Recent reviews by Aurelizian

Feels like ass to use.
Cant even cut audio properly.
Customizing the experience to ones liking is atrocious, cant even enlarge just audio tracks to see the cuts better.
Everything washes and muddles together in the preview and you cant even STOP you can only PAUSE, meaning hitting that important milisecond of sound is neigh impossible.
If you want Windows Movie Maker Level of Editing its alright. If you plan to do ANYTHING beyond drag and drop just leave and wait for a humble bundle sale for Sony Vegas where you get the full access for 15€

I dunno. Lost interest after about 10 hours. Quests like "stand in market till the guy moves" are not fun either.

Fighting is solid but mindless flailing and is very much flashy to a point that it gets a tad unfun.
Feels great to make a cyclops drop on its belly with an explosive charge in its kneecaps but at the same time, just hitting him does the same. Once you realise its all spamming attacks it cant really bounce back all too much.

You run a ton, you talk a ton, you backtrack a ton but you dont feel like you progress all too much and every Person in this game has less personality and soul than your actual pawns.

Its pretty. Its mindless. Its a Power Fantasy. The whole Dragon steals your Heart stuff still doesnt make sense but hey, its a video game. I would recommend it for a 10er.

Very Strong Start.

Looks better, runs better and plays better than the First Game. It has a more cinematic feel to it and pulls you in nicely through more or less believable interactions.

I still hate the Retterschnaps saving though so Im gonna mod that on out as I simply dont enjoy backtracking because I died.

What I dislike:
- I dont know why its an option to romance Capon. It doesnt seem right. I am glad its optional but man nowadays you just cant have people bond with each other and not want to ♥♥♥♥ each other.
- Henry suddenly likes cumans. ok? They literally slaughtered my whole family but sure I love em now.
- Same as the wandering ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that are never nice, only pricks and are known for stealing horses and selling them. But Henry is such a progressive lad, he doesnt care.
- Henry cares way too little about anything. He has literally 0 feels or Contributions to any Dialogue besides "Yeah I saw that in the previous game"
- drawing a sword takes hours
- You constantly lose reputation with everyone for the smallest things. Might as well not talk at all. Just complimenting can earn you that red face in the top corner.

This Nemesis Pack pits the Dutch against the Germans making you hope for something new and fresh being granted to you on both sides and for one side this is partially true.

43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division
Are cookie cutter and frankly just boring.

• Recon Tab: Decent with a lot of Snipers
  
• Infantry: Polish, British and Dutch Infantry. Aside from a Different Flag, they are what you are used to. Just your standard British Infantry with a couple Piats Brens and Lee Enfields.
  
• Tank: Stuarts, Shermans and Fireflys. Cookie Cutter.
  
• Support: Empty. 6 Cards of 2" Mortars and 2 HMG thats IT.
  
• AT: The average amount of uses of the word Pounder describes my Call of Duty Username at the age of 14
  
• AA: Literally just 40mm Bofors.
  
• Artillery: only 1 card of sexton, other than tha just more Pounding with 25 Pounders
  
• Air: Couple American Fighter Bombers with Big Payloads and lots of MGs. Highlight of the Entire Division might be the Dutch Mitchell 2 rocking 12x 113Kg Bombs but.. thats just a Mitchel.

If you truely get a Kick out of the smallest Details on Vehicles being from your contry or seeing your countries Flag in the game than this might be worth it for some Dutch Ultra Nationalists. There is little to non fresh content in this Division and it feels so cookie cutter and dry that I had to double check I was selecting the right Division. If you are an Allies Player there is little to no fun with this Division. The Air Power is done better in different Divisions, Tanks are more fun in the guards armored, Infantry plays way nicer in the 6th Airborne or 15th Scottish Infantry and There are no Fun Support Units like the Crocodile or AVRE. This is a mid Division that doesnt suck but its not exiting or fun in any capacity.

Kampfgruppe Walther
.. might be the only reason this is worth any money.

