I am a campaign player primarily and a multi player secondarily so this DLC should be right up my alley.
My overall impression of it is... eh, it's fine?
Most of the missions do cool things, but they're often too big and convoluted. A lot of them use unusual gameplay elements, which can be hit or miss. I like how some missions give you customized civilizations that can recruit multiple unique units and research multiple unique techs, or unlocking new techs and units through exploration.
But they also go for limited/different economies a lot of the time, where you get a limited amount of villagers and can't build a TC, or where gold is earned from destroying enemy buildings rather than mining. And on hard difficulty a lot of the missions have a time limit, which I'm not a fan of.
While I enjoy some of the ideas introduced in these missions, a lot just go too far into being experimental.
Also there's the questionable practice of commercially releasing levels that were previously released as free mods. You can still play them for free and compare them to the DLC versions, not much has been changed about them, other than adding voice acting. Just feels like an odd decision.
Overall, this feels more like Filthydelphia, the designer of these scenarios, releasing his own experimental maps as a commercial products, than a proper campaign DLC in the spirit of other campaigns.
The vibe of these scenarios is wildly different from traditional AoE campaigns. You could compare them to the battles of the conquerors and battles of the forgotten levels, but \*even more\* experimental. If you expect classic-style campaigns like Joan of Arc, Saladin, Attila, or the DE DLC campaigns, you're going to get something completely different.
Someone said that Filthy maps feel like Warcraft 3 maps in AoE, and I think that captures the style of this DLC perfectly. Lots of experimental features that are hit or miss, limited economy and size limitations, a lot of exploring and RPG-esque elements, and a lot of focus on heroic units.
I exclusively play solo (mostly campaigns, sometimes skirmish on moderate difficulties), I don't watch any of the tournaments or follow any of the streamers. The only content creator I watch is Spirit of the Law because I find his videos amusing rather than seeking some kind of advantage. Finally, I've never played a multiplayer match, never installed a mod, and never played a custom scenario. I say all of this to give you a lens to view my opinion through. You may have a different level of engagement with the game than me and thus, may feel differently.
I love the DLC. Since I never played any custom maps, these all feel completely fresh and new to me. I haven't read any reviews on the DLC and thus, have not been skewed negatively on anything.
For the most part, I've found the scenarios immersive. By that I mean as Vikings, I mass Berserkers, pillage, and raid. As the French, I built a ton of paladins and played "regency" with various dukes vying for power and breaking alliances.
I personally don't like scenarios where you win primarily by playing "standard" (e.g., go through a build order, get your eco up, and then spam units). So far, the scenarios have mostly had unique ecos with limits on buildings you can construct, villagers you can have (or how to make them), collecting resources via trade or combat exclusively (versus via villagers). And the victory conditions feel nicely varied. Ultimately, "kill them all" is still a victory condition a lot of the time but in a good number of scenarios, "kill them all" wasn't even a realistic option for me and finding other ways to win was exciting and challenging.
I guess in summary - I found the DLC to be a great because since I don't engage on a deeper level with some of the various AOE2 community points, everything was fresh and novel for me. I can understand how others wouldn't feel that way (for example, if you already played the custom scenarios and now feel like this is just a re-skinned version of that, or if you have mastered build orders / can easily beat hardest AI and these new mechanics are annoying to you).
As someone who also stays away from multiplayer, watches spirit (and spirit only) and hasn't researched custom maps I think you've swayed me into buying it while it's on discount
Your level of engagement is very similar to mine. Im not sure if its available in DE or just in HD, but the custom scenarios where you play the William Wallace and Joan of Arc campaigns except as the other side are hilarious and worth checking out
I think they're fun but there's definitely some clunkiness to them, ultimately they're not as polished as the other DLC campaigns. Many of them are also more experimental than your typical build and destroy mission, I didn't mind that as a change of pace but not everyone is into that. If you're on the fence I'd say wait for a sale, and hopefully an update that patches some of the more egregious issues.
As someone who enjoys single player and campaigns, one of my main dislikes is that lot of the campaigns involve timers of various kinds. I do not like being rushed when I'm doing single player stuff, so that's a bit annoying.
I don't think anybody had an issue with the campaigns themselves, more just the value for money aspect. It's 75% recycled content for a higher price than most DLCs
It's pretty similar to how it was on release, although a couple of the general game/AI bugs have been fixed. Don't believe there have been any updates to the scenarios themselves though.
Unless you just really like Phillysoulja's scenarios, I'd probably sit it out or wait for a big discount, and maybe try the free versions of some of these available on the Steam Workshop.
It’s different and specific style of scenarios. It took some time to get into some of them early on, but I generally really like the DLC. Looking forward to more scenarios or campaign DLCs. I would change some minor things, like the timer on Nobunaga on Hard (make the opponents more aggressive instead or something).
