World history has always been a favourite subject of mine and being a gamer, games with a strong historical slant, such as Civilization hold a special place in my game library. While the Civilization series of games boast real-life cities, countries, units and historical figures as avatars, the turn-based nature of the games tend to make playthroughs to be long, dreadful affairs.
I guess many gamers found it refreshing when Ensemble Studios (now Microsoft) came about with the first Age of Empires title. Here it was, a real-time strategy game that focused on advancing your civilization from the Stone Age right up to the Iron Age, while managing resources, constructing buildings and units, and engaging in combat just like you would in WarCraft or Command & Conquer.
Yup, no more waiting for each of your A.I opponents to think and no more directing your medieval knight to move in a limited number of hexagon tiles. Subsequent sequels visited different eras in human history, with Age of Empires II focusing on the Middle Ages and Age of Empires III focusing on the conquest of the New World and the Industrial Age.
I recently purchased the Definitive Editions for both Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III and have been spending a fair bit of time on the former. Skirmish mode with multiple A.I opponents (and teammates) as well as maps modelled after the real world are the order of the evenings when I’m playing the game.
In the several sessions that I have had with the game, I’ve used both the Brits and the Malay civilizations. The former mainly because I’m an Anglophile and the latter simply because living in Southeast Asia, I wanted to see how one of the primary cultures in my country is portrayed in game.
The Definite Edition for AOE II builds upon the HD edition and introduces improved visuals and ability to zoom out, both features make for very nice screenshots. Having said that the Malay civilization shares the same Southeast Asian architecture as the Vietnamese, Khmer and Burmese civilizations, which I think is an opportunity lost.
While the Javanese/Buddhist aesthetics and candi-influenced look of the building set were not lost to me, I was expecting some Malay, Minangkabau, or even Bugis architecture to be included in the mix. In any case, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is a great game, and is definitely one for the ages (and nights).
