Age of Mythology: Retold's developers are going 'way beyond' the definitive editions for Age of Empires: 'We want to build the game in your head'

The upcoming Age of Mythology: Retold has been shown off in-depth for the first time today during Microsoft's New Year, New Age livestream, marking the first showing of the definitive edition of everyone's favorite Age spinoff since its announcement in late 2022. 

The new video segment showed off some of the game's signature mythological monsters in detail, including the terrible medusas, the flying pegasus scout, and the titan Cerberus using an augmented reality platform. The monsters are pretty dang good looking, part of the overall effort to make Age of Mythology: Retold a real upgrade from the game we played in 2002, including changes to the models as you upgrade through the ages—though they definitely come complete with a stack of classic sounds and twists on the old animations. The Medusa death sound, in particular, is just as I remember it.

That's just what Age of Mythology: Retold producer Earnest Yuen had to say when I spoke with him about the upcoming remake, which will release this year on both PC and Xbox. Yuen has worked at Microsoft for nearly a quarter-century, starting as QA on the first Age of Empires—it's clear that his love for the series runs deep.

The studio's plans to remake the first fully 3D Age of Empires required a different kind of work, and inspired the team to go to new lengths in their upgrades to the game.

«Age of Mythology: Retold is way beyond what we normally do for definitive editions,» said Yuen. He and the team want to make the game as epic, engaging, and pretty as players remember it, rather than simply updating what was there. «We want to build the game in your head,» he said.

That means using changes to the graphics and game engine that were made for the Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition, then going beyond that. The start is «adding ray tracing, upping the population limit, [and] adding an engine to handle special effects,» said Yuen. Population limit in particular will be a big change for Age of Mythology not just in how