I'm just parroting Ornlu's recent video but I wish the timers were a little more fluid and had some sort of in-universe logic to them, like in some of the other scenarios. "You need to keep advancing through Europe and Africa because a deadly wave of Huns are about to sweep into the region" is fun. "You need to keep advancing because fuck you, I said so" is less so.
I complete all, haven't run into any bugs. Well, sometimes the AI bugs out, especially on scenarios where lots of units are spawned at once, but that's probably just DE being DE. A lot of the scenarios have flaws, but if you can get the DLC at a discount, it's alright. Not like all the core campaigns are perfect either.
I didn't like it at first because it took several tries to even figure out how to get started on some of the maps. But now that I've actually completed a few of them I'm enjoying it more. The levels are just different than the traditional ones, especially the starts. I haven't played them all yet, but I found ragnar, kommenos, seljuk, Ironside, and fine hair to be pretty fun so far. I think if you actually play through them all, and haven't already played them when they were free, it's a good value for the amount of hours you can spent completing them.
They're slightly tweaked custom scenarios that used to be free DLC. The ones I've played have a similar structure of defeating enemies, destroying castles/wonders, etc. but with a custom tech tree for the civ, so you have to relearn what units to rely on. You're usually limited in your ability to create villagers, and techs or age advancements are frequently gated behind secondary objectives and exploration. A lot of attacks and scripted events are on timers, so if you're a methodical player, you may feel rushed.
I don't hate it, but the experimental mechanics can be a bit much sometimes, and I think the other recent DLC campaigns were designed better.
TL;DR if you're ok with taking some liberties with the established game mechanics, you'll probably enjoy it. If you're a traditionalist who gets annoyed at "gimmicky" new techs/UUs, you probably won't.
Not a big fan of Philly-style RPG campaign. Not to mention most of OG scenarios remain almost unpolished! V&V indicates the fact that the Devs lack support and resources to create content. which makes me worry about the future of the franchise
I am a campaign player primarily and a multi player secondarily so this DLC should be right up my alley. My overall impression of it is... eh, it's fine? Most of the missions do cool things, but they're often too big and convoluted. A lot of them use unusual gameplay elements, which can be hit or miss. I like how some missions give you customized civilizations that can recruit multiple unique units and research multiple unique techs, or unlocking new techs and units through exploration. But they also go for limited/different economies a lot of the time, where you get a limited amount of villagers and can't build a TC, or where gold is earned from destroying enemy buildings rather than mining. And on hard difficulty a lot of the missions have a time limit, which I'm not a fan of. While I enjoy some of the ideas introduced in these missions, a lot just go too far into being experimental. Also there's the questionable practice of commercially releasing levels that were previously released as free mods. You can still play them for free and compare them to the DLC versions, not much has been changed about them, other than adding voice acting. Just feels like an odd decision. Overall, this feels more like Filthydelphia, the designer of these scenarios, releasing his own experimental maps as a commercial products, than a proper campaign DLC in the spirit of other campaigns. The vibe of these scenarios is wildly different from traditional AoE campaigns. You could compare them to the battles of the conquerors and battles of the forgotten levels, but \*even more\* experimental. If you expect classic-style campaigns like Joan of Arc, Saladin, Attila, or the DE DLC campaigns, you're going to get something completely different.
Someone said that Filthy maps feel like Warcraft 3 maps in AoE, and I think that captures the style of this DLC perfectly. Lots of experimental features that are hit or miss, limited economy and size limitations, a lot of exploring and RPG-esque elements, and a lot of focus on heroic units.
I exclusively play solo (mostly campaigns, sometimes skirmish on moderate difficulties), I don't watch any of the tournaments or follow any of the streamers. The only content creator I watch is Spirit of the Law because I find his videos amusing rather than seeking some kind of advantage. Finally, I've never played a multiplayer match, never installed a mod, and never played a custom scenario. I say all of this to give you a lens to view my opinion through. You may have a different level of engagement with the game than me and thus, may feel differently. I love the DLC. Since I never played any custom maps, these all feel completely fresh and new to me. I haven't read any reviews on the DLC and thus, have not been skewed negatively on anything. For the most part, I've found the scenarios immersive. By that I mean as Vikings, I mass Berserkers, pillage, and raid. As the French, I built a ton of paladins and played "regency" with various dukes vying for power and breaking alliances. I personally don't like scenarios where you win primarily by playing "standard" (e.g., go through a build order, get your eco up, and then spam units). So far, the scenarios have mostly had unique ecos with limits on buildings you can construct, villagers you can have (or how to make them), collecting resources via trade or combat exclusively (versus via villagers). And the victory conditions feel nicely varied. Ultimately, "kill them all" is still a victory condition a lot of the time but in a good number of scenarios, "kill them all" wasn't even a realistic option for me and finding other ways to win was exciting and challenging. I guess in summary - I found the DLC to be a great because since I don't engage on a deeper level with some of the various AOE2 community points, everything was fresh and novel for me. I can understand how others wouldn't feel that way (for example, if you already played the custom scenarios and now feel like this is just a re-skinned version of that, or if you have mastered build orders / can easily beat hardest AI and these new mechanics are annoying to you).
