Age of Empires II HD

[Mortmal]

I got the early access with prepurchases, so i can have the priviledge to be fucked in the ass first, that for the greater good of the codex!

As it indeed sums up my very first impression of the game. Starting with a script error when clicking the launcher to various crash to desktop after an hour play , for no reasons, save games not loading . I tried lot of tweaking removing everything in background and so on, the usual boring tech stuff everyones know here . Apparently changing the language to english solved the launcher issues and not getting crashes again.... crossing fingers.

On forums it seems lot of people have issues as well, it doesnt not looks like a very stable build and rumor its not even AO2 last patch... Id expected more stability for what is just an old 1999 game graphic revamp.Except that its the same game as before but prettier, they should send me some money since what i am doing right now is beta testing for free.

I have not tried Multi yet i will do so tommorow, i wonder what kind of surprises is awaiting me !

 

[Zeriel]

Has worked fine for me so far, the only issue is desyncs in multiplayer (which may be a fault of the old game).

 

[oscar]

I've been having a hell of a lot of fun with Forgotten Empires playing against my friends. That already allows higher resolutions, so what's the point in this? Nicer water textures?

 

[Brotherman Bill]

I got the early access with prepurchases, so i can have the priviledge to be fucked in the ass first, that for the greater good of the codex!

As it indeed sums up my very first impression of the game. Starting with a script error when clicking the launcher to various crash to desktop after an hour play , for no reasons, save games not loading . I tried lot of tweaking removing everything in background and so on, the usual boring tech stuff everyones know here . Apparently changing the language to english solved the launcher issues and not getting crashes again.... crossing fingers.

On forums it seems lot of people have issues as well, it doesnt not looks like a very stable build and rumor its not even AO2 last patch... Id expected more stability for what is just an old 1999 game graphic revamp.Except that its the same game as before but prettier, they should send me some money since what i am doing right now is beta testing for free.

I have not tried Multi yet i will do so tommorow, i wonder what kind of surprises is awaiting me !

How does the multiplayer work? Is it like most modern multiplayers where you press "play game" and get automatically matched up with someone, or do you have to find someone in a lobby and stuff?

 

[Zeriel]

There's quick match (auto-join, auto-find), and you can also set up private (or non-private) games where you invite people manually or wait for people to click on your game in a list.

 

[Mortmal]

I got the early access with prepurchases, so i can have the priviledge to be fucked in the ass first, that for the greater good of the codex!

As it indeed sums up my very first impression of the game. Starting with a script error when clicking the launcher to various crash to desktop after an hour play , for no reasons, save games not loading . I tried lot of tweaking removing everything in background and so on, the usual boring tech stuff everyones know here . Apparently changing the language to english solved the launcher issues and not getting crashes again.... crossing fingers.

On forums it seems lot of people have issues as well, it doesnt not looks like a very stable build and rumor its not even AO2 last patch... Id expected more stability for what is just an old 1999 game graphic revamp.Except that its the same game as before but prettier, they should send me some money since what i am doing right now is beta testing for free.

I have not tried Multi yet i will do so tommorow, i wonder what kind of surprises is awaiting me !

How does the multiplayer work? Is it like most modern multiplayers where you press "play game" and get automatically matched up with someone, or do you have to find someone in a lobby and stuff?

That's it lobby and quickmatch, but apprently setting private game doesnt work yet as people reported joining games they shouldnt be allowed to. I think the point of this version is more convenient and wider onlien access compare to forgotten empire, sothe reason buying it on steam is pretty much like buying a GOG game, lazyness.

 

[Tigranes]

I got it to play with my friends that I used to play AOM with back in the day. It's not bad - you don't really notice any difference except for the terrible resource icons & farms. Or I've forgotten enough of the game to not notice. Let me know if anyone wants to play, el_dugong on Steam.

 

[Zewp]

So the only real reason to play this is for the few visual enhancements? Other than that, it's worse than normal AoE2 in every way? Netcode apparently sucks, LAN has been stripped out and multiplayer has a region lock.

I was excited when I heard we'd be getting an AoE2HD, but if someone is going to re-release an old game, at least do it properly. Especially if you want to charge $20 for the game.

 

[Cursed Beaver]

So the only real reason to play this is for the few visual enhancements? Other than that, it's worse than normal AoE2 in every way? Netcode apparently sucks, LAN has been stripped out and multiplayer has a region lock.

I was excited when I heard we'd be getting an AoE2HD, but if someone is going to re-release an old game, at least do it properly. Especially if you want to charge $20 for the game.

The only good improvement they made is the new elevation and fog of war. They are much more fluid. Also they remade all the art assets, so they scales correctly in higher resolutions. They were mostly left intact.
The rest is crap. New icons are crap, new water is crap, new fire is crap, ''enhanced'' menu is cartoony and crap.
New cliffs and new farms are ugly as fuck.
And they don't provide any improvement the community USER patch provides.

Their only strong point is the resolution. The community widescreen patch is as good, because the art assets are ''stretched'', since they weren't touched.
But that's actually a good reason to buy this. It really makes a noticeable difference. Age of Empire 2 never really looked good on modern screens, but now it's how it used to feel in the early 2000's.

I also forgot to mention, they added some nice, subtle lightning effect.


Now I just hope that someone will release an old water/fire/cliffs and farm mod.

 

[Deakul]

So this release is pretty much a nigh unplayable buggy piece of shit.
I had better luck playing with that UserPatch and using Gameranger.