This makes for several of the best ones, as far as being interesting goes, although when the tailoring backfires, they can get a certain kind of bad, ugly, nasty, and worse. You aren't limited to going through them chronologically. Instead, it is a compilation of grand battles, eight in total. The fourth one is not a continual arc, like all apart from it. However, the campaigns do seem to start somewhat soft. There are now only three difficulty settings(and there definitely was not paid equal attention to them), and it picks up where Kings left off. The AI is changed, not always a positive here. The ridiculous accents are gone from the briefings(there are ones for units), and the voice acting is of higher quality, almost invariably, than earlier. It's very detailed and clearly an area they spent time on doing well. The story-telling is improved upon since that, and is mighty compelling and in-depth, better than that of any release earlier in the series. You can also now build Petards, that appeared very briefly in AOE2. There are five civilizations brought in, including Spanish(Conquistadors and Missionaries!) Vikings(Longboats and Berserkers!), Japanese(Samurai!) and Korean(Turtle Ships!). King of the Hill, Defend the Wonder, Last Man Standing, etc. There are ten real-world maps, and many new types. There are new areas, and snow is put in, for example. There is clumsiness here and there, and the level design isn't always fantastic. Color is used to make it faster to distinguish and keep track of opponents(when they message or attack you). The objectives now change during missions, and this is more open. You can Garrison inside Rams, though that can be annoying as it can't be turned off, and it's relatively limited. There are strategic opportunities that did not exist before in these.

Advancing through the Ages now gets a status bar, also up there, so you don't have to consult your Town Center.

The Tech Tree is now always available, a button right there at the top of the screen. Not to mention the Reseed Queue, that lets you set Farms to automatically rebuild, so long as you've got a Mill, and the Wood upfront. Workers immediately begin gathering resources when they've completed a place to deposit them, automatically, and that cuts down on hand-holding. Attempts are made to smooth game-play and such out, if not all are successful. There are touch-ups since the 'parent' to this. You see, beyond those, this actually has a bunch to offer. Why do I start on these seemingly small, in the big picture, complaints? Simply because they were the first impressions, they may very well be for others, and I hope to deter anyone from jumping ship from this initial disappointment. They didn't take the consequence and make it able to actually set buildings(what they damage the most) ablaze, a la Populous: The Beginning, or at least do a strongly defined flame-effect and damage model, like C&C, and it comes off odd(meanwhile, it is a good investment). This is a cool concept, and makes sense, but it doesn't actually look or work all that great(and when you have to try hard to be able to tell what it is.). If you go on to play the single-player of this, and go in numerical order, you are shortly thereafter introduced to the Tarkan, which is unique to the Huns, a horse-borne man who carries something I could not tell what was at first. The whole thing is just plain obvious, and it feels like it was thrown together without a lot of effort, and goes on for overly long, all in stark contrast to that of AOK. Accuracy and realism are key, like with all prior entries. It tries to look stylish, a bit, neglecting the fact that that does not fit with the material, indeed, with the rest of the product. It's a lot of the same footage, some lengthened, in a very obvious manner, that leaves it moving too slow, and run downright choppy, a little has been added, to elaborate on what goes on, and it's not particularly pretty or all that well-done. After the clever and well-done opening cut-scene of the immediate predecessor to this opened that exactly as it should be, and setting the tone right, the intro of this is rather underwhelming. I have chosen to start this on a sour note, just as what I am reviewing does.

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