It’s absolutely unbelievable to think that ‘Age of Empires II’, in its 25th year, is still going as strong as it’s ever been. ‘Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition’, developed by World’s Edge & Forgotten Empire and published by Xbox Game Studios, is a culmination of all the years prior by remastering the original in 2019, which they still support to this day.

There is no better proof of this than its latest expansion, ‘The Three Kingdoms’, named after the real period in Chinese history of the same name. The expansion brings three new campaigns and five more civilisations to the game: the Shu, Wei, Wu, Jurchens, and Khitan civilisations.

If you don’t know about the Three Kingdoms era, it was a period of China that was ravaged by plague, famine, and civil war, and in this expansion, it puts you in the driver’s seat of three of the key players of this period. You take control of the heroes: Cao Cao, Liu Bei or the Sun clan during their respective campaigns as they fight for victory.

This era of Chinese history is fascinating, and getting a hands-on experience with each leader is as informative as it is fun. I learnt so much about China and this period while playing through each chapter that culminated in an epic final quest with the campaigns taking place on the same map, and that is something I adore about these games—it’s like going back in time. However, while it follows true history, the story will be altered through choices you will be faced with while playing.

These decisions you make during each campaign stage carry over to the next. During one stage, as Liu Bei during his campaign, I defeated the Yellow Turban rebellion and their control over the local villages, allowing me to start the next stage with more villagers of my own. Other decisions include recruiting a powerful ally or altering history by choosing to spare or execute your foes. I liked the depth of choices on display, as it adds replayability. Like the fact that the campaigns take place during the same period, meaning you have dozens of potential outcomes.

On a gameplay level, new civilisations and campaigns mean new units and unique units for us to use. Some of these are essentially reskins of existing units, such as the Hei Guang cavalry, which replace Knights, Paladins, and Cavaliers. While others, and I’ll use some examples, are new along with their passive abilities: the White Feather Guard slows down infantry units as they attack, the Fire Archer that fires, fire arrows at their enemies and my personal favourite, the Tiger Cavalry who level up as they kill other units dressed in tiger armor.

The new Dragon Ships, which spew fire at close range were incredibly satisfying to use as well as Rocket Carts which fire a volley of rockets and were effective siege engines even if most of the time I stuck with the tried and true, trebuchets most of the time.

Each hero also has incredibly powerful abilities and passives. Your leaders are strong but not invincible, though. I liked that if they did go down, I didn’t have to stress as I could train them again at the Hall of Heroes and get them right back into the fray.

The buildings are all unique to this time period, and Chinese and Asian architecture are yours to build. Golden dragon statues adorn your castles, large pagodas and palaces span the map. It is stunning from the top-down perspective, even when you zoom right in to get a closer look at the action.

Underneath it all, though, the base game experience is the same satisfying gameplay loop as always. Gather villagers, let them grow your town by building farms, mines and mills. Train your military units through barracks, stables and archery ranges. Instruct your villagers to gather materials at the touch of a button, even getting to choose what you want them to focus on, so if you need more gold, wood, or stone, you can prioritise those. Advance all of this by transitioning through different ages of tech. A stunning soundtrack plays while you strategically defeat your enemies.

This expansion adds so much to the game’s already impressive plethora of content, which over the two decades this franchise has been around, hundreds of hours of content have been curated for players to enjoy.

Overall, a new expansion with outstanding new campaigns, units, and buildings, but with the same feeling as the original, all those years ago, is a true testament to this series and its loyal fans, expanding upon the already fantastic gameplay loop. This is why I fell in love with ‘Age of Empires’ 25 years ago—and why I still love it today.

Written by: Dylan Kocins