• Recon Tab: Just Infantry Recon and little at that. You are Blind.
  
• Infantry: 1 Card for a wide Variety of Troops making this aggravating to Micro. Its like Korück but for Infantry, though the Infantry is mostly Nice in Walther. be Prepared for 15 different Units that do 20 different things. do Bring your leaders in Drilling SDKFzs though to maximise Bullets in the Sky.
  
• Tank: A stug and a trillion Panthers. Its not interesting but gets the job done.
  
• Support: Couple raider MGs, solid Flame Car and assualt gun SDKFz. Nothing special but fine.
  
• AT: Though it has your typical pak 40 it also features more Jagdpanzer 4 and even a Jagdpanther, making the AT tab more of a "DLC Tab" for the Tank Tab. Running a mobile Anti Tank Flotilla might be the way to play this deck.
  
• AA: The Fokus of the Division clearly is on the Drilling. You got 6 Slots in AA and you got 5x SDKFZ 251/21 D and 1x SDKFZ 11 Drilling. There is so much Drilling the Air is going to Recieve. Who cares about the Flak 88 or the Flakvierling this Deck has when you got more Drilling to do than your neighbour at 11pm on a sunday night.
  
• Artillery: Continues the Trend of "I got lots of things, but only one of each." 1 Card of Wurfrahmen, 1 Card of Nebelwerfer, 1 Card of Mortar 120mm, 1 card of Mortar 81mm .... you get the point.
  
• Air: Focker Wulf 190 D9 is in this so its instantly the best Deck ever. Yeah there is a Jet Engine Recon Plane thats 700kmh fast but my Fw 190 D9 does 670 with MGs. In terms of Cas there are just rocket planes and Fighter Bombers, no heavy stuff.

Overall the Kampfgruppe Walther is the only thing this DLC has not been refunded. It is the only Reason to even sniff into the DLCs direction. Drillings are fun and semi-ok-ish at shooting down planes but they saturate the sky with so much gun fire its just beautiful. I dig the Jet Plane Recon though I am not happy that I HAVE to use it due to the low amount of low HP Recon units. What I dislike about the Division is the Amount of Random Stuff you get. 1 card of basically anything in the game makes your Call in Tab look like a nightmare and if you have trouble picking the right squad for the right time you might be in trouble.

In the end I am sorry to the Dutch. You are good people and maybe one day you get something in the gaming space that makes the world know you for more than just Pot in Amsterdam. I like vla if that helps. and Hagelslaag, good stuff.

Oh yeah, dont pay more than 2€.

Edit: Refunded. I keep these 5€ in my pocket till Gates of Hell drops the British DLC.

Cannot load Server List.
Why did I even bother

I have yet to encounter Gunplay in a turn based tactics game that feels this fair and viable.
You can run in Melee and kick and shove people till they bleed to death, pick up the heaviest machine gun and hammer away at the enemy or start sniping. Gunplay and Melee Gameplay are really well done and Psychic Powers can get absolutely broken.

But most importantly its 40K RP done right.
You can try to be nice, dogmatic or evil but in the End its all a form of gray.
Dogmatic People burn and pillage anyone because of heritage, ethnicity or saying the wrong stuff at the wrong time.
Heretics dont only bring the Horrors of the warp but also Unite the People under one Banner, help certain Factions in Crisis and, more often than not, help a lot of People whilst obtaining world ending Power.
Iconoclasts are the ones that try to be good / normal in the 40K world and 90% of the time it doesnt work out. You do something with good intent but you reap the "rewards" later. You miss oportunities but you also create them, expanding your Roster of Companions and make Factions work together just because you are kinda "nice".

The Rogue Trader doesnt even bother with money. You are so rich, all you need is "profit factor" and its basically just "everything up to this profit factor is free". You dont bother with peasents. You dont even waste time by introducing yourself, thats Abelards Job. This is one of the first RPGs I have played, where you are so far above and beyond in importance that you can walz in anywhere and just diss on the people and they do what you want.

