Age of Mythology: Retold, in case you're unfamiliar, is a sort-of remake of the classic 2002 strategy game that—as per our Age of Mythology: Retold review, which gave it a solid 75, "walks the tightrope of updating the bits that feel clunky by today’s standards without killing the sense of nostalgia."
But there's a fly stuck to those rose-tinted glasses. As players have observed, the game has exactly one DLC to its name (bar a soundtrack) the Legacy Deity Portrait Pack. It's currently on sale for $6 (£5) and, as the name suggests, lets players use the portraits from the 2002 original release.
It's also bundled in with the premium edition—along with advanced access, which is why both the base game and the DLC are available for reviews right now. What we have here is a unique situation where, perhaps for the first time, a DLC has received a "Very Negative" Steam reviews before the game it's attached to has even arrived.
- Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition DLC promised last year is cancelled: 'We announced content before it had been built, and we now feel that announcement was premature'
- Age of Empires 2 team continues to cook while delivering 'legendarily long' 8,000-word patch notes about 'the biggest updates' the 26-year-old game has ever had
It's not exactly undeserved, either. I'm not strictly against cosmetic DLCs (though I do think they still subtract something from a game), but your buck's just not banging, here. $6 for some old jpegs that were made in 2002 is objectively nonsense for something a modder could achieve in an afternoon. As a side-bonus for the premium version? Sure, harmless. Worth it on its own? Not on your immortal life.
The reviews themselves sum things up pretty well: "WORSE THAN HORSE ARMOUR DLC" writes one incensed player, presumably in the throes of vivid flashbacks to Bethesda's progenial graft. Another player, who bought the advanced access version of the game, adds: "I got it for free, but so should everyone else. They are 20 year old images, and the players that would be interested in the old images are the same players that have supported the series for the past 20 years."
I'm not coming to the defence of the DLC in isolation here, but in the interest of fairness I feel obligated to point out that the premium version (which includes these things) seems objectively fine. For $20 extra you got seven days of advanced access as an early buyer, a new god to play with, and two upcoming expansions that are fresh to the game—which is a reasonable price point on the face of it.
As far as its base game reviews go, Age of Mythology: Retold also seems to be pleasing long-term fans. At the time of writing, it's sat at a 92% positive user review score, with roughly 3,670 advanced access players giving it the thumbs up. Not too shabby. I'm reminded of a larger-scale fiasco that happened with Dragon's Dogma 2—where the game was actually a riot, but some poorly managed DLC packaging gave it a battering on Steam. Optics are, as always, vital.
