Age of Mythology RTS is the mythical Age of Empires spin-off that was released at an unfortunate time. Back then, another RTS hit the shelves at the same time, and it was no other than Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos that stole the audience’s attention. Blizzard’s hit overshadowed one of the most interesting representatives of the strategy genre, leaving it to gather dust on the sidelines of gaming history.
The Ensemble studio that gave gamers Age of Empires I-III and Halo Wars had since disappeared, leaving behind a memorable Wikipedia page, a crowd of sad fans and re-releases of classics. Not that long ago, players got the remasters of Age of Empires trilogy, and now it’s the time for Age of Mythology to shine again.
With Xbox Game Studios as the publisher, it is developed by a group of studios: World’s Edge, Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, CaptureAge, and Virtuos Games, and is available right now.
The main principles of the “Age of…” series are preserved in this title as well. The battles are happening between various races, which develop in the process, gaining access to more and more advanced weapons. But the “mercy of the gods” is more than an empty phrase here. Hearing the fervent prayers, gods bestow technology and mythical creatures on their followers. Therefore, mythical monsters participate in battles alongside mere mortals, with powerful Heroes leading the troops.
The gameplay process is built around extracting and gathering resources: wood, gold, food, and favor. Wood and gold are the most straightforward. When it comes to food, you can send your peasants out to hunt until they learn how to cultivate the land. Favor, however, is a more capricious resource, and the way you acquire it differs for various races. The Greek pray in the temples, the Egyptians erect statues to their gods, while the Scandinavians fight.
Peasants construct buildings which in turn produce troops, mythical monsters and heroes, as well as research enhancements to warriors’ equipment. Age of Mythology: Retold introduced the mechanic for the automated resource collection. The player only needs to set priorities, and the AI will send the workers to gather food, cut down trees, or work in the gold mines.
The troop types themselves are largely the same as in Age of Empires. Infantry, ranged units and cavalry play key roles in battles, and complement each other organically. The key combination “Ctrl + 1-9” allows you to create active squads of troops, which simplifies army management.
The key feature of Age of Mythology is the ability to control legendary monsters. Creatures from the myths of various people take direct part in the fighting. Heroes are able to resist their power, easily dealing with monsters but being less effective against mortals. This way, the game maintains balance.
Monsters stand out with their abilities. Hydras grow heads in battle and regenerate health, mummies resurrect slain enemies as their servants, and ice giants freeze opponents with their breath. Alas, these abilities have shortcomings as well that have migrated from the original. For example, minotaurs throw the infantry back, which makes it temporarily invulnerable. And a group of medusas can simultaneously turn one militiaman into stone when a much more valuable Golden Colossus is standing nearby.
The game’s Artificial Intelligence underwent certain changes as well. Now opponents can maneuver in battle, actively use siege machines and are annoying in every possible way during and outside of battle. When attacking settlements, the enemy tries to kill as many workers as possible, which negatively affects the economy.
However, its behavior remains quite predictable, which can be used to your own advantage. At the same time, friendly troops do not bypass their comrades and experience the joys of collision physics. Some footmen or archers can push a colossus or hydra with their body, which looks very strange. Troops can run away, attacking the enemy and run almost to the middle of the map, or even the enemy base.
Compared to the original, the Gods and their gifts have been greatly reworked. The same applies to temples and relics. In the older Age of Empires games, the collected relics added a passive influx of gold.
In Age of Mythology: Retold, relics would add various bonuses to the tactical and strategic parts of the game, which made searching for them more interesting. For example, the effects include the speed bonus for your workers or a discount when it comes to purchasing mythical creatures. Alternatively, they would buff Heroes to more actively resist monsters.
The game currently has 4 full races, and a DLC with a new Chinese race is due to be released soon. The main parties to the conflict are the Greeks, Scandinavians and Egyptians:
- Greeks: stand out for their balance and convenience. They have simple and clear troops and abilities. Greeks accumulate Favor through prayers;
- Scandinavians: famous for their aggression, and gain Favor in battle. Their unique feature is the mobile storage in the form of a cart with oxen, and two types of workers. The Scandinavians’ warriors are able to construct, which allows them to build fortifications in the middle of the battlefield;
- Egyptians: They work slowly, and receive Favor from monuments. The efficiency of settlements is significantly affected by the Pharaoh, who urges workers on, increases the speed of research and production, etc..
- Atlanteans are a mixture of Greeks and Scandinavians. Construction is carried out by peasants with mobile storages, they have balanced troops and Wonders.
During the gameplay process, every race can move from era to era, with the choice of one of the Gods, each of which has their own mythical creatures and bonuses. As an example, you can freeze all the enemy buildings, or cause an earthquake and meteors in the center of the enemy base, or you can get a cornucopia, which will bring resource income.
Troops can be further strengthened with blessings that increase armor, attack, or turn the enemy army into pigs. This is an interesting mechanic that allows you to gain a quick advantage in the most unusual way. The collected Favor is spent on using miracles and hiring monsters.
You can try out all the races through the main campaign. It tells about the adventures of the hero of Atlantis, Arkantos, who is trying to prevent the end of the world. Together with a group of loyal comrades, Arkantos fights the evil Cyclops, who is trying to open the gates of the underworld.
If the monster succeeds in realizing this plan, the world order will come to an end. The main campaign allows you to explore all the nations, their Gods and bonuses, their styles of warfare. The basis of the campaign was lovingly transferred from the original with minor additions. It is so good that it does not really need any changes. During the playthrough, you need to overview and control several bases, and arrange a “tug of war” with the enemy, and participate in epic battles – with the use of divine abilities by both sides.
The playthrough is marred by the spikes in difficulty. Many missions can be easily completed at a high level of difficulty. Other missions knock you off your feet with some unexpected and unfair blows. However, if these thresholds are overcome, then the campaign dips in difficulty and turns easier again… for a time.
There are also some bugs of varying severity. At one point, one of the key characters got stuck in textures, prompting me to restart the mission anew. The Atlantean campaign was also completely impossible to complete due to a recurring bug. But the fact remains – due to the technical state of the game, the completion of campaigns can take a few restarts or even stall completely, take this into account when you get to that part of the game!
Interestingly, a stupid Bug in the very first Atlantean mission ruined my campaign in both Age of Mythology: Extended Edition and this version of the game. Yes, yes, the teleport building simply doesn’t work for me in the very first Atlantean mission.
And now, about the sweetest part. The graphics were updated to a very decent level: animations, sprites, shadows, all that you can think of. Everything looks like a properly touched-up update of the old models and animations. I can’t say that everything got adjusted with the similar level of success: for example, it’s easier to look for the relics on the minimap vs the actual main game window.
The animations are juicy and bright, constructions breaking apart and being set on fire, the death of warriors’, and much more. Just the meteor being hauled at the enemies’ base looks incredible, let alone Ice Wolves. The animations of the Legendary creatures look extremely funny in some moments. As if they were taken from some old rides or movies.
The sounds in the game remained the same. They even saved all the old phrases of the Units, all the sounds from the first version of the game. Yes, yes, all the old phrases from the original are lovingly transferred to this version. I missed them. Even the roar of the Ragnarok Dragon! Unit phrases have their own meaning as well and, if you are interested, you can find them online.
I remember all of them from the first edition of the game, and I am glad that the remaster treated the classics with love. The developers refreshed the mechanics and visuals, making it modern, but still following the style of the classic version. The remaster allows players to enjoy the excellency that is Age of Mythology while also preserving the very core of its original version.
