The Definitive Edition lets races from the first Age of Empires return via DLC. But one hoped-for content is missed by many fans
The Definitive Edition of Age of Empires 2 was extremely well received by gamers and still stands at an impressive 94 percent positive rating on Steam. Now the acclaimed game got a big expansion that brought back content from the first Age of Empires. But why are many fans of Return of Rome disappointed?
What is Return of Rome?
The DLC is inspired by the expansion The Rise of Rome released in 1998 for the original Age of Empires. Return of Rome acts as its own gameplay experience alongside the Definitive Edition of AoE 2 and aims to bring back classic gameplay and experiences
. Specifically, you can expect the following:
- 16 known civilisations: The expansions contains all the ancient civilisations you could play in the original Age of Empires. These are: Assyrians, Babylonians, Cathargians, Chosons, Egyptians, Greeks, Hittites, Macedonians, Minoans, Palmyrians, Persians, Phoenicians, Romans, Shang, Sumerians, Yamato.
- A brand new civilisation: In addition, there are the Southeast Asian Lac Viet, who rely mainly on archers in battle.
- Three campaigns: For the expansion, one campaign each was created with the Sumerians, the Macedonians and the Romans.
- New Game Mode: The D3 mode is inspired by the Vietnamese Age community and brings a special ruleset. Until the Bronze Age, you can only fight with one unit, which should exclude rush tactics. To ensure exciting battles later on, walls and towers are also blocked.
- Rome for the main game: You can also select the ancient world empire in the main game with the DLC. It will not be available there in ranked modes at first, but will be added later.
What is missing from the expansion?
On Steam, however, Return of Rome can convince very few players. Currently, only 43 percent of about 1,000 reviews are positive. One of the criticisms is that the expansion is separate from the main game and that, apart from Rome, there is no new content for AoE 2.
In addition, many players also miss the campaigns from the original Age of Empires. When Return of Rome was announced, it was not clearly communicated that these would be missing. All in all, many fans have the impression that the expansion was designed in a loveless and sparse manner.
What do you think of Return of Rome? Will you give the expansion a chance despite the reviews? Or would you rather leave it alone and wait for a sale? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
