Age of Mythology EX: Tale of the Dragon Review Summary

We need to create a blurb under 200 characters from the given points. Points: new maps and larger sizes, Chinese civilization praised, interesting myth units and heroes, campaign story is weak, overall not recommended, frequent crashes and freezes. Combine into single sentence: positives (new maps, larger sizes, Chinese civ, myth units/heroes) and negatives (weak campaign, not recommended, crashes). Keep it flowing: "While it adds larger maps, a praised Chinese civilization, and interesting myth units, the weak campaign story and frequent crashes make it not recommended." Check length: "While it adds larger maps, a praised Chinese civilization, and interesting myth units, the weak campaign story and frequent crashes make it not recommended." Count: 114 chars. Under 200. Good. No extra formatting.While it adds larger maps, a praised Chinese civilization, and interesting myth units, the weak campaign story and frequent crashes make it not recommended.

New maps and larger sizes: Players appreciate the addition of new maps, including larger map sizes, which provide welcome variety for skirmish and random map modes. The giant map size is a notable feature.

Chinese civilization praised: The Chinese civilization is widely enjoyed for being fun, versatile, and a natural fit. Players find it interesting in multiplayer with unique mechanics and aesthetics.

Garden favor and resource system unique: The garden-based economy is a highlight, providing favor and optional resource generation. It's original and adds strategic depth.

Campaign content enjoyed: The campaign offers 10 missions with variety and interesting mechanics. Some missions are fun and creative, with unique challenges.

Interesting myth units and heroes: Myth units like Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird are useful, well-designed, and not clones. Heroes can adapt between melee and ranged combat.

Campaign story is weak: Multiple clusters describe the campaign as forgettable, poorly written, and rushed. The writing is called cringe-worthy, amateur, and uninteresting, with a weak and confusing plot.

Units are just reskins: Many new units are considered reskins of old ones, with only minor differences. Myth units and regular units alike are described as copy-paste, lacking new animations.

Voice acting is poor: Voice acting is criticized for terrible accents and mispronunciations, with English actors attempting Chinese accents badly. The Chinese voice acting sounds like reading a script.

Campaign missions are buggy: Campaign maps are buggy, with crashes at the same point preventing mission completion. Some missions end too quickly or are unplayable due to issues.

Audio mixing is broken: During campaign cutscenes, music is extremely loud and drowns out dialogue. Volume settings do not help, and there is a bass boost issue.

Gardens automatically produce resources: The Chinese civilization's unique Garden structure slowly generates one of four resources and produces favor, limited to 10 gardens per player. This allows specialization between favor for myth units or resources for human units.

New myth units and god powers: The Chinese civilization adds original myth units like Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, and new divine powers such as Earth Dragon, Tsunami, resurrection, and cloning. These expand tactical options.

Unique military buildings and units: The Chinese civilization has distinct military units like fire lancers, generals, chu-ko-nu, cataphracts, and castles that produce siege weapons. Unit upgrades apply to entire building sets.

Singleplayer campaign included: A short story campaign with RTS singleplayer battles is included. Some missions involve specific triggers and army vs army scenarios.

Monks with conversion abilities: Chinese monks can convert enemy regular units and, with Shennong, myth units. They also have melee attacks against unconvertible units.

Frequent crashes and freezes: Players report crashes in the final campaign level, after DLC installation, on startup, and during specific missions. The game freezes every few minutes even on high-end PCs.

FPS drops and stutters: FPS drops to 1-3 when AI spawns many units, and stutters occur in an old game. Some players experience the game almost freezing entirely.

Mixed stability reports: Some players report no crashes or lag after patches, and others say the game runs smoothly without bugs. However, a significant number still face issues.

Long loading times: Giant maps cause long loading times, which can be frustrating for players expecting quick session starts.

Overall not recommended: The majority of players advise against purchasing this DLC, citing poor quality and value. Many explicitly state they would not recommend it to anyone.

Only buy on sale: A common sentiment is that the DLC is only worth purchasing at a significant discount. Players recommend waiting for sales, often suggesting a price of $2.50 or 75% off.

Campaign not recommended: The single-player campaign is specifically criticized as not worth playing. Multiple reviews advise against buying the DLC for the campaign alone.

Not worth full price: Reviewers consistently state the DLC is overpriced at its full retail value. Many feel the content does not justify the asking price of $10 or more.

Recommended only for fans: Several players suggest the DLC is only for die-hard Age of Mythology fans or those with nostalgic attachment. Casual players are advised to skip it.

Community fair range: $2.50 - $5.00.

Game completion: 8.0h.

Story completion: 2.0h.

The DLC's campaign is widely criticized as boring and broken from the start, but some players find fun later in multiplayer or random map modes, though balance and bugs remain concerns.

Friction: buggy mission progression and broken triggers; boring and poorly designed tutorial; unbalanced difficulty with thin margins for error; reskinned units and recycled aesthetics; uninspired story and cutscenes; overpowered Chinese civilization in multiplayer.

Unlock drivers: skipping the campaign entirely; focusing on multiplayer or random map games; waiting for bug fixes (some later patches improved stability).

Die-hard Completionist: Plays all modes (campaign, skirmish, multiplayer) to unlock and experience new content, tolerating bugs and low polish for the sake of completion. Motivation: Owning all franchise content and collecting achievements. Stance: deep sale.

Multiplayer Enthusiast: Focuses on random map and competitive multiplayer games, experimenting with the Chinese god branches and strategies. Motivation: Adding a new civilization for varied multiplayer matches. Stance: sale.

Quality-Conscious Veteran: Prefers the original civilizations, campaigns, and balanced gameplay. Avoids the Chinese faction due to perceived lack of polish and immersion. Motivation: Preserving the integrity and quality of the original Age of Mythology experience. Stance: no buy.

Monetization: User reviews overwhelmingly criticize the DLC as a low-effort, overpriced product with reused assets and bugs, and highlight an aggressive in-game prompt (the goat issue) that pushed players to buy the DLC. However, this is a one-time purchase DLC with no ongoing microtransactions or pay-to-win mechanics, so the monetization strategy is not predatory beyond the initial purchase. The score reflects frustration with value and promotion, but stays within the fair range for a single-purchase product.