Aotearoa / New Zealand

I think you meant AoE 4? :) You could buy it and have a play around with if you'd like (I own a copy as well), but personally I was a bit disappointed with it.

• The game is still quite unoptimized. It can get pretty laggy on large multiplayer maps, sometimes even completely freezing, and I know it's not my PC - RAM, GPU, CPU usage all well below limits.

• Although many of the bugs that plagued the original release are now fixed, you occasionally still run into random bugs, like random crashes - which is annoying when you run into it like a few hours into a multiplayer game and you can't recover. Even in single player there's no escape - one of the bugs in the main campaign prevents actually prevents you from completing it, and this still hasn't been fixed, even two years after it was reported. Even saving and reloading is buggy, so I wouldn't advise playing a long game if you don't expect to finish it in one go.

• The AI needs a lot more tuning. Easy mode is pretty much useless, and Intermediate totally pwns you - it's like 2-3 times faster than an average human.

I could go on, but you probably get the picture.

On the positive side, I guess the graphics and some of the QoL changes is nice. Overall gameplay is very similar to AoE 2, so it's nice they kept it the same (unlike the weirdness that was AoE 3). I mainly bought the game out of curiosity, and with the hope that they can make it into a better game over time, like they've done with AoE 2. Speaking of which:

If you haven't played AoE 2 recently, you're in for a treat. I'd highly recommend checking it out, as it's had a lot of developments and a lot of love from both the devs and the community, so it plays well even on modern PCs with wide-screen monitors. It's a much more enjoyable game, without any of the annoyances of of 4.

AoE 2 comes in two versions: HD and DE (Definitive Edition). HD is basically like the vanilla AoE 2 experience (+expansions), with the original music, a few new civs, some QoL improvements etc. AoE 2 DE on the other hand is a significant overhaul in terms of graphics and audio, some UI changes, AI improvements, and a lot more civs and campaigns. I own and play both versions, but I think I prefer the HD version because they didn't fsck around with the OG music, and the "retro" graphics just screams AoE and feels like home to me.

Also worth checking out:

- 0 A.D.: This is an opensource AoE alternative, still in alpha but very much playable. Graphics are similar to AoE 4, but what sets this game apart is the attention to detail, like the artwork and detail on the buildings, plus the BG music is simply incredible (which changes with different civilisations). The AI is also pretty neat, and quite customisable - you can choose between defensive, aggressive, balanced etc. And unlike AoE 4, the easy AI here actually poses a bit of a challenge (nothing major though) and makes the game still enjoyable. Large battles are also pretty fun, as you can have a lot more formations compared to AoE 2, and the automatic unit selection and grouping is nice too. Note that it is still an alpha game, so some features aren't implemented yet (such as trade ships, or multiplayer saves), but it's still enjoyable and worth checking out.

- Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds This game is actually, literally just AoE 2 with a Star Wars skin. But calling it just that is seriously underselling it and doesn't do it justice. Any Star Wars fan would love this game - you have the OG music from the movies, familiar landscapes like Tattoine, Hoth, Endor etc, plus you get to frigging build X-Wings and Tie Fighters and even have little R2 worker droids farming for you, which is awesome. Unfortunately it never got the HD love like AoE 2 did, but thankfully there's the community made Expanding Fronts mod, which adds some much needed QoL fixes, new civs/units/maps, more music from the movies, and also the cnc-ddraw patch which does a nice job upscaling the graphics. Once again, if you're even remotely interested in SW and AoE, you have to check this out, otherwise you're missing out on a great game.