Age of Mythology: Retold, in case you are unfamiliar, is a sort-of remake of the basic 2002 technique recreation that—as per our Age of Mythology: Retold overview, which gave it a strong 75, “walks the tightrope of updating the bits that really feel clunky by as we speak’s requirements with out killing the sense of nostalgia.”
However there is a fly caught to these rose-tinted glasses. As gamers have noticed, the sport has precisely one DLC to its identify (bar a soundtrack) the Legacy Deity Portrait Pack. It is at the moment on sale for $6 (£5) and, because the identify suggests, lets gamers use the portraits from the 2002 unique launch.
It is also bundled in with the premium version—together with superior entry, which is why each the bottom recreation and the DLC can be found for critiques proper now. What now we have here’s a distinctive scenario the place, maybe for the primary time, a DLC has acquired a “Very Adverse” Steam critiques earlier than the sport it is hooked up to has even arrived.
It is not precisely undeserved, both. I am not strictly in opposition to beauty DLCs (although I do assume they nonetheless subtract one thing from a recreation), however your buck’s simply not banging, right here. $6 for some previous jpegs that have been made in 2002 is objectively nonsense for one thing a modder may obtain in a day. As a side-bonus for the premium model? Certain, innocent. Price it by itself? Not in your immortal life.
The critiques themselves sum issues up fairly effectively: “WORSE THAN HORSE ARMOUR DLC” writes one incensed participant, presumably within the throes of vivid flashbacks to Bethesda’s progenial graft. One other participant, who purchased the superior entry model of the sport, provides: “I acquired it without cost, however so ought to everybody else. They’re 20 yr previous photographs, and the gamers that will have an interest within the previous photographs are the identical gamers which have supported the collection for the previous 20 years.”
I am not coming to the defence of the DLC in isolation right here, however within the curiosity of equity I really feel obligated to level out that the premium model (which incorporates this stuff) appears objectively positive. For $20 additional you bought seven days of superior entry as an early purchaser, a brand new god to play with, and two upcoming expansions which are contemporary to the sport—which is an affordable worth level on the face of it.
So far as its base recreation critiques go, Age of Mythology: Retold additionally appears to be pleasing long-term followers. On the time of writing, it is sat at a 92% optimistic consumer overview rating, with roughly 3,670 superior entry gamers giving it the thumbs up. Not too shabby. I am reminded of a larger-scale fiasco that occurred with Dragon’s Dogma 2—the place the sport was truly a riot, however some poorly managed DLC packaging gave it a battering on Steam. Optics are, as all the time, important.
