Where's the intro cinematic of AoM?

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
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When I started the game for the first time, I was a little confused that no opening video is played.

Have there been any comments by devs regarding this since the release of Retold? I assume the original files related to the 2002 intro’s creation are gone for good (probably the same goes for AoE1 and AoE2), so a recreation would mean a lot of effort they won’t take.

The AoM Collector’s Edition bonus DVD includes the “full, uncompressed cinematics”, but resolution (720 pixels width) is rather low by today’s standards. Though it’s still looking great more than 20 years later, and I’d rather like to have the original (AI-upscaled) intro than no intro at all.
Sure, character designs differ from the current ones, but characters in the AoE1&2 intros generally didn’t exactly match the in-game units, and it didn’t really matter.

It’s not that I need it by all means, I wouldn’t watch it that often and the game looks awesome with or without intro. Just would be nice to have.

So, were there any words from devs on this since August 2024?

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AoE1 and AoE2: DE both released without the intros from their classic games. It shouldn’t be a surprise that AoM:R doesn’t have it either.

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Not enough people asked, and the devs have remained silent. I’m afraid we’ll have to sus this out ourselves.

Of the Age series, the only Definitive Edition to receive a full intro remake is AoE3, alongside all its cinematics.

(AoE1 gets the cover art converted into a stained glass; AoE2 gets a Premier slideshow of hand-drawn art.)

If you watch the AoE3DE intro yourself, you’ll notice that it’s a montage of many “snapshot” clips from scenes across time and spaces. It makes use of many character models, but they mostly perform short, confined movements, with few character-to-character interactions.

Also, that intro makes heavy use of high-polygon models made for the game (these models would be converted into the actual low-poly models you see in-game, and their details “baked” into textures):
They are more detailed than the original intro, but not extremely detailed, which saves the expensive cost of making unique models only seen once in the intro.

To our most benevolent devs, this state fits their positioning of AoE3DE, as a “side” game in the stable, with cinematics that are slightly “retro-looking” (by their official statement), that they don’t put at the front of Age series marketing.

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Now compare to Age of Mythology:

1． The intro requires unique models for the temple mural & statue scenes;

2． It involves actual action scenes of massive armies fighting.

These two factors determine that the intro would be significantly more labor-intensive (=expensive) to remake.

3． AoM Retold is also their headline product in the marketing for 2024 to 2025.
—It was shown at the Xbox press events, the only Age game to be shown beside AoE4. No other DEs received this treatment.

This determines that they can’t make the intro “retro-looking”, or use an upscaled version of the old intro. If they were to remake it, it would have to be at high detail levels that meet the current expectation for cutting edge CGI, which would multiply its costs by several orders of magnitudes.

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With this comparison, they have a good reason to not remake the intro. And their choice has paid off, judging from how few people cared.

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Hmph, they even removed the ending credits song and developer roll after completing the campaign? The Extended Edition had them intact. Why would they cut such things?

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Okay, thanks, so it seems there simply hasn’t been an official word on it.

Yes, but at least the other two had an intro, albeit very short ones.
I was surprised by the lack of any intro.

Somewhere I read a comment that the original files for the making of the AoE3 intro were still available, unlike those for the previous Age intros, which enabled them to create that intro for AoE3DE. Don’t know whether it’s true.

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I was also disappointed they cut the into cinematic. I doubt they will add the intro back in at this point. It would be cool if they did though. I’m hoping at some point I can get a mod for it at least.