Pros: Less resource micromanagement. Pretty water. Fierce God Powers.
Cons: Only three civilizations because it's a resource hog.
The Bottom Line: "Rage! - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles... Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles." ~ Homer The Iliad
The release of Age of Mythology (AoM) was continually delayed by Microsoft and/or Ensemble Studios to make some more refinements to the game. The wait was for the most part worth it, as we are presented with a real time strategy (RTS) game that has some interesting quirks that set it apart from most other RTS games. RTS games typically involve the simultaneous play of you and your opponent(s), as opposed to turn based games and the collection of resources to build armies to destroy said opponents. AoM has many, many qualities that would have made the titleAge of Empires III just as viable as Age of Mythology. If you're familiar with the previous Age games from Ensemble, you will have no trouble getting into this latest incarnation.
But there are a few features that make it different. First, is the 3D engine instead of the 2D engine. As you move through the screen, you get the feeling of flying over a sphere instead of looking down on a flat map. True, the characters are now a little polygonal, but many other things are just beautiful, especially the water effects. And secondly, AoM features "god powers" which are one-time-use powerful effects that you can call upon. The game actually looks and feels much like a very underrated game called Populous released years ago.
Game Play
Unlike previous Age games, the way that you go about and play the game is very much dependent upon which of the 3 civilizations you choose to play as and which major god you choose to worship. Whereas different civilizations might have a few areas of concentration and perhaps one or two unique units in previous games, every unit is different for every civilization. All 3 civilizations have their own strategies and quirks, as well as their own art set for buildings and units; further making the civilizations drastically different from each other from an asthetic point of view as well.
There are 4 resources used to make your armies - food, wood, gold, and favor. Favor (besides replacing the annoying stone resource from previous games) represents your mythological resource needed to create myth units and improvements. Units represent soldiers and villagers, as well as mythological creatures and heroes. They're created in different buildings. Units are loosely divided into different types of infantry, archers and other ranged combat units, cavalry, siege craft, naval units, myth units, a few flying units, and heroes. Myth units are larger than life and rip human soldiers to pieces. Heroes are units that counter myth units. As you progress through the four ages - Archaic, Classical, Heroic, and Mythic - you gain access to more powerful units and improvements. You reach a new age by choosing a minor god to worship, by doing so you inherit that god's power and special myth unit and improvements.
CIVILIZATIONS and GODS
There are 3 major civilizations. Each civilization has the choice to worship one of three Major Gods. The Major God that you worship affects what units, improvements, and god powers are at your disposal. So in a way, there are 9 "cultures". In addition, each of the three civilizations are played somewhat differently when it comes to resource gathering and combat.
The Greeks represent the balanced civilization and use quite a bit of wood in their economy. Their units are quite strong, especially many of their myth units, but expensive. The Greeks "collect" favor just like any other resource, just task villagers to pray at your temple and you can directly control the amount and speed of favor generation. Their buildings are quite strong. The Greeks can only have a limited number of Hero units (one per age, total of 4 heroes on land by the Mythic Age) and one naval hero unit if available. Despite the limited number, Greek heroes are the strongest and toughest - each is unique and represent famous Greek heroes like Jason, Theseus, Achilles, etc. The major Greek gods are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Each of course has different areas of concentration, different minor gods to choose from, and different technologies. Controlling minotarus, cyclopses, medusas, and hydras among other Greek myth units is quite fun.
The Egyptians seem to be defensive in nature and their economy is heavily based on the resource of gold. Egyptian military units are weaker but cheaper to mass produce. The Egyptians generate favor by building monuments; once they're built (5 max) you have constant favor generation. The Egyptians have a unique Hero unit - the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh can combat myth units like all heroes, but is best used to "empower" buildings, causing them to work faster and can also heal other units. If your Pharaoh is killed, a new one is "crowned" at you town center. Egypt also has another hero unit, Priests, whose power grows with each age. They can also heal other units. Egypt can have as many priests as they can afford. The primary Egyptian gods are Ra, Isis, and Seth. Egyptians get to unleash wadjets, mummies, scarabs, and anubites on their foes.
The Norse are the aggressors. Their peasants only collect resources (and deposit them in mobile ox carts), they don't build buildings - Norse infantry not only kill their enemies, but also build all of their buildings - making them an even more aggressive choice. The Norse generate favor simply by engaging in combat, the more fighting, the faster they earn favor. The Norse can have as many hero units as they can afford, called Hersirs. Norse buildings are the weakest however. The Norse can worship Odin, Thor, or Loki and have myth units like valkyries, frost giants, and trolls.
GOD POWERS
With each age and god that you worship, you get a god power from that diety. These are powerful one-time use only events that can have global effects. These are also the source of some very beautiful graphics. Some help your economy while others are simply devastating natural disasters. The minor Egyptian god Thoth in particular has a wonderful, beautiful, and ultra-destructive meteor shower that decimates an enemy center. Artemis can invoke an earthquake. Bast causes an eclipse. Athena regenerates the health of your soldiers. Hera has an awesome lightning storm. Osiris has an amazing god power called Son of Osiris that turns your Pharaoh into a living demi-god who shoots lightning out of his scepter. And so on.
