This high-definition edition of the classic real-time strategy game adds little more than bugs.
The appeal of Age of Empires II: HD Edition is readily apparent. After all, the original Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and its expansion are so beloved that there is still a healthy modding and multiplayer community devoted to the game. This is an impressive feat for a real-time strategy game that came out over a decade ago, especially when you consider that the official multiplayer matchmaking service was shut down years ago. A prettier version of AOEII with easier multiplayer matchmaking and mod support (via Steam's servers and Steam Workshop) is a solid idea. Unfortunately, Hidden Path's HD edition of Ensemble Studios' classic RTS suffers from a variety of bugs and missed opportunities.
AOEII:HD's gameplay is instantly familiar to practically anyone who has ever played a real-time strategy game focused on the big picture. This fast-paced game has you exploiting natural resources, constructing beautiful wonders and formidable castles, and advancing from the Dark Ages to the much more dignified-sounding Imperial Age. Along the way, you use the tried-and-true rock-paper-scissors formula (pointy sticks kill cavalry, villagers kill sheep, and so on) to violently evict other players from the map. There is a lot of depth to AOEII:HD, because all of the 18 playable nations have unique bonuses, units, and tech trees. For example, Frankish castles are cheap, Turks field awesome gun-powder units early on, and the Huns don't need houses to support their population. There are also randomly generated and real-world maps to play on, as well as numerous game modes, including a pacifist game type where the first player to complete a wonder wins. Because of the variety of victory conditions and diverse powers for each nation, there are a lot of ways to play, and excel, in Age of Empires II HD.
However, Hidden Path missed opportunities to improve on AOEII's gameplay. As things stand, you cannot give move-attack orders; dragging a box over a mass of units selects both villagers and troops; and it's impossible to queue up a mixture of units and research at the same building. AI pathfinding also needs some work. For instance, villagers ordered to travel to a lumber camp located in plain sight 700 yards away over open country may inexplicably decide to take a scenic route through a canyon populated by ravenous jaguars. These are examples of flaws that could have been resolved, but increasing the maximum population limit from 200 to 500 is the only noticeable change made in terms of gameplay.
The main difference between AOEII:HD and AOEII is the HD version's use of Steam for multiplayer matchmaking, which, given the size of Steam's user base, is significantly more convenient than programs like GameRanger. You can hop into a random game from the lobby browser and, theoretically, enjoy fantastic experiences. The game is highly enjoyable for both friendly comp stomps and player-vs.-player games. Of course, some people rage quit after accusing you of cheating simply because of your Byzantine fire ships' predilection for sinking undefended fishing fleets.
Still, a victory is a victory. A match might involve you sending a series of impressive (and foolish) Aztec human wave attacks against Viking castles and longboats defending the river crossings separating your peoples. Untold hundreds of digital Aztecs could die trying to destroy the proud Norsemen's wonder. When the stars are aligned correctly and everything works, AOEII:HD's multiplayer is exceptionally fun.
I've been playing this a bit and haven't had any problems at all with multiplayer. Maybe I started playing once they were fixed (although I started almost as soon as it was released). I'm surprised to read this since multiplayer was always so smooth for me.
2 Like I really enjoyed Age of Empires 2, but for an HD remake I would expect better visuals in this day in age.
5 Like I don't think you can really criticize AOE:IIHD for not improving the gameplay of the original, because this is meant to be simply a HD up-rezzing: Like Shadow of the Colossus or Ico had. It would have been nice if the multiplayer worked better though.
Since I've had the game for two weeks now: Any errors that occurred with the original game are in this game. The reviewer attacks the pathfinding (yet I haven't encountered any errors yet) even though the AI is identical to the first game. You CAN in fact separate units from each other when you highlight multiple units. It is called double clicking a unit to select all of one type. This is common knowledge.
The only things that bothered me were the updated textures which looked kind of crappy on some stuff such as corn... seriously there was NO CORN IN THE OLD WORLD! However there are mods which can easily fix these problems, so all of my textures in the game are back to normal. Honestly I don't see how this is a 5.5 if it is pretty much the same game with only a texture update and steam workshop.
