WTF? The only thing the Malays are good at is to claim Chinese warriors as their own. A bit of backstory here:
Yes, there is drushing and if you're tower rushing you'll want some ppl on stone and all that, but most of the decisions in early game boil down to "do I put 4 villagers here or 6?".
HD does have two expansions with campaigns and new races. It is worth buying. I honestly doubt that the definitive edition will be worth pirating,let alone buying.
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review
The best Age of Empires now has a fitting remaster.
Age of Empires 2 is being wheeled out again, not quite new, but definitely improved. It wears its two decades well, but the years are still there, hidden beneath polish and new art and myriad tweaks. The Definitive Edition wavers between remaster and remake, updating nearly everything, from the art to the AI, as well as adding a trio of new campaigns and four more civilisations, but reverence for the original means that the changes, though broad and welcome, are somewhat restrained.
Much of that reverence is justified, and what made Age of Empires 2 stand out at a time when there was no dearth of excellent real-time strategy games holds it in good stead 20 years on. Though its ambitions were similar to its predecessor's, the attempt to combine real-time strategy with city building and Sid Meir's Civilization was a lot more successful the second time around. It was also simply a better, richer strategy game.
The Definitive Edition makes it easier to appreciate why it had the impact it did. Finally, in 2019, Age of Empires 2 lets you tell your villagers to automatically reseed farms! No more returning from a war to find the fields fallow and my villagers twiddling their thumbs. This might be the most exciting change for me, the most boring man in the world. It really does save a lot of headaches, though, and is one of several ways the new version gives you more control while still cutting down on unnecessary micromanagement.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Quality of life improvements might not sound like much of a headline attraction, but Age of Empires 2 needed them just as much as the new campaigns and the visual overhaul. Queuing up different units and upgrades, being able to drag and select armies without grabbing villagers by mistake, queuing commands—most of what I wished the first Age of Empires: Definitive Edition included has been introduced here. The result is a more consistent pace that leaves you with extra time to spend expanding your civilisation and commanding armies.
Those are two areas where it's largely business as usual. You start with a town centre and a handful of villagers, gather resources, plonk down buildings and expand until you've got a big army and an impressive fortified city. Across the campaigns and skirmishes, this familiar routine is repeated, tweaked and sometimes subverted, but while Age of Empires 2's current curators have updated a lot around it, the moment-to-moment civilisation and army management has been preserved.
Unlike the first Age of Empires, large armies are more manageable thanks to formations and improved pathfinding. They try to take the most efficient route, and while units can still get stuck when they're blocked by their mates, you can switch formations to give them more room to move. Once they get into melee, however, formations crumble and become giant brawls where every inch of space is filled with warriors hacking away at each other.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Melee brawls are brisk and, even with the new and otherwise helpful zoom feature, it can still be hard to decipher what's going on in the scrum itself—it's just a lot of shrinking health bars—so committing your force can feel a bit like giving up control. Units run around desperately trying to get to the nearest enemy, or the one you selected, frequently having to adjust as gaps close. You've either got to micromanage the lot of them or leave them to it and just hope that you've sent in the right units to counter your opponent.
Battles amount to more than throwing a heaving mass of warriors at your adversaries, though, especially if they're hiding behind some walls. One of the best additions of the original Age of Empires 2 was proper fortifications and the accompanying sieges. Assaulting a walled city is a massive investment in gold and manpower, and a bit of a logistical conundrum. Siege engines are expensive, slow and fall apart as soon as the enemy looks in their direction. They need troops to escort them and fight off the AI—which does seem to do a pretty good job of prioritising targets even on the standard difficulty—and safe positions to begin an assault from. As chaotic as combat can get, sieges and big confrontations still require plenty of planning.
Microsoft and developer Forgotten Empires have been clear about their intent to eschew big changes to the combat, citing feedback from the Age of Empires community. Even if that wasn't the case, changes to the core of the game aren't what you'd expect in the Definitive Edition, but in other places the alterations are surprisingly significant and meaningful, making the gaps more noticeable. When you've got flashy new 4K art everywhere, a reworked UI and more refined controls, the messiness and lack of clarity in fights can be a bit jarring. Combat doesn't exist in a vacuum, however, and still benefits from the improvements orbiting it.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
All 27 campaigns are available from the get go, so it can be tricky to know where to begin. For old time's sake, I had to play the William Wallace tutorial campaign first. All the old campaigns, as well as benefiting from the art overhaul, have new audio, dialogue and updated missions, but if you've played them before, you should find them very familiar. As well as the campaign tutorial, the Definitive Edition also includes some further education in the form of challenge missions. Despite my nostalgic affection for the William Wallace campaign, it only teaches the basics, hiding a lot of Age of Empires 2's depth from new players. While the challenge missions aren't essential, they'll make you a more efficient player and better prepare you for games beyond the campaigns.