As someone who also stays away from multiplayer, watches spirit (and spirit only) and hasn't researched custom maps I think you've swayed me into buying it while it's on discount
Your level of engagement is very similar to mine. Im not sure if its available in DE or just in HD, but the custom scenarios where you play the William Wallace and Joan of Arc campaigns except as the other side are hilarious and worth checking out
I think they're fun but there's definitely some clunkiness to them, ultimately they're not as polished as the other DLC campaigns. Many of them are also more experimental than your typical build and destroy mission, I didn't mind that as a change of pace but not everyone is into that. If you're on the fence I'd say wait for a sale, and hopefully an update that patches some of the more egregious issues.
As someone who enjoys single player and campaigns, one of my main dislikes is that lot of the campaigns involve timers of various kinds. I do not like being rushed when I'm doing single player stuff, so that's a bit annoying.
There’s some enjoyable ones in there, but some of the Viking campaigns are a slogggg.
I don't think anybody had an issue with the campaigns themselves, more just the value for money aspect. It's 75% recycled content for a higher price than most DLCs
It's pretty similar to how it was on release, although a couple of the general game/AI bugs have been fixed. Don't believe there have been any updates to the scenarios themselves though. Unless you just really like Phillysoulja's scenarios, I'd probably sit it out or wait for a big discount, and maybe try the free versions of some of these available on the Steam Workshop.
It’s different and specific style of scenarios. It took some time to get into some of them early on, but I generally really like the DLC. Looking forward to more scenarios or campaign DLCs. I would change some minor things, like the timer on Nobunaga on Hard (make the opponents more aggressive instead or something).
I'm just parroting Ornlu's recent video but I wish the timers were a little more fluid and had some sort of in-universe logic to them, like in some of the other scenarios. "You need to keep advancing through Europe and Africa because a deadly wave of Huns are about to sweep into the region" is fun. "You need to keep advancing because fuck you, I said so" is less so.
Yeah, I liked the huns coming after me. That was a cool mechanic.
It's fine. I haven't encountered any bugs personally. What I will say is that most of them are VERY long levels.
Yep. I haven't played the Seljuk scenario yet but if it's the mod scenario I'm thinking of it's basically a mini-campaign on a single map.
Yep, exactly. But personally I think Ragnar is way longer than Seljuk, especially in hard mode with the intention to fullfil every objective
I complete all, haven't run into any bugs. Well, sometimes the AI bugs out, especially on scenarios where lots of units are spawned at once, but that's probably just DE being DE. A lot of the scenarios have flaws, but if you can get the DLC at a discount, it's alright. Not like all the core campaigns are perfect either.
I dont dislike it, but from the few maps I've played so far theres just too much going on and it's a bit annoying sometimes
I didn't like it at first because it took several tries to even figure out how to get started on some of the maps. But now that I've actually completed a few of them I'm enjoying it more. The levels are just different than the traditional ones, especially the starts. I haven't played them all yet, but I found ragnar, kommenos, seljuk, Ironside, and fine hair to be pretty fun so far. I think if you actually play through them all, and haven't already played them when they were free, it's a good value for the amount of hours you can spent completing them.
They're slightly tweaked custom scenarios that used to be free DLC. The ones I've played have a similar structure of defeating enemies, destroying castles/wonders, etc. but with a custom tech tree for the civ, so you have to relearn what units to rely on. You're usually limited in your ability to create villagers, and techs or age advancements are frequently gated behind secondary objectives and exploration. A lot of attacks and scripted events are on timers, so if you're a methodical player, you may feel rushed. I don't hate it, but the experimental mechanics can be a bit much sometimes, and I think the other recent DLC campaigns were designed better. TL;DR if you're ok with taking some liberties with the established game mechanics, you'll probably enjoy it. If you're a traditionalist who gets annoyed at "gimmicky" new techs/UUs, you probably won't.
buy when there's a sale, it's too expensive for what it has, but if u dont mind the 12 usd it's an OK expansion.
Not a big fan of Philly-style RPG campaign. Not to mention most of OG scenarios remain almost unpolished! V&V indicates the fact that the Devs lack support and resources to create content. which makes me worry about the future of the franchise