Age of Mythology: Retold review

How the Mighty Have Fallen. In days gone by, Tiberium Harvesters and Chariot Archer Assaults were staples of my monitors, and my keyboards had worn-out lines that listed the keyboard shortcuts for “build archery range.” Those were times of plenty, but contemporary real-time strategy games are far rarer, which means the stakes always feel high when you get to them. Especially one that starts with Age…

Enter Age of Mythology: Retold — not a 100% faithful translation of Ensemble’s 2002 original, but, as the name suggests, a contemporary interpretation that walks the line between updating parts that feel unwieldy by today’s standards without killing the sense of nostalgia. It’s a particularly challenging kind of alchemy, and while there are some tonal errors *cough* voice actor *cough* largely knows when to stick and when to twist.

Even though the list of developers is so long that the average Call Of Duty feels like a mad developer’s passion project. World’s Edge, Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, CaptureAge, and Virtuos Games have all lent their talents to the game, and it might be unfair to surprise me that it feels so cohesive. This is contemporary game development, after all, a pipeline that never sleeps.

Age of Mythology is more or less Age of Empires set in a mythical age, where mighty hero units and mythical beasts fight alongside conventional archers and spearmen. A friendlier and slower-paced version of StarCraft’s ruthlessly aggressive RTS, but built around the usual rock-paper-scissors game of unit strengths and weaknesses. Victory is achieved by finding the right army composition and using narrow resources—food, wood, gold, and favor—to make it happen.

The UI and visual overhaul take first place because they are the most noticeable element and seem to be in touch with the original game without being too closely tied to it. The layout of units, resources, and building options is logical and spotless. Hero units shine with a distinctive aura, and the old surroundings are striking in their impressive detail. One of the many reasons I will never achieve a particularly high online ranking in this game is because I get distracted by the lovely oceans and spend seconds just… looking at them.

Picture 1 With 6

On to the more significant changes in the nuts and bolts: I’ve had my fair share of RTS battles past and present due to overly bold units making wild treks across the map, but Retold’s novel “attack move” command provides a lifeline. Micromanagement is still crucial in arranging unit types to enter combat in the right order, but “attack move” tells everyone to attack any enemies they encounter on their way to a control point. This meant no suicidal sprints towards buildings for my campaign armies, while ignoring the infantry units that would mow them down at close range. Outside of combat, units can still be caught wandering off into lean air, but Retold feels like a massive improvement over the original’s often puzzling pathfinding, where it matters most.

The best thing about combat in this game is finding the sweet spot between human and mythic units and knowing when to send your super-tough heroes into battle with them. It took me a few games to find that mix for the Nords, whose rework now includes more ranged units but still plays very differently than their foes (pro tip: their military units also build buildings).

With apologies to all the historical shipwrights out there, I had great success in naval battles by spamming ships to distract my enemies and relieve my base. This meant that destroying their docks was a major step towards their return to history. With all the ship types available since classical times, the naval version of rock-paper-scissors is just as tactical as its land-based counterpart, which you command with archers and infantry.

God powers are no longer one-time, game-changing cataclysms, but now operate on cooldown timers and can be used more than once per round. I can’t decide whether that feels more or less strategic—the gravity of deciding when to operate a powerful one-time attack in the original game is balanced by the depth of timing in Retold, so you get it at a useful moment later. Powers are split between area-of-effect abilities, with some nice twists like Aphrodite’s curse turning enemy units into pigs, and resource buffs.

Picture 1 With 3

God powers aren’t just about bringing death to enemies with satisfying AoE icons. Take miracles, for example. Where once you could build certain miracles that would win you the round if you defended them long enough, now they simply grant you constant passive buffs that speed up your victory. This seems like a less stressful path to victory, but it’s not necessarily easier, since you still have to carefully consider how to spend those resources.

The selling point here, after reviewing all of Retold’s changes to the 22-year-old game, is that the slower pace and mix of historical and mythological units makes for a relaxing, therapeutic RTS session. The Greeks, Egyptians, Nords, and Atlanteans all play differently enough that you can enjoy mastering each one, and while it’s an odd business decision that the Chinese — added as DLC after the original’s release — weren’t included, at least they’re included in Retold’s first DLC.

There have been concerns about the character portraits in Retold , with speculation that the creators used AI to generate them — an accusation the creators have vehemently denied, clearly stating that they were drawn by human artists. In my opinion, the problem isn’t who drew them, but rather that they lack charm. People understandably cling to the distinctive elements in classic games when so much of the presentation was narrow by fidelity, so the bar is high when you update them. It’s a minor quibble that they lack a bit of personality, nothing more.

Picture 1 With 3

The same probably applies to the voice acting. It’s probably just a minor issue. Probably. After all, cutscenes aren’t a game. They’re the elements that hold it together. But the performances are a rogues’ gallery of slightly off-key accents that distract from the drama and immersion. I found myself feeling increasingly harsh towards this point the deeper I delved into the campaigns, but we should probably all remember that bad performances in cutscenes are pretty much mandatory in real-time strategy games. The great Tim Curry he taught us this.

Retold is bold enough to play with the balance and stat values ​​of its source material, resulting in some intricate, tactically fascinating encounters. Watching the Hittites surrounded by Minotaurs besieging the walls of Troy was a genre highlight for me. It could have been bolder in terms of style, in the way gods and heroes are characterized visually and in movement. But considering the precarious place of real-time strategy in the current pantheon of PC games, Retold is an crucial, if qualified, victory.