With Scotland behind me, I could start working my way through the brand new campaigns, collectively known as the The Last Khans. Age of Empires 2 already has more civilisations and missions than anyone could be reasonably expected to play while still eating and sleeping, but the promise of New Content is, as ever, seductive.
Each campaign takes a crack at spinning a historical yarn through the deeds of a specific historical figure, as is traditional for the series. Mission intros and outros do all the exposition, but there are plenty of narrative moments and scripted sequences within the missions themselves. There are multiple paths, plot twists and some elaborate set pieces, and they generally strike a good balance between a bespoke, directed experience and a sandbox. Not every mission is a winner, but even when the execution is a bit off, there's usually still an interesting hook or twist, or even just an unusual map layout, that makes it memorable.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
One mission in the Tamerlane campaign begins with a pitched battle. Big Tam's army terrifies a bunch of charging enemy elephants with explosives, causing them to stampede towards their old masters, at which point they get put under player control. After that bloody battle, you've got 80 minutes to conquer Delhi by destroying five castles hidden behind its two walls. There are enemy towns to raid and villages to nurture, but what you do with those 80 minutes is up to you. With the enemy not leaving their city, you're given loads of room to breath and prepare, but once inside it's a tricky fight with narrow corridors making movement a nightmare, and countless guard towers whittling down the invaders. It's great, but I failed my first attempt because a line of dialogue obscured the countdown and refused to disappear.
That happens a lot. Alerts, taunts and random bits of banter end up just hanging around, long after they're relevant, though it was only once that the bug actually had an impact on a mission. Aside from a single crash and one or two occasions when a large scripted battle caused some brief stuttering, I've not had any other issues.
The Last Khans campaigns are good introductions to the new civilisations, but they're probably not a good place to begin if you're new to Age of Empires 2, or if it's been a while since you last played. With the standard difficulty, they're reasonably forgiving, and each comes with detailed hints and a scout report, but they're quite a bit more complex than the original Age of Kings campaigns.
The Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians and Tatars get unique units, techs and bonuses, and they all share a penchant for horses. I've become partial to the Bulgarians, who start off pretty strong. They get an automatic upgrade that turns their weak early infantry into men-at-arms, as well as a wee castle that costs half as much as a regular castle and unlocks recruitment of their unique unit. The Konnick is a cavalry unit that rather conveniently gets a second life as an infantry unit when it's defeated, something I've made great use out of as a reckless commander. The civ has less going for it once it hits Castle Age, so I'm not sure where it's going to end up in the competitive tiers, but I'm more of a comp stomp guy anyway.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Whether you want to duke out against the AI or human opponents, the skirmish modes give you plenty of options. There are ten modes to choose from, including the new Empire Wars mode, which starts you off in the Feudal Age with a small town up and running, cutting out the early game. As much as I love to meticulously plan the town out myself, I'm starting to appreciate things beginning in medias res—within a few minutes I've got an army ready to go out and find some trouble.
Since the beta ended, there haven't been many opportunities for multiplayer. There's multiplayer lobbies, ranked matchmaking, spectating and leaderboards, with regional servers instead of a peer-to-peer system, and it seemed to be working fine during the beta, but the real test will be when everyone can start playing on November 14. There's still a lively Age of Empires 2 community that plays the HD version, so hopefully it will migrate over and keep the lobby browser full. I'll be playing at launch, so I'll report any multiplayer woes if there are any.
While this undoubtedly goes several steps further than the HD version and the first Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, it also makes me even more eager for a dramatically different take on Age of Empires 2. You won't find that here. This isn't for people looking for something new; it's for people who are already enamoured with the original game, who I still count myself among, and for fans it's the best version of the best Age of Empires game by a wide margin.
