And what a past it is.Īge of Empires II HD is a remastered and redone re-release of arguably the most important PC game ever released. But that doesn’t change the fact that it has a past. And with Microsoft officially closing series developer Ensemble Studios back in 2008, it seemed like there was no future for the series anymore.

But nothing, absolutely nothing, released since then has had the same kind of impact. There have been many games since then, including two follow ups to Age of Empires II, and many more RTSs. It moved the genre forward irrevocably, and repercussions of what Age of Empires II achieved are still being felt today.Įnsemble, the series, and arguably, RTSs, peaked with Age of Empires II. The second game in the series Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, stood out as perhaps the greatest RTS title ever released at the time when it first came out, and possibly the greatest PC game ever made. At the close of the 90s and the dawn of the new millenium, the games were, along with Counter Strike, practically synonymous with PC gaming. It’s very hard for any modern gamer with more than a passing interest in the hobby to not have heard of Age of Empires. The last two developers listed, especially, stand out, because they took a burgeoning genre created by Westwood’s seminal Dune II, and they ran away with it, creating some of the best games of all time. PC gaming saw a massive boom during that decade, with companies like id, 3D Realms, Valve, Blizzard, and Ensemble spearheading newer and further advancements in PC gaming, faster and faster. The ’90s were a good era for PC gaming in general, and RTS gaming specifically.

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