Age of Empires II: HD Edition

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 688 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 495 out of 688
  2. Mixed: 120 out of 688
  3. Negative: 73 out of 688

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  1. total
    Jan 27, 2014
    7
    I am going to start off by saying that I am a big fan of the Total War series and I like it better then age of empires so I am biased against this series. I had a lot of fun with this game but then I found the Total War series. Total War trumps this game in all ways except the AI is better in age of empire. If you want fun game get this but if you want a vary fun game get one Total war games.
  2. InfoGuy
    Jun 16, 2015
    7
    Just as I had guessed, there was very little change in the gameplay or visual appearance of the game, other than what would've been expected: higher definition display and support for 60 fps. I've always enjoyed the fair and balanced challenge that this game provided to players, whether new or old, and I was glad to see that the same gameplay still existed more than a decade later. ThereJust as I had guessed, there was very little change in the gameplay or visual appearance of the game, other than what would've been expected: higher definition display and support for 60 fps. I've always enjoyed the fair and balanced challenge that this game provided to players, whether new or old, and I was glad to see that the same gameplay still existed more than a decade later. There were, however, problems with this edition.

    I've had issues with frame rates dropping especially when starting up saved games with many units, which is rather disappointing, since my PC never had issues running more demanding games. At times, the frame rate never gets back up, rendering some maps virtually unplayable. Pathfinding wasn't great either, with units often times getting trapped and unable to find their way around lakes and rivers. For something that only offered a "revamped" version of graphics, it was surprisingly buggy, and I hope they plan to address these issues as soon as possible.    … Expand
  3. Melgacius
    Apr 22, 2017
    7
    1 – GENERAL

    Age of Empires II HD it's a remastered version of the original isometric RTS game that we spend a ton of time playing when we were small brats! The graphics had a little boost but the game remains more or less the same. You have those nostalgic sounds and soundtrack, and even the same menus. Those menus are already dated with a lot of options lacking that could improve    1 – GENERAL

    Age of Empires II HD it's a remastered version of the original isometric RTS game that we spend a ton of time playing when we were small brats!

    The graphics had a little boost but the game remains more or less the same. You have those nostalgic sounds and soundtrack, and even the same menus. Those menus are already dated with a lot of options lacking that could improve the game a lot but do not forget, we are here for the nostalgia...

    You can chose one of several civilizations to play with, customize the map and go, or you can choose some of the available historical missions to play.

    Multiplayer is alive and kicking, and that was the first time I've experienced it. I've sucked!

    2 – GAMEPLAY

    Age of Empires it's still a great game. The AI always had some issues, and now it still has. For the core players this will be a easy and exploitable game, but it gives some illusion of depth for the casual gamer. Either way it's very fun to play, it's fun to try to find the perfect balance between resources and armies, try to boost economy, and crush all the opponents.

    The replay value is immense. You can customize each map, you have the missions and the multiplayer. Even the tutorial is interesting.

    Overall it's still a very actual game.

    3 – CONCLUSION

    I have some issues with the game. OFC I'll recommend it, the game it's great, but it seems a lazy remake, since a lot of stuff could easily be improved, menus could be updated without losing the classic feeling of the game. But now it very easy to find this game almost for free so, I do not care with nothing of that stuff. Just buy it and have fun!    … Expand
  4. Gracz-org
    Aug 8, 2017
    7
    Age of Empires II: HD Edition jest świetną okazją, żeby pokazać komuś, kto nigdy nie miał styczności z tą serią jak wyglądały kiedyś gry. Bowiem mimo możliwości ustawienia wysokich rozdzielczości gra wygląda dalej prawie tak jak w 1999 roku - co dla jednych może być zdecydowanym plusem, a dla innych z kolei dyskwalifikować nowego-starego AoE na całej linii. Osobiście grałem bardziej dlaAge of Empires II: HD Edition jest świetną okazją, żeby pokazać komuś, kto nigdy nie miał styczności z tą serią jak wyglądały kiedyś gry. Bowiem mimo możliwości ustawienia wysokich rozdzielczości gra wygląda dalej prawie tak jak w 1999 roku - co dla jednych może być zdecydowanym plusem, a dla innych z kolei dyskwalifikować nowego-starego AoE na całej linii. Osobiście grałem bardziej dla przypomnienia sobie „starych” czasów i muszę się przyznać, że pewne wspomnienia wróciły… w końcu gry z czasów dzieciństwa pamięta się przecież najlepiej. Trzeba jednak zdać sobie sprawę, że te czasy już nigdy nie wrócą, a próby „wskrzeszenia” tytułów z tamtego okresu nie zawsze muszą się dobrze skończyć. Czy zatem Age of Empires II: HD Edition warte jest uwagi? Ciężko mi jednoznacznie odpowiedzieć na to pytanie, ponieważ darzę serię wielką sympatią. Potraktował bym jednak grę bardziej w charakterze ciekawostki, która niekoniecznie musi kogoś zainteresować. W końcu nie wszyscy przepadają przecież za serią, a bardziej oddani fani sprawdzili już grę na wszystkie możliwe sposoby… Decyzję pozostawiam więc każdemu z osobna.

