Age of Mythology: Retold

Age of Mythology: Retold is a 2024 real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by World’s Edge, Forgotten Empires, and Tantalus Media, and published by Xbox Game Studios. Rather than a simple graphical upscaling, Retold is a massive, ground-up remake of Ensemble Studios’ legendary 2002 classic. It takes the beloved mythological spin-off and completely rebuilds it on an upgraded version of the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition engine, introducing gorgeous modern visuals, vastly improved pathfinding, and sweeping, meta-altering gameplay changes.

The game preserves the iconic, 50-mission cinematic campaign of the original, following the Atlantean admiral Arkantos as he journeys through the Greek, Egyptian, and Norse realms to stop the cyclops Gargarensis from unleashing the Titan Kronos.

Gameplay

While Retold retains the core asymmetrical faction design of the original—where Greeks pray at temples, Egyptians build monuments, and the Norse fight to earn Favor—the developers made massive, fundamental changes to the competitive multiplayer loop to encourage much more aggressive, myth-heavy combat.

Key gameplay mechanics and modernizations include:

Reusable God Powers: The single biggest change from the 2002 original. God Powers (like Meteor, Frost, or Earthquake) are no longer one-time-use panic buttons. They are now castable abilities that go on cooldown. Subsequent casts cost increasing amounts of Favor, fundamentally changing late-game strategy.
The Wonder Age: Instead of simply starting a victory countdown timer, building a Wonder now advances you to the “Wonder Age.” This acts as an apocalyptic late-game state, drastically reducing the cooldown and cost of your God Powers while making Myth Units cheaper, ensuring matches end in spectacular, divine chaos.
Uncapped Favor and Myth Scaling: The restrictive 100-Favor cap of the original game was completely removed, allowing players to stockpile divine currency. Furthermore, Myth Units now automatically receive scaling stat buffs whenever you advance to a new Age, ensuring early-game monsters like Minotaurs or Anubites don’t become useless in the Imperial Age.
Village Centers: In the original game, you could only build new Town Centers on pre-determined, highly contested “Settlement” nodes. Retold introduces “Village Centers”—weaker, secondary economic hubs that do not provide population space but can be built anywhere on the map to secure early-game resources.
Faction Reworks: Entire civilizations received massive tweaks to smooth out their gameplay. The Norse had their production buildings split (introducing the Great Hall for cavalry) and received new units like the Godi and Hirdman to fill counter-niches. The Atlanteans received a massive rework to how they generate Favor, now relying heavily on their Oracle scout units.

Development and Legacy

For nearly a decade, fans relied on the 2014 Age of Mythology: Extended Edition to play the game on modern systems. When Microsoft began rolling out the highly successful “Definitive Editions” for the mainline historical games, the community relentlessly begged for the gods to return.

Announced in 2022 and released in September 2024, Age of Mythology: Retold was met with massive critical and commercial success. Reviewers praised the developers for not being afraid to “break” the original game’s balance to make it more fun, successfully capturing the exaggerated, larger-than-life scale of mythological warfare. The graphical overhaul was also heavily lauded, featuring incredible destruction physics, majestic Titan models, and devastating particle effects for God Powers.

Microsoft immediately committed to expanding the game’s universe through post-launch DLC. The game’s first major expansion, Immortal Pillars, was announced shortly after launch, designed to completely overhaul and properly integrate the Chinese pantheon (which had previously suffered from a notoriously poor implementation in the 2016 Tale of the Dragon DLC for the old Extended Edition).

With a thriving competitive scene, cross-platform multiplayer, and continuous live-service support, Retold successfully resurrected one of the most beloved RTS games of the 2000s for a brand new generation.

Key Features:

The Ultimate Remake — Experience the 2002 masterpiece fully rebuilt from the ground up with stunning modern 3D models, smooth animations, and explosive physics.
Cast and Recast — Dominate the battlefield with spectacular God Powers that can now be recharged and unleashed multiple times per match using Favor.
The Wonder Age — Build massive monuments to trigger an apocalyptic final Age, turning the map into a chaotic warzone of cheap Myth Units and rapid-fire divine spells.
Epic Campaigns — Play through the legendary original 50-mission Fall of the Trident campaign and The New Atlantis expansion with full voice acting and modernized cinematic triggers.
Console Integration — Enjoy a flawlessly optimized controller scheme that makes macro-management and unit command completely viable on Xbox.