Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is a real-time strategy video game developed by Forgotten Empires and published by Xbox Game Studios.^[1] It is a remaster of the original game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the original. It features significantly improved visuals, supports 4K resolution, and 'The Last Khans', an expansion that adds four new civilizations based on Central Asia and Eastern Europe, and four new campaigns.^[2] It includes all previous expansions from the original and HD Edition. It was released on November 14, 2019.^[3]

Gameplay[edit]

Aug 10, 2020 Back to Age of Empires Definitive Edition. The whole 4K UHD 60 FPS sounds mighty, but it actually makes the game action look less realistic (sans the UHD graphics pack). Arrows flying out of castles at enemy soldiers look like slo-mo videos. Soldiers walk like they're extras in The Matrix. Bad Language, Violence. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular strategy games ever with stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, a new and fully remastered soundtrack, and brand-new content, “The Last Khans” with 3 new campaigns and 4 new civilizations. Choose your path to greatness with this definitive remaster to one of the most beloved strategy games of all time. More Age of Empires Difinitive Edition gameplay: Age of Empires Definitive Edition: https://www.g2a.com/.

The core gameplay elements are shared heavily with the original but Definitive Edition builds upon it. The remaster includes new 4K graphics, new improved visuals for troops and buildings, the ability to zoom in and further out and a new spectator mode. It features a new campaign called The Last Khans and includes four new civilizations: Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians and Tatars. Four new campaigns were added for the new civilisations: Ivaylo, Kotyan Khan, Tamerlane and Pachacuti which is about the Inca civilisation and replaces El Dorado from the HD Edition (Lithuanians do not appear as a playable civilization in any campaign; however, they represent Poles in the Ivaylo campaign).^[2][4] It includes all previous expansions from the original (The Conquerors) and HD edition (The Forgotten, The African Kingdoms, Rise of the Rajas).^[2][5]

Players can choose between the original AI, the updated HD Edition AI that was added alongside the HD Edition of the game, and a newer AI developed for the Definitive Edition.^[6] The original AI had to cheat to be competitive, while the new AI is advanced enough to not require any cheating. When the old and new AIs were pitted against each other in a test, the new one easily defeated the old one.^[7] Unit pathfinding is also supposedly improved upon.^[8] Players can shift-queue villager tasks.^[9]Farms now have the option to be replenished automatically.^[10] A further expansion pack, Lords of the West, was announced on December 15, 2020 and is due for release on January 26, 2021. The Lords of the West will introduce two further civilisations, the Burgundians and the Sicilians, as well as three new campaigns, featuring Edward Longshanks, the Dukes of Burgundy and the Hautevilles.^[11]

Release[edit]

On August 21, 2017 at Gamescom, Microsoft announced Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition was in development by Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media and Wicked Witch Software.^[12] On June 9, 2019, Microsoft revealed the gameplay trailer at Xbox E3 2019.^[13] It released on the Xbox Game Pass in addition to Steam and the Windows Store on November 14, 2019.^[5][14]

Reception[edit]

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition received 'generally favorable' reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic with a score of 84/100 from 32 reviews.^[15]Windows Central's Cale Hunt praised the improved artwork, animations and quality of life additions but criticized the AIpath finding and pointed out a need for further balancing.^[17]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Additional work by Tantalus Media and Wicked Witch^[1][2]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abWright, Steve (June 19, 2019). 'Aussie devs Wicked Witch, Tantalus working on Age of Empires 2'. Stevivor. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
2. ^ ^abcdIsgreen, Adam; Empires, Franchise Creative Director for Age of (June 9, 2019). 'E3 2019: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Launching Fall 2019, Beta Coming Soon'. Xbox Wire. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
3. ^Moore, Ewan (August 19, 2019). 'Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition Release Date Confirmed'. UNILAD. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
4. ^'Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition will release this fall'. PCGamesN. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
5. ^ ^abJune 14, Marshall Honorof |; Pm, 2019 05:50. 'Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Lives Up to Its Name at E3 2019'. www.laptopmag.com. Retrieved September 1, 2019.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
6. ^White, Sam (November 12, 2019). 'Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review – reverent treatment'. pcgamesn.com. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
7. ^Shea, Brian. 'How Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition Hopes It Is Living Up To Its Name'. Game Informer. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
8. ^Calvin, Alex. 'Why Microsoft is investing so heavily in the Age of Empires series'. PC Games Insider. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
9. ^Ray, Bodhisatwa (November 21, 2019). 'Age of Empires II Definitive Edition Review: Price in India and review'. BGR India.
10. ^'Review: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition'. Hardcore Gamer. December 12, 2019.
11. ^'Pre-Order Age of Empires II: DE – Lords of the West, coming January 26th!' (in Lithuanian). Forgotten Empires. December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
12. ^Knezevic, Kevin (August 21, 2017). 'Age Of Empires 2 And 3 Remasters Announced'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
13. ^Giret, Laurent (August 19, 2019). 'Age of Empires: DE launches on Steam with cross play support, Age of Empires II DE also coming on November 14'. OnMSFT.com. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
14. ^'Pre-purchase Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on Steam'. store.steampowered.com. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
15. ^ ^ab'Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
16. ^Brown, Fraser (November 12, 2019). 'Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review'. PC Gamer. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
17. ^'Review — Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is a remake true to its past'. Windows Central. November 12, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2019.

