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Tag: sub-gems

  • Age of Empires 2 is more vital than ever in 2024

    Age of Empires 2 is more vital than ever in 2024

    I spent the better part of my holiday break leaping from one real-time strategy game to another: a They Are Billions failed run here, a Command & Conquer: Red Alert skirmish there. I even dug up my physical copies of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequel from my parents’ basement. The liminal space between 2023’s late releases and 2024’s January rush provided the perfect opportunity to zoom out (literally and figuratively) and enjoy the act of telling tiny little people where to go and what to do.

    At a certain point, my nostalgia morphed into curiosity. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition’s Steam news feed has been more active than those of many newer releases, and I finally decided to take a closer look. It turns out, developer Forgotten Empires and Xbox Game Studios have been releasing new DLC, updates, patches, challenges, and seasonal aesthetics on an almost weekly basis since the remaster’s 2019 release. This cadence, coupled with the fact that 26,000 people were playing the nearly 25-year-old RTS on Steam, convinced me to take a detour. (I played on Steam, but it’s also available via Game Pass.) And not only is Age of Empires 2 still pretty damn good — like many, I consider it one of the best RTS games of all time — it feels more vital than ever in 2024.

    To start, there are now 37 total campaigns. This count ignores the dozen discrete historical battles, the tutorial missions revolving around William Wallace, and the eight remastered campaigns from the previous game. (Did I mention Forgotten Empires also remastered much of the first Age of Empires and released it as an expansion for the sequel?) If, like me, you prefer narrative campaigns and skirmishes against the AI in RTS games, then Age of Empires 2 is tantamount to a single-player gold mine.

    Image: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios

    While I always hesitate to consider a breadth of content a quality in and of itself, it’s both surreal and encouraging to see this many new missions, cutscenes, and unique units in Age of Empires 2 this long after its initial release. Forgotten Empires’ remaster plays like a dream, with a bevy of quality-of-life improvements (I’m looking at you, farm queues) and enemy AI that actually knows how to exploit your weaknesses and bait you into vulnerable situations. Sure, pathfinding is still an albatross around Age of Empires 2’s neck — chasing one scout halfway across the map with an entire battalion of cavalry will never be fun — but it’s a much smaller albatross these days. I can actually maneuver an entire army across a river ford without half of it doubling back to find another crossing.

    When it comes to a game that feels this good to play, I’ll take all of the missions I can get. I kicked off this particular stint with one Vlad Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler) and his campaign to lead the Turks, Magyars, and Slavs against the Ottoman Empire. Each of the five missions in his storyline involve vastly different scenarios. The third, titled “The Breath of the Dragon,” is as challenging as it is thrilling, tasking me with capturing the central Wallachian city of Giurgiu before defending it from attack in every direction. Its placement on the banks of the Danube necessitates building up a naval presence and sailing to numerous small settlements working to supply the main Ottoman citadel of Darstor. When my Slavic forces finally entered Darstor, destroyed its fortifications, and demolished its castle, I almost had to step away to catch my breath.

    A small army of cavalry approaches the castle at the center of a base in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition’s Mountain Royals expansion

    Image: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios

    My return to the 1999 classic begs the question: What about Age of Empires 4, the most recent entry in the series? I’ve been a fan of Relic Entertainment’s sequel since its 2021 release. That appreciation has only grown as the team refines and builds upon an already impressive foundation; I especially appreciate 4’s asymmetrical faction design, which makes playing the nomadic Mongols, for instance, feel vastly different than managing the complex dynasty system of China. Age of Empires 2’s civilizations, by comparison, feel much more uniform outside of their unique units.

    But in its slick mechanics, its stunning art style, its wealth of creative missions, and its strong content cadence, Age of Empires 2 remains atop the pedestal it climbed almost 25 years ago. I haven’t even touched “The Mountain Royals” or “Return of Rome,” its newest expansions, as of this writing — but I absolutely plan to soon. The game’s ongoing health is proof that, given proper time and funding, a team can revitalize a classic in a medium known for its ephemeral works. I booted up Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition on the doorstep of 2024 in order to replay an enduring classic; I also found a vibrant modern game.

