While you could easily play random-map and multiplayer games for dozens of hours and be perfectly happy with Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, it's worth pointing out that the game contains 21 historical campaigns. Granted, high-level players will want to micromanage their armies to a great degree anyway, but having to babysit a large army while besieging an enemy base, defending a home base, and continuing to build your economy and replace units as needed can be an incredibly difficult juggling act. Left to their own devices, units are terrible at navigating through tight spaces, and they target enemy units and buildings haphazardly. This part of Age of Empires has long been a subject of derision it's a little better than it was before but still problematic. There is only one big area of the game that hasn't seen many improvements: the pathfinding.

At the top of the screen, you can see every technology you're researching and every unit you're producing, and you can get back to the relevant building at the touch of a button. You can queue up technology and units at the same time, rather than having to micromanage them separately. You can program complex routes for your scouts. You can create 'action queues' so that builders can go right back to gathering resources once they're done with construction. You can set villagers to automatically replant farms. The gameplay is just as riveting now as it was back in 1999, but it's much more straightforward, thanks to a bevy of quality-of-life improvements.

Expect lots of farms, lumber camps, gold mines, swordsmen, knights, crossbowmen, battering rams, trebuchets and wonders of the world along the way. Either way, the game flow is the same: Create villagers, gather resources, upgrade your technology, build up an army, and either attack your foe or defend your own base, depending on your play style. You usually start with a semi-established base in campaign missions. You begin with a town center, a handful of villagers and a scout cavalryman in random-map and multiplayer games. Each race also has unique units, which can range from horsemen who tear buildings apart to infantrymen who can attack from a distance. As you can imagine, finding your favorite race takes some trial and error. If you don't like those choices, don't worry: There are 32 others. The campaigns are my favorite part of Age of Empires II, as the scenarios and objectives can vary significantly from scenario to scenario.

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