Age of Empires II (2013): Rise of the Rajas DLC

Honestly there's no reason to play as anything other than Malay now. You get harbors, which are incredibly overpowered for what they are. If you're playing on an islands map, just build harbors all around your island and no one can get on. 150 wood each, with a max range of 10, and an attack of 12, that you can garrison boats in? You've got miniature castles for 150 wood. Also it's very easy to get these built before anyone has a real chance to get to you, thanks to the 100% faster age research. Don't get me wrong. It's pretty fun, but... I was able to 2v1 using the Malays, and it didn't even feel challenging. Even on all land maps without having the harbor, there's no reason to play as anything other than Malay... 2 handed swordsmen that cost only 60 food? For the price, that's the ultimate spammable unit late game. Recommending simply because I think it's fun, regardless of the obviously over powered new races, and the bit-of-an-eyesore new architecture. EDIT: After a bit of play, I've noticed a few glaring errors. 1 - When playing as Malay, any docks built prior to researching Harbors do NOT automatically upgrade. 2 - Transport ships built prior to researching Careening, or other techs to increase carrying capacity, DO NOT automatically upgrade their carrying capacity! 3 - There is a new glitch that allows boats to embed themselves on the land. Vice versa for ground troops. I believe this is due to the introduction of the new terrain tile set. All three of these items are things they need to patch. (As well as nerf the malays. Until they do though, I shall continue to play only as Malay)

Finished all the campaigns. They were fairly balanced and extremely challenging. This DLC delivers about the same quality content as the African Kingdoms. New civilizations are always welcome! Definitely recommended.

It is really amazing how AoE2 finally comes close to a sense of completion. After so many years; who would have expected such a thing? The first attempt to add the "forgotten" civilizations was done in the first DLC, but it didn't take long to realize that a lot more civs were missing. Now, the addition of South East Asia almost feels like a wrap, although I hope they'll add one more expansion. :D Now to get serious, my first impression is really positive. Four new civs with interesting new technologies, as well as quite a lot of special units. The Vietnamese even get three: A special archer that is almost impervious to enemy archers (like a Gothic Huskarl), the best skirmisher in the game and finally - like all the new civs! - a battle elephant at the stable. That is just one example of how the game is kept fresh. The addition of amphibious terrain is equally intriguing, because it allows ships to pass through while it's also possible to build on it. I can already see how people try to close water streets with stone walls and towers, and ships have to shoot their way through those walls... I have one complaint though, and the vague hope that someone could create a solution in the Steam workshop (or that the original creators of the DLC read this): I am not happy with the new architecture. It is not that I find it ugly, no, it's looking pretty good. However, the design is not easy on the eye. To put it bluntly, it is distracting from the game, to see so many shapes, details and colors mixed together. It doesn't give you a sense of relaxation while looking at your own town/base. Not at all. So my suggestion is a rather simple, yet effective solution: Keep the complex detail, but reduce the spectrum of colors. I am sure that would make the architecture look much more relaxed. Currently, the orange roofs stand out; and not in a good way. Making those roofs black or dark greyish would tone down the colors a lot and essentially "fix" the design, in my opinion. On the bright side, there was actually a second new architecture set added in this DLC, which is given to only one civ, the Indians. This one looks very good. Nicely done!

Im so excited that have Malay civilization in this Rise Of The Rajas DLC which feature for my country Malaysia and other Indonesia and Brunei are combine in one Malay civilization in this game. The voice acting from units and villagers are really same like in old Sultan age. The unique units are Kerambit Warrior (the cheap and fast unit with two hand kerambit weapons) and Battle Elephant. The Campaign of Gajah Mada feature in Indonesia country which play Malay civilization. Btw, Thanks Microsoft and Skybox for making this awesome DLC :)

I got this DLC for Vietnam. I'm entirely grateful for the inclusion of Dai Viet in this expac, not often do you see that and this may be the first game to ever cover the Lam Son uprising. However, they did Vietnam dirty by giving them the South East Asian architecture and giving a terrible explaination for it. Vietnam has always shared the same architecture as the Chinese. For now, I am running a mod to fix that but eventually I hope they make the simple change of giving them the East Asian architecture. The Vietnamese Campaign is fun, however lacking in variety. The optional missions are mostly just destroying bases or discovering. It is a little too easy as you can just trebuchet your way through the entire campaign.

