20 years ago, the umpteenth twist of the RTS (Real Time Strategy) genre came to stores from the hand of Microsoft, after its enormous successes in the second half of the 90s with those age of empires glorious and other lesser Close Combat, based on real battles of the Second World War and that did not have as much travel or commercial success. Even so, the first years of the new millennium were the golden times of strategy and we would see the birth of a certain Age of Mythology.
Are we going to disturb the dead?
The fact is that a few days ago we learned that Microsoft is willing to revive this franchise, which surely for many of you rested peacefully on a CD from the time that you can still access with your PC. Furthermore, in May 2014 we had the luck to receive a Age of Mythology Extended Edition that not only included all DLC and content already released over the yearsbut it improved the graphics a bit by transforming them into HD.
Do you remember this version? Why not? Well, that is the level of expectation that must exist right now from users who want to revive a dead man who has been calm and without anyone bothering him for a long time. Why try again to make an old formula work that no one is asking for? What is the point of recovering franchises that no longer belong to this time? Look if not the proof of Age of Empires IV last year: Microsoft announced its development, released it straight to Game Pass (here it goes) and… Do you think it has been the same success as 25 years ago with the first ones?
Obviously not. There are video game sagas and specific genres that belong to an exact moment in history and that are not understood outside of that period. It’s like the platform games that flooded 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, or the purely arcade titles of the early years of video games in the late ’70s and early ’80s: you can’t be stretching your gum waiting for hits to come back that have already been overcome.
RTS have evolved… a lot
The fact is that Microsoft must be the only one that has not realized that very few players are waiting for a reinterpretation of an old classic like this to arrive. Age of Mythology and less an adaptation of the original game and its expansions because, although they announce novelties in terms of gameplay, they will not be able to compare with the bets that are currently successful and that have a new battle scenario: smartphone screens.
Although the PC with its keyboard and mouse is still a good place to enjoy an RTS long and hard, the truth is that many of these players have been tied to their mobile phones for a long time, to new habits of playing everywhere, where they have much more agile and profound alternatives than the ones it is going to offer us Age of Mythologyin addition to free because that’s another, in the end, we will need at least Xbox Game Pass for PC (that is, the Ultimate version) to access the title of Ensemble Studios and Skybox Labs. The tastes could remain intact but the habits… is there something else complicated than changing a habit?
Without wanting to extend ourselves further, it honors Microsoft that it remembers the old titles that gave him the glory when Xbox did not yet exist. Age of Mythology was heir to age of empires and contemporary of the first American console but, believe us, the launch of this game will end like others revivals of the Redmond giant: passing without pain or glory and making us wonder if they could not have invested so much effort in something else more productive and current.
