Well, a resurgence of Age of Empires II itself, sure, it's definitely a "revival" if you will.
As for the "wall of text" below...
TL;DR @ bottom
But will it suddenly rejuvenate the RTS genre or will it mean a boost in the AoE franchise itself for possible future AoE titles? I wouldn't think so. A recently enough example that comes to mind is the HD version of MDK2, which already by now has been pretty much either forgotten by most (not that it was even that well advertised to start with anyway), or at least was shrugged off since it comes out as an HD version so "late" after the original was released that I'd imagine the majority whom have played that HD version never touched the original when it was new.
Well that's supposition on my part, but I never heard of an actual "demand" from the gaming community to revive MDK2 specifically. It just sort of happened because some games development studio wanted to give it a go for the heck of it, but I never heard of actual demands for that to occur. The HD version of MDK2 was in itself a "resurgence" of the game but not the franchise nor the type of game-play mechanics you find in the game, those aspects were not "revived" in any games released since, nor did it become a source of inspiration that I know of or that we would have heard of for recently-released games either.
And what can be said about the impact in the PC gaming community (if any) that the HD remakes of Serious Sam did? It did get enough attention when the HD version of the first SS was announced, there was some excitement, sure. But have they done anything beyond reviving the series itself? As far as recently-released FPS games are concerned I see absolutely zero influence in them that would happen to come from Serious Sam HD, or the implied simplistic mindless action mechanisms in the veins of DOOM, Quake or even Painkiller, which themselves would have been revived due to a supposed resurgence of the game-play mechanics thanks to the HD version of 'x' FSP game indeed such as Serious Sam HD. But ultimately it did not do much beyond reviving Serious Sam itself for some players around to enjoy and that was about it (and still is now). I mean... it's not like people are getting on roof tops to shout their desperation for a Serious Sam 4, because Serious Sam HD would have been that much of a resurgence in the industry.
The latest example that comes to mind is the BFG edition of DOOM 3. I really don't get that one to be honest, why anyone would have bothered? But it happened. There was enough known community-made mods around, some of which make their 'BFG' edition look like amateur work (and I'm not exaggerating one bit, and this is a reference beyond the obvious textures mods, and am also talking about game-play mods that change DOOM 3 to make it play more like the classics, etc). So was there any sort of resurgence of DOOM because of that 'HD''ed BFG version? Not really, maybe they sold some copies and perhaps it renewed some interests about the game itself for some players around (rather than the whole franchise, even though that edition actually includes Ultimate DOOM and DOOM II as part of the package). Although I have to admit, it's not like DOOM (as a whole, not just DOOM 3) 'needs' any sort of resurgence, it ("it" I.E. all of them) is still being played to this day probably more than the original Age of Empires II would still be played now.
My general thoughts about HD versions of almost any older games is that they always either:
1) Come out as HD versions way too late, sometimes up to a decade after the original.
or
2) People who play the HD versions might have never played the original and end up forgetting about it after some potential initial fun, and it then soon takes up the dust, which itself drastically limits any sort of potential "resurgence" of the franchise/series or even the genre as a whole.
By the way, I am not talking about actual spiritual successors nor completely new games being re-worked from scratch like that new kick-started sequel for Planescape, which falls in a complete other category (obviously that ain't just some 'HD' version of anything really, even if it keeps the "feeling and spirits" of Planescape Torment). All of this only concerns HD versions of games that were being modernized a bit with some additions here and there to make them "more playable on modern hardware" and perhaps more "desirable" as well. It's also of course an attempt at poking at gamers' nostalgia for not so subtly convincing our inner impulsion to buy such games " Shut Up and Take my Money " style, which of course satisfies the publishers more than perhaps the buyers themselves after they realize a week later that they got bored with it already.
But with all this said (which surely sounds very negative so far) I must make it clear that I am not "against" HD versions of older games nor do I have a "grudge" of some sort about them. I just find most of them to be relatively "useless" to the general gaming community, regardless of the actual fun I would have as an individual gamer playing them because I just happened to have played and liked the original "back then". Believe me, I would love it if Age of Empires II HD would have a greater impact on gamers and make them understand perhaps even why that one in particular seems to literally come out of the big blue as an HD version.
But I fear that not only is the RTS genre currently stagnating (and has been since Supreme Commander back in around 2007 up to perhaps mid 2008) but other types of games are just stealing the show since a number of years, so much so that AoE II HD basically came out at the "worst time" I could have imagined for any RTS games, let alone one that happens to be the HD version of a game so old that some gamers around where not even born when it was released (well ok I'm pushing on that one but hey... it's been 14 years since AoE II's release, 14 years before a popular game gets an HD version remake, seriously?).
I would love HD remakes of so many games I'd have a list of hundreds (literally, from the 8-Bit era such as Blaster Master, side scrolling-style, with 3D backgrounds and modern physics, all the way to the 32-bit and 64-bit days with remakes of games such as Legacy of Kain or Body Harvest). But the point is (and to repeat myself once more) that beyond my "selfish" nostalgia-based desires to have remakes of 'x' older games it really wouldn't serve much purpose, business-wise, unless we're speaking about a type of game that would happen to have a good potential market (I.E. enough fish to bite on it) so that it becomes financially viable to remake older games in HD versions on a regular basis.
TL;DR
Generally, I do like HD remakes of older games, but I view this as a form of 'selfishness' on my part (not speaking for others here). I think that despite my desires to play the HD remake of 'x' game there's no actual market that is financially viable enough to perhaps "justify" them on a regular basis. And currently most HD remakes that I can think of did not do anything beyond reviving the game itself (I.E. being a "resurgence" for itself, but not having any other further effects or positive impact in a broader sense within the community or the industry).
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