I spent most of my vacation jumping from one real-time strategy game to another: It's billions failed run here, a Command & Conquer: Red alert skirmish there. I even dug out my physical copies of it The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and the sequel from my parents' basement. The liminal space between the late releases of 2023 and the rush of January 2024 provided the perfect opportunity to zoom out (literally and figuratively) and enjoy telling little people where to go and what to do.
At some point my nostalgia turned into curiosity. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition'S Steam News Feed has been more active than that of many newer releases, and I finally decided to take a closer look. It turns out that developer Forgotten Empires and Xbox Game Studios have been releasing new DLC, updates, patches, challenges, and seasonal aesthetics almost every week since the remaster's release in 2019. This cadence, combined with the fact that 26,000 people Playing the almost 25 year old RTS on Steam convinced me to take a detour. (I played on Steam, but it's also available through Game Pass.) And it's not just that Age of Empires 2 still pretty damn good – like many I consider it one of the best RTS games of all time – it feels more important than ever in 2024.
For starters, there are now a total of 37 campaigns. This count ignores the dozens of individual historical battles, the tutorial missions revolving around William Wallace, and the eight remastered campaigns from the previous game. (Did I mention that Forgotten Empires also remastered much of the first? Age of empires and released as an expansion for the sequel?) If, like me, you prefer narrative campaigns and skirmishes against the AI in RTS games, then Age of Empires 2 amounts to a single-player goldmine.
Image: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios
While I'm always hesitant to consider the breadth of content as a quality in itself, it's both surreal and heartening to see so much new missions, cutscenes and unique units Age of Empires 2 this long after the initial release. The Forgotten Empires remaster plays like a dream, with a slew of quality of life improvements (I'm looking at you, farm queues) and enemy AI that actually knows how to exploit your weaknesses and put you in vulnerable situations to lure. Sure, pathfinding is still an albatross Age of Empires 2's neck – chasing a scout halfway across the map with an entire battalion of cavalry is never going to be fun – but it's a much smaller albatross nowadays. I can actually maneuver an entire army across a ford without half of them having to turn back to find another crossing.
When it comes to a game, that feels this is good to play, i will do all the missions i can get. I started this particular period with one Vlad Dracula (also known as Vlad the Impaler) and his campaign to lead the Turks, Magyars and Slavs against the Ottoman Empire. Each of the five missions in its storyline involves vastly different scenarios. The third, titled 'The Breath of the Dragon', is as challenging as it is exciting and tasks me with conquering the central Wallachian city of Giurgiu before defending it from attack in all directions. Its location on the banks of the Danube necessitates establishing a naval presence and sailing to numerous small settlements supplying the main Ottoman citadel of Darstor. When my Slavic troops finally entered Darstor, destroyed the fortifications and destroyed the castle, I almost had to step away to catch my breath.
Image: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios
My return to the 1999 classic begs the question: what's up? Age of Empires 4, the most recent entry in the series? I've been a fan of Relic Entertainment's sequel since its release in 2021. That appreciation has only grown as the team refines and builds on an already impressive foundation; I especially appreciate it 4's asymmetrical faction design, which makes playing the nomadic Mongols, for example, feel very different from managing China's complex dynasty system. Age of Empires 2's civilizations feel much more uniform in comparison outside of their unique units.
But through its slick mechanics, its stunning art style, its wealth of creative missions and its strong substantive cadence, Age of Empires 2 remains atop the pedestal it climbed nearly 25 years ago. I haven't even touched 'The Mountain Royals' or 'Return of Rome', the latest expansions, at the time of writing – but I fully intend to do so soon. The game's continued health is proof that, given the right time and money, a team can breathe new life into a classic in a medium known for its ephemeral works. I started up Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition on the cusp of 2024 to revisit an enduring classic; I also found a vibrant, modern game.