The Verdict
78
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Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
A polished, wide-ranging update that brings the classic RTS into the modern age.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition review — Gorgeous new look, more enjoyable than ever
Age of Empires II, one of the most popular RTS games of all time, has been reworked a second time for its 20th anniversary.
Cale Hunt
12 Nov 2019
Source: Microsoft
About 20 years ago, the second installment in the real-time strategy (RTS) Age of Empires series was released for PC. Developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings saw an expansion — Age of Conquerors — about a year later, bringing more campaigns, civilizations, and some quality of life (QoL) fixes.
This collection of games was played incessantly by a huge crowd of RTS fans and eventually saw an HD remake in 2013. Age of Empires II: HD Edition spawned its own collection of expansion packs, including The Forgotten, The African Kingdoms, and Rise of the Rajas, complete with a bunch of new civilizations, campaigns and a graphics reworks that better suited modern hardware and displays.
Now, with Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (AoEII:DE) — developed by Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, and Wicked Witch and published by Xbox Game Studios — fans of the series are getting an impressive graphics overhaul with new animations and 4K support, three new campaigns with four new civilizations, remastered audio, new units and technologies, plenty of QoL changes, and an improved multiplayer experience with leaderboards, ladders, matchmaking, and improved spectator mode. I've been playing AoEII:DE for about a week to check out whether or not it's worth a buy for long-time veterans and newcomers to the series.
An RTS for the ages
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Bottom line: There is some wonky balancing and AI logic evident, but Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is an absolute joy to play. Just be sure your PC can handle the requirements in order to get the full experience.
Pros
Cons
- Includes all previous expansions and one new expansion
- Four new civilizations for 35 total
- Artwork and animations are beautiful
- Tons of quality of life improvements
- Reworked AI that puts up a far better challenge without cheating
- Some AI pathing and logic is a bit wonky
- Further balancing will be for the best
- Factory graphics settings are not ideal for returning players
- Requires a considerable amount of PC power for best experience
What I loved about Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Source: Windows Central
Age of Empires II isn't a game that needed any major mechanics reworked, and that's been honored here in the Definitive Edition. I played a lot of the original and HD versions, and I was able to jump into a Definitive Edition skirmish and play without having to make many adjustments. Hotkeys can be set to classic or to a grid-like method — the top row of the keyboard is used for the top line of your commands, middle row for middle line, and on — that's easier for newcomers to pick up. Gameplay is immediately familiar, but the myriad QoL improvements also make it seem new.
Age of Empires II has never looked so good, and the developers have kept the feel of the original game.
I'm still uncovering small tidbits that make macro- and micro-managing easier. Still, there are some significant changes that benefit everyone and ultimately make the game a lot more fun to play in Dark Age through to Imperial Age. Starting out, you can now set farms to automatically reseed as long as wood stocks allow. No more spamming the farm queue button and eventually running out ten minutes later. Units can have multiple waypoints set at once, meaning you can chart out a path for your original scout (or any other unit) and not have to continuously click a new place for it to travel to. Trebuchets will now pack and unpack automatically when you assign them to attack a certain building either in or out or range. And you can now queue up technologies and units at the same time, allowing less downtime for production buildings while you're busy managing other aspects of the game.
Your global queue of tech and units now includes icons in the top-left corner of the screen, just below the reworked toolbar. Along with standard resource counts, the idle villager icon has been moved up top and shows how many idles you have. Below each resource is also a value that indicates how many villagers are collecting at the given time. When you've hit Post-Imperial, and there are hundreds of units to manage, these small changes make a huge difference. The user interface (UI) is also scalable, so you can find something you're satisfied with depending on your monitor size. Resources now have a toggleable "health" bar that shows you how much remains of a certain item, like a boar, tree, or gold tile. No more having to click an individual item to see how much remains.
Source: Windows Central
These changes make for a more user-friendly experience, but the biggest and best upgrades are the graphics and animations. Age of Empires II has never looked so good, and the developers have kept the feel of the original game. Units and buildings haven't been changed so much that they aren't recognizable, and the artwork and animations are absolutely gorgeous. Ever since I played my first round of the original game, I wanted to see castles and town centers crumble into dust, and that's now a reality. Trebuchets swinging, troops riding into battle, battering rams hammering down production buildings; it's all here, and it all looks stunning. A zoom feature has been implemented, so you can now pull back to get a broader look at the map or punch right in to see your workers toiling. With the HD graphics pack enabled, everything remains clear no matter how close you get to the action. The factory settings do take some tweaking to get looking perfect, and performance is going to be an issue, but I'll get into that later.
