Units run around desperately trying to get to the nearest enemy, or the one you selected, frequently having to adjust as gaps close.

Melee brawls are brisk and, even with the new and otherwise helpful zoom feature, it can still be hard to decipher what's going on in the scrum itself-it's just a lot of shrinking health bars-so committing your force can feel a bit like giving up control. Across the campaigns and skirmishes, this familiar routine is repeated, tweaked and sometimes subverted, but while Age of Empires 2's current curators have updated a lot around it, the moment-to-moment civilisation and army management has been preserved. You start with a town centre and a handful of villagers, gather resources, plonk down buildings and expand until you've got a big army and an impressive fortified city. Those are two areas where it's largely business as usual. The result is a more consistent pace that leaves you with extra time to spend expanding your civilisation and commanding armies. Queuing up different units and upgrades, being able to drag and select armies without grabbing villagers by mistake, queuing commands-most of what I wished the first Age of Empires: Definitive Edition included has been introduced here. Quality of life improvements might not sound like much of a headline attraction, but Age of Empires 2 needed them just as much as the new campaigns and the visual overhaul.

Space empires 2 online version