    Pełna recenzja dostępna jest na blogu Gracz.org    … Expand
  5. kajt
    Sep 4, 2020
    7
    Well, DLS are quite expensive for so old game, but i play it almost every day.. i guess it means something. Most important, multiplayer lobby work nicely on steam.
  6. eraybeycik
    Dec 24, 2020
    7
    Jesus christ wtf is relic ? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR HAVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
  7. Ultrasonic90
    Dec 30, 2020
    7
    One of the best hd edition version of a nostalgia game. Visits important events in history. Unfortunately gameplay is a bit shallow such as troops' movements and attack. Overall it is a nice game but still need some improvements.
  8. Misterdiony
    May 17, 2021
    7
    The HD Edition adds a great graphic update, but is overall not changing much. Back in 2013 it surely was a great graphic enhancement, but it lacks tuning old issues and gameplay parts.
  9. 10k_Volts
    Apr 13, 2013
    6
    This is basically the equivalent of downloading a mod that adds 1080p resolution support and a couple of texture changes/brushups most noticeably in the HUD and water/fire effects. Outside of this everything else is the same old Age of Empires II. After paying $20 for that It's a bit of a letdown honestly, there's so much more that could have been added to the game to really bring out theThis is basically the equivalent of downloading a mod that adds 1080p resolution support and a couple of texture changes/brushups most noticeably in the HUD and water/fire effects. Outside of this everything else is the same old Age of Empires II. After paying $20 for that It's a bit of a letdown honestly, there's so much more that could have been added to the game to really bring out the best of it but apart from a couple of additional parameters in standard game creation nothing has been considered or added even as a voluntary thing.

    The positive thing about this release is the workshop which I am sure will very quickly come to contain thousands of mods that hopefully address these issues but I do believe that it shouldn't be on the community to sort out problems the devs can't be bothered worrying about.    … Expand
  10. Klewer
    Jul 15, 2015
    6
    As someone who never played the original and came in as an RTS fan, I found this quite underwhelming in most aspects. While you can forgive the aesthetics due to age, the actual game play and AI leaves a bit to be desired. The pacing is a little average, units variety is actually very good and plenty of different buildings/upgrade paths for a variety of strategies. The worst part is theAs someone who never played the original and came in as an RTS fan, I found this quite underwhelming in most aspects. While you can forgive the aesthetics due to age, the actual game play and AI leaves a bit to be desired. The pacing is a little average, units variety is actually very good and plenty of different buildings/upgrade paths for a variety of strategies. The worst part is the AI, and it is so integral to all modes except Multiplayer. I tend to play Single more and for me it really lets down what would otherwise be a great game.… Expand
  11. BudSpencer
    Apr 20, 2013
    6
    UNBELIEVABLE! It´s a bad edition. Why? Because you have nearly no options. Not even resolution options. The game automatically fits your desktop resolution. Why it´s bad,.....because the animations of the boats, units and all the nice animations they had, which we AoE players enjoyed, are unrecognizable anymore, thanks to the damn 16:9 resolution. I want a 16:9 picture, but with less FieldUNBELIEVABLE! It´s a bad edition. Why? Because you have nearly no options. Not even resolution options. The game automatically fits your desktop resolution. Why it´s bad,.....because the animations of the boats, units and all the nice animations they had, which we AoE players enjoyed, are unrecognizable anymore, thanks to the damn 16:9 resolution. I want a 16:9 picture, but with less Field of View. I want a zoom/fov option for this game. And there are even more problems! It´s HD, but the graphics stayed the same. For such a price (18,99) they could at least have been updating the textures and also making the old AoE 2 style optional as an option in the options. Switching between old textures and new textures would be a great fan service. For such a high price i expect at least these changes! Also the singleplayer laggs. Yes the damn Singleplayer laggs! Framerate issues and the unit animations, skip frames and through that, they don´t look smooth anymore. Thankfully that can be fixed through patches, just as the resolution problem. It´s about 20$, 18,99€ in Europe. That´s too much for such a ****ty edition! I expected more. At least they did a great job including Workshop and Mutliplayer. Trolled! The multiplayer is lagging and you have connection issues. But that´s something that can be fixed through patches...again. I hope they patch the game...unbelievable. I´m very dissapointed from this edition. I hope I can buy it as soon as they fixed it. Don´t buy it yet. Wait for the Steam Sale and the patches. You can play it, but it´s just AoE 2 Conquerors with higher resolution, some bugs and laggs.… Expand
  12. kykinson
    Dec 6, 2013
    6
    AOE2 HD is one great game and gives back the old school feelings. In april they gived us the same version of the game we had in 1999 but now buggy. In the last year they fixed almost all the bugs and glitches. This game is good but not the best.
  13. sirPetanek
    May 23, 2015
    6
    CZ:
    HD re-edice jedné z nejznámějších strategií všech dob nepřinesla prakticky žádné změny, kromě podpory platformy Steam a HD rozlišení. Ve výsledku je tak velmi těžké hru hodnotit, neboť hra jako taková přežila několik let a stále patří mezi špičky v rámci RTS žánru, na druhou stranu bych od vývojářů očekával trochu více snahy.
  14. Wolfenseer
    Aug 23, 2013
    6
    Age of Empires 2 is a fantastic RTS game which was a trendsetter in its genre and a entertaining time sink. So naturally with a remake of such a game there is very little to truly get wrong especially if the source material is a well liked game. However, Age of Empires 2 HD does not live up to the idea of a HD remake, especially not a release worthy of the price tag set which in allAge of Empires 2 is a fantastic RTS game which was a trendsetter in its genre and a entertaining time sink. So naturally with a remake of such a game there is very little to truly get wrong especially if the source material is a well liked game. However, Age of Empires 2 HD does not live up to the idea of a HD remake, especially not a release worthy of the price tag set which in all honesty is pretty steep for exactly what you get.

