Age of Mythology: Retold Review: Gods and Legends Return

Age of Mythology: Retold rebuilds the 2002 RTS classic with a new engine, rebalanced civilizations, and quality-of-life improvements while preserving the god-power and myth-unit systems that defined the original. It remains the best mythology-themed RTS ever made.

How We Reviewed: Our assessment is based on comparison against genre standards and predecessor titles and completing the main campaign and substantial side content. Ratings reflect extensive playtime, community consensus, and mechanical depth analysis. None of our selections were paid placements or sponsored content.

God Powers and Favor

Each civilization generates Favor (the resource for myth units and god powers) differently. Greeks earn Favor by assigning villagers to worship at temples, creating an opportunity cost between economy and divine power. Norse generate Favor through combat, rewarding aggression. Egyptians build monuments that passively generate Favor. Atlanteans gain Favor from town centers, scaling with expansion.

God powers are one-use (or limited-use in Retold’s rebalanced system) abilities that reshape battles. Zeus’s Bolt kills any single unit instantly. Loki’s Spy reveals the entire map temporarily. Ra’s Rain boosts all farming rates across your empire. Choosing your major god at the start and minor gods at each Age advancement creates a tech-tree-within-a-tech-tree that defines your civilization’s identity.

Myth Units

Each god tier unlocks a unique myth unit. The Minotaur (Greek) has a charge attack that sends human units flying. The Einherjar (Norse) are immortal warriors who respawn at your temple after death. The Mummy (Egyptian) converts killed enemies into minions. The Automaton (Atlantean) self-repairs over time.

Myth units are expensive and limited in number but dramatically more powerful than regular military units. They serve as centerpiece units around which your army composition revolves. Counter-myth-unit strategies (heroes deal bonus damage to myth units) create a rock-paper-scissors layer on top of the standard military counter system.

Campaign

The remastered campaign follows Arkantos across Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythologies as he pursues the cyclops Gargarensis who seeks to free the Titan Kronos. The campaign functions as a tour of all three civilizations’ mechanics, with each chapter teaching a different faction’s unique systems.

Retold adds a new Atlantean campaign chapter and expands existing missions with secondary objectives, hero conversations, and environmental storytelling absent from the original.

God Powers and Myth Units

Each civilization’s gods provide unique God Powers usable once per Age advance. Zeus grants Lightning Storm, dealing damage across a wide area. Ra provides Rain, boosting farm productivity for all allied players. Loki summons Nidhogg, a dragon that attacks enemy fortifications. These one-time abilities create dramatic turning points in matches, and choosing when to deploy them adds a layer of strategic timing unique to Age of Mythology.

Myth units fill specialized roles that human soldiers cannot match. Minotaurs charge through infantry lines. Medusas petrify units on contact. Frost Giants deal area damage with each swing. Each civilization’s myth units encourage different army compositions: Greek myth units are individually powerful but expensive, Egyptian myth units are cheaper but require supporting human armies, and Norse myth units integrate into infantry formations.

Campaign Overhaul

The Retold edition rebuilds all original campaign missions with updated graphics, rebalanced difficulty, and expanded narrative sequences. The Egyptian campaign following Arkantos across the Mediterranean remains the highlight, with set-piece battles that showcase each civilization’s unique mechanics. Voice acting and cutscenes received complete overhauls, bringing the storytelling quality in line with modern RTS standards.

Verdict

Age of Mythology: Retold is the definitive version of a strategy game that was already excellent. The mythology hook provides faction diversity that historical settings cannot match, and the god-power system creates dramatic battlefield moments that pure military-versus-military RTS games lack.

The multiplayer matchmaking and ranked ladder provide competitive longevity beyond the campaign, and the balance between civilizations ensures that competitive play remains viable across all three mythological pantheons.

For RTS comparisons, see Age of Empires 4 Build Orders. For Warhammer strategy, check Warhammer 40K RTS Guide.