izigame.me

So I don't really review games that much normally but AoE2 is one of my childhood game and I have been a fan of history because of it ever since, so i'll go straight to the point:
Pros:
- The missions can be fun, I liked Cao Cao 4 and Sun Clan 4 the most, they had us cover all of the map and were interactive.
-Nice new assets for vegetation, animals (pandas ! ) really makes you feel like in China, so that was immersive
-The free update for castle , elite units and monks skins was a good addition, although not part of the DLC specifically it shows that things can evolve in terms of immersion and "historicity"
-The pricing: I feel that for the price is good for the amount of content the DLC has, 3 campaigns although controversial they are , 5 civs that are also controversial but 5 civs nonetheless. It's fair in general
Cons:
-The campaigns : Now some missions are fun, but they all end up with a "what if" battle of Red Cliffs and it doesn't value the fact that now we have 3 civs that aren't feeling like civs taking the spot for 3 other civs that could have been in the Sinosphere ( Tibetans, Tanguts, Bai (dali) ) , civs that could have tell a different aspect of Chinese history, one that most don't hear about. Red cliffs and the 3 kingdoms are already over saturated in Chinese history and this DLC felt like an opportunity rather than a true spotlight to Chinese medieval history.
The fact that there are no efforts done to Khitans with the same Mongolian voice lines and that they are a mashed up version of their civs and Tanguts feels odd. Jurchen also have no Manchu voice lines when in AoE3 a single unit had their unique flavour speaking it's language. And more importantly, no Chinese ( medieval era ) , Korean, Jurchen or Khitan campaigns, this is really a shame because the community would have learn a lot from this era of conquest dynasties.
The art direction for the 3 kingdoms campaign feels more aligned with the chronicles than the original campaigns with its beautiful art details in the background and the cut scenes of how the civs and cultures lived also , which is too bad.
-Hero units: The hero units are clearly a big one , there's a lot of people complaining and for good reasons, it feels like the game is taking a wrong direction having them in ranked, for campaigns or Chronicles it feels appropriate, however even in the campaigns it feels like they are overpowered and a bit too gimmicky , I thought I was playing Warcraft 3 ( a game I loved but not Aoe2 with its more "realist and historical" background)

Overall and in summary , I am a big fan of the 3 kingdoms in general, but in AoE2 it feels like an opportunity that was badly communicated and executed. The game would have earned much more credit with the fans by telling stories that are more obscure to the broader audience yet very important historically even more so than the 3 kingdoms which were a political fight between 3 Han chinese dynasties that lasted less than 60 years.
Khitans could have told the history of the Liao dynasty and how it formed in the North of China or Yelu Dashi and his Kara Kithai who forged a kingdom in the West of China as they fled from the Jurchen Jins (they even defeated the Seljuks in an epic battle, so clearly diversity of civs would have never been an issued)
Jurchen could have told the history of the Jin who defeated the Khitans to later meet their demise to the Mongols or a Nurhaci campaigns , the man uniting Jurchen tribes into a new identity and building the foundation for the Qing, the last imperial dynasty of China.
also a Chinese campaign in broader sense could be the Song defending against Liao, Jin or the Mongols. And Koreans could have been the kingdom of Silla curving and limiting Tang Chinese influence in their peninsula.
I ramble a lot sorry about that, but I just think that overall this DLC was a missed opportunity for better stories, that deserved to be much more in the spotlight. and this is the reason that I am going to not recommend the DLC sadly.