The Age of Mythology: Retold brings many of the usual advancements you'd expect from a reboot of both the increasingly dated original 2002 game and its former Reboot: The Extended Edition from 2014, which is still perfectly playable and available on Steam, features much-needed improvements to the graphics and UI, making the entire game much easier to see and analyze at a glance. And while the updated voice acting isn't going to win any awards, neither is the stilted, dry dialogue those actors are working with (which feels faithful to the original game, for better or worse).
But Retold It adds something I didn't really expect in a modern RTS game: full handheld controller support. Developers have been trying to make RTS games work without the traditional mouse and keyboard since the days of the SNES. Populous and Starcraft 64generally with limited success. However, Microsoft has not given up on its dream and has fully integrated control support for The Age of Mythology: Retold both on the PC version (which we tested) and, obviously, on the launch of Xbox Series X|S.
The result is easily the best version of a real-time strategy controller interface I've ever experienced, and proof that a modern controller can be a perfectly functional option for the genre. Ultimately, though, there are just too many annoyances associated with a handheld controller to make it the preferred way to play a game like this.
Too many functions, too few buttons
Microsoft
To get an idea of what I mean, just look at the controls popup, which summarizes all the things a single controller needs to do in a game like The age of mythologyThe game makes full use of every button and direction on the Xbox controller for one function or another. There's so much stuff that commands like Stop and Delete have to be mapped to a combination of two shoulder buttons, with different functions for holding and pressing (and there are a few other menu buttons that aren't even listed here).
In any case, this diagram doesn't show the complexity of the controls. Pressing any of the triggers brings up contextual radial menus filled with general commands or building options for the selected building. Finding the right option often involves scrolling through several pages of radial menus in this full-screen interface, a cumbersome solution to the problem of having too many options for too few buttons.
The game goes to great lengths to limit the amount of work you have to do with menus. For example, pressing the Y button when you select a building automatically starts construction of the most common unit you want to create with that building. And holding the Y button quickly maxes out the production queue for that building, saving you from having to spend a few seconds clicking through menus to do so.