Age of Mythology: Retold Premium Upgrade Edition (DLC)

Age of Mythology: Retold is a ground-up remake of the 2002 RTS classic, rebuilt by a multi-studio team including World's Edge and Forgotten Empires, the same people keeping Age of Empires II alive two decades on. If you know the original, the bones are identical: pick a pantheon from Greek, Egyptian, Norse, or Atlantean cultures, advance through four ages, worship major and minor gods, spend favor to summon myth units like Minotaurs and Rocs, and call down god powers that reshape the battlefield in seconds. If you have never touched it, this is a base-building, army-fighting RTS where the twist is that mythology is not just flavor text, it is a second resource economy running in parallel with food, gold, and wood. Managing favor generation while hitting villager counts and unit timings is genuinely layered, and it keeps the game interesting well past the campaign. The campaign itself covers the Greek storyline from the original plus the Fall of the Trident arc, rewritten with updated cutscenes and voice work. It serves as a competent extended tutorial before you hit skirmish or multiplayer. The mission design ranges from tight and inventive to padded and escort-heavy, which was true in 2002 and remains true now. What Retold adds is a fully reworked balance pass, modernized pathfinding that removes most of the unit-stuck-on-a-rock frustration, and a god power system that has been retuned for competitive play. The result is a game that feels familiar to returning players but is not simply a texture swap. For strategy depth specifically: each pantheon plays differently enough that learning one does not fully transfer. Greek relies on a diverse myth unit roster and flexible god power timing. Norse drop favor-generating hersir units directly into combat. Egyptian worship at monuments for passive favor, enabling faster myth unit access early. Those differences produce genuinely divergent build orders, and the minor god choices at each age advancement create branching decision trees that hold up under competitive scrutiny. The AI on higher difficulties provides a reasonable challenge for solo players, though dedicated skirmish grinders will find it readable after a few dozen hours. The real longevity is in the multiplayer, which benefits from cross-platform support and an active ranked scene since launch. Accessibility features deserve a callout: adjustable difficulty, save-anytime in campaign, narrated menus, color alternatives for color-blind players, and adjustable text size. That is a serious checklist for a strategy title. The level editor is included, and given the mod ecosystem the Forgotten Empires team has cultivated around Age of Empires II, expect community content to accumulate. Early mod output is already visible. One honest caveat: this is a Premium Upgrade Edition listed as DLC, meaning it is a content tier above the base game rather than a standalone purchase. Verify exactly what scenarios, cosmetics, or bonus content the Premium tier includes before buying, because the base Retold experience is complete without it. For someone new to mythology RTS games, the campaign length, adjustable difficulty, and clearly gated complexity curve make this a reasonable entry point into the genre. For returning players, the rebalanced god powers and updated pathfinding are enough to justify coming back. The 90% positive Steam rating across over 22,000 reviews and an 83 Metacritic score are consistent signals that this is a solid, non-broken remake. It is not trying to reinvent real-time strategy, it is trying to be the best version of itself, and it mostly succeeds.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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