Review: Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition

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Age of Empires DE is as popular now as is was 20 years ago upon release, the remaster has added a number of changes that have improved the RTS staple.

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Age of Empires II released in 1999 to lớn worldwide critical acclaim và continued khổng lồ have strong tư vấn from a loyal player base and Microsoft. In 2012, an HD edition was released on Steam and in 2019, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition was released & the simmering popularity of the trò chơi rose to even greater heights. The classic RTS continues lớn attract a large gamer base for single player và multiplayer kích hoạt and the active subreddit has over 137,000 subscribers.

In the last two weeks of October 2022, Microsoft hosted a LAN tournament for AOE2, called Redbull Wololo Legacy, the sixth tournament in the series. Played in Heidelberg, Germany, the tournament has a $200,000 prize pool, the largest ever for an AOE tournament. The Definitive Edition of the game is a textbook example of how to improve a beloved property while still retaining everything that made the original great.


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AOE2: DE introduced a much smarter version of AI opponents for single player and chiến dịch games. In the original versions, the AI increased in difficulty by cheating, meaning, the AI opponents were only capable of increasing their difficulty by making game changing concessions such as giving the computer more resources.

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But computer programming improved to lớn such a point by 2019 that the developers were able to lớn make AI opponents that could play similar to lớn a human without cheating, from skills ranging from easy to extreme. Now fighting the computer feels more lượt thích playing an intelligent human rather than a frustrating grind against an unfair AI.


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One of the most important aspects of Age Of Empires 2 is making sure the economy in-game is efficient và constant. Fortunately, for all resources on the map, villagers will immediately begin looking for a similar resource once they expire one. But until the Definitive Edition, that did not include farming.

Farms are one of most important sources of food in the games and for most players, their towns will eventually be filled with the green squares. Every couple of minutes the farms run out và have to be replanted, before DE made that automatic, gamers would have lớn click each individual và make another farm each time they ran out. This quality of life fix was a necessary step to lớn streamlining the game.


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The original Age of Empires II has a distinctive look that fans of the series, và even casual gamers can recognize anywhere. With the DE release, all the trò chơi graphics were updated lớn 4K & the trò chơi has never looked better. Some players solely spend time in the scenario editor using the great graphics to play it as a city-builder đoạn phim game.

Colors pop, water looks realistic, & most importantly, it is easier than ever khổng lồ tell different units apart. A common complaint of the game when it was first released was that it was difficult to tell who was fighting who on a battlefield. With the graphics update, there's never a problem no matter how large the army is.


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Thanks khổng lồ Steam and the player-to-player connection options it has provided, finding a human opponent và teammates has never been easier. DE made signing on và finding players of equal skill level extremely easy thanks khổng lồ creating a ranked and quick play option with surprisingly active servers.

The ranked multiplayer system allows for only a set number of maps lớn choose from và randomly assigns teammates và opponents with equal elo, a skill ranking system much like the one found in competitive chess. Multiplayer AOE2 provides a whole new fun và exciting chơi game option that many players have taken full advantage of.


In the old days of Age of Empires II, there was never an indicator of how many villagers were collecting which resource. But in DE, players can now see how many villagers are assigned where and even if there are some who have stopped working. AOE2 is a trò chơi based on maximizing your resources and unit production out of military buildings.

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The visual indicator of villagers lớn resources has allowed gamers khổng lồ more easily calculate exactly how many villagers it takes to create one unit or buy one upgrade. It is a simple update, but it's one that has improved player capability across the board & removed some of the annoying guesswork from the game.


People who haven't played AOE2 since its initial release may be surprised lớn learn just how many playable civilizations there are now in the game. Originally released with 13 civilizations, there are now 42 historical civilizations khổng lồ play covering cultures lượt thích the Aztecs all the way to lớn the Koreans.

There have been a number of DLCs that release every few months that include among some smaller changes, anywhere from 2-4 fully realized civilizations. Each is unique và enjoyable to lớn play, và the developers have managed lớn avoid making any balance changes even with so many styles of playing.


An important lưu ý about AOE2 is that when the trò chơi begins, each player can only see the parts of the map that their units have explored. The mini-map at the bottom of the screen and at the edges of a unit's vision are completely black & must be revealed lớn learn where the opponent is. Each player starts out with a horse rider that can move quickly and find out what the battlefield looks like.

Unfortunately, controlling this scout và dealing with villagers at the same time can be tricky for new players. SO DE created a way khổng lồ make the scout explore on its own. This tiny change has gone a long way to making it a better strategy trò chơi for beginners while still rewarding those who want to manually control the scout lượt thích in the past.


Originally, the only way lớn move around the map was to lớn drag the mouse and go left, right, up, và down. DE made it possible for players to zoom in and out on their maps, in order to get a wider look at their civilization & battlefield.

This chất lượng of life change was made possible by the huge jump in graphics quality that make spotting different units & buildings possible even when the camera is far away from the action. The zooming in and out feature granted players a much wider range of control.


The queuing system was dramatically improved in DE. The original version was outdated even compared lớn its contemporaries but DE made it much easier khổng lồ follow and more competitive as a result. A global queue at the vị trí cao nhất of the screen shows every unit & technology that a player has selected, so going from building-to-building to kiểm tra is no longer a tedious task.

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Secondly, being able to lớn shift-queue units has made the economy side và the military side much more enjoyable. Villagers can be told lớn build a house, build a market, & then chop a tree in one sequence of button clicks, so the player can go off and take care of something else. No more waiting around for each action to complete before assigning the next.


Along with adding a bunch of new campaigns & historical battles, as well as updating older ones, DE has also introduced co-op campaigns for players who want lớn complete missions with friends. There are many campaigns available for co-op style.

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It is a testament lớn the programming và multiplayer simplicity that the co-op missions work as well as they do. Playing historical campaigns from childhood takes on a whole new life when they're replayed with an ally.