# Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

28 Hacker News commenters recommended Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 25 years (3 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for deep strategy, long-lived balance and strong siege play. Most common caveat: multiplayer and LAN need an online Steam or Xbox account.

## Why people recommend it

- Balanced play that has lasted decades (4 comments): "the dominant players then are STILL the dominant players now - 27 years later" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996781)) "AOE2 seems to have hit the correct balance point" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49702481)) "The games from 15-25 years ago are also great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48390541))
- Runs on macOS and Linux (3 comments): "this 20 year-old game just got ported to macOS last week and is available on steam" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48438856)) "AoE2 was probably the best Mac game ever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46561437)) "it also works fine under Linux (Proton)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49002400))
- Deep strategy with siege counters (2 comments): "AoE2 has incredible siege and defensive emplacements (castles and bombard cannons and siege onagers) that counter deathballs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700196)) "Watch some Hera games. The level of play is next level." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45996928))
- Ongoing updates and quality-of-life improvements (2 comments): "Watch some Hera games. The level of play is next level." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45996928)) "But with lots of quality-of-life improvements." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022174))

## What people warn about

- Needs online account even for LAN (3 comments): "you can't even connect to each other without an internet connection and steam or Xbox account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48289673)) "which does not work offline in LAN unless you connect to Xbox online services first" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567161)) "doesn't even have LAN functionality without first connecting to their servers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48583882))
- Multiplayer lag and desyncs (3 comments): "AoE2:DE is rated gold even though multiplayer is broken for everyone, and it lags." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466839)) "The lag was insane because out of 8 players, there'd always be that one guy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48739632)) "multiplayer went out of sync which ends the game" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647121))
- Poor Linux support (2 comments): "captures my microphone on ubuntu even when I toggle the in-game settings to not do so" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49171916)) "doesn't have multiplayer support on Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46822206))

## 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

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Age+of+Empires+II+Definitive+Edition&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.ageofempires.com/games/aoeiide/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition", https://hackerapproved.com/p/age-of-empires-ii/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).