    So what do you get for your money? Well the HD in the title seems pretty much exclusive to the better resolution support and improved water textures, as for other artwork it simply does not feel clear and crisp, as what one would expect from the title. This is not terribly surprising given the engine seems more or less the same, so there is only so much new artwork could do for it. If your expecting visuals to rival rts's of today then i am afraid you'll be sorely disappointed. But overall the game is not exactly ugly, but as i said above, it lacks what you would expect from a HD edition. As for it's gameplay it is pretty much identical to the original AoE2, the same strengths and the same flaws. The uninspired AI from the original is unchanged, and any attempt to change the mechanics of the gameplay go without notice, which may be a good thing if you consider that the source material is the main draw, yet is obviously negative to the goal of a remake. Multiplayer has been upgraded, giving the ability to play online through Steam and it's servers meaning no need for Hamachi or other internet lan based alternative to play. Though the multiplayer is improved, it should be mentioned that it has plenty of issues, namely in it's coding. There seems to be plenty of examples of errors and incompatibilities that make the experience unpredictable at best, especially in large games of 4+ people. There are client side fixes to some of these problems like port forwarding, but it is obviously not ideal.

    Overall, in my opinion you do not get enough for your money with AOE2: HD, but if it is on sale or you happen to have the money to waste then i would advise to go for it if you enjoyed the original, the series or the rts genre as a whole.    … Expand
  15. Anchorhead
    Apr 13, 2013
    5
    10 for it being AoE:II
    0 for the "lazy" execution
    This "HD" AoE is the same AoE we all know, with all its good things. BUT with all its bad things too! Other than cranking up some textures, some for the better, some for the worse and the removing of LAN support, they didn't change anything. With that said, I don't care about graphics. What I care about are "quality of life" features I    10 for it being AoE:II
    0 for the "lazy" execution

    This "HD" AoE is the same AoE we all know, with all its good things. BUT with all its bad things too! Other than cranking up some textures, some for the better, some for the worse and the removing of LAN support, they didn't change anything. With that said, I don't care about graphics. What I care about are "quality of life" features I simply expect from a RTS game that is being released in 2013. AoE:II is old and you can't only tell by its graphics.

    Arbitrary low number of units that can be selected at one time (how are you supposed to manage your army of 400 units???), horrible path-finding, no real attack move, selecting more than one recruiting-building so that it divides the units between them doesn't work ect. Those were acceptable 15 years ago but not any more!

    If you plan to play multiplayer, go for this version. If you don't then you probably should save yourself the 20$ and get the Forgotten Empires mod which also has a resolution fix for up to 1080p.    … Expand
  16. Smarticus
    Apr 15, 2013
    5
    I bought this game for nostalgia purposes. I loved AOE2 when it came out. Unfortunately, this is the exact same game and they didnt fine tune any gameplay mechanics at all. To me, it just seems like a lazy reboot of the series. The original was good, but it wasnt perfect. There was room to make this version better. Instead, all they did was update a few textures and integrate the SteamI bought this game for nostalgia purposes. I loved AOE2 when it came out. Unfortunately, this is the exact same game and they didnt fine tune any gameplay mechanics at all. To me, it just seems like a lazy reboot of the series. The original was good, but it wasnt perfect. There was room to make this version better. Instead, all they did was update a few textures and integrate the Steam workshop. Within a few minutes of playing, I noticed a bunch of things that could very easily have been improved in the gameplay. Sadly, this re-release seems half-assed.… Expand
  17. faceless-1
    Jun 24, 2013
    5
    AoE II is legendary game, but this HD edition is rushed cash in on legendary game. It is very buggy and almost no graphics update. If you already got AoE II this is total waste.
  18. armchairjerk
    Apr 23, 2013
    5
    Memories are sometimes best left in the past. Not worth the cash for this game of your childhood, it will let you down. Highly disappointing brings nothing to the table, time was cruel to this game and you will be let down.
  19. BalicanBreeze
    May 3, 2013
    5
    AoE 2 HD is a re-release of AoE2 with a very slight face lift. Sadly, it doesn't do anything to bring the UI into the new millennium and is missing key features that should be in all modern RTS releases. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but when asking a full price for this game, it should be updated more than it is.
  20. Steamcausedthis
    Jul 24, 2013
    5
    What really hurts this game is the nostalgia from years of aging combined with the delivery of modern day expectations.

    First, I am disappointed on the (stated several times) textures provided to constitute as HD most of the textures such as the farms and fire do look better but they werent really needed. Second the price point for a game that is 10 years+ old is beyond disturbing, I    What really hurts this game is the nostalgia from years of aging combined with the delivery of modern day expectations.

    First, I am disappointed on the (stated several times) textures provided to constitute as HD most of the textures such as the farms and fire do look better but they werent really needed.

    Second the price point for a game that is 10 years+ old is beyond disturbing, I would have probably turned a blind eye if it was 10 maybe 15 dollars but at 20 I feel that steam along with Microsoft is just capitalizing on an old product that was arguably one of their better in the Age series along with the hype brought on by the release of the fan "expansion" forgotten empires that brought about many changes to the game along with interest in the series.