When it first came out in 1999, I played a lot of Age of Empires 2. Its blend of historical real-time strategy, with detailed rock-paper-scissors military unit management made it one of my favorite games of all time. I love the rhythm of having my villagers collect resources while I improve the village’s defenses, build and upgrade its soldiery, and ultimately launch invasions of my enemies.

So when an updated HD version came out in 2013, I gave it a try. I was disappointed. Although it was a decent update, which offered a lot of modding tools and a general visual improvement, it didn’t catch my imagination. It was, in essence, a nostalgia play.

A new version, called Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, has captivated me entirely. Developer Forgotten Empires and Xbox Game Studios have done a fantastic job of taking a 20-year-old game and making it feel fresh. Although it’s really the same game, the Definitive Edition has made enough changes to make it feel like new, especially while we wait for Age of Empires 4 to arrive.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition looks better than ever before, with support for 4K resolution. It has a richer color palette, better lighting, and a host of redesigned units and buildings. I’m especially taken by the way buildings crumble to the ground when they finally succumb to siege. The ability to zoom in on the action is nicely implemented.

Music and voice acting have also been updated, giving the game a more grandiose feeling, especially during the campaigns, which are heavily narrated.

All the old campaigns have been included, with updates, as well as a new campaign based on the waning days of the Khanate. This includes four new civilizations and three story campaigns that offer a rewarding challenge.

In one new campaign, there’s a timed challenge that pits Tamerlane (aka Timur) against the heavily fortified city of Delhi. It’s reasonably easy to use catapults to get past the outer walls, but the city’s cramped streets are heavily defended by war elephants. Unit management becomes more difficult as the enemy takes out my seriously vulnerable bombardment units, leaving me unable to destroy the city’s last citadel. As I say, it’s a nicely designed challenge.

New game modes have also been added, including one called Empire Wars, which drops the player into a town with a ready-made population of villagers, all busily collecting a balanced portfolio of food, wood, gold, and stone. This takes the chores out of the early game, for those who tire of such things.

Much-needed game-control improvements have also been added. Unit queues are now more efficient.

Each building in Age of Empires games builds multiple types of units. Stables, for example, can build light cavalry, heavy cavalry, scouts, camel riders, and more. In the past, I could only queue up one type at a time — say, 10 knights — and then go back and queue up the next desired units. Now I can queue in any order. It’s nice to create archers and spearmen alternatively, so that I have a more balanced ranged army right from its creation.

Civilians can also be instructed to construct certain buildings in a particular order. So, I can direct them to build a network of, say, towers, a gate, and defensive houses, and leave them to complete the job.

The most useful change is the ability to automatically reseed farms. In the old games, exhausted farms had to be relaid manually, which was a nuisance in the middle of a frenzied campaign. Unwary players could find themselves bereft of food, one of the game’s four essential resources. Now, I can stack up a lot of wood, and order multiple auto-reseeds that leave me free to ignore this tiresome chore, especially late in the game. The same goes for fish traps.

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These useful changes show that Forgotten Empires and Microsoft have paid attention to the kinds of “quality of life” improvements rival games have made, and that strategy players now expect.

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Playing online is a totally different experience than playing computer-controlled opponents, almost to the point of being a different game. There’s a bunch of hard lessons to learn about common strategies. Now, the transition from AI to human enemies is eased with a specific tutorial called Art of War, that can save a lot of dismal defeats online.

The transition to playing real humans is now much smoother. Online play has also seen a lot of user interface improvements as well as a switch to server-based contests.

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In single-player mode, the game’s AI has been spruced up. Perhaps it’s this change that I like the most or, to put it another way, it was the AI’s limitations that I liked the least in the 2013 re-release of Age of Empires 2. Path-finding is much better too; units generally go where I want them to go. AI enemies are less likely to feel like they’re cheating, or worse, to behave self-destructively.

AI has come a long way in the last two decades, and Definitive Edition’s improvements in this area really show. On the whole, this is an excellent update which I believe will please lapsed players looking to return to an old favorite, as well as new players who are curious about a genuine classic.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is out now on Windows PC. It’s also available on subscription service Xbox Game Pass for PC.