I hate Age of Empires Online

             Well okay, I don't hate it, but I am disappointed. I started playing this game in its closed beta, and while I didn't love it I did believe that it had potential to become a better game than what is was. Flash forward to its release and I find that it is slightly better than the closed beta, but it is still a skeleton compared to its predecessors.
              I remember it being announced as a free to play game when i first heard about it, and there is nothing wrong with that; but I do have a problem with the fact that I am always getting hit with a paywall. Right around the third or fourth quest you get a reward that is only available to premium members, so you think "no big deal its a nice item but I'll just sell it and continue playing." The real problem comes when you accept a quest that you cannot abandon and it leaves an item in your inventory that you can't get rid of. As a free player your inventory is very limited so this is kind of a douche move to pull. They give you an item that you cannot destroy, nor sell, nor abandon the quest to get rid of. The only thing you can do with the item is use it, but you can't use it unless you pay. That is not a nice move guys.

          I know that little rant was a bit biased since I was playing for free, but lets discuss other issues that I have with the game; like the lack of multiplayer features. As far as I could tell there is only one game type available for 1v1 and 2v2, and that is the standard age up mode. There is no deathmatch nor custom maps; maybe they will add some pay custom maps like Dota, but I do not know. What I do know is that your play options are sparse, and I'm a bit disappointed by it when I see the amount of options in the older games. 

          The features of multiplayer are lackluster, but let us talk about what is there. From what I hear the pay pvp is very unbalanced in favor of gear, and this could be a problem if you aren't lucky enough with drops or can't get any crafted or trades from other players. Pay players should have an option to play without gear that way the game is fair and about skill. Free players are separate from the pay players, but are more limited in options when playing pvp since free players can't build an arena in their city. Overall, I felt the gameplay was okay as a free player, but I am not sure how I would feel if i had payed.

          As a free player a feel a bit wronged, but looking past the fact that the free players are severely gimped it still feels like an unfinished game. A lot of features are missing, and the only things to do are quest, pvp, and trade. I am also not a big fan of the art style, the greenish yellow grass makes it look some one peed on my screen. I hope that in a year I can look back at this article, and consider it outdated and wrong, but at the moment I feel that this game isn't worth paying for. I played the game for about a week then I just got bored. There are no epic 4v4 just 1v1 and 2v2, and that is disappointing.