Age of Mythology: Retold - Obsidian Mirror Review Summary

This solid expansion offers fun myth units and a distinct Aztec identity, but its praised campaign is buggy, laggy, and stuck with a nonsensical, disconnected storyline.

Excellent Campaign Praised: Players consistently praise the new campaign, describing it as great, well-done, compelling, and very enjoyable. Many consider it one of the best and most entertaining parts of the game.

Solid Expansion Overall: The expansion is seen as fascinating, flavorful, and one of the best in the series. It is a really solid addition that enhances the game.

Myth Units Are Fun: New myth units are considered super fun, unique, and cool. They add enjoyable gameplay elements that players appreciate.

Aztecs Have Distinct Identity: The Aztecs feature a very distinct identity and playstyle compared to other civilizations, making them stand out. Their design is completely different from the existing four civilizations.

Innovative Aztec Mechanics: The Aztecs introduce new mechanics that bring variety and innovation to the game, especially impressive for an older title. These mechanics enhance gameplay.

Campaign is buggy and laggy: Multiple reviewers report that the campaign is plagued by bugs and lag, making it feel like a buggy mess. This is a frequent and specific complaint about technical performance.

Storyline is nonsensical and disconnected: The story is criticized for making no sense, with a spotty and terrible flow that leaves players confused about key elements like the villain. It feels disconnected and poorly constructed.

Aztec units are underwhelming: Aztec myth units and regular units are seen as boring, uninspired, and severely underpowered, failing to stand out. This makes playing as the Aztecs feel uninteresting and weak.

Too many repetitive defend missions: The campaign has an overabundance of defense missions and reused maps, leading to monotony and tedium. This repetitive design is a common complaint.

Voice acting and sound issues: Voice acting is considered awful, with some speculating it sounds like AI, and subtitles often don't match the spoken lines. Cinematics also suffer from missing sound effects and awkward silence.

Aztec civilization added: The DLC introduces the Aztec civilization as a new playable faction with unique cultural elements. Feedback consistently praises this addition across multiple clusters.

New campaign included: The expansion adds a campaign structured as a series of events with cutscenes, defense maps, and a prologue. The campaign includes a story with missions.

Villager sacrifice mechanic: The Aztec pantheon generates favor by sacrificing villagers or priests, encouraging aggressive play. This unique mechanic is frequently mentioned in feedback.

New units and powers: The DLC adds god powers, myth units, human units, and maps. The Aztec units and myth units expand the tactical options.

Playable Aztec faction: Players can control the Aztec faction, which features a storyline, unique mechanics, and visually stunning design. The faction includes both human and mythical units.

Frequent Game Crashes: Players report frequent crashes that occur without bug reports, and some crashes remain unresolved since the last update. This instability impacts overall playability.

Performance Degrades With DLC: Performance issues worsen with each DLC, running less smoothly than before. Some civilizations, like the Aztec, suffer almost unplayable performance.

Campaign Optimization Poor: The campaign mode is poorly optimized, with lag, bugs, and stuttering reported by multiple players. Many experience the same issues consistently.

Stuttering And Frame Drops: Players encounter occasional stuttering and significant FPS drops, sometimes as low as 23 FPS. These issues occur even on capable hardware.

Lag With High Load: The game lags excessively when many elements are running simultaneously. This can make gameplay sluggish and unresponsive.

Overall DLC recommendations: Many reviewers highly recommend the DLC, stating it is worth it and a good addition. They suggest it is a must-buy for fans of the base game.

Buy on sale or bundle: Reviewers advise buying the DLC at a discount or as part of a bundle like the Expansion Pass, as the full price is considered too high for the content offered.

Campaign weak, multiplayer strong: The campaign story and design are often criticized, while the multiplayer and skirmish aspects are praised. Some recommend buying only for multiplayer or if you enjoy the Aztec faction.

Good for Age of Mythology fans: Fans of Age of Mythology and the RTS genre highly recommend this DLC, especially for those who enjoy the series.

Not recommended due to quality: Some reviewers do not recommend the DLC due to its lackluster quality, poor story, and high price.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $30.00.

Story completion: 4.0h.

The Aztec DLC starts fun for many players through unique trap mechanics and an instantly engaging story, but campaign enjoyment drops later because of repetitive defensive missions and map reuse. A sizeable minority reports boredom throughout, so the dominant time-to-fun profile is fun-then-drops rather than never-clicks.

Friction: Higher learning curve with identifying units at a glance; Aztecs gain favour is ineffective, nonsensical and poorly explained; Pacing is awful, lots of long cutscenes in the middle of missions; Low favour in the late game for the Aztecs is frustrating; God powers are boring.

Solo Mythology Campaigner: Plays campaign, skirmish, and PvE modes, focusing on story, gods, and classic RTS entertainment rather than competitive balance. Motivation: Relaxed solo campaign and skirmish play enriched by mythology and returning characters. Stance: buy.

Competitive Multiplayer Balance Watcher: Plays multiplayer and ranked matches, tracks patch notes and balance, and adapts to new civ mechanics. Motivation: Competitive PvP and ranked play, fresh meta, and concern for balance. Stance: sale.

Aggressive Civ Experimenter: Aggressive infantry pushes, offensive pressure, and experimenting with new unit abilities while de-emphasizing defensive structures. Motivation: A unique, aggressive infantry civilization with fresh units and mechanics. Stance: buy.

The two Windows VRAM cohorts show mainly negative or caveated performance: the sub-8GB cohort reports lag and no recommendation, while the 8-11GB cohort has a recommendation but notes campaign bugs and lag.

Windows <8GB VRAM: negative. The included review reports too much lag and does not recommend the game.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. The included review recommends the game but notes that the campaign is buggy and laggy.

Steam Deck: The provided reviews contain very little direct Steam Deck feedback. One user reports a seamless Linux and Proton experience, launching and playing the game immediately without workarounds. No reports describe forced Proton Experimental, external launcher issues, small text, battery drain, or stability problems on Steam Deck. The only Steam Deck mention is a request for promotional content. Overall, available evidence suggests a low-friction experience, though direct Deck testing is limited.

Monetization: The feedback centers entirely on the price and perceived value of paid expansion/DLC content (roughly 20 euros for a single faction and a short campaign), with some reviewers calling it a 'cash grab.' No review provides direct evidence of a real-money shop, in-game currency, loot boxes, gacha pulls, pay-to-win sales, or convenience microtransactions within the game itself. Reported issues about a purchased DLC being unplayable are technical/entitlement problems, not monetization patterns. Because the only monetization-related evidence is base/expansion price dissatisfaction and traditional paid DLC, the score is capped and kept low.

Aztec DLC adds new pantheon: The expansion introduces the Aztec pantheon to Age of Mythology: Retold, complete with a new civilization, god powers, myth units, human units, and maps. This has been a long-requested addition by the community.

Compared favorably to prior DLCs: Many reviewers consider this DLC better than the previous Chinese and Japanese expansions, praising its campaign, story, and overall quality. Some even call it the best expansion so far for Retold.

Story integration with main game: The campaign connects fully with the main story, featuring old characters like Ajax, Amanra, and Kastor, and continuing a hidden artifact revival plotline from previous campaigns.

12-mission campaign included: The DLC features a 12-mission campaign, often referred to as the Obsidian Mirror campaign, which continues the story from over 20 years ago and includes references to previous characters and events.

Aztecs were long requested: The community has wanted an Aztec civilization for many years, with some reviewers mentioning requests dating back to the original game or the Titans expansion. This DLC finally fulfills that demand.