To go along with the graphics overhaul, all audio has been remastered and reworked. The original soundtrack has been redone and sounds as epic as ever, and unit and building sound effects are more robust and more varied. With a quality gaming headset on, your ears are in for a treat.
Source: Windows Central
There's an old joke with Age of Empires II fans that the game taught more history than any class in high school, and that's more valid than ever with three new campaigns. The collection is called "The Last Khans" and encompasses the four new civilizations added to the game, including Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians, and Tatars. The new missions are expertly voice acted, and the older campaigns have also been reworked with new voice acting. Some of the HD expansion campaigns only had text, but voice acting has been added there as well. Altogether, you're getting more than 200 hours of singleplayer gameplay before even breaking into skirmishes and multiplayer action. I played through most of all three branches of the new campaign, and if you enjoyed the older entries, you're sure to enjoy these. Additionally, there are nearly 150 achievements to attain.
Once the optional campaigns are completed, you can jump into singleplayer skirmishes against AI or into multiplayer against other humans. All the classic modes return — Random Map, King of the Hill, Regicide, Deathman, etc. — as well as a new mode called Empire Wars that starts you out in Feudal age with a number of production buildings and assigned villagers. It's a quicker way to get into the action and offers something new for returning players. On top of the usual ways to play, there's a new feature called "The Art of War." It's a five-part section that teaches players how to get a good start on economy, how to boom, how to get to castle age as quickly as possible (a popular strategy), and how to employ or defend against a rush.
Source: Windows Central
New AI has been implemented, as well as a ton of new commands for allied AI players. For example, you can tell allies to attack with certain troops, you can choose where to fortify with walls, and you can ask them to focus on certain aspects of the game to better complement your playstyle.
In previous games, high-level AI had to cheat to keep up with human players. That has been removed, and AI now instead operates more similar to how pro-level humans play. I watched enemy AI scout with sheep, push in deer to the Town Center, and raid my economy with small forces as I attacked its front door. Enemy troops took the high ground when attacked, and wouldn't throw units away at the foot of my castles. Able to put up a strong fight against Hardest AI in the HD version of the game, the new Extreme AI utterly steamrolled me. I enjoy multiplayer but certainly spend a lot of time allied with and against AI opponents, so these changes make a huge difference and ultimately prepare players better for multiplayer. HD and original CD AI are also available to play against.
On that note, multiplayer has also seen some changes. The old peer-to-peer servers are gone in favor of dedicated servers spread out across global regions. I played with an ally from the UK and experienced no noticeable lag. That might change with an eight-player game from different regions, but overall there should be far better stability in online games. There are now leaderboards and ladders baked in, and a matchmaking feature makes it easy to find an opponent in the same rating range. There's no limit to how many spectators can jump into a game to watch, and they have new tools to get the best viewing experience possible. AoEII:DE is available on Steam and from the Microsoft Store, but both versions will be able to cross-play.
What I disliked about Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Source: Windows Central
I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with AoEII:DE, but there are certainly some noticeable issues. Foremost is the performance on my PC that includes an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor (CPU), NVIDIA RTX 2060 graphics card (GPU), and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. I immediately changed graphics settings to my liking — disabled bloom, disabled animated fog, and cranked everything else up — and set resolution to 1440p. This gave the game more of an original feel that veterans will likely prefer.
I first played a number of matches without the Enhanced Graphics pack and saw framerates consistently around 120, dropping below 60 with a lot of action on the screen. Without the pack enabled, the game still looks good, but you can't zoom in nearly as far, and sprites do look pixellated at max allowable zoom. The game looks stunning with the Enhanced Graphics pack enabled, but after placing down some farms and massing some troops, the game dropped down to a consistent 30 frames-per-second (FPS) and regularly dropped below 15 FPS in action-packed sequences or popped up to 60 FPS in quiet moments. My PC certainly isn't the most powerful out there, and I could turn down more settings to boost framerates, but performance could certainly be better. If you don't have a dedicated GPU, you're going to suffer even without the graphics pack enabled, and the HD version of the game will likely make a lot more sense.
