There’s a rather strange phenomenon when replaying games from childhood. The image in your head often doesn’t match the image on the screen. When you replay older games in the context of the modern age, the graphics look patchier and weirder, the mechanics seem duller, and you start to wonder how you ever fell in love with a game in the first place. But through the magic of remasters, games from childhood can become the image in your mind’s eye, with a fresh coat of paint updating and improving the games to better represent your favorite memories. To this end, Age of Mythology: Retold is a brilliant remaster.
This game goes far beyond visual improvements to Age of Mythology feels new and fresh for a modern audience. The menus feel much cleaner and easier to navigate, the gameplay is streamlined and offers more organized options for running your civilization (a priority system for villagers allows them to self-organize when acquiring resources), and there’s something incredibly new about the ability to zoom in on your settlements so every detail is visible.
Changes to the Age of Mythology formula
The basis of Age of Mythology remains largely untouched thanks to timeless game design, allowing the visual and menu improvements to take full advantage. In its glittering lakes, grassy hills and rocky plains Age of Mythology now looks absolutely great and the graphics make designing your cityscapes even more satisfying.
As I played through the rounds in sandbox mode, I wanted to better design my cities and create civilizations that were both visually appealing and economically viable and ready for war. I admit, I have to I perfected my cities in one playthrough, to the point where my opponent built a Titan Gate before I could reach my final age. At least I got to admire all of Cerberus’ beautiful fur tufts before he completely wiped out my army of 40 bad guys.
Read: Age of Mythology: Retold should be “crazy, chaotic, pure fun”
What remains most satisfying about Sandbox mode is that it remained unchanged from the original Age of Mythology is the wide range of options you have for building your settlement beyond basic design. Choosing your nationality will determine the look of your cities and citizens, and will also determine which gods will be favorable to you and which titans you can summon.
As your city grows, you can also choose which gods you want to worship, giving you potentially devastating abilities on the battlefield. Unlike the original game, you can actually use these divine powers more than once, which is a nice new twist that ups the ante.
In the Mythic Age, worshipping Hera lets you summon massive lightning storms. Worshipping Hel gives you control of Nidhogg, a fire-breathing dragon with terrifying power. I also particularly liked the gift of Oceanus, a giant carnivorous plant that could destroy enemies (though its immobile position makes it difficult to use effectively).
Each playthrough lets you choose new nationalities and new gods, using their power to survive waves of enemy attacks and overthrow your nearest neighbors. While the difficulty level of the game’s sandbox mode is high by default, the game also gives you plenty of options to optimize your experience and find the best and most visually stunning ways to defeat your opponents.
Fame in all modes
Beyond the sandbox, Age of Mythology: Retold also offers the option to play in multiplayer mode (if you have willing teammates) or to play through three set campaigns inspired by the story, fully voiced and featuring numerous cutscenes that will take you through hours of storytelling.
For those who want a little more flavor from their Old Adventure, the three campaigns – Fall of the Trident, The Golden Gift and The New Atlantis – are solid and satisfying. I particularly enjoyed my time with Fall of the Trident because, rather than taking you by the hand, it sends an army of krakens to kill you and your troops in the very first scenario. It’s awfully mean and very entertaining.
The New Atlantis also has some nice quirks, as it requires you to migrate your civilization, moving helpless villagers into a special sky passage while defending their right to live. At one point, the game clearly took pity on my attempts, as I was sent an army of catapults to assist in my migration – and this made the scenario even more chaotic and wonderfully over-the-top.
In the sandbox or campaign mode, which is the one I tested the most, there are wonderful opportunities to grow your band of heroes and villagers and build a worthy civilization using the power of the gods. I’d like to think that I’ve done Hel justice in my battles with Nidhogg, and that I’ve done Baldr justice by sending out my Heroes of Ragnarok soldiers.
I betrayed her a little by worshipping other gods in other playthroughs, but that is part of the freedom of Age of Mythology: Retold. You are the overseer of your own destiny, and with clever, well-thought-out changes to the original game’s mechanics and graphics, leading your herd is now even more fun.
World’s Edge and Forgotten Empires have done it again with this remaster. After the quality of the Age of Empires Remasters, that should come as no surprise – but the balance between old features and new twists is wonderful. Together they make Age of Mythology: Retold a beautiful, worthy remake, perfect for all players – experienced, nostalgic or not.
Four stars: ★★★★
Age of Mythology: Retold
Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series X/S
Developer: Edge of the World, Forgotten Realms
Editor: Xbox Game Studios
Release date: 4 September 2024
A PC code for Age of Mythology: Retold was provided by the publisher and played for this review. GamesHub reviews were previously rated on a five-point scale. As of July 29, 2024, they will be rated on a ten-point scale.
