Age of Empires II is yet another game I have grown up with, and I truly enjoy the HD edition and new expansion as much as the originals. The Forgotten expansion is the newest release for the franchise (released November 2013) and has been a breath of fresh air for the revival of this older game.
The Forgotten not only adds new and exciting campaigns for the player to work their way through, it also adds new civilisations into the game and new game modes not seen in the original version 1999 version.
Part of the new Britons tech tree
I have always enjoyed the gameplay of Age of Empires II, and that same enjoyable gameplay is shown in their latest expansion. It keeps to its simplistic routes with an easy layout, simple rules and great ingame action. The aim of the game is to rule and conquer. You collect up your resources, build your army and attack/defend. You also have the bonus of technology meaning you can research to upgrade skills, weapons, armour, etc. When playing a standard game, you also get the choice of whether you want allies to start off with, or all enemies. If you do decide to change your mind, you can choose to give them whatever they want (normally gold) and buy them out to be your buddy.
What gives the game more depth to me is the vast choice of civilisations you can choose from. Each civilisation comes with its own research tree and unique special unit, meaning that every fight you have is different. I do like playing this game with friends quite a lot, and it’s nice that even if we keep to the same civilisations (Britons, yay!), if you set the enemy to random, you never know what you’re going to face until you’re in the action. And even if it is a civilisation you’re familiar with? There’s still 100s of different ways you can use their abilities to your advantage. The whole experience has been upgraded with the addition of The Forgotten as the possibilities for gameplay just seem endless, especially with the new game modes as well which to me are a much welcomed feature.
Graphics wise, apart from the HD upgrade, it all looks the same as the original did back in the day. It’s just nice playing the game without purple water and yellow grass now there is a better colour scheme. The layout as well is the same, the nice simplicity has been kept in there which I’m so happy about as I always liked it. Unlike Banished, you don’t have to route around to find out what resources you currently have, and things are clearly labelled which I definately prefer.
Soundscape, again, same as the original release of this game. Lovely ambient background music, villager speech when selected and given a task to do and alerts when you’re being attacked. Apart from that, not much else to it, apart from the ingame speech. Number 38 is my favourite, give it a try!
So all in all I love this game. I have done since the start and I’m sure for me it shall remain my favourite, despite any other releases there may be in the future. I’ve grown up with it, and this makeover has done wonders and if you haven’t played it before, I’d highly recommend it.
Definately a 9/10 for me. Yeah ok it’s not perfect, but there’s certainly nothing bad to it and I will love it for years to come.
-KirreeH
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