Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Review (platypus_slayer1)
This is a tough review to make after so much time, here comes the memeable 2k hours negative review but hear me out. I think for its price its a good buy to mess around with. Clearly, 2k hours in, gives you an idea of how much potential this game has. Unfortunately, the publisher and devs see nothing in this game and it shows so I can't shill this game in good faith even though I have enjoyed it.
Pro- so much expanded upon since DE. more maps, more natives, more civs, more scenarios, more units, more cards etc. They really took the OG formula and ran with it.
- usually solid gameplay, its fun to mess around with friends or try ranked as long as you dont take it too seriously.
-skirmish mode is fun with a few cool scenarios
- they did fix alot of issues from a rough launch
-Really a lot of cool references to the time period.
-Overall, when things works, its one of the deepest and unique RTS out there. So many ways to express your style of game play
Cons:
Bugs bugs bugs bugs. attack move bugs. plaza mand mill vills getting kicked off and idling. Vills getting stuck. Single player first 8xbow shipment still bugged. several campgain missions can bug Lobbies bug. Exploits have abounded through the ranked. WE does not hotfix this game ever and it has impacted as legacy bugs pile on. units clip into trade sockets or buildings. Pathing breaks through trees. AI sometimes uses melee mode at range (and it works...somehow)
- ranked is a cluster of cheesey strats, smurfs, bug abusers, and toxic people who until recently I think not a single person ever got banned. Outside of funsies you'll start to get upset as the issues of balancing 22 assymetric civs shows
- limited functionality. No way to message offline friends. ui is outdated as fuck. Scenario editor is like the same from 2006.
-Single player content while fun has not been expanded upon much since the OG version.
-Weird choices. the standard map pool is the ranked pool and competitve maps are their weird maps not competitive ranked pool. Many cards and effects are not at all intuitive.
The ugly
The publisher of this series gave up years ago and it shows. 0 promotion, 0 support, 0 community engagement since 2022 then in Jan 2025, they told us our 1 year being developed dlc was not only cancelled, not only not really been worked on, but all support sans servers is done. Fucking scumbag move if there ever was. The game will never be polished.
Should you buy? No wait until modders fix the game and even then might as well pirate it cause publishers clearly dont give a fuck about this game no more. That said should you just want to play with friends or have some cheap g2a version, enjoy. I will be playing other games till then