A Total War Saga: Troy-Mythos, developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega, is a massive expansion to last year's A Total War Saga: Troy. Offering an entirely new take on the the Iliad's decade long siege of Troy, Mythos dives right into the larger than life entities of Homer's Epic, bringing Achilles, Hector, Paris, and Helen to life during the war for Troy . Breaking from the semi-historical nature of the base game, Mythos introduces a plethora of monsters, heroic units, magic, and mythical quests to keep players busy as they prepare to protect or sack the legendary city. For fans of Creative Assembly's other fantastical battles in the Warhammer series, Mythos brings all of tactical depth of those games to the sunny shores of the Aegean.
Troy-Mythos is a strategy game with real-time tactical battles. This means that players divide their time between managing their growing empire and commanding armies on the battlefield. Both sides of A Total War Saga: Troy demand good strategic decision making and proper tactical planning. Troy-Mythos, being a 'Saga' game, narrows the focus down to keep the narrative aimed squarely at a single campaign. Some players may find the narrow focus less interesting than the sprawling epics of other Total War games, though there are plenty of fun games with bronze age settings. Luckily, Mythos does wonders by adding not only more diverse units to increase variety, but adding different types of units into the strategic mix.
That diversity, the major selling point of Mythos, stands up under the scrutiny of extended play. Limiting players to bronze age warriors of the Mediterranean is offset by the inclusion of gigantic units, flying units, magic casting units, and special versions of standard units with distinct abilities and powers. Total War: Warhammer, one of the Warhammer games not hurting the brand, was first to add this tactical depth, but Mythos weaves monsters into the wider strategy. The greatest monsters must be hunted through quests that will have players organizing and outfitting expeditions, choosing which monsters to pursue, and significantly altering gameplay based on their decisions. Shield walls and flanking are interesting tactical choices of course, but now having to work the third dimension of flight, weighing the pros and cons of anti-large units, and figuring out how best to cast the healing spells of Hydra Cult magic users keep things interesting for longer.
On the strategic layer, A Total War Saga: Troy added some interesting mechanics that might be better implemented by the additions in Mythos. Pursing heroic quests makes sense as players endeavor to make their faction heroes worthy of engaging an entire army. Diplomacy and trade, sticking points for some fans in other entries, here works relatively well given the dynamic of the Trojan War. Allying with kinsmen makes sense and is achievable with little hassle, while trade, eschewing gold for a resource based economy, seems to be less taxing on the AI. Players should just be prepared to manage many requests for trade from allies, though.
Visually, Mythos really cranks up the splendor of the base game Troy. The new and reimagined units look just as good as anything in the revealed shots for Total War: Warhammer 3, and the already distinctive style of Troy is made all the more interesting with the inclusion of massive monuments on the strategic map and little details during battles. Don't be surprised to see a gigantic sea monster breach the surface as you fight along the coast. As far as gameplay is concerned, once players move beyond the basic tier units, formations become visually easily identifiable.
Much more than just a flashy upgrade and the inclusion of mythical units, Mythos breathes new life into A Total War Saga: Troy, giving it the opportunity to reach out to players who may have been put off by the historical tint and narrower focus of the base game. Here monsters and legends serve to make battles more interesting, campaigns more dynamic, and of course, war more fun. Leading Ajax in a duel against Hector while Gryphons battle Hydra is modern Total War at its best.
A Total War Saga: Troy- Mythos will be available on September 2nd for Steam and the Epic Game Store. A Steam code was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.