Empire building has never been as much fun as it was with Age of Empires II, an all time classic RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. This classic RTS is now receiving a reboot, as is the fashion at the moment.

Microsoft have given the aging strategy game a high definition make over and will soon be releasing the updated game exclusively through Steam. From April 9 AOE II HD will be available for the bargain basement price of $20. Gamers who jump on-board early and pre-order now will receive the game 5 days early along with a 10% discount, while ordering a four pack with 3 friends will save gamers 25%.

The HD reboot is be based upon the Age of Empires II: Age of Kings game along with the content of the Conquerors expansion pack. Originally developed by Ensemble Studios in the late 90’s the mighty Microsoft has this time around drafted in Hidden Path Entertainment, the creators of Counter Strike Global Offensive.

Being HD specific AOE II HD will include multi-monitor 1080p gaming with new high resolution graphics. The original single player campaigns will be joined by the Conquerors expansion pack along with new multi-player options. As with all of the best Steam games AOE II HD will also support leaderboards, Steam achievements, Steam Cloud support and custom content through Steam Workshop.

Just as in the original players will choose to be one of 18 civilizations that will span thousands of years of history. Once convinced of your empire building prowess players will be able to then head online to challenge other Steam players in their quest for world domination.

The success of the original released in 1999 was based on the balance and variation of the tasks the player had to manage. In real time the player needs to manage resource collection and management, town building, technology evolution, military power and politics, all while fending off other empires hungry for expansion, and your resources.

While the game will challenge player’s skills the game itself isn’t very demanding on hardware. The minimum specification is set pretty low requiring only a 1.2Ghz CPU, 1GB of Ram and at least Windows XP, this may even run on the slowest of Atom CPU’s.

Buckle up people, the world may be about to have a global flashback of epic proportions with the return of Age of Empires II, a classic excuse for missing time is about to return.

Reference: Steam Age of Empires II HD