2 Like We Vietnamese have been playing this game as an e-sport for many years through Hamachi & Garena. Just can't imagine how this great game is rated as 5.5/10. C'mon
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@nechiken @g8minhquan It is HD, and the multiplayer issues can be patch. I know it is a terrible first impression but not a terrible game. The game is the same good old game.
How is the multiplayer on the AoE games? Not this one, but the series in general. I've never been that interested in online multiplayer, so I've never bothered trying. Is it worth getting this to be able to play online, or am I not missing out on anything?
1 Like @toshineon believe me, it's great game to play against your friends. You can play through LAN or virtual LAN services like Hamachi & Garena. I love this game more than StarCraft thanks to the more joyful game pace. StarCraft is much more stressful due to the rushing pace
@thedarkart @toshineon @g8minhquan
that game was amazing they should make an HD version of that.
@thedarkart @toshineon @g8minhquan Age of Mythology? Do people still play it online? I used to play it a lot a long time ago, I remember it as a pretty damn fun game. It's kinda like Age of Empires, but with magic and stuff, right?
8 Like I remember getting my allowance and riding my bike 25 miles each way just to get this game. This was about 12 years ago. I'm 24 now. Damn that makes me feel old.
Cliffs look like crap, no really, it's crap smeared all over cliffs, that is HD texture??? I better stick with old version, works like a charm on Win 7 x64, sharp menus, no buggy multiplayer, no sh*t cliffs.
1 Like Hmm i guess I will wait for 3 months and then buy it.. so that I can play multiplier after all the bug fixes have been made.
@anakvunky @avengerb Indeed. Summer Sale should be arriving in about 2 months. Goodbye Wallet.
Probable the main selling point of this remake is that it works with Windows 7. Love this game to death but my old disk does not work on my OS :(
@CFritzRun @soygamer i actually haven't. You do that by running it as an administrator right?
8 Like After having first bought it 12 years ago, I rebought AOE 2 about a year ago at Walmart for like $10. Don't need a bug-filled HD version...
errm i have not had any performance issues and have not had any MP games crah out on me.. also never had any random people joining my friends only gaems..
It was a bit to expensive really as the only changes are the steam multiplayer from what i can see..
The core game is still just as much fun as it used to be.
Score for me would have been a 7/10 that low because its way to expensive for what is basically a re-release of a game with the addition of multiplayer via steam...
Also why is it called HD i could not see a way to change the resolution to a HD resolution..
I played The Conquerors regularly for about ten years. My favorite civs were the Huns and the Mongols. Always, the largest random map. Always single player. No game was the same. Each map was a little different, and the game would go differently depending on events at the beginning. I would love to play in 1920x1200. I never could do that before... But I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to rekindle this old addiction of mine.
9 Like i remember going to the store looking for video games and finding games like this and falling in love with them..
i mean this game was EDUCATIONAL! you could ask any history teacher about this game, guarranted they've heard of it. ignore the graphics, love the gameplay
if it wasn't for this game, i never would've learned about little skirmishes/battles
el cid, erik the red, montezuma, etc i hadn't even heard those names until i played this game and i actually got to learn about the huns,koreans,mongols britons ,etc from THEIR perspective and not how history (america) portayed them to be.
it gave me such fond memories i got to witness the spanish destroy the aztec empire, genghis khan take over the world, the japanese korean war, etc
if this generation wasn't so focused non RTS games,
maybe they could give this game a try and actually LEARN something..and have fun while they're at it. this is probably one of my favorite games of all time..but the price tag isn't worth it, even for HD, it's better to just go online and order a $5 complete edition and enjoy that. (you can get a used copy of just vanilla for less then a $1! )
1 Like @axelx666 Well, wasn't this game made by Americans? So technically it's still "the American perspective" you are seeing. I mean, they probably did their researsh by looking at the same texts as everyone who wrote history books did. It's still educational though, not trying to dispute that (Correct use of the word "dispute"?)
1 Like @axelx666 I'm pretty sure those events happened well before "america" as you call it, could portray them
15 Like This probably would have been a success...if Ensemble Studios were still around.
Personally, I was waiting for Age of Empires IV: Age of Kings II...or something along those lines. Imagine Company of Heroes graphics and gameplay, tied into the empire building of Age of Empires. Age of Empires III wasn't quite a success because they deviated from the formula: Knights and castles = More interesting than muskets.
