This AOE 2 Definitive Edition Tier list is based on update 36202 (most recent patch) If you’ve just gotten into Age of Empires 2 Definitive edition after not having touched the game for years your knowledge might be a little bit rusty. Especially considering the fact that over the years a ton of new civilizations have been added. See full list on ageofempires.fandom.com.

The is a list of Pros and Cons about the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
More AoE II Guides:

• Cheat Codes.
• All Civilizations Guide (Bonuses, Tips and Strategies).
• Chronological Order of Campaigns.
• Simple Fast Castle Build Order.

Intro

I have been playing age of empires on and off since it came out in 1999, after trying the DE edition I believe some features made the game drift a bit from the original classic
The following is a list of Pros and Cons based on my experience, and from what I have observed on streams and youtube.

Cons List

Game Mechanics

Setting Gather Point
Trying to set a gather point from TC to deer is very hard.

Interface / Quality of Life Features

Building Queues
Queuing units are now represented by a number on the icon instead of the classic multiple icons view.

Age Of Empires 2 Civilization List

This is rather very challenging to get a good idea of whats happening .. specially in tight situation where you toggle through buildings fast.
It would be a good idea if there was an option to revert back to original queuing interface.

Multiplayer

Map Selection for ranked games
The idea of being forced a random map from the map pool is very annoying, given that most players have been playing a few set of maps most of the time. Specially on the competitive scene.
This issue has also been tackled in video here:
Having to do performance testing continuously
Why is this necessary, shouldn't it be done only 1 time.

Graphics

Health Bar / Selection

Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Walkthrough

The new health bar looks very different and there is no way to revert back to old look.
Also the selection border for units is very thick compared to what it used to be.
Icons
Even with HUD scale maxed out, the icons still look very small compared to the classic version.
Units proportions
It feels like some units have changed in proportions, an example is paladin.

Settings

Game doesnt reset keys for conflicting actions
In classic aoe, setting a hot key for an item would automatically reset that key for all other conflicting actions. eg. if you set hotkey for building farm 'F', it automatically resets that key for all other buildings if they are using 'F' as hotkey.
Although there are warnings, they are not always accurate. Setting a button for idle villager does not give warning for other conflicting entries.

Bugs

Unable to cancel in progress research / building / production
This happens after changing HUD to exactly 125%.
Icons are not clickable once they are in progress.

Pros List

Quality of Life

Number of villagers / Idle / Per resource
It is really great that these numbers are now visible straight away rather than clicking on the economy icon.
Zooming in and out
Queuing research with unit production

Multiplayer

Matchmaking
Server Based multiplayer
Alot better than peer to peer.
Spectating any game in progress
Was only possible on voobly, wasn't possible on the HD version.
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• All Age of Empires II Definitive Edition Guides!

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