Ladies and gentlemen start your emulators! It is time for another episode of RetrOS, giving you your recommended dose of nostalgia by reviewing games of your childhood.
This episode is a day-one review special. This time, we take a look at debatably one of the best RTS games ever made. will this game restore our faith in remasters, or will this game suffer the same cruel fate as the Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition trilogy?
Let's find out!
The way 90s, early 2000s were the time strategy genre at its peak. This was the time when all-time classics, like StarCraft, developed by Blizzard Entertainment, and the original Age of Empires, developed by Texas-based Ensemble Studios, both released in 1997.
Both these classics are still being played competitively, specifically in Vietnam and South Korea. As I have said in a previous blog update, the original Age of Empires was the first RTS experience I had on the PC platform. The second entry of the Age of Empires series, dubbed the Age of Kings, was released in 1999.
The final stop on this tour is, of course, this title, released to the public in 2002. This game had a whole new 3-D game engine to boot, the BANG! Engine.
This title strays a little from the typical Age of Empires game. Instead of basing the game, and its story on actual historical events, the game is based on mythology, for example, the Odyssey. The game's story revolves around the fictional, Maritime city of Atlantis.
You play as Arkantos, an admiral of the Atlantean army, it is up to fight your way through the war on Troy, the shifting sands of Egypt, and the frozen wastes of Midgard to put a stop to the deadly plot to destroy the agent world.
The accessibility scores are as follows
Visibility 11
In terms of this category, the developers seem to have gone the extra mile. Instead of using preset, colourblind modes. You can customise your own colour scheme completely! On top of that, you can enable the feature called friend or foe colours.
This feature is exactly the same as alliance colours in Total War games. The player's colour reflects that player's diplomacy toward you. As I said before, you can customise this to see your impairments. So, this game is easily playable for a player with visual impairments
Audibility10.5
once again, World's Edge fails to disappoint in terms of this category. Cut scenes during the campaign, and dialogue during missions are fully subtitled. Better still, you can customise the font size of these subtitles.
This reduces the risk of visually impaired players getting eye strain while reading the subtitles. However, text-based warnings, in the same vein as the previous entry of the series would make this game a little more accessible, as these important notifications are only indicated by audio cues which, can cause an issue for a player with hearing impairments.
Particularly in an RTS game where reaction times are essential. So, despite the shortfalls this game is very accessible for a player with hearing impairments
Mobility 11
As you can see in the footage you see here, the PC version has full controller support. Now, I understand that keyboard and mouse controls are end bedded and the strategy games genre's DNA, but, full controller support gives players the option to play the game should playing with a controller be more comfortable.
So, guys, should full controller support be seen as the standard in the video game industry as a whole? or should this feature be phased out? Let me know in those comments!
For players who prefer the traditional keyboard and mouse interface, hotkeys can be fully customised to suit your impairments. So, this game is very easily playable for a player with a mobility impairment.
Gameplay 11
This, ladies and gentlemen is how you do a remaster of an all-time classic. Instead of tweaking the existing engine, which allows the game to be played on modern hardware, the developers decided to use Age of Empires 3's engine to power this game.
The developers have also done a phenomenal job of keeping the source material intact. This title currently has the base game, and the first expansion, the Titans.
Currently, there are five unique civilisations to command. The Greeks, Egyptians, Norse and Atlanteans. Each one of these has its own unique play style, and, of course, God Powers.
These can be used at any time during a battle. These range from luring animals to a specific location, the restoration field which heals units and repairs buildings, earthquakes and meteor storms
With four distinct single-player campaigns to play through, you will be playing this game for months and months on end! When you finally clear them, there are skirmish mode, and online multiplayer to test your skills against other players.
In summary, Age of Mythology: Retold is another great example of a remake of a classic RTS game done right. The developers have taken what's good about this game, and crank them tenfold. For example, god powers are the mechanic that makes this game truly unique.
And the classic version, every time you advance in age, you have to select a minor god, with their own unique god power, and upgrades. However, these can be used only once per match. In this particular addition, the mechanic has undergone a rework.
God powers can be reused, after a short recharge time, and each use of a particular god power requires a certain element of favour to use.
This cost increases each and every time you use it In my honest opinion, this is an ingenious way of adding emphasis on this particular mechanic while keeping things balanced. And the classic version, the Atlanteans can use their God powers twice, in some cases, three times.
With the inclusion of cross-play between Xbox, and PC users, and with filth keyboard and mouse support with the Xbox version, there is no input advantage when playing between the formats, as your APM takes a significant hit when using a controller.
If you are an RTS enthusiast who is looking for an old-school RTS game to play over the Christmas period, I cannot recommend this game enough to you!
OVERALL SCORE 108.75%
See you guys in the next review!
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