When comparing Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War vs Age of Empires II HD, the Slant community recommends Age of Empires II HD for most people. In the question“What are the best RTS games for PC?” Age of Empires II HD is ranked 4th while Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Age of Empires II HD is:
While the graphics are slightly outdated, they were very well done for their time. And when combined with the history behind the game and its wonderful soundtrack, the game comes across as extremely polished.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easily practice the game when not playing over LAN
There is offline play available, meaning you can play single player in order to practice for LAN play. LAN as well is offline, as it uses a local connection. So overall, there is no need for an internet connection in order to play the game how and when you want.
Pro Easily accessible to any skill level
A smart AI allows for difficult games thanks to the natural reactions that the enemy can have in game, which keeps the player on their toes. Where it allows for any skill level is the fact that the player can change the difficulty level, which will make for an easier or even more difficult game, depending on what the player choose to set it on.
Pro Large hectically fun matches
Up to 8 players can play in a game, making for what can be hectic and large matches thanks to the possibility of the amount of each players forces.
Pro Expansions and mods
Dark Crusade and Soulstorm are just two of the beautiful expansions this game has(the best ones, in my opinion).
Also, a mod like Ultimate Apocalypse (for Soulstorm) brings the game to a totally new style
Recommended to play the original game first, to learn playstyle, and then play Ultimate Apocalypse so you can notice all the changes that this wonderful mod has made.
This mod is worth all the game+2 expansions by itself. Look for it on ModDB.com.
Pro Can run on older PCs
As this game is quite old (having been originally released in 2004), it runs well on older PCs.
Pro Awesome ambiance with a great finish
While the graphics are slightly outdated, they were very well done for their time. And when combined with the history behind the game and its wonderful soundtrack, the game comes across as extremely polished.
Pro Runs on very old computers
As this game is quite old, requiring only a 1.2GHZ processor and 1 Gigabyte of RAM, this title will run on older PC's and laptops alike without issue.
Pro Facilitates the user's preferred pace
This game neither gives the impression of being thrown to the wolves nor that of being left stranded on an island. Whether you want to move slowly and steadily through the game or take things at a more heightened pace, Age of Empires 2 will allow for both (given a little planning).
Cons
Con Some LAN/Internet games don't start.
Some games just get stuck into a loading screen(transferring badges screen) and won't start. If you can see this screen for more than a couple of minutes, just let the host close the game and try again.
After this screen a Loading The Map screen should appear and it can take even 5 minutes if somebody is using an old PC, but the first screen is the "bugged" one.
Con Large and not optimized
Size of the game+expansions+mod is about 10 GB. Also the game is quite aged but it is not best optimized and in 8p LAN matches it could stutter.
Con A lack of proper User Interface scaling makes a clunky UI worse
While this is a remastered edition of a classic Real-Time Strategy title, the UI was left largely unchanged. Selecting workers still prompts you to click buttons to bring up both economic and military buildings, then choosing whichever building you wish to construct. This is uninteresting design and makes the UI difficult to navigate.
On top of this, the game does not feature UI scaling. Since the game is bound to your current desktop display settings, the UI will adjust itself to match that resolution. This means if you play at 4K resolution the User Interface will be absurdly small, making it near impossible to see what buildings you wish to construct or what units you want to train. This is counter-intuitive design, for this era of modern gaming, and makes properly playing the game more of a hassle than it should ever be.
Con Age of Empires II HD is an unsuccessful remaster due to its outdated graphics
With the only notable upgrade being high resolution options, Age of Empires II HD fails at being a proper remaster. While higher resolutions give the game a slight face lift, the rest of the engine is left largely unchanged. This means the graphics we see in this remaster are nearly the same in its original 1999 release. Due to this, the game is grating to the eye and does not deliver on its high definition promise.