Performance aside, I saw some wonky stuff in terms of pathing and logic. For example, I sent a bunch of villagers to build multiple farms with a mill in the middle. After checking back later, I noticed that only the mill and one farm was built and tended, while the other villagers had gone off to hunt nearby game. I noticed some weird pathing as well when sending villagers to work outside of walls. I tasked a group to build a castle outside my base, then deleted a section of the wall to allow them to walk directly to the castle's foundation. I retasked them on the castle with the wall deleted, but instead of noticing they now had an easier trail, they kept heading for the nearest gate. I had to click the ground next to the castle to get the villagers to go through the deleted wall portion, then click the castle foundation again to have them start work.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition looks beautiful, but you'll need a beefy PC to take full advantage.
The patrol command for troops, ideal for sending battalions into battle, seemed, in some cases, to be off. For example, I patrolled a group of pikemen into an enemy base, and instead of taking out the cavalry in front of them, they set fire to a farm while their numbers were hacked down by the knights. This wasn't the case every time, and more often than not, units figured out what they should do to ensure a long life, but I did have a laugh a couple of times as I watched my units pass by the enemy to attack something completely non-threatening.
These issues, if not just me making errors on my end, will hopefully be addressed in the future. Microsoft has stated it will continue to work on AoEII:DE after release, with a focus on balancing and QoL changes. That's especially a good thing in terms of the new civilizations. The Definitive Edition has attempted to balance out some key aspects of the game — including making the Barracks infantry line more feasible with new technology — but there's still a way to go. Some of the new units in the game are quite powerful, and we'll have to see how the competitive community responds and how the developers react.
Finally, no doubt because of the cross-play feature between Microsoft and Steam, mods will be collected at the Age of Empires website instead of the Steam Workshop. That's no doubt a bit of a worry for some long-time players used to the Workshop, but thanks to the built-in mod manager within AoEII:DE, there shouldn't be much issue implementing the additional content. One popular mod — the addition of gridlines on the playing field — is now implemented in the game as a gameplay setting.
Should you buy Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition?
Source: Windows Central
Considering AoEII:DE costs just $20 and includes all content ever officially made (with more than 200 hours of campaign gameplay alone), old fans of the game and newcomers to the RTS genre have a rather easy decision to make. It's also already included for free for anyone with Xbox Game Pass for PC, opening it up to a ton of people at no extra charge above the subscription fee.
4.5 out of 5
Yes, there are some issues with the game — especially when it comes to performance — so those lacking modern gaming hardware will likely need to test things out to see if it can run at an acceptable framerate. And hopefully, the game will be further optimized in the future for those of us still struggling with what should be adequate hardware.
Even with the issues I mentioned at the top of mind, I can't wait to jump back into Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and continue uncovering the smaller changes that I've yet to see. It's a true update to one of the greatest RTS games ever made, and it's never been more enjoyable to play.
An RTS for the ages
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
A lot of game for the asking price
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition manages to make the classic RTS feel new while not straying away from what made the game great in the first place.
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review – reverent treatment
Can the latest release of Ensemble's enduring classic win over fans from the 2013 HD edition?
Ahhhhhh, Age of Empires. Is there any early millenium gaming nostalgia stronger than the memories of playing this series? Sat at a tiny hand-me-down CRT deeper than it is wide; the dawn sunrise outside, volume turned all the way down to avoid waking the family, sipping a coca cola to keep yourself awake.
For teenage me, definitely not.
Yet the Definitive Edition of Age of Empires II is a bit of a weird one. After all, we already have an HD edition of the 1999 original, which, while initially received with scepticism, has since won a keen community after years of official support and user-generated content. This raises the question of what exactly this new release can do to win over said community and earn the big-D moniker. It turns out the answer basically boils down to two things. Firstly, lots of content (20 years’ worth!), including some all-new campaign missions and four all-new civilisations for this edition in the Last Khans pack – Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians, and Tatars. And the big clincher: all of it is presented very well for modern audiences, with updated looks and a few refined mechanics.
