By Odin’s beard! 22 years on, Age of Mythology is still the god of strategy games

In this week’s newsletter: The sometimes infuriating, always enthralling epic is back – and I’m ready for it to take over my life all over again

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While normal people have been getting excited about Oasis reforming, this week I have been totally preoccupied by another blast from the past: Age of Mythology: Retold. For anyone who didn’t spent most of 2002/3 playing games on the family computer while insisting to their parents that they were “educational”, Age of Mythology was a spinoff from the Age of Empires strategy game series. Where Age of Empires II had me playing through the loosely historical campaigns of the likes of William Wallace, Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan, Age of Mythology was instead stuffed with Greek, Norse and Egyptian monsters and stories. Now it’s back, with a story that still offers maximalist mythological fun and so many mini war scenarios that I’d forgotten about that I feel like I’m enjoying them afresh.

You still order your little army men around on the screen, sending them to battle other little army men while you build larger, more sophisticated towns and send villagers to labour in fields, mines and forests to get you resources (which you can use to buy new, better little army men). But in Age of Mythology, you aren’t just playing God – you are one. You can intervene in mortals’ affairs with lightning bolts, healing auras, and meteor storms. As your civilisation progresses, you choose minor gods to complement your abilities and units. You can send a hydra or a colossus or elite Myrmidons into battle alongside your archers and cavalry, and heroes such as Jason and Hippolyta can join the fray, doing extra damage to your enemies’ mythical monsters.

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