Microsoft announced Age of Mythology: Retold back in October 2022, but new details have recently emerged that the game will actually be a remake rather than a remaster and as part of that remake the developers redesigned the titan Gaia.
A screenshot of Age of Mythology: Retold (2024), World’s Edge
If you are unfamiliar with Age of Mythology, the game was released back in 2002 and put players in charge of three main factions: Greek, Norse, and Egyptian. Within those three factions players could choose different gods including Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Odin, Thor, Loki, Ra, Isis, and Set.
The game played very similar to Age of Empires as it operates like a traditional RTS albeit with unique units and abilities based on the various factions and gods. One of the major gameplay elements that the game had that separated it from Age of Empires was the Titan gate. Players can construct the Titan gates to summon various titans including Cerberus, Ra, Horus, Ra-Hoakhty, Ymir, a giant lava golem, and Pangu. During the New Atlantis campaign Prometheus, Kronos, and Gaia are featured.
A screenshot of Age of Mythology: Retold (2024), World’s Edge
READ: Atlus Releases Demo For New Nintendo Switch RPG ‘Unicorn Overlord’
Age of Mythology: Retold was announced with a trailer in October 2022 during the Age of Empires 25th Anniversary Broadcast with the promise that the game would feature “updated graphics, features and more.”
However, no other details were revealed.
In a more recent update, the game’s art director Melinda Rose revealed how much this new game will change from the original.
She stated, “In Age of Mythology: Retold we’re not only upgrading the engine and bringing all of those quality of life improvements that you’ve come to expect from World’s Edge, but in addition to that, we’re doing even more to update the art.”
She continued, “That means all-new 3D models all-new animations, textures, UI, VFX, the whole sha-bang.”
Melinda Rose via Age of Empires YouTube
As she showed off a number of character models, she also revealed that some design and gameplay functions have changed. While discussing a Pegasus model, she revealed, “This Pegasus looks a little fancier than you may remember, and that is because in Age of Mythology: Retold, when you upgrade your myth units through technologies, those units will get a brand new visual upgrade to reflect that increase in power.”
As for the titans, while showing off the new Cerberus design she relayed, “Titans have been upgraded to be more powerful against walls and buildings, and even rivers and oceans won’t be able to stop their wrecking power.”
As she wrapped up the video, Rose stated, “So to wrap things up, our goal is to not only pay homage to the past, but to breathe new life into this game and maximize the mythology.”
Melinda Rose via Age of Empires YouTube
Finally, she showed off the game’s cover art, which depicts Gaia as a plant creature.
Age of Mythology art
A screenshot of Gaia’s new design was also shared on the game’s Steam page.
A screenshot of Age of Mythology: Retold (2024), World’s Edge
For comparison, here’s how Gaia looked in the original game:
A screenshot of Age of Mythology (2002), Ensemble Studios
The Norse titan also appears to have been radically redesign. A screenshot shows the titan with a prominent chest.
A screenshot of Age of Mythology: Retold (2024), World’s Edge
In the original game, the Norse titan looked like a troll from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films.
A screenshot of a Norse titan from Age of Mythology (2002), Ensemble Studios
On top of Rose’s comments and the change in Gaia and the Norse Titan’s design, the game’s producer Earnest Yuen told PC Gamer, “Age of Mythology: Retold is way beyond what we normally do for definitive editions.”
He explained, “We want to build the game in your head.”
As to how he and his team plan to achieve that Yuen shared that they are “adding ray tracing, upping the population limit, [and] adding an engine to handle special effects.”
He also indicated that unit powers and how they worked is changing, “In Retold what we are doing is we actually make that user-controllable, you can actually micro and use that when you want to.”
A screenshot of Age of Mythology: Retold (2024), World’s Edge
God powers have also been changed. Instead of being a one-time use, they now operate on a cooldown timer.
Yuen explained, “The god power change is both great for esports and for watching the game.” He specifically noted the cooldown creates “anticipation [that] makes it much more fun to watch.”
In fact, much of the changes being made to the game appear to cater towards esports, Yuen noted they will be making balance changes and exploit fixes as well, “Those things need to be updated, if we don’t patch those and fix those exploits the game will not be viable as an esports game, it’s important we need to fix those things so our community can run the tournaments they love.”
A screenshot of Age of Mythology: Retold (2024), World’s Edge
What do you make of Gaia’s redesign? What do you make of the changes that they plan to make to Age of Mythology?
I think I used to play the original way back when. I don’t care if Gaia is a plant person, typically mythological characters are lame so at least it adds something. I’m slightly surprised that the rest of the characters don’t “reflect modern day audiences”.