    Mike Mahardy

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  • Rise of the Tomb Raider is still peak Lara Croft

    Rise of the Tomb Raider is still peak Lara Croft

    It’s been more than a decade since Crystal Dynamics, the developer best known for the Tomb Raider series, first introduced players to its reimagined take on Lara Croft. 2013’s Tomb Raider painted Lara as someone capable of adapting and overcoming nearly any situation while maintaining a level of emotional depth and self-awareness, a quality the game’s sequels would go on to further explore.

    The original was an excellent game that I’ve completed on no fewer than three occasions, and while her most recent outing, 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, has its merits, I still stand by 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider as the most engaging and interesting version of Lara Croft for how it emphasizes her vulnerability. The result is a story that combines all the hallmarks of what you’d expect from a great Tomb Raider game: suspenseful supernatural elements and a thrilling and romantic notion of archaeology, all tied together with an intriguing and surprisingly emotional story.

    Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix

    Following the events of the first game, Lara is still traumatized by her trial by fire on the island of Yamatai and her father’s recent disappearance. Her quest to find her father and restore her family’s legacy leads her to the frigid peaks of Siberia and into the path of Trinity, a “Knights Templar meets military contractor” organization with a pseudo-religious goal of world domination. Unfortunately, this places Lara alone in the unique position to foil their plot, by saddling her with a truth that no one else will believe.

    Lara fully understands the gravity of the situation, but never lets this inflate her ego. Instead, she’s more preoccupied with the specter of death that inevitably follows her attempts to do the right thing. Lara can never fully atone for how her choices led to the deaths of so many close to her in the past, regardless how well equipped or tough she is. This theme is so pervasive, it even echoes in Rise’s gameplay by presenting us with a Lara who needs to be more resourceful and cunning to overcome her environment.

    Lara Croft in a red winter jacket walking up the snowy steps of a temple in Rise of the Tomb Raider.

    Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix

    Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t quite elevate Lara to the level of apex predator we get in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but she’s clearly far more capable than she was in her first adventure. The result is a character in the midst of becoming the Lara Croft known to players around the world, a more confident and prepared protagonist who can still be humbled. This version of Lara shines when she’s on the back foot, and Rise of the Tomb Raider does everything it can to keep her off balance with a more capable foe and a relentlessly adversarial environment.

    I’ll admit that on its standard difficulty, Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t present much of a challenge. Because of that, I consider Survivor Mode, the hardest difficulty, to be the definitive Tomb Raider experience. While you won’t succumb to starvation or dehydration, at this difficulty, the player’s health doesn’t regenerate, checkpoints are disabled, and foes are far more deadly. As if that wasn’t enough, by default, the game also will not highlight interactable items in the environment. While you can turn on the “Survival Instincts” at any time during your playthrough, dialing down the difficulty isn’t an option, which further reinforces that there’s no going back once the journey starts.

    Lara Croft perched on a tree branch overlooking an enemy camp in Rise of the Tomb Raider.

    Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix

    This dialed-up difficulty has the benefit of making the game more immersive and forcing you to carefully consider and prepare for every encounter. A handful of bad guys normally wouldn’t be an issue, but when just a couple of bullets can put Lara in the ground, things get a little more tense. For an added challenge, I like to rely almost exclusively on stealth kills and Lara’s trusty bow during combat, resorting to firearms only when absolutely necessary.

    Rise of the Tomb Raider still keeps some of the Metroidvania elements of its predecessor to guide you along its critical path, while the world feels more open and encourages exploration of its various regions. This is further reinforced by a more robust crafting system, which forces you to scrounge and hunt for many of the materials you need to upgrade your gear. The tomb puzzles hidden throughout the world aren’t quite as challenging as those found in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but still do a great job at shaking things up between scavenging and combat encounters.

    2013’s Tomb Raider did a fantastic job of establishing Lara as a character, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes for a fitting capstone to the latest trilogy. But for me, Rise of the Tomb Raider was the peak of Crystal Dynamic’s trilogy. Beyond its challenging gameplay, Rise offers a robust and complex narrative that shows us that the personality archetype of badass archeologist doesn’t have to constantly revolve around snappy one-liners.

    Rise of the Tomb Raider is available on Xbox Game Pass.

    Alice Jovanée

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