Here we are, almost in 2017,Age of Empires 2 HD: Rise of the Rajas expansion is the fourth expansion since the real-time strategy game was revamped and rereleased in 2013. Rise of the Rajas is off to Southeast Asia for historical warfare with four new civilisations, which consist of Burmese,Khmer,Malay and Vietnamese. well i just state out the pros and cons for this one since there is nothing much to write about this old RTS game.even though the game itself is as old as me.(released on 1999 originally is the year i am born) Pros 1)ALL S.E.A nation have war elephants that will demolish most European,Arab,and Asia country 2)Campaign is much more challenging than previous expansion 3)I get to play the campaign and get some knowledge about the history behind it. 4)Graphic has drastically improve and the game runs at 60FPS.even though the game is as Old As me 5)Multiplayer feels lively and is not even dead yet. 6)V.A is well scripted in campaign mode. 7)A lil Chance to learn some indonesian language(Ampun Baginda)which i learn in game. Cons 1)All units are still the same reskin from each other accept the nation special unit. 2)Indonesian/javanese cannot be called Malay even though their language and identity are almost identical 3)Gameplay is so unballance for the Malay Race since most people will rush you with only Karambit Warrior since you can build 2 at an expense of 1 population,vietnamese rattan archers are the weekest among all the other race special unit and it is quite easy to kill than killing off other unit. 4)Vietnamese Campaign is too unfair and punishing for new player since the Chinese will rush you from all sides.it is quite challenging though i must say. 5)All S.E.A country building are the same as each other.well i do not want to question the other 3 nation which is Malay,Khmer and Burmese. but ain't vietnamese building suppose to be a lil like chinese architecture. 6)In Online Lobby you can see more people will role malay nation and will end up rushing or harrash you in less than 10 minutes with karambit warriors. Overall it is a nice game to play and it is the first game that has ever told the history of S.E.A.(WELL I DUNNO ABOUT OTHERS RTS WHICH HAS VIETNAMESE,BURMESE,KHMER,AND MALAY IN IT)it is a must buy.

I recommend it because of the added content, such as campaigns and maps, but all the new civilizations feel very limited in their tech tree. Strong bonuses masked their weak infrastructure when the civs were being announced, and they failed to impress me with their limited abilities. Each civilization is only good at a couple of things, and are very predictable. Aside from the Malay's harbor technology, I feel all civs are rather underpowered, and I await the much-needed buffs. I understand the developers may have been a little nervous about overpowering these new civs, but It's very clear to me that there aren't many options.

[i]The review is written from single-player perspective.[/i] [h1]Short version: 62%[/h1] Rise of the Rajas feels creatively challenged. The new civilisations usually rely on one gimmick that begets some balancing questions, and the campaigns—except for the last one—use the same level design repeatedly. [h1]Long version:[/h1] Rise of the Rajas tries to address a rather large lack of Asian medieval empires in Age of Empires 2, despite that region’s rich and tumultuous history. The problem is that while the team put incredible effort in the historical research, they neglected the game design parts. The new civilisations feel gimmicky, with an incredible advantage in one or two specific things but struggling to reach mediocrity everywhere else. They can feel both overpowered and hopelessly weak, depending on the player’s style. We can also shows signs of creative issues with the unique units, since the just borrow ideas from other games (with the Malay “zerglings” being the most notorious rip-off). Similarly, all but the last campaign features the most basic RTS mission design: start with initial base, fend off first attack, expand, and crush surrounding enemy bases. Compared to the final campaign or even the missions in the previous DLC, they just feel bland, if challenging. If we judge it on its own though, Rise of the Rajas is a mediocre, but acceptable strategy game with few outstanding features, even when it comes to the global changes and additions beyond the new civilisations.

More AoE2 funtimes, but now in Southeast Asia. By now, if you have read any of my reviews on this game, you know what my opinion of it is (it is the sh*t). This is no different. If you like this game as I do, then getting this, and the other DLC expansions, is a no-brainer. Also wasting the Chinese as the Vietnamese is fun. The other campaigns were nice, but that was probably the best one as far as I am concerned since it was tough, but also varied. Until they make another expansion, I guess I'm done with this game now.... until I get an urge to replay. XD

gameplay is okay and new civilizations are awesome but the voice acting tho as a malay (not malaysian) i found that the voice acting in malay civ is rather funny and sounds cheesy voice acting aside, everything is great i guess