The Case

I'm a big fan of the Age of Empires series, so was pleased to hear that they were re-releasing Age of Empires II as an HD Edition. This was going to be a difficult thing to get wrong, considering how the game's original incarnation already had the RTS formula down to a fine art. Is an HD remake worth your time and money though? Or should you just stick to your old copy of this classic hit? Read on to find out.

The Trial

The first thing I'm going to do, because this is a special case, is refer you to my Age of Empires II retro review. The things I spoke about there regarding gameplay, such as the perfect balance between nations, the rock-paper-scissors variety of combat and the ease of entry into a world of base building, resource gathering and fighting with multiple units, all remain true this time around. In fact, there isn't that much to talk about with Age of Empires II: HD Edition, because you're basically playing the exact same game (with all expansions and updates).

You see, the improvements that this HD Edition brings to the table aren't related to the gameplay, or even so much the graphics as its 'HD' title would imply. No, what's been done here is that this old classic has been kitted out for the modern age. Hidden Path, the developers behind this remake, have integrated it very well with Steam, allowing the AOE multiplayer component to run on Steam servers, making it easy to invite friends to games and, likewise, join their games. This is a great addition as multiplayer and server support for older titles can often wane and, eventually, die. So with this, AoE II will have life in it for many years to come on the online scene.

The second of the big additions is Steam Workshop support. Like in games such as Skyrim or Team Fortress 2, the HD Edition can download user made content from the workshop and put it seamlessly into your game. There are already around 1000 pieces of new content on the Workshop, but I must confess, I am disappointed.

You see, the new graphical improvements to this HD remake consist of some new water textures, new fire animations and a couple of other, smaller re-textures. This is not a game that looks substantially better than its predecessor, in fact, you will be hard pressed to see any difference at all even when looking at two images side by side. If you've been wanting to buy this for improved graphics, then you may want to hold back. On the other side of this, there is now full support for widescreen, HD resolutions. So let me say, seeing Age of Empires II in glorious 1920 x 1080 is a sight to behold, if only because it's not boxed in by black bars anymore.

Which brings me back to my Workshop concerns. The idea is sound and, I'm sure in time things will improve, but right now most of the top rated mods are re-textures. Most of these re-textures are mods which aim to return the HD remake to the game's original state. If this strikes you as rather illogical, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone. Why buy an HD remake and then change what little improvements there were back to the game's original, 1998 state? But, as I've said, I'm sure that in the coming months more, better, mods will be available, which add something more interesting than farm re-textures (gee modders, way to go on that one.)

So, let's recap. We've got support for modern monitor resolutions, a very, very slight improvement to a very, very small number of textures, support for multiplayer through Steam and support for Steam Workshop. These are undeniably good things, so why am I hesitant to recommend this remake to you? Simple - the price. At time of writing it is £14.99 on Steam, which is far too much an asking price for what is essentially a 15 year old game with the most minimal of updates made to it.

The Verdict

You're really going to have to ask yourself, is £15 a reasonable asking price for one of the best RTS games of all time, updated to stand in the modern age? If the answer is yes, then you'll enjoy the classic gameplay the same as ever, except with proper resolution support and ease of playing with your friends. If not, then you can just as easily go back to your old copy of Age of Empires II and probably have just as good a time.

Case Review