Age of Empires II: Age of Kings is getting a HD re-release. With the shuttering of Ensemble Studios which developed the original titles, its development is being headed up by Hidden Path Entertainment, best known for their work on Defense Grid.
Age of Empires 2 HD Edition is set to launch on April 9 through Steam and includes both the Age of Kings original campaigns and the Conquerers expansion. The game is being made with Steamworks in mind and will offer achievements, leaderboards, cloud support, and online matchmaking. As such, players will be able to go head to head with each other through Steam on the PC.
The re-release will feature an all new graphics engine with assets remastered for high-resolution displays up to 1080p—in other words, it'll have better visuals and sharper textures.
The game is built for low-end computers, so you'll be able to run it as long as your system matches the following requirements:
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro
Steam Software Platform
900×600 minimum display resolution
Direct X 9 Capable GPU
1.2GHz CPU
1GB RAM
2GB HDD
You can watch the game in action in the trailer below, courtesy of GameSpot.