This review will be a bit shorter than you might expect, and the reason for that is that there’s not a whole lot new in Age of Mythology: Retold to cover and go in-depth with.
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- Genre: Real-Time Strategy
- Developer: World’s Edge, Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, CaptureAge, Virtuos Games
- Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
- Release Date: 4th September, 2024
- Price: $29.99/ 28,99€/ £22.49
- Buy at: Steam
- Reviewed On: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.70 GHz, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 2080
Age of Mythology: Retold is a remake of the Ensemble Studios 2002 original title. This seminal and classic RTS title is still considered one of the best and most imaginative takes on the real-time strategy genres to ever grace our computer screens. Hailing from the minds of the team that made Age of Empires, Age of Mythology followed a very similar gameplay style, but added some flavor mythical units, and a couple of new mechanics, like active unit abilities and God Powers.
The original game is well over 20 years old, and still, in 2024, Age of Mythology: Retold proves that even without touching its gameplay, the game’s as excellent as it has ever been.
With that out of the way, let’s get started with what Age of Mythology: Retold does best, and that’s keeping the basics intact. Yes, the Age of Mythology: Retold crew realized that the basic mechanics of the Age of Mythology are still as solid today as they were 22 years ago, so they mostly stayed the same. Coming back to the Age of Mythology and finding that same feeling of familiarity is an amazing feeling if you played the original and still remember it fondly.
Content-wise, Age of Mythology: Retold is jam-packed with it. I was only expecting to find the original Age of Mythology campaign available, and for the others to come out as DLC, but I found myself pleasantly surprised when the Titans campaign as well as the Golden Gift are part of the base game. The game also includes the Atlanteans as a faction, something the original base game didn’t have. They’re a cool faction that plays radically different from the others. I would say their a faction for those who enjoy micromanaging, with their villagers being a lot more expensive, but building and gathering resources faster. They’re also able to turn every unit into a hero unit.
So, singleplayer, and content-wise things are super solid, but the true improvement is the graphics and Age of Mythology: Retold sure pulls its weight on the graphical department. Everything was redone from scratch: new unit models, new buildings, new animations, new effects, and even new sound and voice acting. For the most part, I think the team managed to do a great job.
Of course, some of the reworked units look somewhat different from the original Age of Mythology, but other than some models that might strike you as overly cartoonish, like the Hydra, the Leviathan, or the Anubite, all others look incredible. Now, one thing I must say, is that the original pixelated graphics gave the original Age of Mythology a more serious look and feel, while the new, more detailed graphics give a bit of a friendly, more cartoon-like look, and that is something I can imagine will annoy some people. This video might help you have an idea of what I am talking about.
This is a perfect segway into my next, and final complaint about the game, and that’s the hero units. They don’t stand out as much as they did in the original Age of Mythology, and I think that’s because the more colorful art style applied to every aspect of the game, including the basic units kind of obfuscates their unique design and kits.
While on the original one, they’re colorful design stood out from the crowd of silver-clad hoplites and toxotes. If Hipolita didn’t have her aura, she could be easily mistaken for a random archer, and even more visually impactful heroes like Hercules or Arkantos often go unnoticed amongst the chaos of battle. This might seem like a small complaint, but when you consider whose units are a big part of what sets Age of Mythology apart from other titles, having them mostly gone unnoticed isn’t positive in any way. I’ve been going over the main campaign again and I can confidently tell you that my hero units most just “die” (they don’t die, die. They kind of faint for a while) without me ever realizing they were even there.
Final Score: 8/10
In essence, Age of Mythology: Retold is the definitive way of enjoying this classic, and if you are one that enjoyed it back in the day, or just love real-time strategy games, you would be doing yourself a disservice by missing out.
The amount of content available, alongside a relatively low price, makes Age of Mythology: Retold one of the best RTS you can pick up right now, and in all honesty, one of the best RTS of 2024. Age of Mythology: Retold is a testament to the ever-lasting appeal of both the original’s game design and the fantastic setting that is classic mythology. If you played and enjoyed the original, I can promise you, you won’t be disappointed.
If you never played the original and are curious about the game, you can confidently give it a go. The only couple of reasons I see to avoid buying the game is if you don’t like real-time strategy, and that’s fair enough, or if you can’t deal with its new-ish art direction, which is understandable, but you should still give it a try.
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