Differences and changes from previous Age games.
There are FAR fewer tedious micromanagement issues when it comes to resource gathering. Farms and fishing spots provide infinite food (i.e. they never expire or need to be replanted), but provide food at a slower rate then hunting. No more stupid stone to collect either!
The concept of relics has been expanded upon but they are no longer vital to winning the game. There are dozens of objects that can be found (like Ankh of Ra, and so on) and each has a specific bonus once you place it in your temple. Only heroes can pick them up. Some give you a military boost, some economic.
The game has an extensive list of hot keys, but one of my favorite ones from previous games was not included, the "stop" command. Units can be grouped together to form "armies", and you can group I think up to 8 armies, allowing you to have many units at your command with a single mouse click. You can have units patrol an area, guard other units, and can set their level of aggression.
The way that town centers function has changed. Town centers cannot be placed anywhere anymore. They can only be built on "settlements". Town centers also control the maximum population limit in units you can have. Therefore, it is important to find and control settlements so that you can build town centers on them later, because doing so means having the ability to field larger armies.
Also, another great new balancing feature, is that not all units cost the same population cost, a concept only glimpsed at in the Age of Kings: The Conquerors expansion. A lowly human soldier costs 1 "population" but if you want big, bad, Mountain Giants, they take up 5 "population" per giant. This greatly helps balance armies so that you are not attacked and cannot attack with a battalion of 30 or so Minotaurs and other myth units! Units in general now have a more intricate "rock-paper-scissors" relationship. For example, in previous Age games, almost all infantry could counter almost all cavalry - now, some infantry can counter some cavalry while other types of infantry can counter even other types of infantry, and so on. The power of archers has also been greatly diminished. In fact, it seems strange that the Greeks are the only civilization to have a dedicated archer unit (toxotes) despite the historical fact that the Greeks generally derided the use of archers in warfare for being cowardly and dishonorable! The Egyptians do have the most powerful human archer unit though, the chariot, which is very proper historically speaking.
What else can I say about god powers? They are just awesome to behold and when used at the right time, they can completely swing the balance of the game. The larger than life myth units also provide a nice visual as well. The battles are so fun to watch you might end up ignoring your economy at your peril!
There is only one campaign in the story, but it is some 40 scenarios long and covers both tutorial aspects (which is quite weak, by the way) as well as the long storyline, which brings you to command each of the three civilizations in its course. Once you beat a part of the campaign, you can always go back and pick and choose to play one if you'd like. There is of course a random map option with various victory conditions, a scenario creator, and multiplayer, which I haven't played.
Technical
The game is run on a 3D engine, which consumes a lot more resources from your computer than previous games of its type.
Windows 2000/XP/98/ME
450 MHz
128 MB RAM
1 entire GB of hard drive
16 MB/3D video card
The game ran quite smoothly on my 533 MHz processor and 128 MB RAM and it is very much bug and hassle free. There is a cinematic in between every campaign scenario, which progresses the storyline and while the characters are a little on the polygon side, the animation is very movie-like, and the acting and voiceovers are believable. What I found most visually appealing was that the end of each cinematic blends in seamlessly with when and where your mission and gameplay begins. During play, the visual effects of the landscape, like water at the shoreline and waterfalls are very beautiful, and the myth units are large and very well animated. Cyclopses pick up humans and throw them around. Hydras eat them up. Phoenixes fly overhead and breath fire. Medusas turn foes into stone. Krakens crush ships like eggshells. Fire Giants hurl balls of flame at anything in their way.
The music is excellent. Each civilization has its own particular flavor ("Of Norse Not", "Greek to Me", and "N.D. Nile"). During peaceful lulls in the game, the music is wonderful ambience, when there's a fierce battle the music becomes more epic in nature, and when someone uses a really powerful god power, the music turns ominous. The sound is the weakest aspect of the technical side, as the sounds are quite simple and resemble sounds from previous Age games. The only sounds that are noteworthy are the god powers, thankfully.
The tutorial aspects of the game are simply awful. If you are new to RTS games, you are only "taught" how to click things and move around the map and little else. There's nothing about resource collecting, or grouping units and forming armies, or nifty things like that.
Conclusion
When it comes to RTS games, many gamers consider one of three series as their favorite - the Age of Empires series, Warcraft, or Starcraft. The Age series has always been my favorite. This game's shining points are its brilliant visuals and the strategy that comes along with the new elements of this latest RTS game. However the (necessary) limitations imposed by the ravanous technical needs of the game engine restrict it to really only 3 civilizations, which may or may not become boring sooner rather than later.
The history and the fiction of various mythologies are a little meshed together. Sometimes you'll see gods, or heroes, or monsters that aren't normally associated together in "real" life mingling side by side. For example, here it's perfectly okay to have Zeus and Hera working together for you! But who cares about that! Age of Mythology is a splendid game of epic proportions. Whether you beckon the servants Valhalla, the Underworld, or Olympus, you will have great fun seeing scenes from your classics lessons and from epics such as the Iliad, Beowulf and the Egyptian Book of the Dead come to life!
I look forward to eventually trying the expansion for Age of Mythology, The Titans which adds the Atlantean civilization and the pantheon of the Titans!
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