Key Takeaways
- Age of Mythology: Retold's Legacy Deity Portrait Pack is being review-bombed.
- A vocal subset of the game's early adopters criticized Xbox Game Studios' decision to charge $6 for a small bundle of 22-year-old pictures.
- Despite the backlash against its DLC pack, Age of Mythology: Retold debuted to strong reviews from critics and fans alike.
The Age of Mythology: Retold Legacy Deity Portrait Pack is being review-bombed. The negative user reviews of the DLC started surfacing online during Age of Mythology: Retold's week-long early access period.
Age of Mythology: Retold was released for the Xbox Series X/S and PC on September 4, in addition to debuting as a day-one Xbox Game Pass title. While officially touted as a remaster, the game is a fairly thorough rebuild of the 2002 RTS, using a significantly updated Bang Engine and a lot of assets that were built from the ground up.
Age of Mythology: Retold Legacy Portrait Pack Launches With 'Very Negative' Steam Reviews
And while the base game has been getting decent reviews so far, some of its early adopters have taken issue with the game's Legacy Deity Portrait Pack. Much like that name suggests, this add-on allows players to change their Age of Mythology: Retold deity portraits to those from the original version of the RTS, which is a luxury that comes with a $6 price tag. This has proven to be a fairly controversial proposition, as underlined by the fact that the DLC is currently sitting at nearly 200 "Very Negative" Steam reviews.
What Steam Users Are Saying About AoM: Retold Deity Portrait DLC
While Valve's storefront doesn't allow users to review products they don't own, plenty of players have gotten access to the portrait pack by virtue of buying the Age of Mythology: Retold Premium Edition. A vocal portion of that demographic then went through the effort of reviewing the add-on negatively, lambasting Xbox Game Studios' decision to sell 22-year-old pictures for $6. Several Steam users pointed out how the main target audience for these portraits are the people who played the original version of the game, thus already supporting the RTS series for at least two decades.
Some of the other critics argued that the default portraits look iffy, as if they are meant to persuade players into spending extra on their replacements. Others still claimed that even the paid legacy portraits are a step down from the originals, not least because of their apparent loss of finer details, as seen on, e.g., Loki's tunic. Even some of the people who left a positive review of the add-on opined that the portrait bundle should have been free, but decided to give it a recommendation regardless, because they perceived the Age of Mythology: Retold Premium Edition's $49.99 price to be fairly affordable overall.
Despite this ongoing backlash against the portrait pack, the RTS itself currently sits at over 4,000 "Very Positive" Steam reviews. It also boasts a "Strong" rating on OpenCritic, derived from its aggregate score of 83 and an 86% recommendation rate. Many reviewers praised Age of Mythology: Retold for its modernized graphics, improved accessibility, and evergreen content, among other qualities.
OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Rating:83/100 Critics Recommend:86% Franchise Age of Mythology , Age of Empires Platform(s) PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S Released September 4, 2024 Developer(s) World's Edge , Forgotten Empires , Capture Age , Tantalus Media , Virtuos Publisher(s) Xbox Game Studios Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Engine BANG! Engine ESRB T For Teen Due To Violence Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown Expand See at Official SiteSee at SteamSee at Xbox Games Store
