Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is like many of the games I’m likely to play. It has a soothing, whitewashed color palette. The characters seem to be strange. And the gameplay involves a lot of environmental puzzles and running around and picking things up. It’s perfect for me. But according to those statistics, that also applies to many games. So I expected some familiarity with the genre when I started it up for the first time. But in reality Myth destroyed is a breath of fresh air for the genre of relaxed, fun role-playing games.
Developed by Polygon Treehouse (no relation) and published by Whitethorn Games, Myth destroyed puts the player in the position of Alex, who is shipwrecked on a mysterious island that is inexplicably home to a handful of Greek gods who have no idea who they are or what they are doing there. Although it is clear that Alex is initially motivated to go home, when she encounters gods like Hermes, Zeus, Hera and Aphrodite, she becomes dedicated to helping them regain their memories by doing them a favor and their find lost memories on the island. .
With each round of completed favors and items returned, Alex becomes better friends with the gods – who are generally painted in a fairly generous light – and learns more about how they forgot everything about themselves.
It’s always fun to see a new retelling of Greek myths, especially when that retelling makes Athena non-binary, turtlenecked, and blue-haired; Aphrodite short and round; and Hephaestus jacked, red-haired and in a wheelchair. But the pleasure of it Myth destroyed isn’t just in the story, which cleverly has an ending point when you reach level 3 for each of the eight gods. It’s also in the game mechanics – a big reason why it broke through the piles of fun games I’ve played recently.
Each god gives you a powerful object that you can use to restore the island’s lights, windmills and statues, delightfully complicated by environmental puzzles and locked doors. Beeping radar leads you to hidden and hidden memories; it’s up to you to figure out which god the memento belongs to, using your real knowledge of these gods, or by getting a clue from the talking statue on the island.
The gameplay may be too simplistic or repetitive for a game that lasts dozens of hours, but Myth destroyed doesn’t overstay its welcome – in fact, perhaps the opposite. (Lately I’ve been wandering around the island collecting ambrosia fruit, just to play a little longer.) Each story progression is meaningfully tied to the puzzles you’ve solved, and the game eventually ends after about 10 hours of play, when You’re not being as difficult as I was. It’s just a good standalone game that you can crush in a weekend – a subgenre of games that I really appreciate in the days of infinitely playable AAA games. Even some fun games require hundreds of hours of my time, and I’m often happy to give them that. But Myth destroyed is as long as the story requires – with a little extra room for divine pranks, like any good Greek myth.
Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is now available on Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PC and ROG Ally Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.