they are on sales at around 50% since both are expensive.

Do feel free to call me to clarify back anything is hard to understand.

[Quintem]

I enjoyed 4's. 3's not played all of them just the base game and I enjoyed it for what it is historical-fiction.

Not the best place the ask, since most people here are die hard 2 fans. 3 and 4 are the worst thing to exist to them. I think 3 is fine but some of the mechanics I don't like. I like 4 but I've been focused on 2 for competitive play.

[FloosWorld]

3's campaigns feel a lot like the ones from Age of Mythology, so if you liked AoM's campaigns, you'll like the ones from AoE 3 as well. In the base game and Warchiefs campaigns, you've got a completely fictional story taking place in a historic setting and in the campaigns for the Asian Dynasties, you've actually got 3 campaigns for the Chinese, Japanese and Indians that are based on history.

[blauden97]

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

3's campaigns feel a lot like the ones from Age of Mythology, so if you liked AoM's campaigns, you'll like the ones from AoE 3 as well. In the base game and Warchiefs campaigns, you've got a completely fictional story taking place in a historic setting and in the campaigns for the Asian Dynasties, you've actually got 3 campaigns for the Chinese, Japanese and Indians that are based on history.

The Chinese campaign is also somewhat "fictional" since it is based on a controversial book that claims Admiral Zheng He sailed to America in 1421.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies

[blauden97]

For AoE3, as those comments mentioned above, the narrative is quite different because the campaign in the base game and the Warchiefs is based on a fictional family story. It is somewhat similar to the narrative of the Bari campaign but with a much longer timespan.

Also, as far as I know there are not so many changes except the Act II of the Warchief campaign. As a result, some of the characteristics from the original version, such as unlocking new home city cards via and a slightly different set of cards, are preserved here, and it might be a little bit odd (or nostalgia) compared to the random map games.

Plus, 6 out of 12 historical campaigns require the purchase of the DLCs (The African Royals, United States civilization and Mexico civilization).

[blauden97]

Originally posted by blauden97:

For AoE3, as those comments mentioned above, the narrative is quite different because the campaign in the base game and the Warchiefs is based on a fictional family story. It is somewhat similar to the narrative of the Bari campaign but with a much longer timespan.

Also, as far as I know there are not so many changes except the Act II of the Warchief campaign. As a result, some of the characteristics from the original version, such as unlocking new home city cards via and a slightly different set of cards, are preserved here, and it might be a little bit odd (or nostalgia) compared to the random map games.

Plus, 6 out of 12 historical campaigns require the purchase of the DLCs (The African Royals, United States civilization and Mexico civilization).

AoE3 are partially free now so maybe you can try the Act I of the AoE3 campaign. There should be rotations of the free content later.

[James3157]

Age of Empires III (including the DE version) is not based on fiction, but at least partially on historical fiction. The fountain of youth for example is a myth, but apparently the Spanish believed at one point it was real. The more important question is where did the idea for this so called "fountain of youth" originate from? (Edit) Apparently, a belief in the mythical fountain of youth originated from Herodotus from the 5th century B.C long before the Spanish even went looking for this mythical fountain of youth in Florida.