Age of Mythology: Retold Review – Ancient Legends Return

August 28, 2024

Age of Mythology: Retold Review - Ancient Legends Return

The Age of Empires series has long been regarded as one of the best, if not the best, RTS franchises around. With a new entry not too long ago and fantastic remakes of the first three games, the franchise has remained relevant, even if the genre has faded away somewhat. But what about Age of Mythology, the slightly offbeat spinoff that focused on myth and legend as opposed to historical events? Well, it has just received the remake treatment too and both Matt and Paul have been able to jump in and see how it holds up 22 years later.

Matt Hewson: I don’t know about you Paul, but I am so glad they finally go around to remaking Age of Mythology. This one has always held a special place in my heart. Its mix of 85% normal Age of Empires gameplay and 15% crazy mythology and magic always felt perfect for me and I am happy to say that it still feels fresh today.

Paul James: As is well documented, I’ve never been much of a PC guy, but as a kid, Age Of Empires and Mythology were must plays (thanks Nutri-Grain for kicking that love affair off), and so I’ve been really excited to see the various remasters in recent years. Our intro talks about it being 22 years since the original version of Age Of Mythology launched and while that shocks me because I feel so incredibly old as a result, I’m also shocked because playing this game again, all these years on, feels exactly as it did in 2002, and in all the good ways. What was your Mythology experience like back in the day Matt and how does it hold up to the 2024 experience?

Matt Hewson: I played a lot of the original and frankly as good as it was back then, it is even better now. There have been a host of quality-of-life improvements in this remake that take some of the age-related issues and eliminate them entirely. This is more than just a graphical update (though that is very much welcome), the developers have really looked at the game and identified the areas that needed improvement. As a result, this feels modern in its approach to the genre. Things like being able to let AI presets manage your villagers is a blessing, especially for those new to the genre or those playing with a controller and they only reinforce the timeless nature of the game. Speaking of the controller, how did you find it on the Xbox Paul?

Paul James: So as you suggest, I played this one on Xbox – the studio is still pretty cold at this time of year so I wasn’t as keen to play on PC. For a game such as Age Of Mythology, there is absolutely no substitute for the mouse and keyboard pairing, but the quality of life improvements that you discuss there Matt, namely the aforementioned ability to utilise AI presets and quickly send your villagers off to forage, chop wood or mine gold is really handy. I will admit, that the onboarding for controller-using players was still a little lacking, and I did find myself stumbling around for a while as I tried to find what I was looking for, but after an hour or so, I’d well and truly settled in and was comfortably issuing commands and was able to cycle to the units I needed quickly. It’s not as intuitive as the mouse and keyboard, but for those who are going to play on Xbox, they’re not getting a substantially lesser playing experience.

Matt Hewson: Well on the PC side of things, it controls as you would expect. I found myself still manually issuing commands, using groups and commanding armies as if no time had passed at all. If a scheme isn’t broken, don’t fix it right? But there have been some PC-specific upgrades that are well worth mentioning. There are a host of graphical improvements that make this look fantastic. Some serious RTX effects make the water and lighting amazing and the addition of Ultrawide support is glorious. Obviously, you can’t use an Ultrawide resolution in multiplayer, but in singleplayer all that extra real estate feels a bit like a cheat code. I never want to play an RTS without Ultrawide again. What hasn’t changed at all is the story, which is fine because it is my kind of crazy. RTS games are not usually known for strong stories but I loved the pulpy god-multiverse that Age of Mythology serves up. What about you Paul?

Paul James: As you say, the story isn’t a focal point typically in the development of such games, but, and I suspect this was the case in the lead-up to the 2002 release as well, I reckon this was a fun creative outlet for a team who, up til that point, had been focussed on realistic representations of the past. With Mythology, the shackles were off somewhat and it makes for a fun narrative and of course gameplay experience as well. I’ll admit, the original plot never stuck with me, and I suspect that revisiting it here isn’t going to change that going forward either, but it’s a fun excuse to get dumb with history, and I’m all for that. Messing around with a range of different myths too, whether that be Greek, Egyptian, or even Norse is fun, and thanks to other games over the years, paired with some additional worldly experience that I’ve built helps me to appreciate some of the godly plots even more.

Matt Hewson: I enjoyed playing around with the mythological units too. These are the key gameplay differences between the Age of Empire games and they add a new twist to the rock/scissors/paper dynamic of most RTS games. Here, Hero units like Heracles and Agamemnon are great at taking down Myth units, myth units are strong against regular infantry and regular soldiers swarm hero units quickly. It is a nice dynamic and one that has to be considered in any approach. There are also a host of mission types to enjoy. The traditional, build a big bloody army and destroy is of course there, but there are escort missions, exploration missions, missions focused on resource gathering, defensive missions and a host of others that add variety to the campaign. It really is a complete package.

Paul James: They do a good job of keeping things fresh, and you summarised it quite well. From the mission types which while not necessarily deep or complex, are at least still varied, to the impact that a mythological unit’s appearance has on the shape of battle, no two conflicts will be the same. At first, I dipped my toes back into Age Of Mythology thinking that it would be a quick refresh, a rekindling of some old memories, and then time to move on with my day, but the action holds up, and I really want to dive into many more hours of this one. How about you Matt?

Matt Hewson: Having played the hell out of all of the Age of Empires remakes, I had no doubt that this would be another quality re-release, but I was actually surprised at just how much they have updated and improved. It is easily the most modernised of all the redos and as a result, the game gives the feeling that it could be a modern release. It really shows that as long as you have a good gameplay core, a game can truly be timeless. That, I think is the best way to describe Age of Mythology, timeless, and it is something that every strategy fan should have in their collection.