Its glorious Fun, especially in Multiplayer. We are still on the First run and dont want to miss a single Playsession.

Worth Full Price.

Edit: Can create private lobby now

Original:
cant create private lobby

First up: Campaign is way more intense than the Original. You gotta be really fast and on your toes on Titan. I have restarted multiple times. I am avoiding cheese as much as possible, especially in the egyptian section. I am currently on Mission 15 and am ready to party.

Egyptian are just straight up weaker than anyone else, whilst the Norse shred
AI Cheats a ton unlike the Age of Empires 2 DE AI

AI is completely broken on the Map Vinlandsaga my fav map. It doesnt leave its starting islands. ever. You can just do what you want to and spam 15 Meteor showers on that tiny Island once you wanna end it. The AI knows how to do water transports. It does it on the Nile map perfectly so I dont know whats going on.

The game has clear issues that need to be adressed. Especially campaign Difficulty is absolutely insanenly bonkers at this moment in time and I will look on youtube how other people do it. Its still a great game and I have already had a lot of fun in skirmish.


Original Review:



This is exactly what I hoped for when they announced a definitive Edition akin to the Age of Empires 2 DE.
Comparing this to the original or even the old "remastered" is so unfair it absolutely hurts.
The game kept its unique style whilst being upgraded in fidelity. You can zoom in really far and everything looks awesome.
Units like the Phoenix or the Serpent from Egypt look really great and overall this game comes to live whilst you play.
It is responsive and has many QA Features from Age2 DE like Auto Scouting but even new ones to help new players refocus their economy like the Villager AI to re-distribute your Villagers on a whim and with a single button press.
Tool Tips are more descriptive and you have a genuine Idea of what Unit can do what with the little ability Icons.

The new god is really fun and the unique minor gods all bring something interesting to the table unlike that god awful China faction we got in the past iteration.

Overall id say this Game is absolutely worth the asking price and will only get better in the future. Play this with your friends or alone, I dont care. I love it to bits.

Art Direction and especially voice acting has improved so much in the past years, but it still isnt worth money.
It is very VERY Janky. Units not responding to what you do, glitching out and getting stuck on random barrels with their pathfinding being completely suicidal. Stances dont work very well and there are almost no points to take cover at which means that you mostly stand in an open field and chug grenades in the hopes of killing your enemy faster. The Missions have zero chill and especially the desert one doesnt even give you 10 seconds to organize the troops you are given.
Emplacements cant be turned or moved at all, which makes crewing them completely pointless once the objective they are supposed to clear is clear.

It feels like a totally undercooked Puzzle Game at this stage. A pretty one, with a great premise but it is too buggy to be actually enjoyable.

Quite simply said: Its Men of War but actually fun.

Campaign + Multiplayer + Skirmish against AI with or without People + a Conquest mode where you can purchase units, steal enemy equipment and spend research points to try to outwit your opponent and gain the upper hand with up to 3 Friends + Last Stand Survival and so much more.

You get all the complexity from Men of War with added 3rd Person direct Control and persistent equipment on Units between Missions in Conquest.

It is a little Buggy, Pathfinding is atrocious (double check what units are doing) and especially make sure that Vehicles that currently tow something, dont crash into each other or you will be towing meat paste. BUT when you get used to the Pathfinding and different Problems that may or may not irritate you there is a genuine Gem beneath the Rubble. It is not for everyone but once you learn how to keep units alive, to smoke and repair regularly, and desperately hurling Jerrycans across the map, trying to syphon Fuel out of every Vehicle just to make your panther move 100 more meters to win the war, it just hits different.

This game hits different and itself and all DLC are absolutely worth it if you enjoy historical RTS that got it all:
You got Top Down Strategy, Third Person Shooter, Logistic Simulator, Base Building Simulator, AI Crusher and Narrative Blockbuster all in one game