Age of Mythology’s Immortal Pillars Expansion Makes an All-Time Classic Even Better
A bold new pantheon.
Twenty-three years ago, Age of Mythology kickstarted my obsession with folklore, I spent years finding and buying every single book and essay I could read on Norse mythology. Seeing Age of Mythology get a stunning remake last year was a treat, but even better is seeing the game get a full-blown expansion — one that actually manages to match the quality and creativity of the legendary strategy game. With the Immortal Pillars expansion Age of Mythology receives a hefty new campaign and an ingenious civilization that feels drastically different from the other pantheons, expanding the game in new and exciting ways. Developer World’s Edge has done the impossible — making an all-time classic strategy game even better.
Immortal Pillars introduces a Chinese pantheon to Age of Mythology, with a completely distinct civilization, new god powers, myth units, everything. Interestingly, there technically has been a Chinese civilization before, with the HD release of Age of Mythology: Extended Edition in 2014. That version of the game, however, was notoriously dividing for fans, with the Chinese civilization feeling deliberately lackluster due to some confusing mechanics and some questionable quality. Immortal Pillars, luckily, manages to avoid all of the pitfalls of the Extended Edition.
The Chinese civilization has its own unique look and aesthetic, feeling integrally different right off the bat.
Age of Mythology’s biggest strength is its asymmetric gameplay, meaning each civilization has a wildly different style of gameplay, even though you’re competing for the same objectives. For example, even the way the civs acquire favor, a resource for creating myth units, is completely different. Greeks earn favor by praying at temples, Egyptians erect monuments that give it at a trickle, the Norse gain it directly through combat, and the Atlanteans through exploration using Oracles.
The Chinese civilization hits the ground running with the idea of asymmetrical gameplay, putting a huge emphasis on the actual construction of your bases and utilizing “Favored Land.” Every building you put down has a radius of Favored Land, which contributes to the favor you earn but can also have other effects depending on the research you’ve done — like boosting your unit’s movement speed. This means expanding your civ becomes a game of linking buildings together, spreading your base out as far as possible while still trying to ensure you’re still covering yourself with towers and defenses. A lot of the Chinese god powers are actually centered around this fact, like Earth Wall, which lets you erect a circular wall around any building.
The other vital difference with the Chinese comes in how their economy works, giving you access to two different gathering units - Peasant and Kuafu. Peasants work like your normal villagers, but excel at gathering food from farms. Kuafu, on the other hand, are hulking giants that gather wood and gold at increased speeds and build much faster than Peasants. But the tradeoff is they cost more, require Favor, and can’t be garrisoned in your town center or towers. This is the other vital factor you have to keep in mind while you expand your base — how you want to split your forces between Peasants and Kuafu.
Favored Land and Kuafu make you approach your economy building much differently than other civilizations.
At the same time, each major god in the Chinese pantheon — Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong — all have specific unique gameplay mechanics. For Fuxi, it’s the Yin&Yang system, with every few minutes flipping back and forth between boosting your peasants and soldiers. For Nüwa, you get a God Blessing that makes buildings automatically construct on favored land. And for Shennong, you get a free myth unit at your Temple every time you collect so much Favor.
These three unique trails completely change your entire approach to matches, and that’s before you factor in all of the unique Chinese units. The myth units, in particular, are an absolute blast to factor into your strategy. My favorite is the sleek floating dragon called a Qinglong, which fires blasts of water and can create puddles that damage an entire area. But each myth unit has some kind of unique feature that can complement your strategy. The Qilin is a flaming horse that provides small healing in an area, the Taotie is a hulking behemoth that devours human units, and Zhuque is a fiery phoenix that can create whirlwinds to blow away enemies. Learning the ins and outs of all of these units is a blast, and the laundry list of differences continuously adds to the sense of the Chinese feeling distinct.
Adding a drastically different civilization to the game will keep you busy enough, but the Immortal Pillars campaign is another fun romp through mythological storytelling. Like with the base campaigns, it doesn’t dive into truly complex storytelling, but has enough heart and character to keep things interesting, while providing some fantastically dynamic missions. In one mission you travel through the underworld of each mythology, having to tackle a unique objective that plays into the strategy of each civilization. In another, you have to build a Wonder while fending off attacks from three different directions.
The Immortal Pillars campaign has great spectacle, and manages to have a perfect blend of narrative and gameplay.
The story sees you taking control of three different heroes as they try to protect the Four Pillars that hold up the heavens, and stop the vengeful ruler Huang Zhaowu from attaining godhood. Aesthetically and thematically it really matches Chinese folklore, with heavy themes of destiny and balance. Just like with the original Age of Mythology, the campaign manages to straddle the line perfectly between narrative complexity and focusing on gameplay.
It’s hard to overstate just how natural all of the additions in Immortal Pillars feels — if I didn’t know better, I’d believe this campaign and Chinese pantheon had always been a part of the game. In my mind, if Age of Mythology wasn’t already considered the best real-time strategy game ever made, it sure should be now.
