When Age of Mythology: Retold First first came out, there was one notable absence from the classic game. Now, lastly, the excluded Chinese Pantheon has returned to the Pillar of Immortality DLC.
Rather than applying fresh paint to the original country, this DLC has completely revamped the Chinese Pantheon for a more engaging experience. The gods may be the same, but everything else is different from powers to mythical units, and even campaigns that are characterized. It’s not so different that it feels unfamiliar, but for the lovers of the series, these friendly faces are a welcome addition to thrilling this classic game.
Face a new legend
While most of the campaigns in the Basics of Mythology are essentially revamped versions of essentially revamped versions from previous editions, the Retord China campaign stomps on a completely new ground from the Dragons of its predecessor’s tale. You may not know if you are familiar with the series. It feels like a natural inclusion that perfectly matches the styles of other campaigns for a cohesive experience.
Most often, the new Immortal Pillars story unfolds in a mythical way of the classic era. Short cutting scenes allow you to learn about the characters before you start playing the game. Here we will guide you through several different scenarios, test your skills, such as building an army, expanding a village.
With stories drawn from authentic Chinese mythology, the new Pillar Campaign of Immortality is about three rather different heroes who unite to defeat the great warrior huang zhaowu, who once gave immortality by the gods but who are trying to overthrow them in the hopes of meeting their deceased wife. With the help of the God of War and the powerful witch, he plans to destroy the pillars of heaven and crush reality itself. If you have the hope of stopping him, you need to use all your strategic wits and make a powerful alliance.
The story isn’t something you write at home, and the voice acting sometimes feels stiff, but it adds enthusiasm and excitement to each of the actions you take. This new campaign is perfectly lined up with others. It works fine, and in most cases it tests just like everyone else, and can play it over and over again, using many sub-challenges and different difficulty settings. It’s a little shorter than the other campaigns, but it’s satisfying. Yes, it’s streamlined, but that might be you want more.
Build your empire
In Skirmish and PVP gameplay, Chinese units are very similar to counterparts from other countries. There are three main gods Fuxi, Nüwa and Shennong (and many more minor gods), and as you can choose, there are many variations for you to try and play and play, making the different runs feel unique and fresh. Fuxi comes with a rather unusual approach. This is a time-based yin Yang system that boosts short-term military units before switching to improving resource collection.
This is an innovative and creative approach that takes time to strategize the current focus in a way that players will not use in other countries, and in a sense it is unfortunate that it is not used by all Chinese gods.
After all, at the surface level, gameplay with Chinese units works very similar to other countries. Normally, some countries feel like a whole new experience switching to Egyptian countries after playing with Greek troops, but the Chinese state feels this excitement a little less. Alongside standard villagers, it can produce huge quaffs that excel in building, mining and timber collection – which can be reminiscent of different Nordic units and their various strengths, but in most cases there is little way to build a village in a way to grow Greek things here.
There are some fun new units and some useful skills found in some units, allowing you to force yourself to rethink your strategy and get success. It’s easy to control, the units feel responsive, and there are plenty of handy automatic tools that you’ll find in the base game, but nothing innovative. There’s nothing to surprise new players. Sometimes most differences seem to have a look and flavour.
There is a lot of flavor. Please don’t get me wrong. Each human unit has its own appearance, and a lot of love is poured into the mythical units, creating a unique visual style. I doubt that everyone plays mythological age for art, but it looks good, especially when it comes to the remake art of the gods.
If you want something very different from other countries, you might be a little disappointed, but for casual players (especially those who want to play with older versions and try something new), it offers the opportunity to try a new civilization.
Final Thoughts
Immortal Pillars are certainly fun to play with, and the improved Chinese civilization is a breath of fresh air. The campaign is well-built and in skirmishes there is sufficient assets and costs to invite experiments when playing against other countries. Like the base game, it offers endless opportunities to simulate empire building with strategies.
If there was one real concern I had, it was the cost. This DLC is worth it, but at $24.95 it’s a relatively small amount of content. Especially when the Chinese campaign is shorter than the other campaigns featured there. But if you are willing to pay that price, I’m sure you’ll have a good time.
3 and a half stars (out of 5)
Highlights: A fun new god and mythology unit. A new, well-designed campaign. Good visual
Low light: A small amount of content overall
Developer: World’s Edge, Virtuos Games, Forgotten Empire, Tantalus Media
Publisher: Xbox Game Studio
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X, Series S
Available: Now
The review was conducted on a Windows PC with release code provided by the publisher.