    Leading to my third point the fact that Forgotten empires will most likely never come to port on steam. The expansion brought about alot of bug fixes adding of new races and units and even included some updated textures for buildings, etc. I do realize that something that was added material to the original shouldnt affect my scoring for the HD port to steam but sadly it does weigh in to my experiences with current online play.

    Thankfully the things I felt that steam did well into having this game added to their list is the ability for players to play online without the help of things such as Game Rangers ever since the "Zone" went extinct. I also like to believe that having more people buy into the franchise will eventually allow a new release that will mimic that same staying power as AoE and AoE2 etc.

    tl;dr
    If you want to re experience this old gem with online play added back in the mix and historical campaigns go for it..
    If you are hoping this release was going to breathe life into an old series well, at least its not teaming with Brazilians and Italians!    … Expand
  21. Representer
    Dec 4, 2013
    5
    I'd like to give this game a 10, for nostalgic reasons. Back then this was a great game and probably the best RTS out there. Today it is lacking a lot. I am not talking about graphics, allthough for a Full HD Version which costs 20 bucks I expect more. It is the gameplay which, in comparision to Starcraft 2, feels boring and slow. It is also the story and presentation which in no way canI'd like to give this game a 10, for nostalgic reasons. Back then this was a great game and probably the best RTS out there. Today it is lacking a lot. I am not talking about graphics, allthough for a Full HD Version which costs 20 bucks I expect more. It is the gameplay which, in comparision to Starcraft 2, feels boring and slow. It is also the story and presentation which in no way can compete with todays standards.
    So for me AoE II: HD is a classic, but not one that works well compared to todays standards.    … Expand
  22. GameJoin
    Mar 18, 2019
    5
    Although being great in 1999 (I grew up with AoE series), this game hasn't aged well. Tons of quality-of-life features are missing compared to newer RTS games, and the balancing is terrible. However, the theme is nice and you get a lovely nostalgic trip. But for new players that haven't grew up with the AoE series, I honestly wouldn't recommend this.
  23. 223kazin
    Apr 23, 2013
    4
    I love, love, LOVED AoE2 and have owned it almost since it's release all those years ago. I like the fact that they brought out the defib to bring it back to life, but they really didn't do anything with it besides tack on a 20$ price tag. Everything the developers did with this release was already done with the Forgotten Empires mod, for free(Assuming you owned the original game). I can'tI love, love, LOVED AoE2 and have owned it almost since it's release all those years ago. I like the fact that they brought out the defib to bring it back to life, but they really didn't do anything with it besides tack on a 20$ price tag. Everything the developers did with this release was already done with the Forgotten Empires mod, for free(Assuming you owned the original game). I can't in good faith give this game the 7+ rating I sincerely want to give it.

    What really irks me is that it's been completely stripped of LAN. AoE2 was /THE/ game to lan party it up. Anyone that played it when it was still fresh knows what I'm talking about. This reeks of sacrificing the game to hit piracy. Something pretty much everyone condemns EA and their ilk for. It's not even successful, the game is still piratable and pirates can still play with eachother.

    I really hope the developers at Hidden Path have more in store for us than what's been presented so far. Perhaps the Steam Workshop will kick the game into overdrive? It's always been an amazing game and still is an amazing game, it's just disappointing how they had so many opportunities to fix some of the problems with AoE2 but didn't capitalize on any of them, and instead just implemented the exact same changes already done in Forgotten Empires(Unit cap increase, higher resolution support, etc etc)    … Expand
  24. pinoybboy2004
    Oct 25, 2013
    4
    As much as I would love to give a positive rating I can't! I grew up playing this game and have logged several thousand hours over the years. When I saw that it was remade for steam as an HD game I figured that they would have made some other important changes and added more to it. It's simply a repackaged game with the SAME coding as the original. The only positives are that the onlineAs much as I would love to give a positive rating I can't! I grew up playing this game and have logged several thousand hours over the years. When I saw that it was remade for steam as an HD game I figured that they would have made some other important changes and added more to it. It's simply a repackaged game with the SAME coding as the original. The only positives are that the online matchmaking is simplified and that I can tab alt or play in windowed mode. Other than that this game is a slap in the face to anyone expecting changes. The multi-player engine still lags with that 1999 style (even with cable modem and quad core) and the game still freezes at wait screen before and during game. It also still goes out of sync...If you're a first time player I'd save your money for something else instead of paying for a repackaged game from 1999.… Expand
  25. jakerfv
    Nov 8, 2013
    2
    This was my favorite RTS until I played starcraft 2.

    This game is not worth it in its current state, EVEN 7 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE IT STILL DOES NOT WORK!! Broken online mode means it's a lag fest, am I playing on a dial-up modem? Game has almost no changes from the original, no resolution options or anything like that or graphics options. Well why would it need graphics options? Well    This was my favorite RTS until I played starcraft 2.

    This game is not worth it in its current state, EVEN 7 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE IT STILL DOES NOT WORK!!

    Broken online mode means it's a lag fest, am I playing on a dial-up modem? Game has almost no changes from the original, no resolution options or anything like that or graphics options. Well why would it need graphics options? Well f*** me but they managed to botch the port so bad I get 20 FPS online WITH AN ATI 7950 AND A CORE I7 3.5GHZ, CRYSIS 3 RUNS BETTER THAN YOUR GAME, HOW THE HELL.

