Like Mortal Kombat 11‘s character-specific tutorials, these Challenge Missions seem like a great step at removing traditional genre barriers. More important perhaps is a series of what Forgotten Empires calls “Challenge Missions.” Despite the name, it’s actually meant to teach people to be better Age of Empires II players, not scare them off. I’m not equipped to judge that, as I’m a fairly middling (but enthusiastic) Age of Empires II player. Forgotten Empires claims it’s improved the AI on the hardest difficulty, programming it to use tactics that are common in high-level Age of Empires II play-and without cheating, unlike the old AI.

Different sure, and some might prefer the classic experience, but personally I’m looking forward to removing some of the busywork and focusing on tactics and army composition and the more big-picture ideas instead of worrying when I hear the shk-shk-shk of a farm gone fallow.Īnd there are some larger changes, albeit in specific and self-contained circumstances. As I said, it sounds like you can either disable many of these features or opt to not use them-but why? A lot of these ideas became standard shortly after Age of Empires II released, and it’s not a better game for their absence. These are small changes, but in aggregate they make for a smarter and less finicky game.

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