
Of course there’s a full-scale expansion included in the Definitive Edition as well. This knowledge is attained by trial-and-error, but it doesn’t have to be and I’ll be curious whether Challenge Missions live up to Microsoft’s stated aims.
AGE OF EMPIRES II HD EDITION GRAPHICS SETTINGS HOW TO
I can’t count how many strategy game tutorials I’ve played that taught me how to move the camera or a character, but never bothered to explain why certain technologies might matter early on, what build orders might be good to start with, and so on. So often, people lose interest in strategy games because proficiency seems unattainable, and it seems unattainable because it’s poorly explained. Like Mortal Kombat 11‘s character-specific tutorials, these Challenge Missions seem like a great step at removing traditional genre barriers.

I’m not equipped to judge that, as I’m a fairly middling (but enthusiastic) Age of Empires II player. Forgotten Empires claims it’s improved the AI on the hardest difficulty, programming it to use tactics that are common in high-level Age of Empires II play-and without cheating, unlike the old AI. Different sure, and some might prefer the classic experience, but personally I’m looking forward to removing some of the busywork and focusing on tactics and army composition and the more big-picture ideas instead of worrying when I hear the shk-shk-shk of a farm gone fallow.Īnd there are some larger changes, albeit in specific and self-contained circumstances. As I said, it sounds like you can either disable many of these features or opt to not use them-but why? A lot of these ideas became standard shortly after Age of Empires II released, and it’s not a better game for their absence.

These are small changes, but in aggregate they make for a smarter and less finicky game. Every unit-in-progress (and presumably research as well) shows up as an icon, so you can keep an eye on those Knights you’re training.īest of all: Farms can be set to automatically replant after harvesting.

There’s also a global recruitment queue arrayed across the top of the screen, so you don’t need to click every building in town to check up on production. Speaking of which, you can now queue up buildings so you don’t need to micromanage your villagers as much.
