Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (AKA AoE2 HD HD)

[Narax]

Interesting. They brought in the guys making that Rome mod.

I like the concept, but let's see if the new campaign mechanics are actually substantial.

I am surprised they put an effort to reskin the generic units. The should have just made an antiquity expansion with more civs while they were at it.

 

[Caim]

So paying for DLC has now become early access and if I just wait I get it for free, got it.

 

[Sensuki]

I am surprised they put an effort to reskin the generic units. The should have just made an antiquity expansion with more civs while they were at it.

Oh believe me, they are - they're just going to keep creating DLCs with 2-3 civs in it for the setting.

 

[Endemic]

So paying for DLC has now become early access and if I just wait I get it for free, got it.

Dawn of the Dukes and Lords of the West are over 3 years old now, I suspect the sales dried up on them. Not sure how popular the India expansion was/is.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I wouldn't count on it being that popular. Even AoE IV seems to be kinda dead?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Neither this nor IV are even close to being "dead" lol. That being said, as the most popular title, 2DE seems to be badly in need of some General Director or just a competent person that would decide on a direction they're taking the project and be able to execute it, cause they've been all over the fucking shop for a couple of years already. One or two more of those bizarro "absolutely no one asked for this" dlc about cavemen or ancient sheep shaggers from semi-central-east-western hipopotamia and they'll start feeling it for sure.

 

[The Limper]

They exhausted the possibilitirs for AoE2. A new direction with is engine would be nice… I would like to see a ‘DLC’ that went with fantasy races. I doubt they would make a different game entirely on the older engine, but a side group of 8 fantasy factions only playable against each other would be sweet. I would pay above normal DLC pricing for that.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

They exhausted the possibilitirs for AoE2.

Don't really get where this is coming from? There's still a lot of juicy, low-hanging fruit, even before venturing into adding more civs. I'd love to get turk or viking campaign and surely there's no shortage of little weaboos who didn't get their og asian civs fill. Still nothing was done to differentiate slavs after poles, lithuanians, bohemians etc were released to make them into proper rus. Which would make infinitely more sense than splitting street poopers into forgot how many separate civs that was. Americas are still a popular request. So on, so forth.

 

[Lacrymas]

I would like to see a ‘DLC’ that went with fantasy races.

That's Age of Mythology. And it's great.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I would like to see a ‘DLC’ that went with fantasy races.

That's Age of Mythology. And it's great.

Always has been. How is the HD version? Did they change much?

 

[Lacrymas]

I would like to see a ‘DLC’ that went with fantasy races.

That's Age of Mythology. And it's great.

Always has been. How is the HD version? Did they change much?

It's great and they changed quite a lot of stuff for the better.

 

[The Limper]

I would like to see a ‘DLC’ that went with fantasy races.

That's Age of Mythology. And it's great.

Always has been. How is the HD version? Did they change much?

It's great and they changed quite a lot of stuff for the better.

Ok I’ll bite….Are there demi-human factions or just some non-human troops types within an ancient human civ?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Ok I’ll bite….Are there demi-human factions or just some non-human troops types within an ancient human civ?

As far as I remember, the mythical creatures feature into the rock-paper-scissors system, and you develop separate tech trees for mythical and human units. You also have a resource which you can spend on summoning a god as a unit or other temporary bonuses.

 

[The Limper]

Hmmmm…. Sounds interesting. That might of put AoM on the ‘early xmas present for gold ol’Limper’ list… thanks! The EE is best version I assume?

 

[-M-]

The EE is best version I assume?

There are 3 versions:

The original release (OG) from 20+ years ago.
The Extended Edition (EE) from 10 years ago.
Retold (RT) from this year.

EE is frankly a mess and runs poorly of modern systems. The devs really dropped the ball performance wise, and the only benefit is native widescreen and a few different effects. OG runs much better and isn't difficult to set up if you can find a CD image. EE will also likely never go on sale again thanks to RT (they are the same base price).

RT has a bunch of modern conveniences, although I'm not a fan of the new graphics or gameplay changes. Should be fine for a casual run or getting into multiplayer. I prefer the OG but RT isn't a bad choice.

 

[Lacrymas]

I would like to see a ‘DLC’ that went with fantasy races.

That's Age of Mythology. And it's great.

Always has been. How is the HD version? Did they change much?

It's great and they changed quite a lot of stuff for the better.

Ok I’ll bite….Are there demi-human factions or just some non-human troops types within an ancient human civ?

Non-human troops among ancient human civs. As for what version you should get - Retold without a doubt. The graphics changes might not be everyone's cup of tea, but imo they did a pretty good job with preserving the old aesthetic most of the time. The difficulty of the base campaign is significantly higher on max difficulty and if you want to play PvP Retold is also the way to go. The old version has a lot of obvious balance issues, but Retold's devs are committed to balancing it like with most other "Age of" DEs (*cough* with the exception of Age of Empires 1 *cough*).

 

[Endemic]

Conversions in AOE2 are still janky I see...

 

[mindx2]

Is there a "Best of" custom maps list somewhere for AoEII:DE? Don't want campaigns just single, ludicrous map to play on.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is there a "Best of" custom maps list somewhere for AoEII:DE? Don't want campaigns just single, ludicrous map to play on.

Wasn't that supposed to be the Victors and Vanquished DLC?

 

[mindx2]

Is there a "Best of" custom maps list somewhere for AoEII:DE? Don't want campaigns just single, ludicrous map to play on.

Wasn't that supposed to be the Victors and Vanquished DLC?

I have no idea. Looking at it just seems like another campaign DLC. I don't see a Steam Workshop to download any user made maps. Even if so I want to make sure it's a good / fun map. Clicking on a random map in game only generates flat, generic maps.

 

[Lacrymas]

I have no idea. Looking at it just seems like another campaign DLC. I don't see a Steam Workshop to download any user made maps. Even if so I want to make sure it's a good / fun map. Clicking on a random map in game only generates flat, generic maps.

It's not a campaign DLC, it's a collection of however many standalone maps that afaik are huge and most of them are curated and polished community maps. People didn't like that, however, but that doesn't really speak to the quality of the maps themselves. Check out some reviews.

 

[Endemic]

China-flavoured DLC coming up for AOE2. Looks like possibly Jurchens/Han or Song/Tanguts being separate factions now. Then again some of the siege/gunpowder shown doesn't really fit (being later Korean/Ming weapons).

 

[JarlFrank]

I have no idea. Looking at it just seems like another campaign DLC. I don't see a Steam Workshop to download any user made maps. Even if so I want to make sure it's a good / fun map. Clicking on a random map in game only generates flat, generic maps.

It's not a campaign DLC, it's a collection of however many standalone maps that afaik are huge and most of them are curated and polished community maps. People didn't like that, however, but that doesn't really speak to the quality of the maps themselves. Check out some reviews.

It's actually a collection of standalone maps all made by the same modder, Filthydelphia, who was later hired as an official scenario designer by the current AoE2 developer and has worked on a couple of DLC campaigns.

He made two or three new maps for this DLC, and polished up a whole lot of his older mods (mostly adding voice acting).
I like the concept of a DLC of standalone maps, like the "Historical Battles" campaigns from The Conquerors expansion and the first HD DLC (The Forgotten). But most of the scenarios in Victors and Vanquished didn't do much for me.

The majority of the scenarios here have a lot of scripting and unusual ways of getting resources, rather than the regular classic base building, which I'm not a fan of. They're also too large for their own good in many cases. And some of them have time limits, which I'm also not a fan of.

That said, there's a handful of good scenarios in here.

Otto the Great has you play as the Teutons in the early middle ages, with you being king Otto of the Holy Roman Empire. You have allies, but they can betray you if their loyalty falls too low. If their army is large they are more likely to rebel so you're encouraged to send them off to battle and grind their soldiers against the enemy. Your goal is to defeat Vikings, Magyars, and become king of Italy. There's also a West Francia faction (Franks) whom you have to pay tribute to or they'll become hostile. Very complex scenario, with plenty of varied enemies to fight, and classic base building. I liked that one a lot.

Oda Nobunaga is the most sandboxy scenario ever. It's set during the sengoku period of Japan and you can pick which faction you want to play as. Your goal is to defeat all enemy factions. Very replayable due to having different starting conditions based on who you play as, and every faction gets unique bonuses to units too so it's not just Japanese mirror matches. There's an achievement for winning this scenario on hard, which is a challenge because on hard this scenario has a time limit. I managed to get the achievement, but it was tough!

Charlemagne is another good one. You play as Charlemagne, have to make sure your brother dies so you inherit his lands, and then have to gain 100 "Imperial Score" which is gained through various actions, so it's quite the non-linear mission. You fight Saxons, Lombards, Ummayads, and Avars, so again a pretty varied set of enemies. Classic base building + conquest gameplay with the classic Franks civilization. Very enjoyable map.

Robert of Neustria is another Franks scenario with classic base building and some interesting twists. You have to usurp the throne, which you can do by either subjugating all dukes or getting them on your side by gaining their favor, which can be achieved through various actions. There's 5 dukes and usually you'll end up with a few on your side and a few as enemies. Some are rivals of each other so defeating one will gain you favor with another.

The other scenarios were mostly decent too, although a lot of them are too experimental for my taste. Still, the DLC is worth it for the scenarios I listed up there.

 

[ghardy]

Oda Nobunaga is the most sandboxy scenario ever. It's set during the sengoku period of Japan and you can pick which faction you want to play as. Your goal is to defeat all enemy factions. Very replayable due to having different starting conditions based on who you play as, and every faction gets unique bonuses to units too so it's not just Japanese mirror matches. There's an achievement for winning this scenario on hard, which is a challenge because on hard this scenario has a time limit. I managed to get the achievement, but it was tough!

(Tongue in cheek)

No samurai of African origin?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

About as excited for the new dlc as I was for the saar do not redeem one. I guess it fits the base game and has obvious audience, so there's that at least.

It's still really weird how we are getting all this shite when there's no turk or viking campaigns in sight.