    Last but not least, it's 20 dollars, and 10 dollars for the dlc. Yeah, how about you instead by yourselves starcraft 2 for 10 dollars more mkay? The developers of the DLC should be commended but we paid 20 DOLLARS ALREADY, WHY NOT GIVE THEM SOME OF THAT MONEY AND MAKE THE DLC FREE, MICROSOFT. You know I love you guys under all this awful PR lately but COME ON.

    I have never seen, a more botched port of an old game in my life, at least with a lot of ports today it makes sense because they are just larger games, but this, there is no excuse...

    This game gets a 2 because of how much they make you pay for a broken game. A game that you can pirate guilt freely and get the FREE MODDED DLC TO WORK WITH YOUR SYSTEM. Also, the new update, CHANGED THE MUSIC AND BROKE MY SAVE FILES. The only thing this game has is that when it is fixed and lets me choose the original freaking music, than it will be a fun game, but guess what, SEVEN MONTHS WE HAVE BEEN WAITING aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the new update added more crashing issues.

    Now I came to this games defense when it was coming out, people were going on about how you can get forgotten empires (the now 10 dollar dlc for HD) for free to work on modern systems and an original copy of the game for a small price (free if you pirate, which you probably would because you probably bought the game anyway if you were defending it so who cares?.) I defended the game saying that the online and the HD port is the reason why..... Yeah I feel pretty stupid now.

    Also, it isn't out on mac or linux, despite the original being on mac. Which I find hilarious.

    So to recap:
    Broken Multiplayer (after the new update to ready for the DLC, it actually adds crashes to everything)
    Changed audio
    Horrid performance
    Lack of options
    Overpriced

    Do I sound angry? Yeah I am, because microsoft botched my childhood almost as much as they botched this game.    … Expand
  26. colossalcarl
    Jun 9, 2013
    2
    The original AOE2 was amazing in that it had very historical campaigns that made me enjoy learning about history. The graphics and gameplay were up to date for the time and it was one of the best games I ever played. I and my eight year old son moved on to AOE3 long ago and have enjoyed playing that together a lot. I thought I'd try to get this AOE2 HD version so that he could learnThe original AOE2 was amazing in that it had very historical campaigns that made me enjoy learning about history. The graphics and gameplay were up to date for the time and it was one of the best games I ever played. I and my eight year old son moved on to AOE3 long ago and have enjoyed playing that together a lot. I thought I'd try to get this AOE2 HD version so that he could learn more about actual history as opposed to the "history lite" in AOE3.

    Well I fire it up and my son says, "That looks terrible". The graphics really are not good. The interface stinks, just like the original AOE2. I was reminded of all the annoying micromanaging things that you had to do in AOE2 like create mining camps. The bottom line is that AOE2 HD seems just as dated as AOE2 does today. Will Microsoft please wise up and either create AOE4 or sell the rights to the franchise so someone else can? The fact that people are buying this polished turd is testament to how much latent demand is out there for this franchise.    … Expand
  27. Peeto
    Oct 16, 2015
    2
    Its really insulting. Buy old AOE /some collector version with 1+2 and datadasics/ and forget about this cash grab. It looks worse than the original, music is weirdly increasing volume when it wants. With better resolution it just look bad, blurred or something. Old version is crisp, still great looking game even at 1024x768 resolution. I just uninstalled it from my steam and install oldIts really insulting. Buy old AOE /some collector version with 1+2 and datadasics/ and forget about this cash grab. It looks worse than the original, music is weirdly increasing volume when it wants. With better resolution it just look bad, blurred or something. Old version is crisp, still great looking game even at 1024x768 resolution. I just uninstalled it from my steam and install old original. Its working fantastic on W10, much satisfied than with this "hd" rerelease. Very sad, I even bough this hd datadisc, which is another insult of releasing some old mod.… Expand
  28. orctown-troll
    Dec 31, 2013
    2
    One of the weaker 'HD upgrades' out there. Certainly not worth the $20 asking price, and reasonable only when at $5 on Steam sale. It's the original game with bare-bones graphical adjustments for new monitors, but no real graphic enhancements to speak of. Basically a lazy product designed to milk money out of nostalgia. The game itself is fine. The enhancements are a joke.

    Orctowngrot
  29. MaxTolenaar
    Oct 10, 2013
    2
    Uh, I know... there will soon be Donkey Kong HD and Super Mario HD. Should those microsoft guys think about Age of Empires 4 instead of raising the dead?
  30. singaboutthongs
    Sep 17, 2014
    2
    Buggy mess. Pathfinding is by far its biggest issue (most obvious with villagers and rams), but there are plenty of others. In single-player, some maps may not unlock (and "Reign of Blood" can't even be won sometimes, must restart) and the visuals are barely any improvement. Trebuchets sometimes deploy before reaching their targets, game speed setting isn't remembered properly anymoreBuggy mess. Pathfinding is by far its biggest issue (most obvious with villagers and rams), but there are plenty of others. In single-player, some maps may not unlock (and "Reign of Blood" can't even be won sometimes, must restart) and the visuals are barely any improvement. Trebuchets sometimes deploy before reaching their targets, game speed setting isn't remembered properly anymore (defaults always to normal) and villagers keep getting in each other's way. Units sometimes stagger, and performance is very poor.
    I got this in hopes that I'd have no more compatibility issues, but didn't expect a such a big collection of new ones.    … Expand
  31. RoadToSomewhere
    Sep 25, 2016
    2
    The developers of this game have not made enough changes to AOE2 to warrant a $20 pricetag, and they certainly haven't done enough to warrant it being called "HD". In fact, one of the major selling points of this game - the multiplayer - has been broken for almost a year.

