Age of Empires II: HD Edition

Age of Empires II: HD Edition has enormous potential. After all, the base game is still enjoyable and visually attractive (excepting the units that were never beautiful), and you can smoothly download content from the Steam Workshop. However, the HD edition fails to improve on the original's gameplay in any way, and numerous bugs mar what should be an excellent multiplayer experience.

All told, while a little frustrating if you’re not into tons of micro-management, Age of Empires II HD with the Workshop and updated multiplayer features is an excellent title. The brilliance of the game’s design is still there, you just might need to look past its age to see it.

Do you want a modern RTS with an absurd amount of polish and visuals that make you feel justified in purchasing that high-end gaming rig? Well, you’ll want to look elsewhere. In fact, I hear StarCraft II’s new expansion is pretty great. But if you want to relive the glory days of when the RTS was first coming into its own as a genre (with a glorious palette of pixel art), then you can’t do much better than Age of Empires II: HD Edition.