Hey everyone! In light of the recent backlash against Blizzard concerning WarCraft 3: Reforged In my opinion, rightfully so! I have decided to extend the remaster season. To kick things off in the extended remaster season I have decided to review a remaster of a recent release, but one of the most famous games of the RTS sub-genre. Will this game restore our faith in remasters?
Let's find out!
Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires series has been synonymous of the Strategy genre in the mid-to-late 90s. The original release, Age of Kings was released in 1999. One year on, the first expansion, The Conquerors was released. In 2013. this game received a soft reboot by Hidden Path Entertainment, the developers of the hit game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Last year, this game got remade.
This game takes place in the medieval era. In 410 AD the Vandals Sacked Rome, bringing an end to the Western Roman Empire. This marked the beginning of a period of unrecorded, mostly unknown period of history, known as the Dark Ages, to the rise of Feudalism and Chivalry, to the discovery of Gunpowder.
You pick a civilisation to lead, build up your town, conduct trade with allied civilizations to boost your economy and conquer your enemies and rivals as you grow your civilization into a mighty empire.
The accessibility scores are as follows:
Visibility 11
This game is specifically tailored for colourblind players.
Like most RTS titles you can switch on an alternate colour scheme the colours of the unit's clothing relative to the diplomatic relation to your civilization. What makes this game more accessible is you can add a colourblind mode to that, so you know who is your allies and who is your enemies in a pinch, allowing you to react to what's going on faster. You can also customise the colour of the health bars of your units and buildings. In my opinion, that's how RTS games should be designed!
You can also add a narrator to read out in-game text as you are listening to my narration of the reviews I post (I hope you do!) you can understand the benefits of adding Text-to-speech in games.
Audibility 11
You can add subtitles to text so you can understand what's been said. On-screen notifications will appear if a building's construction is finished, a unit is created, and if you were to come under attack from an enemy, so you'll be able to play this game with no issues whatsoever
Mobility10.5
This game uses a point and click interface. Left mouse button selects, right mouse button issues move and attack commands to units and sets rally points for structures.
For hardcore players, you can use hotkeys on your keyboard. But these hotkeys can not be customised. The majority of the time you'll be using the traditional keyboard and mouse anyway!
Gameplay 11
The amount of content you will be getting in this game for £15 is excellent value. You will be getting the base game, age of Kings with 4K visual upgrades, Five expansions ( the Conquerors, Forgotten Empires, the African Kingdoms, Rise of the Rajas, and exclusive to the Definitive Edition, the Last Kahns) with 35 different civilizations with their own, strengths, weaknesses and unique units to choose from there are tonnes of strategic possibilities to choose from. For example, the Aztec civilization can't build stables, therefore you'll have to adapt your strategy for infantry.
In terms of campaigns, this game's got it covered. This game has over 200 hours of playtime. To put this in perspective according to Game Lengths, Final Fantasy 7 takes on average, roughly 80 hours to complete. The playtime of this game is almost three times as long! That's how remasters should be!
In conclusion, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is the best remaster you can buy. As you can tell, this is the hardest game I've ever reviewed to fault. With this game being on Game Pass, it would be criminal not to at least give this game a try!
This game has cross-network compatible between the Windows Store and Steam versions, it is so easy to find a multiplayer game. with a whole host of user-generated mods to enable, there's endless replayability. Unlike Warcraft 3: Reforged, you own the mod. This game restores my faith in remasters completely!
OVERALL SCORE 108.75
This game's score just overtook Gears 5, what a way to open the 2019/2020 season!
Now, it's time for an advertisement! Are you a student in UWS? *slowly raises hand* stressed about deadlines for dissertations? Like getting chased by zombies?
If all the answers are "yes" then head on down to the Lanarkshire campus on 13/02/2020 for Area 52. I've been to the Paisley event and I have enjoyed every second of it! Just to be clear- this is for UWS Students only! If you are coming, I'll see you there!
See you guys in the next review!
SpartanCommander1990 out!
Roll out, Spartan Company!
Let's find out!
(Best enjoyed with headphones on!)
Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires series has been synonymous of the Strategy genre in the mid-to-late 90s. The original release, Age of Kings was released in 1999. One year on, the first expansion, The Conquerors was released. In 2013. this game received a soft reboot by Hidden Path Entertainment, the developers of the hit game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Last year, this game got remade.
This game takes place in the medieval era. In 410 AD the Vandals Sacked Rome, bringing an end to the Western Roman Empire. This marked the beginning of a period of unrecorded, mostly unknown period of history, known as the Dark Ages, to the rise of Feudalism and Chivalry, to the discovery of Gunpowder.
You pick a civilisation to lead, build up your town, conduct trade with allied civilizations to boost your economy and conquer your enemies and rivals as you grow your civilization into a mighty empire.
The accessibility scores are as follows:
Visibility 11
This game is specifically tailored for colourblind players.
Like most RTS titles you can switch on an alternate colour scheme the colours of the unit's clothing relative to the diplomatic relation to your civilization. What makes this game more accessible is you can add a colourblind mode to that, so you know who is your allies and who is your enemies in a pinch, allowing you to react to what's going on faster. You can also customise the colour of the health bars of your units and buildings. In my opinion, that's how RTS games should be designed!
You can also add a narrator to read out in-game text as you are listening to my narration of the reviews I post (I hope you do!) you can understand the benefits of adding Text-to-speech in games.
Audibility 11
You can add subtitles to text so you can understand what's been said. On-screen notifications will appear if a building's construction is finished, a unit is created, and if you were to come under attack from an enemy, so you'll be able to play this game with no issues whatsoever
Mobility10.5
This game uses a point and click interface. Left mouse button selects, right mouse button issues move and attack commands to units and sets rally points for structures.
For hardcore players, you can use hotkeys on your keyboard. But these hotkeys can not be customised. The majority of the time you'll be using the traditional keyboard and mouse anyway!
Gameplay 11
The amount of content you will be getting in this game for £15 is excellent value. You will be getting the base game, age of Kings with 4K visual upgrades, Five expansions ( the Conquerors, Forgotten Empires, the African Kingdoms, Rise of the Rajas, and exclusive to the Definitive Edition, the Last Kahns) with 35 different civilizations with their own, strengths, weaknesses and unique units to choose from there are tonnes of strategic possibilities to choose from. For example, the Aztec civilization can't build stables, therefore you'll have to adapt your strategy for infantry.
In terms of campaigns, this game's got it covered. This game has over 200 hours of playtime. To put this in perspective according to Game Lengths, Final Fantasy 7 takes on average, roughly 80 hours to complete. The playtime of this game is almost three times as long! That's how remasters should be!
In conclusion, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is the best remaster you can buy. As you can tell, this is the hardest game I've ever reviewed to fault. With this game being on Game Pass, it would be criminal not to at least give this game a try!
This game has cross-network compatible between the Windows Store and Steam versions, it is so easy to find a multiplayer game. with a whole host of user-generated mods to enable, there's endless replayability. Unlike Warcraft 3: Reforged, you own the mod. This game restores my faith in remasters completely!
OVERALL SCORE 108.75
This game's score just overtook Gears 5, what a way to open the 2019/2020 season!
Now, it's time for an advertisement! Are you a student in UWS? *slowly raises hand* stressed about deadlines for dissertations? Like getting chased by zombies?
If all the answers are "yes" then head on down to the Lanarkshire campus on 13/02/2020 for Area 52. I've been to the Paisley event and I have enjoyed every second of it! Just to be clear- this is for UWS Students only! If you are coming, I'll see you there!
See you guys in the next review!
SpartanCommander1990 out!
Roll out, Spartan Company!
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