    If you want to buy it, wait until it goes on sale, or just simply buy the original version.
  32. BlitzStein
    Dec 2, 2013
    1
    Probably the worst HD edition ever. Don't waste your money on this. Obtain the original game with the patch.

    The main menu displaces objects. The music is near the worst. The videos are not new nor better. The textures are not real HD.

    Congratulations Microsoft.
  33. gia
    Apr 10, 2013
    1
    I can give aoe2 tc a 100, but aoe2 hd gets a 0. Too lazy. Nothing that was added works at all. They even took away from things that worked.
    New art is bad (water is ok), other users already have put (much) better texture packs thanks to workshop which shoul dhave been used more.
    Changed the order of display of the resources on the screen, bad decision since it doesn't give any benefit.    I can give aoe2 tc a 100, but aoe2 hd gets a 0. Too lazy. Nothing that was added works at all. They even took away from things that worked.
    New art is bad (water is ok), other users already have put (much) better texture packs thanks to workshop which shoul dhave been used more.
    Changed the order of display of the resources on the screen, bad decision since it doesn't give any benefit.
    The game would probably need a source code release to fix completely.
    Did they update for modern systems? Five or four days before release their game only ran out of the box on win7 32bits, all the others had problems, win8 had a white screen if 32bit, black screen if 64, or something like that. They along with win7 64bits had to do some trickery to get their game to launch. Poor XP users couldn't launch at all because the game was not compiled for their system, Hidden Path managed to get the game to run on XP right before the official launch, but XP users couldn't benefit from the early release for pre-purchases that HP had offered.
    Not like that would have mattered much, players that could play complained then and still wait for a patch that will fix the "awful lag issue" where the fps of the game will drop like a brick if the game has any minimal amount of units running around (the sure fix is to play 1v1 with only 100 units), so upping the maximum unit count to 500, or even 1000 isn't of much practical use (also, the AI won't use over 200 units even if the game is set to 500, and according to HP it is expected behavior). There are desynchs too, with no fix. Saving and restoring a game doesn't work.
    Achievements are broken and random.
    Matchmaking is region-locked (some regions are empty), you must have players on your steam friend list or change your steam region settings. Friend or private only lobbies are in fact, public. So ready yourself to start kicking people left and right.
    The ladder system includes ALL game modes in the same ladder. RM, DM, you name it, despite some modes being able to complete games at a much faster rate. The ladder system is not very intuitive at best or broken at worst, win 15 games and get awarded 20, win three games and have a 3/2 record. The stats include any and all games played, so if you load a game with a friend for fooling around or test something, it will count too. The matchmaking is not very good on top so you have to first have people on your region, then get lucky the player doesn't rage quit early, then get lucky the game doesn't desynch, get lucky the player, whom didn't quit, was actually good at the game, meaning 30 minutes in they should have gone past dark age already!
    HP REMOVED the ping display, so you can't tell who is lagging in a game.
    The AI is the dumb AI, and will forfeit the game unless its played on anything but standard mode.
    Trebuchets will unpack one step before reaching their attack range, so they'll unpack and not fire at all.
    Hotkey changes don't load properly, you must, once in the game, load the hotkey menu for the hotkeys to load.
    Save game defaults to F12 but also Take screenshot.
    The mouse is not locked to the game screen so if you happen to move your mouse too much to the side you'll have problems with multiple monitors. HP claims this behavior was chosen by design.
    To change resolution you must change your Windows resolution (no ingame menu).
    Parts of the game load links on your default browser, others on Internet Explorer.
    "Portuguese, Chinese & Russian translation is very wrong"
    If your Steam name is too long the game will crash, you must shorten it.
    On the scenario editor when choosing exit to main menu, it will ask to save or not, if you choose no, it goes back and you are stuck in a loop. You need to save or force quit.
    Does not have version check, players with different patch versions can play a game, only for it to crash of course. Steam allows practically infinite patches.
    When playing "competitively", the game doesn't seem to care about workshop changes.
    A developer has stated the "beta testing" the community has done so far is easily worth 100k$ when hiring private entities.
    The developers are lucky they are getting 70s.    … Expand
  34. SX_Predator
    Jun 29, 2013
    1
    This is literally the exact same game as age of empires 2. LITERALLY. They didn't change anything except the graphics, which look the same anyway. Don't spend 20 dollars buying a texture pack.
  35. genghis
    Dec 29, 2016
    1
    When the Steam release of this classic RTS game was announced, I couldn't have been happier. Now soon 4 years later, it turns out that Microsoft abused the AoE series to make some quick and easy cash. AOE2HD still runs worse (lag, stuttering, crashing) than the original from 16 years ago. For the best online experience, get userpatch or use voobly.
  36. Ronivan
    Nov 14, 2016
    1
    Played a lot this game, the original version of it that is. Age of Empires II HD edition is a broken game since its launch. It may work for some, and may work terrible for others: worst game support ever, absolutely no feed back on issues; game may crash during multiplayer load without no reason, today version 4.8 three years after its release, its still happening; game desyncs for noPlayed a lot this game, the original version of it that is. Age of Empires II HD edition is a broken game since its launch. It may work for some, and may work terrible for others: worst game support ever, absolutely no feed back on issues; game may crash during multiplayer load without no reason, today version 4.8 three years after its release, its still happening; game desyncs for no internet problem, it just shut you off its horrible servers for no reason, even game like Tibia have better servers; game could not be restore, even after save, if you got desync, game over for you. The game everyone already knows how it is, so I don't need to give score for that, my score is based upon how broken the game is and how the Developers do nothing to solve its problem. Please don't buy this game.… Expand
  37. paketep
    May 15, 2013
    0
    They added a resolution fix, a couple of textures and a load of achievements, and they completely removed proper LAN support. Way to go!. Another kick in the nuts for AoE fans after AoEO.
  38. Amathev
    Apr 9, 2013
    0
    Age of Empires 2 is a great game, but not a lot has changed.
    To call this "HD Edition" is seemingly confusing, from that you'd imagine that a lot more has changed.
  39. Azill
    Sep 17, 2013
    0
    5 months later and the game is STILL BROKEN! I STILL get choppy fps (i'm on a gtx 670 by the way),the steam workshop with the game is totally borked most of the time and they never fixed any of the problems that the vanilla version of AOE 2 had. I will NEVER buy another game from hidden path again in my life.
  40. oso
    Jul 18, 2013
    0
    This is just another attempt to squeeze money from a dead series. The title 'HD' is a joke cause its the same scaled up textures also it doesn't offer any new gameplay featuresat all. We quickly stopped playing it because of the serious performance issues it has. By that i mean constant desync and lag problems during multiplayer gaming.
  41. aca121
    Apr 10, 2013
    0
    First of all, it's not HD, it's literally the same. The game itself has a lot of issues and many are complaining about it at Steam forum already. Multiplay is heavily bugged, just unplayable and the dev team has not said a word about it since. Don't buy this game.
  42. fzzzt
    Apr 24, 2013
    0
    The game doesn't work. Multi-player starts, then gets out of sync instantly. To me, this means it's defective. (Yes I have forwarded the ports.) Lame.
  43. miektwo
    May 13, 2013
    0
    Now I don't usually write reviews but i wanted to make it clear to potential buyers of the big issues this release has. The game is great but the lack of support the developers give to the game is shocking. Multiplayer is practically unplayable after 15mins due to lag/stutturing/desync and the support forum is ignored.

