Age of Mythology: Retold is an unbelievably good new edition

My war elephants plough their way through the battlefield to the enemy castle. The enemy foot soldiers are burned away by my mystical crocodiles, who take the long shot and shoot beams of fire out of their eyes. Priests heal my elephants so they don’t fall when enemy arrows hail down on us.

But suddenly, from behind, a Hydra appears. It threatens to massacre my poor priests. I protect them with an armour spell and use one of my soldiers from the flank to attack the monster. He makes short work of the mythical creature, my army retains the upper hand and the castle falls. Victory!

Age of Empires in the world of legends

Age of Mythology: Retold is the new edition of a classic game. The original is 22 years old and comes from the golden era of real-time strategy around the turn of the millennium – penned by Ensemble Studios, best known for Age of Empires.

In contrast to this, however, Age of Mythology is set in an ancient world of legends. In addition to swordsmen, knights and archers, there are heroes, monsters and divine spells. Age of Empires fans will immediately find their bearings. That’s because the game mechanics are by and large the same – build a base, collect resources, assemble units, direct battles.

The Retold version has modernised the original graphics and improved the balancing. Other new features include an additional era and various quality-of-life improvements. The campaigns are the same as 22 years ago, but with a new soundtrack. All in all, it’s more of a remaster than a remake.

Varied and well balanced

As a millennial, Age of Mythology: Retold makes me revel in nostalgia and I actually like that. It takes me back to my teenage years. Back then, I played the original less than Age of Empires II, so I’ve forgotten enough that I can enjoy the new edition.

You fight with one of four civilisations: Greeks, Egyptians, Vikings and Atlanteans. I can choose one of three (four for the Vikings) main gods for each one. When I advance an age, I can select different buffs and secondary gods for the civilisations. I also get divine spells. These cause meteors to rain down from the sky or a whirlwind to demolish troops and buildings.

After the first time, spells like these cost faith. This is the fourth resource alongside food, wood and gold. They’re also needed for other things such as mythical creatures. Every civilisation collects faith differently. There are other significant differences too. The Atlantean villagers, for example, don’t have to deliver resources to a collection point. Egyptians can turn their village centres into fortresses. And so on, and so on.

Since all civilisations also have completely different units, they play very differently. The difference is greater than in Age of Empires, so the smaller roster actually helps. After around 30 hours of game time, I can tell Age of Mythology: Retold is well balanced. But I can’t say whether this would also be the case for advanced players in multiplayer games.

I choose the second most difficult level out of five so that the campaign is a real challenge. I have to restart many maps several times before I can complete them. It’s essential to micromanage units well at this level. Without the right tools, you’re doomed to fail. Still, the missions aren’t impossible. That’s exactly how I like it.

«Just one more mission…»

If it’s too strenuous for you to concentrate this much, lower the difficulty a few levels. Then you’ll breeze your way through the campaign like a scarab through a battalion of archers.

The stories in Age of Mythology: Retold are loosely based on classic legends such as the Trojan War. They include heroes like Ajax and Agamemnon, monsters like Cyclops and mummies, gods like Odin and Isis. It’s a colourful mixture of Greek, Egyptian and Nordic mythology. The cutscenes sometimes seem a little wooden. But overall, I enjoy the setting and storytelling.

The familiar feeling of addiction soon sets in. «Okay, just one more mission» I keep saying to myself – three hours and six maps later I finally go to bed. The three campaigns comprise a total of 50 missions. Playing time is between 30 and 40 hours with a few restarts.

I’m more than happy with that, especially as I hardly ever get bored. It’s mainly due to the varied mission design that the game flows well. I control my heroes on linear role-playing maps and drive the story forward. In other missions, I have classic objectives like «Destroy the enemy village centre» or «Capture the remains of Osiris and escort them to your city».

No revolution

Weak points? Pathfinding could be better. Sometimes units get stuck behind a wall, even though there’s a clear path to the desired destination. It feels like this happens more often than in Age of Empires II which is even older.

The AI for AI enemies doesn’t win any prizes either. After a few attacks with real troops, it sometimes sends a stream of individual units to their apparent doom. Gatherings of troops can be lured with ranged units and be defeated more easily. If you want, you can take advantage of these mechanics and «cheese» your way through part of the campaign.

This comes as no surprise for a remaster of a 22-year-old game. You can’t expect revolutionary ideas and completely new game mechanics here. Age of Mythology: Retold remains true to the classic RTS concept. There’s no fresh content either.

Contemporary graphics, great soundtrack

The most obvious difference to the original game is the completely revised graphics. Age of Mythology: Retold is charming. Figures are expressive and the landscapes burst with detail. Divine spells make the earth tremble or rain lightning. They feel powerful.

Some hardcore nostalgic players criticised the style in advance as being too comic-like. I’m not bothered by this. The setting with heroes and monsters could do with some colour.

I’m just as enthusiastic about the soundtrack as I am about the graphics. It’s a mixture of old and new elements. Most of the time the music plays on unobtrusively yet appropriately. When I start a major battle, it escalates into an epic concert.

Discreet sound effects alert me to various things, for example, when I’m being attacked. The tone differs depending on whether the enemy is attacking a military unit or a villager. When I click on a man and give him commands, he speaks back to me. The Greeks sound beautifully Greek, while the Vikings sometimes sound more Scottish.

The only audio-visual downer is the dubbing of the cutscenes. I played the campaign in English, so I can only comment on that. I thought the quality of dialogues was okay, but they seem less authentic than in the original. There they’re bursting with emotion whereas the remaster sounds somehow artificial. The developers would’ve been better off recycling the old recordings.

Age of Mythology: Retold will be released on September 4 for PC and Xbox Series X/S. Early Access for the Premium Edition starts on 27 August. A pre-release version of the game for PC was provided to me by Microsoft for testing purposes.