Age of Empires II has been re-imagined in high definition with new features, trading cards, improved AI, workshop support, multiplayer, Steamworks integration and more!
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—Game description on Steam formerly
Age of Empires II: HD Edition is a High-Definition remaster of Age of Empires II. It was announced in 2013 and given a release date of April 9, 2013 on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows only.
The HD Edition includes both the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. It also supports user-generated content through the Steam Workshop and multiplayer games provided through the Steam servers.[1]
With the release of the Definitive Edition, the product was renamed to Age of Empires II (2013) on official online retail stores, such as Steam.
On January 11, 2024, more than 4 years after the release of the Definitive Edition, the HD Edition was marked as retired and its name changed to Age of Empires II (Retired) on above-mentioned online retail stores. See current state section for more.
The HD Edition brought in many bug fixes, support for modern hardware, etc. It brought in new Quality of Life features like selecting 60 units at a time (previous limit was 40). Bug fixes were universal in nature, and did not need the new expansions. Ranked Lobbies and Ranked Leaderboards were added for better matchmaking.
Some features of the HD Edition were a result of being a Steam Application. User-generated content was much easier to upload and download/subscribe with Steam Workshop. Steam Trading Cards were added.
In addition, the base game received some features too:
Unreleased cover art of The Last Khans for the HD Edition
About 13 years after the previous expansion pack, The Forgotten was released. It features 7 campaigns and 5 civilizations. It required the HD Edition to be installed first. It was coupled with more bug fixes, advanced AIs and balancing.
In 2015, The African Kingdoms was released, bringing the total number of civilizations to 27.
The following year, Rise of the Rajas was released on the 19th of December, bringing the total number of civilizations to 31.
On November 14, 2019, the Definitive Edition was released, including all previous HD Edition expansions and the brand new The Last Khans expansion content, which was in development for the HD Edition too.
The development of the HD Edition was started and spearheaded by former Ensemble Studios lead programmer Matt Pritchard.[2] He brought the project to Hidden Path for development and publishing. Forgotten Empires, who were working on their own project, contacted Microsoft, following which The Forgotten became an official expansion for the HD Edition.[3]
Current state[]
“
Age of Empires II has been re-imagined in high definition. With the release of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, this product will not be updated further.
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—Game description on Steam
After the release of the Definitive Edition, support for the HD Edition was stopped, and the game client was renamed to Age of Empires II (2013). However, even after the release of the Definitive Edition, patch 5.9 was in development for the HD Edition. Very probably the balance changes planned for such a patch were made for the Definitive Edition release.
On 11 January 2024, the game was further renamed to Age of Empires II (Retired), its description was changed, and its cover art was grayed out (see infobox).
Independent modders have tried their best to keep up the HD Edition with the Definitive Edition and its expansions, by using workarounds to achieve a similar functionality. Multi-queue was implemented by replacing technologies with blank instantly dying units, so that technologies (which are actually units) can be queued with units.
The release patches of The Age of Kings and the HD Edition are named the same (patch 2.0). Release versions were reset with The Conquerors to 1.0, and have been building upon that till the release of the Definitive Edition.
The icons used in the campaign screen and the icons for the expansions are different. They are only 16px, compared to 48px of The Age of Kings and 64px of The Conquerors.
The icon for The Age of Kings is very different.
Gallery[]
Age of Empires II HD Edition Announcement Trailer
Cover photo as used on Steam
The HD Edition brought improved textures, fire animations, and fog of war.
HD Edition releases
Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten
Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms
Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas
