Great game, but the last three years of development convinced me to give a negative review, unfortunately. Simply because the last three years have been mostly spent on experimental DLCs that feel more like attempts at cash grabs or cutting down on development costs, one way or the other. Since Dynasties of India, the only normal DLC with civilizations and campaigns as we used to get back when is Mountain Royals, whereas the rest aren't.

Return of Rome had attempted to bring back AoE1 up to par with AoE2, but the devs again failed to develop its civs or (original) campaigns to the level of AoE2. And then they tried to bait in the Vietnamese competitive playerbase by adding Lac Viet (worked with Koreans in Conquerors, right?) and adding that new mode more in line with competitive scene's rules. This didn't work, of course.

So then came Mountain Royals with its price hike, and the Armenians being a messy faction by design. I'm not so much into balance, but I would've liked the civs to be grounded in history more than the older ones, which are the way they are due to grandfather clause more than anything.

Then Victors and Vanquished, which cut down on costs by a lot when they didn't have to make most of the scenarios. Just, take the existing free mods and resell them. Didn't even bother with any new civs at all on this one. This didn't work, and remains the worst DLC by review numbers. Many of them aren't even good scenarios, they're experimental pieces that just waste your time with slow gameplay. The most boring scenario in the game by far is Karlsefni and even William Wallace isn't as much of a bore.

Then there's Battle for Greece, which..... it's great, top even. Three problems, though: 1. it's not made by the main game's devs so it's not great to their credit, 2. it's not the main game mode so the main game remained untouched, and 3. it pretty much affirmed that AoE1 won't be explored any further..... Still, it's the best DLC we've probably gotten this entire period, definitely worth a recommendation.

And then there's Three Kingdoms which..... once again completely sidelined the core AoE2 content. Khitans and Jurchens are underdeveloped (or misdeveloped in case of Khitanguts), without voicelines or campaigns. And the core of the DLC? Three factions (not civs in any context that AoE2 has used until now) and three campaigns based on a historical fiction novel. It's a DLC that, much like Koreans and Lac Viet before it, tries to sell to a demographic by trying to appeal to them with civs. They didn't even base it on the Record of Three Kingdoms. They based it on a novel that all the pop culture creations based on Three Kingdoms use nowadays.

Oh, and I skipped the three portrait DLCs. Microtransactional, worthless garbage just to try and line the pockets a bit more.

The development has been bloating the game with failed experiments and cashgrab attempts, and the best DLC by a landslide is not even from the main dev team. If you can't make proper content, then what's even the point of having any development?

Timeless classic.

Nostalgia, ktorá proste pobaví vždy :)