    I would stay away till they give the game some love if they ever do.
  44. willkzhang
    May 18, 2013
    0
    It's a really bad game in comparison with both the original game and modern competitors. It introduced plenty of new bugs and the graphic quality is not improved at all.
  45. Dzyann
    Jun 15, 2013
    0
    I love AoE2! This HD version after so many years should have been way better.
    As another user on Steam said:
    Adding "official" 1080p support HD and does not demand a price of 20 euros. Even people that loves this version of the game and is playing it happily had huge problems to make it run. For example, one of them told me on one of my posts at Steam about how he downloaded the game    I love AoE2! This HD version after so many years should have been way better.
    As another user on Steam said:
    Adding "official" 1080p support HD and does not demand a price of 20 euros.

    Even people that loves this version of the game and is playing it happily had huge problems to make it run. For example, one of them told me on one of my posts at Steam about how he downloaded the game like 5 times over 6 hours while he was troubleshooting it.

    To be able to change the resolution you have to change the resolution of the computer. And if you have some problem in your eyes, forget it! the Texture/image of the units is so bad that that or you have your computer on 800x600 or you will get a headache. Is that really an improvement to put the game up to date with newer systems?

    The "start" screen where you can select what to do (play, change options, etc) looks worse than the "start" screen of the original game. That such a basic thing hasn't improve tells you what the general state of the game is.
    I actually sent an email to the developers and so far the only thing I got is an email of them telling me they were told to resend all feedback to Microsoft.

    The only thing they put up to date with this game was their pockets. This is a franchise that has a huge fan base, they realized that if they tried to revive the game lots of people would buy it out of nostalgia and in hopes of having a gaming better experience than with the original one. And they have used the community as beta testers.
    It is an insult to the consumers and other Studios that make a point of releasing quality games but don't have such big fan base to profit from.    … Expand
  46. proto91
    Jun 28, 2013
    0
    AOE fans probably own two copes of AOE II: AOE II and Age of Kings. Then we get charged $20 for something that has already been done by the community? This is a joke. Dont waste your money, you can get resolution increases for free without the extra bugs.
  47. anr96
    Jul 28, 2013
    0
    I pre-ordered the game, but never able to run it. I following the forums, read the reviews etc. but still no solution for me, and I'm not alone with this problem. This game is simply an unfinished patchwork. This game is ready when the Community is finishing it, until then avoid it, and buy the original.
  48. Yoshan
    Aug 7, 2013
    0
    I bought this remake to play it with friends online, but the game starts to lag after about 10 minutes and is unplayable. I thought it would have better graphics, but the only thing that changed is that it has a higher FOV.. and all this for only 20€
  49. Alekso
    Sep 6, 2013
    0
    The game is excellent and graphics awesome, but it is SUCH a shame there is no Mac version. Come on, the game is on Steam, what is it it cannot be shipped to Mac
  50. Cioby
    Dec 24, 2015
    0
    Overrated game, I barely liked it in the past, why would I like it now. They added HD to the name, which means they added slightly higher resolution textures which still look like **** Besides the fact that you can make unique units for every faction, I don't see anything good about this game. You want an actual strategy game where units aren't completely retarded, play Stronghold CrusaderOverrated game, I barely liked it in the past, why would I like it now. They added HD to the name, which means they added slightly higher resolution textures which still look like **** Besides the fact that you can make unique units for every faction, I don't see anything good about this game. You want an actual strategy game where units aren't completely retarded, play Stronghold Crusader for RTS and TotalWar series for RTS/actual empire/cities management.

