Age of Mythology Retold review

Let me paint you a word picture.

Picture if you will, a scrawny 13-year-old kid, hunched over a chunky Toshiba laptop set up on a dining room table, fingers scrabbling on a trackpad to tell jackal-headed beasts to jump on some unsuspecting lumberjacks.

That’s me. I’m the kid.

That was my first experience with Age of Mythology back in 2002. 22 years later, the details have changed but the broad strokes remain; the laptop is an Acer, the trackpad is a Logitech G703, and the table is a Gorilla Gaming standing desk. But the Anubites, and the joy I’m finding in Age of Mythology Retold, remain the same.

It’s AoM Jim, just not as we know it

Age of Mythology was a real-time strategy game spinning off from the more historically inclined Age of Empires series. Choosing from the Greek, Egyptian, Norse, and later Atlantean factions, you worship Gods, advance your civilisation, and devastate all who oppose with humans, heroes, and mythic beasts.

It’s rad. Like, ridiculously rad.

Now old hats like me, who’ve played the same game for two decades, might be reticent to some of the changes brought in. So to avoid the whole review just being a list of differences, here’s a few that stand out to me.

AI opponents don’t have a wide option of presets anymore, so unless I was the only person who ever used that we’ll suffer here. You can choose between Attacker or Defender, and that’s basically it.

Many units and buildings have been added to balance out factions; notably the Norse now have a Great Hall to build cavalry, and some new mounted and ranged units to bulk out the notoriously infantry-heavy roster. Some units and upgrades have changed significantly. For example, I can’t make my Atlantean cavalry into siege units anymore, as that upgrade has been tweaked. However, the new technologies often open up new and often even more powerful playstyles, and I’ve enjoyed relearning what works and what doesn’t.

Maybe a little too much Divine Intervention

Some of the automatic enhancements might be a touch overzealous though.

Auto queueing villagers is also a good idea, but confusing to begin with, and I didn’t understand why my population was exploding until I realised what was going on.

Moving from the Heroic to Mythic age by building a Market is baked into my brain, but now it’s a fortress or non-Greek equivalent. Which is great, because the Market is often useless if you’re playing casually. Get used to that.

Changes to favour and God powers are welcome, if unexpected. Atlanteans, for example, now gain Favour from Oracles rather than Town Centres. This gives them an actual use beyond Relic grabbing and early warning systems. You’ll also find favour also doesn’t cap at 100 anymore, and can be used to reuse God powers at significant cost. Love that, and it makes the resource a much higher priority than ever before.

Finally, I am probably an idiot but I cannot figure out how to edit hotkeyed groups of units once they’re made. Left click and right click do the same thing and neither are what I want.

Help, please.

That which the Gods would re-release They first make Rad

All of these issues, you’ll notice, are just differences from the older versions. If I was picking this up for the first time, I wouldn’t know the difference and it wouldn’t bother me. I’m just fighting against 20 years of mythological muscle memory. In case you missed the hint of me playing the same game for two decades, I don’t do well with change.

The issue with the rest of the review is that I love this game, so I’ll try to temper my praise. Spoiler, I’m not good at it, because come on guys, it’s awesome.

Graphically it’s gorgeous. Models are rebuilt completely and look fantastic, especially in motion, while retaining the goofiness that makes them so endearing. Two thumbs up from me.

The music is, as far as I can tell, the same but upscaled, so that’s also a plus. It looks fantastic and sounds better. It’s always been a banging soundtrack, one of the few I listen to outside of gaming. Especially the Egyptian themes, they’re Ra-dical.

Get it? Because Ra… Well, at least I amuse myself.

The campaign shines. Voice acting is no longer American and British weirdness, with people who ACTUALLY mostly sound like the races they’re portraying. This is the same with units and villagers. If you have also learned multiple random Greek and Egyptian words from AoM, they’re still there and then some. However, some of the campiness is lost, especially as some of the worse lines are replaced. You win some, you lose some; life is all about compromise.

Wrath of the Mods

I miss the extensive mod support of OG AoM; I’m honestly not 100% sure what is and isn’t mods anymore because I’m so used to them, so here’s hoping the legends of the modding community rebuild what they can.

My main complaint with the campaign is a stupid one, that it simply takes AAAAGES because you can’t increase game speed. I understand why, and I don’t think most players will care. But I like my RTS games to zoom along, so going from a Lighting random map made the regular speed campaign a bit of a slog. I’ll live, I guess. I blame the ADHD.

I feel like the number of Random Maps has decreased, but I’m also enjoying the increased variety of maps. My favourite includes pre-built walls, which suits my turtle playstyle and saves me the effort of building them. I am also sure more maps will be on the way.

Honestly, the only other issue I have is missing the Chinese from the Extended Edition. I wasn’t sure about that when it released a few years back, but they really grew on me and I’d love to see them come back in Retold. Again, I expect DLC, and maybe we’ll even see some new civilisations; the Celts and the Aztecs have been popularly demanded for years.

But this is the future, my friends. And it ain’t bad.

Welcome to the New Age

For new players, Age of Mythology Retold is a great RTS well worth sinking hundreds of hours into. For old players who’ve already done this, we’ll find room to spend hundreds more. I cannot fault this game, which remakes what needed to be remade and leaves the rest untouched. World’s Edge and Forgotten Empires have handled Ensemble’s opus with care, and you don’t need to research Omniscience to see they’ve done a great job.

Worth the price? Absolutely. I can’t speak for how the competitive scene will adapt, but the casuals will definitely find a lot to love. See you in the Titan Age.

Truly Divine

9.5 Hell Yeah

A remaster worthy of the Gods themselves.

• Hell Yeah 9.5