Age of Mythology. One of my favorite games of all time. My second favorite strategy game ever made, only trailing behind Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. When I heard of Microsoft bringing it back with a brand new remake/ster/whatever, Age of Mythology: Retold, boy was I hyped… but also slightly skeptical. After all, I feared they would eventually “Age of Empires IV it”, making it a bit less customizable, a bit less interesting to play. I guess I shouldn’t have needed to worry, though, as the bad boy is finally out and it’s actually the best of both worlds. It retains what I have always loved from the original Age of Mythology, whilst featuring some neat quality-of-life enhancements to make it the ultimate version of one of the best strategy games ever made.

A friendly Greek neighborhood. The only thing missing is a food vendor selling gyros.

So, is this a remake? Is it a mere remaster? Honestly, it’s whatever the hell is supposed to be in the middle of these two terms. In a way, the game was completely remade in a new engine, with vastly improved visuals, and a plethora of user interface buffs. This is the most accessible and intuitive a Microsoft-published strategy game has ever been, all while maintaining each and every single gameplay element that made us fall in love with it back in the early 2000s. No streamlining of mechanics, no dumbed-down units and civilizations, and map sizes are still quite big if you want them to be.

“O Canada…”

The graphical enhancements are remarkable, even if, of course, not all units look like current-gen assets. Age of Mythology: Retold wants you to come up with humongous armies of cyclops and trolls in a jiffy, so being able to render them all at once, all whist being able to maintain good visuals and a solid framerate, is more than enough in my books. The lighting effects look great, by the way. I did not like the brand-new character and deity portraits, however. Age of Mythology: Retold (justifiably) retains so many assets from the original game, but they made sure to redraw all character portraits, especially the ones in the campaign mode. Sadly, they look cheap, as if they had been commissioned for a mobile game.

I’m gonna tell my kids this was God of War.

There is a sizeable list of minor, yet effective quality-of-life enhancements, such as an improved population cap, the possibility of manually triggering a mythical unit’s special ability (such as the Kraken’s automatic ship-destroying skill), and automatically assigning a villager to a specific role (lumbering, hunting, mining) with the help of a brand new subscreen. None of those are game changers, but the sheer amount of small improvements, as a whole, make this version of Age of Mythology a lot more intuitive and fun to experience than ever before.

One thing that hasn’t changed, at all, and I do mean it in the most literal way possible, is the sound department. The developers did not change a single damn thing. It’s the same music, the same sound effects, the same voice samples. Every Greek unit still says “prostagma”, “etimos”, “isvouli”, “malista”, and so on. My honest opinion on such a decision? Excellent. Spot on. Magnificent. There’s no need to change what was already downright iconic. The title track, the one that greets you whenever you boot the game up, is still one of the best tunes in the history of gaming.

A vastly improved UI is one of Age of Mythology: Retold’s highlights.

Content is also something that, to be fair, hasn’t changed, but I do have a few qualms regarding that decision. At its core, Age of Mythology: Retold retains all of the content seen in the Titans expansion of Age of Mythology. You have the additional Atlantean faith, with three civs, as well as access to titans in the last age/era. So far, so good, right? Well, you may not know that, but the original Age of Mythology did receive an additional expansion a few years ago, featuring Chinese gods and myths. Those are nowhere to be seen in this collection, but at the very least, they were announced as part of a post-game update.

Now, I don’t know if this means they will be paid DLC, yet again, or not. What makes me wonder about it is the fact that there is a fourth Norse civilization available as a separate purchase, which felt quite odd and out of place; not a single additional civilization is available for other faiths, for instance. The developers also claim a yet-to-be-announced fifth faith will be featured further down the line.

Nothing beats a classic skirmish and that lovely war horn fanfare when s*** actually gets serious.

I am still cautiously optimistic regarding the post-launch content and roadmap, but as it stands, I love Age of Mythology: Retold. It retains the gameplay loop and iconic soundtrack of the original 2002 release, improving upon it by featuring brand-new visuals, a vastly more intuitive UI, and a plethora of small quality-of-life perks. It’s the game I grew up loving to death, but better than ever before. There’s nothing else that needs to be said. I just want to go back to a skirmish map and obliterate a bunch of Norsemen with the power of my phoenixes and brainwashed rhinos. And before you ask, yes, “O CANADA” is still a thing.

Age of Mythology: Retold is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.