# 0 A.D.

30 Hacker News commenters recommended 0 A.D. and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A free, open-source real-time strategy game with polished music and formations, often compared to Age of Empires. Common caveats: lag with many units and desync or forking after disconnects.

## Why people recommend it

- Frequent updates and improvements (5 comments): "Similar game but open source, looks great, frequently updated, runs on Win, Mac, Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47007994)) "a27 notably improved performance and feedback so far suggests that r28 did as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47126222)) "I'd def be trying again since they've come out of alpha with this release" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47121631))
- Feels like free Age of Empires (3 comments): "it feels like a love letter to the AoE franchise from creators who really appreciate AoE II & III" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47008317)) "Similar game but open source, looks great, frequently updated, runs on Win, Mac, Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47007994)) "is like a free Age of Empires and is lovely to play!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47671317))
- High quality for a free game (4 comments): "This is such a high quality game that it is almost unbelievable that it is free and open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47123884)) "Was very happy to find such a quality title there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47120418)) "I can't believe it's free!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666601))
- Strategic and relaxing to play (3 comments): "I find it way more relaxing than RA and Starcraft(n) and easier to manage with only 4 basic resources" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48703554)) "it forces me to strategize a bit, use at least a tiny bit of my left over brain cells" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47161780)) "it was fun getting familiar with siege engines until I worked that out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47129438))

## What people warn about

- Lag with many units (4 comments): "it lagged very bad once a few units were moving around" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47119085)) "The huge battle toward the end of the game dropping or making the game unplayable was what killed it for us." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47124805)) "I had problems with lag years ago but not lately" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47120767))
- Desync or forking after disconnects (2 comments): "if any player loses their connection even for a moment for any reason, the game either halts completely or forks so that they can't rejoin" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47119163)) "It did save in a27 for me - I had the same forking problem but was able to go back to a previous save" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47119425))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Beyond All Reason](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beyond-all-reason.md): 76 recommend
- [Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness](https://hackerapproved.com/p/warcraft-ii-tides-of-darkness.md): 51 recommend
- [Total Annihilation](https://hackerapproved.com/p/total-annihilation.md): 48 recommend
- [StarCraft](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starcraft.md): 36 recommend
- [StarCraft II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starcraft-ii.md): 32 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "0 A.D.", https://hackerapproved.com/p/0-a-d/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).