izigame.me

Friendly reminder that English is not my best language. So, let’s get straight to the point. This DLC is probably the worst DLC I’ve ever played. Probably the most insulting one too, if you think about it. I will break down a few key points why, so here it is:
1) I believe the first main point is the most important one because people AOE reddit and forum don’t know about it. The game took place after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, not before, and ended at the beginning of the Age of Renaissance. That is the period original developers focused on when they designed civilizations. So, if some people try to argue that Chinese medieval age was started before the Western Roman Empire, then I have very bad news for you. Regardless of what Chinese scholars said, it does not change the fact that the game started between that period. There is no point in bringing your argument telling people Chinese has different medieval period since the game already set the period for the players. If you took that off, then we have a massive problem. Can we add Republic Rome to the game? Can we add Parthians to the game? But why not? We already have Three Kingdoms in the main game. When Cysion said it is not a split DLC, I would agree because his team has been creating civilizations based on existing culture, the Chinese. I don’t know what their main idea of approaching a new path, but this is ridiculous. This breaks the first identity of the game by not staying within the period. Without the first identity, players can demand whatever civilization they wanted regardless of time period and culture.
2) The second main identity of the game is for each culture identified as civilization fighting one another, so the French as Franks fighting the English as Britons. If you try to cover the whole history of Franks or Britons in the game by adding civilizations based on existing culture, then we also have another massive problem. Can we add Charlemagne Frank to the game? Can we add Saxons to the game? It is impossible to cover the whole history of a culture. Instead, each culture-based civilization covered in a small-time frame, such as from Charlemagne Frank to high medieval Frank. Original developers didn’t focus the whole-time frame of Britons history and add Saxons infantry for them because that is not their main identity. Instead, Britons have better archers due to their famous longbow in the Hundred Year’s War. Three Kingdoms DLC basically breaks this identity because this DLC in the main game are telling people they can add other civilizations like Charlemagne Frank or Saxon Britons to the main game.
3) This game is not Dynasty Warriors fantasy. This game is based on simplicity and balance, not magic healings or attacks. If I have a group of knights and a monk attacking my enemy’s base, I have a monk healing that unit because there is a “cost”, such as resources and time. The monk needs to heal individual unit. When your opponent scouted your army, they could tell how long they can wait and how to counter you with. With heroes in the game, it is impossible to tell because Liu Bei can heal nearby units without doing a single thing (passive ability). I know each hero cost 500 food and 500 gold, but in a competitive perspective, death match, and other games, heroes can break the game in the long term because players can no longer calculate ways to counter opponents once heroes popped out. This removes the simplicity and balance nature of the game. The game is about fighting on good or bad terms, your choice and your result.
4) Let’s talk about the unreasonable Three Kingdoms DLC price. Before some DLCs became free for players, Dynasties of Indias have three campaigns for each civilization added to the game: Bengalis, Dravidians, and Hindustani, for only $9.99. If I bought this DLC along with Dawns of the Dukes with two new civilizations and three new campaigns, the total should only come out to be $19.98. That is with five new civilizations and six new campaigns. Three Kingdoms DLC price cost $19.99 on steam right now. Some people might argue about inflation, but let me tell you this, inflation was only around 2-3% for each quarter since 2023. For Three Kingdoms DLC, only Three Kingdoms have campaigns, not Jurchens or Khitans. The worst part is that Jurchens or Khitans don’t even have their own voice lines. Original developers have a Jurchens voice line for a single mercenary unit in AOE3. I understand that Khitans language is dead and Jurchens language is rare but at least have the decency to add the language close to these languages. If you truly respect Chinese culture, then at least invest your time and money to keep the language alive to the game, to us, and to the Chinese community. It is not that hard. There are tons of people in the community willing to find data for you and create voice for you.
5) Chinese is a gunpowder civilization without any actual gunpowder unit. Why is the description of the civilization said Chinese is archer and gunpowder civilization, but there is no hand cannoneer and bombard cannon? If there is no gunpowder unit with a bonus, then just don’t even mention it. Fire lancer does not count since it is not really a gunpowder unit but mainly used for anti-cavalry purposes.

When designing a new civilization, it is common sense for developers to follow 1st and 2nd main point I mentioned above because that was how AOE2 civilizations were created. The more I think about it, the more I wanted to ask developers, “what were they thinking? Did they eat magic mushrooms before designing Three Kingdoms DLC? Or the executive invited/forced them to eat magic mushrooms before discussing about the new DLC?” There is a reason why people still love this game even until today, just like me. We love how the game was designed without gimmick stuff adding to the game. We love the simplicity and balance of the game. If we wanted to play AOM, AOE3, and AOE4, we would continue playing these games. However, many players, like me, came back to AOE2 because AOE2 is special to us all without AOM, AOE3, and AOE4 gimmick stuff added. We didn’t ask for AOM, AOE3, and AOE4 gimmick stuff to be added to the game. We just wanted to play our AOE2. With the addition of Three Kingdoms DLC, this game would never be the same because it completely broke what AOE2 was designed for. Once that line broke, developers would add more gimmick stuff to the game and by the time they made a lot of money, we don’t know why this game turned into Frankenstein game. In the end, we will look like idiots because we did not stop them from doing it.