Definitive Edition Campaign Review - Glory of Greece

Hi Everyone,

So after completing all campaigns in both Definitve Edition and the original game I wanted to share my thoughts on the changes that came with DE. As you may know, a lot of the missions have been changed or even replaced completely across all campaigns.

This review will focus on the changes to the map, objectives and starting positions rather than actual playthroughs unless these are drastically different too. I will also try to avoid discussing the AI as it may (hopefully) change, but as it stands - the AI will rush you with all its starting units and so surviving the first few minutes of any mission may be particularly challenging.

Naturally this will contain some spoilers, so... you have been warned.

Also many scenarios have been renamed - I added the original name in brackets where applicable.

Here goes:

1. Claiming Territory (Land Grab) - The back story has been changed and now focuses on Mycenae (the major Greek bronze age power) rather than Athens which came to prominence much later and to reflect this the AI player names have been changed to tribes inhabiting the Peloponnese and surrounding areas. There are no changes to the map, the players' starting positions or the objectives. The scenario itself still plays very much the same way and is quite challenging, especially for the first mission of a campaign.

2. Acropolis (Citadel) - Again, the map and objectives have not changed and the only differences are in the back story as it is now a conflict between Mycenae and Tiryns rather than Athens and Thebes. Pretty straightforward mission. Not much else to talk about.

3. The Conquest of Crete (I'll Be Back) - This was the fifth mission in the original game and is the first one to have undergone some major changes:

Just like in the original you start with a small force in the middle of the enemy base that is bound to get slaughtered within seconds, but the few cavalrymen you were supposed to escape with now start away from the fray and so it's virtually impossible to fail this mission at the start. The map is no longer divided into different sections by water, which takes away a lot of the careful planning you had to go through in the original mission, but the forests are still guarded by enemy towers and siege equipment.

Despite all this and the scenario hints advising you to proceed cautiously you can quite comfortably just run south down a pretty straight path to the gaia town which now also has a town centre and villagers which in my opinion takes away a lot of the challenge. Although I guess to compensate for this the other enemy players that were guarding the forests will now have towns of their own and will be creating new units and harassing you. The mission objective is still the same - destroy the temple and capture the artifact.

Overall while the reworked version may be more appealing to some I found it to be disappointing due to the excessive streamlining and as a result, the lack of anxiety as you have to proceed very carefully knowing that you won't be able to replace your lost units. As a sidenote though, the gaia town no longer has the immersion breaking East Asian architectural style so that's one positive for sure.

4. The Trojan War - The map layout is the same, but the city of Troy has been redone and it now looks far better. Your starting position is the same except you now have three heroes - Achilles, Ajax and Odysseus rather than "Hero 12".

Their survival is not essential, though it would make sense for Odysseus to have to survive the mission. There is one new objective - you will now also have to kill Paris as well as Hector. The yellow player has been given more importance - they now have a navy which will harass your coastline right from the start. Yellow also plays the role of the enemy heroes' bodyguard, but they have no buildings and so will not be able to replenish their troops. In the original they literally only had two towers on an island so it almost seems like there was some cut content there.

Overall I would give big thumbs up for this rework, but oh wait... there was no Trojan Horse!!! 0/10 won't play again.

5. Colonization of Ionia (Ionian Expansion) - This was the third mission in the original game (swapped with the Conquest of Crete) but this change certainly makes sense chronologically.

The map has been completely redone and now seems to resemble Attica and Euboea in the west corner of the map, Aegean islands in the middle and Anatolian coast in the east. You will now start in bronze age instead of tool age. The objectives have also been changed - instead of building a government centre inside the flagged area or capturing the 3 ruins you will now simply need to destroy the three enemy goverment centres. Ionia has been renamed to Luwians and Lydia to Aegean Pirates and they will now pose a real threat (in the original they just had a few towers on islands). The new player, Athens starts as your ally though they won't be of much use except for trade.

This is another positive change. You will now have to deal with two opponents instead of one for the extra challenge but to compensate for this your bronze age start will make fighting off the early raids easier... and I always appreciate maps that resemble real world locations.

6. The Siege of Athens - There are no changes to the map layout except the city of Athens which has been redone. It now has a big central hill with a temple on top so kudos for that. The yellow player that was your ally and trade partner in the original game has now been replaced by Spartan Navy, which means that you will not be safe on water either! To compensate for this, however the island in the east that you can flee to has quite a few gold deposits.

All players start in post-iron age and with how aggressive the AI now is, the start will be quite brutal. Objectives are still the same. This one is definitely more challenging than the original.

7. Xenophon's March - No changes to this one as far as I could tell, except that towards the end the orange player will now have a few ships that will attempt to sink the transport ship with artifact on board. Very good scenario with a very detailed map, not one that needed any remastering.

8. Alexander the Great (Wonder) - This scenario has been completely redone, the objectives have changed too. You will now also have to build your own wonder in a specified location as well as destroy the enemy wonder(s).

The map resembles real world stretching from Greece to Mesopotamia with you starting in East Thrace and a few villagers in Greece. The red player will have a wonder up right from the start just like in the original, but it won't be challenging at all to take it down... just like in the original. Still, this mission will take quite some time before you secure the location where you need to build your own wonder and the other AI players may attempt to build their own wonders too but this didn't happen in my playthrough mainly due to the AI's tendency to suicide their villagers and eventually starving of resources I suppose.

All in all I enjoyed this scenario - especially the map which is far more detailed. My only nitpick here would be that it should be a requirement for Alexander to survive... I'm sure we can all agree on that.

Overall, the changes brought by DE were largely vast improvements. The new maps are very detailed and the reworked towns (Athens and Troy) add a lot to immersion, especially seeing as in the original game they were far from impressive. The only change I did not appreciate was the Crete mission which in my opinion was made too easy. I would also make it essential for heroes to survive where applicable.

SCORE: 9/10

Feel free to discuss and agree or disagree. More campaign reviews will follow.