A successful video game usually sticks around for a couple of years before gamers move on to the next big thing, like a sequel or a new franchise that makes previous games in that genre obsolete. Its extremely rare for a video game to remain as popular as it was even 10 years after its debut. Yet, Age of Empires II has stayed relevant more than 20 years after its initial release. In fact, the Age of Empires II community is stronger than ever, and the classic real-time strategy game doesn’t look like it will be slowing down anytime soon.
Age of Empires II hit store shelves way in 1999 and quickly became a fan favorite, proving itself worth to sit alongside legendary RTS games like Warcraft and Command and Conquer. The game's detailed city management, building mechanics and epic battles offered gamers an amazing experience while teaching them a bit about world history along the way. Fans sank hundreds of hours into Age of Empires II battling their friends in multiplayer and playing through the game's elaborate campaign.
Not much has changed since 1999, and Age of Empires veterans still enjoy conquering enemy villages while a new generation of players climbs through the ranks. After playing a few hours of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, it's easy to see why the game is more popular than ever. Age of Empires II is tons of fun and has an extremely active online community. In fact, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition had over 50,000 players on Steam in April alone. That makes it one of the most popular RTS games on the platform despite the core experience being 20 years old. Players don’t have to worry about long multiplayer wait times or empty servers. There is always a match available with tons a variety to choose from.
The key to keeping an older game relevant is regular updates, and the Age of Empires II team does an amazing job updating the game. Age of Empires II has received extensive updates over the years that add fresh features. For example, an HD version released in 2013, while the Definitive Edition came out last year. Each version is still the same base game, just with a few tweaks here and there. The Definitive Edition has beautiful updated graphics, enhanced audio and even a few new civilizations and campaigns.
There is an Age of Empires III, but it never seemed to gain a following quite like the second game. The developers for Age of Empires III were overly ambitious and tried to change too much about the game. This caused the third game to have a different feel than previous installments, turning off many long-time players. This caused many fans to just go back and play Age of Empires II and helped make that game more popular than its successor.
Age of Empires II is one of the rare games that doesn’t seem to die. The 21-year-old game is having an amazing year on Steam, beating out many modern RTS games on the platform. However the fourth Age of Empires game is set to debut sometime soon, so fans of the second game might finally have incentive to move on to a newer sequel. Still, whatever happens, Age of Empires II has cemented its place in history as one of the best and most important real-time strategy games ever.