What are RTS gamers who are fans of the Medieval genre waiting for now? The next Warcraft? Settlers? It's a wide open vacancy that needs to be filled with an innovative game, preferably with "Cataphracts" and "Feudal Knights"...not "Space Marines" and "Marauders." The Settlers kinda hits the mark...but they miss it by putting in too much micro-management.
Stronghold? If they make a game like the original, get rid of all the childish stuff lately, and make a brutally realistic rts with blood and gore and have sieges the way they were meant to be depicted...then why yes, I think you'd have a competitor.
2 Like @d_kell411 You hit the nail on the head. The last awesome RTS I played was Warcraft 3.
3 Like Sadly those people who enjoyed the 90s - 2000 era of RTS are gone. replaced by a new generation who largely prefer to play action and shooting games on consoles or casual games. RTS has also been in hot competition with MOBAs which dominates the "rts" genre because it simplifies RTS to only 1 unit. sigh... it's like people don't have the patience or brains to play those games any more. and because of this the market is struggling to push out those new titles.
@Firzenzo Agree with all except the "MOBA" think. A MOBA is in no way anything like an RTS. It's like saying that the FPS genre simplified the RTS genre into one unit, or that the racing genre simplified the RTS genre into no units at all. They are their own genre.
1 Like no its not lol that's a bit exaggerated. driving games didn't used to have u controlling like 20 cars. well, its hard to tell wat MOBA even is its like RTS and ARPG hybrid. im just saying that without first playing WCIII, DotA and other MOBAs wouldn't have burst into the industry like it did.
1 Like @d_kell411 game publishers just don't see the market anymore in the RTS genre. Hardly any of my friends in the real world have every played an RTS. The only RTS they have heard of is Starcraft 2 and they have nver played it.
As a RTS fan myself, I personally am looking forward toward Warcraft IV and Rome 2 total war, but I don't really see anything else in the horizon other than Company of Heroes 2 which I am not that fond of.
@soygamer @d_kell411 WARCRAFT IV!!!! I want that game so friggin' bad. I remeber playing all the custom maps back in middle school with my best friend at the time. Good times.
1 Like @soygamer @d_kell411 I agree, I haven't played a single GOOD RTS since I stopped playing AoE2. Not one. It's simply because there haven't been any.
8 Like Two lessons to learn here.
People still like classic games and classic gameplay. All games do not have to be blockbuster graphical overload FPS or otherwise overdone to death, nor does every game have to be dumbed down for a console port.
All games do not have to suck the teat of big brother Valve via Steam and/or Steamworks. Amazingly enough games were able to be sold, distributed, and have modding or multiplayer components without Steam being involved.
You love to hate on EA and other big publishers...but you love Steam. How does this make any sense when Steam has essentially replaced the publisher for so many companies and is making bank on gamers and game creators? Not to mention that people who buy games hate DRM and Steam is some of the most obnoxious DRM ever created.
4 Like @Voqar Steam is very different. While I partially agree on the DRM part, the problem with publishers is the power they have on game development. Steam can control the distribution and pricing to a large extent, but they have no say in which games get developed and how. Big publishers control almost entirely which games are made, and entirely which AAA games are made.
They are the reason that most new games have an online element, why most games are action games, why games are being dumbed down. An EA exec said proudly that they don't green-light games without online elements. A respected developer said that as a developer, you'd get a better reaction if you told a publisher you had the plague than that you want to make an adventure game. Publishers don't make niche games period. They make every game with such a huge budget, that they have to sell more than about 5 million copies to break even. You don't have any margin of error in this scale. Imagine that big movie studios would make nothing but summer blockbusters. This is where the gaming industry is right now. They are terrified of risks and this is why the industry look like the way it is.
Well as much as I hate this bit of news, I'll say ty for the honesty. I'll go knock out the achievements and uninstall the game as there will be nothing further for me in this title.
Its back baby, one of if not thee best RTS of all time, now with renewed support of online play and win7/8 compatibility
A sorely lack of enhancements and a sprung of new bugs mar this 'remake' of the all-time legendary classic
