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

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.

When I was 14, Age of Mythology was absolutely my jam. I was very into my ancient civilisations. At the time I think I still wanted to be an Egyptologist and I was, rather tragically, learning Latin. I remember struggling bravely on my own heroic arc through the long, difficult campaign, in which you guide Atlantean general Arkantos through all three mythological realms. You start off with the Greeks, participating in the fall of Troy, merrily recreating the bit of the myth where Zeus rains thunderbolts down from heaven to tip the scales (though under my control, it was in favour of Agamemnon’s army). Later you join the Egyptians, before ending up in the Norselands, via the underworld. It misses no opportunity to namedrop a God, hero or creature that mythology nerds will enjoy.

Playing Age of Mythology again has been a fascinating time warp. I remembered it being super annoying at times, and it still is – making out individual units, buildings and heroes on the crowded screen remains a challenge. But I’m finding the campaign significantly more conquerable this time around, perhaps thanks to the generous variety of difficulty settings. I’ve been playing on Xbox, which has meant wrestling with gamepad controls that feel deeply unnatural, rather than pointing and clicking, but Retold’s coterie of developers have done a decent job adapting a finicky old game into something that feels … well, not modern, but nonetheless very playable. And the premise is still such fun.

I sometimes think the weird quirks are part of the fun with older games like this. On the one hand, I spent 20 minutes stuck in the underworld in a relatively early mission because I couldn’t figure out which button combination would load my heroes on to Charon’s ferry, which is time I would rather like back. On the other, sending my army into battle and nipping off for a second to reassign some villagers, only to discover that half my army took a different route and got stuck halfway towards their destination, turned a routine sacking into a valiant rescue mission that I won by the skin of my teeth. As with many games from this period, I’m not sure I’d remember Age of Mythology so fondly if it hadn’t been at least a little bit annoying. It meant I had to work slightly harder to enjoy it.

If you loved this game back in the day, you’ll need no more persuading here. But if you’re new to this strategy series and just love the idea of the setup, I urge you to give it a go. I absolutely will not get drawn into the multiplayer again, though – I still hold it responsible for nearly causing me to fail one of my exams.

What to play

Speaking of nostalgia, nerds of a different flavour will probably enjoy Star Wars Outlaws, out this week. It puts such an earnest Star Wars spin on the familiar old Ubisoft open-world game template that our critic Keith Stuart couldn’t help but like it.

“I didn’t expect to become emotionally overwhelmed during a minor quest that involved buying spare parts from a group of Jawas,” he wrote in our review. “It took me right back to being 12 years old, watching Star Wars on VHS in our living room, eating a bowl of Monster Munch my mum had brought to me, repeating the lines along with Luke. There are many moments like this in Ubisoft’s sprawling adventure, and they save its life on more than one occasion.”

Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC
Estimated playtime: 40+ hours

What to read

• I interviewed the creators of Monster Hunter about next year’s game, Monster Hunter Wilds (pictured above), which looks frankly incredible. I still think this series is unmatched when it comes to adrenaline-pumping battles against believably dangerous beasts. In a charming full-circle moment, I learned that the game’s director, Yuya Tokuda, started out as a fan: the original 2005 Monster Hunter inspired him to get into the games industry in the first place.

• The boss of Amazon Games dropped a giant clanger in an otherwise level-headed interview with IGN, implying that AI doesn’t threaten jobs in the games industry because “we don’t really have acting” – in the middle of a Sag-Aftra strike in which video game actors are protesting over AI protections.

• Fiendish trippy poker game Balatro is getting some new themed decks this week, in collaboration with The Witcher, Dave the Diver, Among Us and Vampire Survivors. I still disappear for least an hour every time I fire up this game.

What to click

• Black Myth: Wukong review – a fantastically exciting action game

• World of Warcraft: The War Within review – a reason to dive back into the depths of Azeroth

• Concord: Sony’s online shooter is flying but not yet soaring in a very crowded airspace

• A very British Fallout: Atomfall conjures up a cosy nuclear catastrophe in the Lake District

Question Block

Reader R asks:

“As a child raised mostly on books, math games and Minecraft, my parents were surprised that I really enjoyed Splatoon, a third-person shooter. Recently, on a trip with my friends, they suggested we download Fortnite, since it could run on our haphazard mix of devices. It was an absolute hit. Now, back home, we’ll often play it together after a long day at school … to the consternation of my parents, who forbid my younger brother from playing it. What other, less violent, free games are there that can be played on Xbox, Switch, and PC?”

Finding games that the entire group of friends can play on all their different consoles is always such a pain – in some ways, things were easier when the only way to play multiplayer was to crowd around the same TV with four controllers. But here are some free cross-platform multiplayers bangers that won’t upset your parents: Fall Guys (pictured above), a silly slapstick gameshow battle royale with lots of different mini-games; Among Us, the pandemic hit about rooting out a saboteur on a spaceship; Rocket League, football with RC cars, which still hasn’t gotten old after years of play; and Genshin Impact, which has four-player co-op (beware though, it’s very compelling).

If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.