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An outstanding medieval-themed sequel to AOE. The improvements are in the fine details, but what a difference they make! AI and pathfinding are excellent, menial tasks are semi-automated, thousands of little niggles in the original are polished over, and army formations make battles more strategic and less micromanagey. It's a testament to the original's great design that a sequel can innovate so little, and become regarded as the best RTS of all time by so many through intense focus on smoothing out its own wrinkles. Attention to detail remains strong, and iteratively improved on with even greater graphical variety and details such as unit order acknowledgements in their civilization's medieval language. The five campaigns focus on well known historical conquerors such as William Wallace and Genghis Khan, and their stories are told through well written and adequately voice-acted narration in between missions, and feels more intimate and accessible than AOE's drier, textbook historical notes and maps. If there's any weakness, it's that the narrative within campaign missions themselves is less compelling, and the occasional attempts through dialog and scripted sequences feel amateurish and out of place. Followed by an expansion in 2000, 'The Conquerors' with five new civilizations and a New World focus.
A Steam re-release in 2013, 'Age of Empires II: HD Edition', features higher resolution sprites and tilesets and supports high resolution displays, and uses Steamworks for online multiplayer. 'The Conquerors' is included too, and additional expansions have since been released as DLC.
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