BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Age of empire 2 definite edition is a remastered version of its predecessor AOE 2 is a (RTS) real-time strategy that was originally created by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft in 1999. AOE 2 covers roughly 1,000 years of history, primarily the Middle Ages, from the fall of Rome (c.476) to the early modern period (c. 1500). is in essence a completely historical game, for people who love it.

The target is to be the last one in game.

There are 2 game modes:

• Skirmish(Single player against computer bots)
• Campaigns

GAMEPLAY AND FEATURES

Age of Empires II is a real-time strategy game where players build economies, advance through four historical Ages, and create armies to defeat opponents. Progressing through Ages unlocks new units and technologies but requires specific buildings and resources.

CORE GAMEPLAY LOOP

The starter of each game:

At the start of each game, you have a few villagers that are mainly focused on gathering resources such as food, wood, rock, and gold. Among other things, construct buildings

At the start of Age of Empires II, player begin in the Dark Age, there several ages:

Dark Age -- Feudal Age. -- Castle Age -- Imperial Age

The goal is not to advance ages, but it will allow you to improve your weapons, upper the limit of villagers, army improvements, unlock new technologies, etc.…

Initial state of resources, wood, food, golden, rock, villagers, age

As the game progresses, the players produce more villages from the town center to grow their economy and construct more buildings.

The villagers usually build:

• Economic buildings (mills, lumber, camps, mining camps)
• Houses (to increase population limit)
• Military buildings (barracks, archery ranges, mining camps)
• Defensive structures (towers, walls)

GAME PROGRESSION

One time the player fulfils the requirements to advance to next age, the player can advance to the feudal Age, by paying the necessary food cost, unlocking new buildings. And the same with each age until Imperial Age is reached, at this age player reach the maximum level of development, at this point the game focuses on continuing fighting against other civilizations and producing a lot of army units, technologic improvements.

During the game players must handle a lot of different aspects, including resources management, battlefield tactics, economic optimization, technological upgrades,scouting the map in order to win.

There can be differents ways to play such as , agro(agresive), control(defensive and building fancy thins), etc...

There are different ways to win the game:

• By defeating all opponents
• By gathering all relics
• By building a wonder
• By Time out – scoring most of the points

GENERAL AESTHETIC

Aoe 2: Definitive Edition a consist on a historical medieval theme, putting together a lot of different historical elements such as architecture of each civilization, immersive audio to create a inmersive atmosphere to distinguish each one, mediaval soudstrack, unit design.

UI & UX ANALYSIS

The UI is very straighforward and minimalist without any kind of confusing elements, it's meant to present large amount of information so clearly while allowing the player take rapidly decisiong in real time.

The UI divided in 3 main sections, the top bar include the amount of resources in real time, the minimap provides an overview of the entire game map and helping the player maintain situational awareness, then, the botton panel which change depending on the object selected, for example, when military units are selected , it displays combat-related actions, this way of presenting relevant options at every time help the player to focus on the selected elements without confusion, because in shows exactly the info and commands needed in each situation.

In conclusion, the IU and UX is though to be functional, prioritizing efficiency and control over simplicity.

And other elements mentioned before in this article.

What improvements does the UI and visuals of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition have compared to the original version?

Visual enhancements, it supports, HD and 4k resolutions, cleaner and more readable icons, scalable screen sized, the original built the graphics using 2d sprite-based graphics, and using isometric perspective and definite edition is the same but higher resolution assets. Also you can see some lihthing, shadows, and smoother animation improvements.

Most important aspect that improve the UX and UI:

• More intuitive interface design
• Fully customizable hotkeys
• Better unit selection and control system
• etc...

RULES & BALANCE ANALYSIS

As I mentioned before the player must follow a progression system throught differents Ages, Dar, Feudal, Castle, Imperial Ages, depending on reaching the specific requirements. Villager are the primary economic units for gathering resources. The resources are used to build things, train units, research technologies. The population limits it's depends on how many houses are build.

Civilizations

Each player control a civilization with particular characteristics, which is one of the key part of how the game is balanced.

Each civilization has different bonuses, units and technogies

Random maps generator

Maps are generated procedurally, so the terrain features from where the resources are take are random too.

The player has to learn to adapt to the changes, exploration and scouting become really important.

Balance System

The balance of the game is provide through asymmetrical civilization wih its own trade-off, ensuring that no single civilization dominates over other, besides the randomness of the map.

In conclusion, it's a game where the winning depends on the efficient resource managment and the tactical decision-making of the player, it has a pretty fair balanced system.

Audio design analysis

The audio design was one of aspects that caught my attention, in Age of Empire II. This game include such quality of detail, from the soundstrack to the distinct voice line of each civilization, each character has a different response depending on the command, these voices and sounds effect are inspired by the era of each civilization, for example, when you play with Britons, you can hear Old English words, like "Gearu" what means "Ready" in modern english and expresions from those years, on top of that, including, mediaval french, medieval Spanish, Nhuatl(Aztecs) language, and others. This enhance the immersion of the player and help the player player to feel it more realistic.

Personal Experience

From my perspective, The game is overral one of the best RTS game ever made, and on top of that , it is proved with the last release of AOE II Definitive Edition people has started to play a lot, from a multiplayer mode that almost anyone play since 1999 to play about 20 thousand every day. Most of the RTS games has science fiction background which make it kind of difficult to grasp for many people to play it, but with this historical background many people like me found it really easy to get into, and also for people who love history.