    I really tried to like this game, but I couldn't. Seeing units run after enemy cavalry like idiots, just makes you wanna burn your PC or switch to consoles, to play idiotic games, on an idiotic platform.    … Expand
  51. flatmush
    Dec 22, 2013
    0
    Can't even set the resolution

    If you own a 1280x1024 monitor then this game will not even run at the native resolution and will run at a lower (and much blurrier) resolution than the orignal game did. As such this fails at the first hurdle. There is no support for the game and it's little more than a hacked binary and some with some previously free mods stacked on top. As others have    Can't even set the resolution

    If you own a 1280x1024 monitor then this game will not even run at the native resolution and will run at a lower (and much blurrier) resolution than the orignal game did. As such this fails at the first hurdle. There is no support for the game and it's little more than a hacked binary and some with some previously free mods stacked on top.

    As others have stated, even if you put aside the fact that the game is actually less stable than the original there are no beneficial changes, this is literally a just very lazy cash grab.

    The real icing on the cake is that whenever you launch the game it will load a launcher app containing an embedded Internet Explorer window with many invalid links and a script error that you have to cancel before you can actually play the game. Avoid this at all costs.    … Expand
  52. proteuss2585
    Jan 6, 2014
    0
    Its exactly the same old Age of Empires, NOTHING new besides the horrible multiplayer with tons of bugs, lag (sometimes about 2 seconds of delay) and connection problems. A lot of people cant play because 10 seconds after the game starts, every player get disconnected because someone is "out of sinc".

    Dont buy it, just play the old Age of Empires with hamachi, there are not dedicated    Its exactly the same old Age of Empires, NOTHING new besides the horrible multiplayer with tons of bugs, lag (sometimes about 2 seconds of delay) and connection problems. A lot of people cant play because 10 seconds after the game starts, every player get disconnected because someone is "out of sinc".

    Dont buy it, just play the old Age of Empires with hamachi, there are not dedicated servers, so its really the same.    … Expand
  53. bigman
    Jun 12, 2014
    0
    Just overrated game, there is nothing HD in this game, its purely hoax and a big lie. it only zooms out that you cant even see any units and call it HD
  54. Migasuke
    Mar 6, 2017
    0
    Age of Empires 2: HD edition is very similar to previous AoE2, with several bonus features. Obviously one of the features is to play in HD, but only the pixels are managed, the graphics remains basically same like in the previous old AoE2.
  55. Vectis99
    Sep 5, 2019
    0
    More than anything else, Age of Empires II HD (or "2013" these days) caters to nostalgia. The games core design principles come straight out of the era the original was released in, with all of the oddities and quality of life shortcomings foreign to more modern real time strategies. That being said, thanks to modern internet speeds and development practice, the game has been heavilyMore than anything else, Age of Empires II HD (or "2013" these days) caters to nostalgia. The games core design principles come straight out of the era the original was released in, with all of the oddities and quality of life shortcomings foreign to more modern real time strategies. That being said, thanks to modern internet speeds and development practice, the game has been heavily patched to have even finer-tuned balance and smoother multiplayer than ever before (without heavy use of 3rd party tools). It is even compatible with some of the DLC releases.
    For those coming to Age of Empires II from outside the series, there are definitely quite a few low quality-of-life design elements which introduce a steep learning curve and tedious micromanagement tasks. But if you can look past it, the game's thriving community, extremely refined balance, and comprehensive mechanical unity make it a solid title.

    I can't fathom why this is marketed so heavily on the graphical overhauls, but I suppose that is a personal thing. I would definitely not consider the graphics of this game much revolutionized compared to the original. I much prefer the very archaic graphic style myself, so this doesn't bug me too much. If you are *really* looking for an aesthetic overhaul, the upcoming "definitive edition" of the game promises that.

    At the time of writing, it is hard to predict what the impact of AoE II: Definitive Edition will have on the playerbase, but it is booming and not troublesome to me at all. No matter the speedbumps, this game is showing no signs of fading away.    … Expand
  56. Valgeth
    Oct 3, 2020
    0
    By far the most shameless re-release I've ever seen, there's nothing of value they changed, absolutely nothing.
  57. killerman64
    Jan 1, 2021
    0
    This game is the best RTS game for Nostalgia. You can enjoy 8 player civilization matches from the middle ages in various range.
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Awards & Rankings

53
#53 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
25
#25 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 20
  3. Negative: 1 out of 20
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 5, 2013
    65
    Mixed emotions, overall. On the one hand we have the same graphics, not at all improved. On the other, Steam offers functional multiplayer and workshop support, that breathe life into an old game. [May 2013]
  2. CD-Action
    May 13, 2013
    55
    Let me make a list of all the changes introduced in the HD version of Age of Empires II - higher resolution. [CD-Action 06/2013, p.77]
  3. Gamer.nl
    May 5, 2013
    60
    Unfortunately Age of Empires II HD isn't a very impressive update. It disappoints graphically and not much has been done to improve or modernize it. The gameplay is still strong though, and Age of Empires II still shows how balanced and detailed strategy games can be. With the addition of the Steam Workshop there's enough potential here for the game to be given a new look. Too bad this is left up to the players though.
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