No amount of rehashing graphics or tweaking root code will ever fully reclaim the sense of wonder of playing this game two decades ago. But, if Forgotten Empires’ two objectives were what I suspect – to do the game the presentational justice it deserves, and to package this game’s nostalgia in one place – then I think Definitive Edition wholly succeeds. It’s not Age of Empires IV, but it’s a great step toward the full return of one of PC’s most iconic franchises.The new 4K visuals pack gives the game not so much a lick of paint as a whole new coat – it very much shines in that regard, and I think it’s as close as it could possibly be to how I remember it being all those years ago in my cramped bedroom setup. Will it entice new audiences to the franchise? I think it’s definitely still catering for the hardcore, well-versed RTS crowd looking to take a strategic stroll down real-time memory lane. Don’t expect it to play entirely like a modern game, and don’t judge it for not doing so. That’s not the point.
Buildings and troops look brilliant, and the ability to zoom in and out gives you ample opportunity to admire the artwork. Lighting too is great, letting snow-flocked trees and burning pyres really pop. Overall it’s much better than the lacklustre halfway house of the HD edition, at least where graphics are concerned.
Then there’s the reworked audio and voice work, both of which add another dimension of immersion – this game is ultimately an exercise in the bloody history of medieval warfare from the west of Europe to the east of Asia, and having some gruff soldiers giving pre-battle context (I particularly love the Scots’ narration) is much appreciated. It’s definitely got an overtly dry tone, that much is obvious by today’s perspective, but to me that’s part of the charm.
Developer Forgotten Empires jams a lot of other stuff into this package to make it pretty appealing to anyone that’s pining to revisit a classic. Providing, that is, you can appreciate that there’s no way to fully polish a two-decade old game to modern standards. The press release tells me there’s over 200 hours of gameplay here, but to be honest I think that’s quite conservative. Consider the 27 single-player campaigns, the online multiplayer, and the endless player-created content that’s sure to follow if this game wins an audience of any size at all, and you could definitely go north of that should you wish to fully indulge.
The campaigns are good fun, and still offer a lot of variety in terms of gameplay dynamics from chapter to chapter. In one you’re escorting Joan of Arc through a battle-ridden forest, avoiding other armies fighting. In another, one of the new campaigns from The Last Khans, you’re attempting to unite different factions in tundric plains without letting your leader perish. In another, you’re trying to capture relics from rival Transoxianan khanates (whatever those are). The fundamentals of gathering resources, training troops and villagers, and attempting to destroy enemies, build wonders, and steal relics are all intact throughout, but the variation in objectives keeps things interesting.
There are also new Challenge Missions that channel Sun-Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ and get you completing specific gauntlets. These are basically advanced tutorials intended to teach high-level plays and strategies, which I found especially helpful having been away from the genre for a while and which those intent on getting into multiplayer will appreciate, but they’re also really enjoyable in their own right.
The game is unavoidably archaic in some ways (looking at you specifically, user interface). For one, it’s still frequently impossible to discern different units, especially in larger battles. Micromanagement is also essential, and not always in a fun way, because of the retained lack of some options like an auto-explore on your scouts. This means you literally can’t stop thinking about the game for a second (don’t forget to pause!) and the pacing is sometimes borderline stressful because of this.
That said, Forgotten Empires does offer some quality of life improvements to smooth away some of those ’90s rough edges. Villager micromanagement has been dramatically reduced, thanks to the ability to queue building construction and set farms to automatically re-seed. The game will also automatically filter out villagers when drag-selecting soldiers, so you’re no longer sending civilians off to besiege castles. Animations and AI have both been improved, too, the latter of which now allows muti-tasking which makes a big difference, even if that doesn’t entirely mask the two decades of progression that this genre has seen.
In terms of the aforementioned tweaks to AI, I’ve never been the greatest strategy mastermind (the pacifist in me finds more therapeutic joy in building a city than outsmarting a computer-controlled opponent with rubber band advantages) but there was never the sense that I’m dealing with opposition that was coded in 1999.
Forgotten Empires and Microsoft have made much of the updated AI for the Definitive Edition – which can apparently imitate the strategies of real-life tournament players – and let’s not forget that they’re building on the 2013 HD edition and its years of support. If you want, you can still select the classic 1999 AI, which like many strategy opponents of the time had to be coded to literallty cheat to win against players, but the updated systems are much more realistic and satisfying to play against.
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review
With new official DLC, a glorious audiovisual overhaul and a touch of modern quality-of-life polish, this is now the best way to play Age 2 - though it'll take a while to match the HD edition's user content.
8
