Age of Mythology

Mythology however is such a huge leap forward technically; the graphics are amongst the finest yet seen in an RTS, from beautiful waves crashing against sandy beaches to the detailed armour on individual soldiers. Everything oozes quality and helps immerse the player into the game.

The major difference between the previous Age of titles is the inclusion of the mystical and magical. The protagonists this time are the Greeks, Egyptians and Norsemen. Each one using well-known mythical monsters, heroes and Gods in their quests. Medusa, Scarab beetles and Frost Giants can be thrown together in a clash of the titans better than any movie!

Gameplay is superb and the difficulty levels are pitched correctly, This is a real joy to play. On the downside there is only one single player campaign (lengthy though it is)--that of the Atlantean Arkantos and his quest against evil forces, campaigns for the Norse and Egyptian elements would have been very welcome.

This is a great title for both first time strategy gamers and hardened RTS veterans. -- Laurent S Hall

The presentation of this game, from packaging to ingame graphics is outstanding. Its content makes it superior to all of the previous 'Age Of' games.

It is a huge leap from Age Of Empires 2, atleast a much bigger leap than Age Of Empires To Age Of Empires 2. Its graphics are nothing short of stunning, presented in 32-Bit colour at high resolutions, taking advantage of large monitors and modern graphics cards.
In one word the Gameplay is thrilling. There are three unique civilizations, each including their own gods and their own unique arsenal of archers, calvary and infantry.
After playing this game, you will also discover that you will have learnt a lot about the Greek, Egyptian and Norse Gods ;-)

Another new feature which made my jaw drop was the god powers. There are approximately 27 god powers. 6 of these are the main god powers, including metior storms, tornadoes and earthquakes!
And these aren't pathetic, A tornado can cast its devistation and suck up boats, buildings and infantry.

I could go on forever there is so much to comment on and so little to negatively comment on.
This is a masterpiece, as I said if you only buy one strategy game a year, this is the one to buy.


Age of Addiction   November 11, 2002
216 out of 223 found this review helpful

I loved Age of Empires, I first got it 12 months after its release (it was one of the first games I ever bought for the PC) and played it exclusively for (pun intended) ages. The graphics, sound and gameplay were super-slick for the time and the ancient setting was very appealing. Living in the rain soaked end of the UK, there was something very compelling about all those sun-baked mediteranian shore-lines and palm trees.

The much-vaunted sequel was, to me, a big dissapointment. Set in medieval times, Age of Kings set out to improve on the original formula. The game was much more complex, but not in a good way, I often found it hard to remember which units where good to use againsed what. The long build times of units also crippled gameplay, as did Ensembles continuing insistance on forcing the player to micromanage farming. Graphics and sound were garish and ugly, with in-elegent, overly 'chunky' buildings. The unit graphics where indistinct, lacking character and animations were clunky. The games mood was sober and dry, but not moody or athmospheric in any way.

Fortunately, Age of Mythology addresses all of these points, and adds so much cool stuff of its own even the most jaded AoE fan would be blown away. The game is complex, but not in such a way that its difficult to play. The longer you play, the more amazing things you discover. And believe me, you will be playing for a LONG time.

The quality of the graphics draw you in first, they are stunning. Animations are super-fluid, many look motion captured, buildings are lovely to look at and the water and particle effects truly have to be seen to be believed. Like a bosche painting, the longer and harder you look, the more detail you see. Even watching the simplest of things, like a bunch of spearmen jogging around the map, can take you breath away. And the first time you see your first meteor shower, Fimbulwinter or tornado, I gaurentee you'll be cooing at your computer like a baby.

Gameplay is flawless, computer opponent AI is superb. The interface is big on information, low on micromanagement. You can memorise a bunch of hotkeys if you want to, but I can't really see you gaining much of an advantage from it, the mouse interface is THAT good. Thankfully, once you've got your base up and running, you're free to leave it alone and concentrate on conquest. Farming is, at last, no longer an inconvenience.

Interestingly, town centers can only be built at fixed sites on the map. This gives a more strategic game, especially as lucrative trade routes can be opened between towns you own. Attacking the enemies camel trains are a viable strategy, and defending your own is a necessity in most cases.

Building hundreds of troops and rushing the enemy base still works some of the time.. but the AI's use of walls and towers often means a war of attrition is more likely to succeed, you're forced to think much harder about when and were to attack.

The mythological setting is a real winner too. The designers at Ensemble must have streatched thier imaginations to the limits. I've never played an RTS with so many 'cool' units. Just about every mythological character is stunningly executed. I actually get scared of some of my own units! Overall the mood can move between being pastoral and quite jolly to downright menacing very quickly (like when your innocent gold-mining pions get leaped on and eviscerated by a group of jackel-headed annubites). Even better, if you've just had a long battle as one race, and fancy a change of scene, just play as one of the other two races, pick a different map, and you could be playing a completely different game! One thats just as good too.

If I have one (tiny) critisism.. its that I'd personally like to see more flexibility in the skirmish set-up. As it stands, the game comes with a superb, if linear, story-based campaign (if you like that sort of thing) and an excellent random map generator that you can use to set up skirmishes on a wide variety of basic map types like islands, narrows, in-land etc.. You can play up to 12 AI opponents at a difficlty and attitude of your choosing. There are no pre-made maps to skirmish on, which seems a shame. There is a skirmish-map design tool however, and the random generator will provide more than enough for most until the internet community responds to the challenge.

You need a fast-ish PC and a decent graphics card to run the game at maximum graphics and sound settings (a 1MHz processor and a Geforce2 will probably be enough) but be prepared for a tiny bit of judder when things get heavy. Stability currently seems perfect, typical of a Microsoft game really.

Basically.. everyone should try this. I can't see anyone being dissapointed, and if your already and AoE fan, its an absolute no-brainer.


Every megalomaniac's dream game.   December 17, 2002
51 out of 52 found this review helpful

This is really rather good. It's your standard Microsoft Age of Empires/Kings/Whatever engine, with graphics that go all the way up to 11 (as in 1280x1024 in 32 bit), with the added pleasure of mythological beasts, gods and godlike powers. I've nearly finished the first campaign on "Moderate" difficulty and it isn't either too easy or too hard, so the hard-core gamers will have a decent crack at the higher settings and not find it all too easy. Equally, the "Easy" setting is there for those who are even more rubbish at these games than me. The addition of player profiles is handy for those who are likely to have more than one person playing it on one PC.

I'm finding it a lot nicer to get on with than Age of Empires II, even with The Conquerors expansion pack and that's all down to the sheer "cool!" factor of the mythological creatures and godly interventions available. Having a squadron of Phoenixes, a couple of troops of Sphinxes and a few giant scarabs under your control, to beat the living daylights out of the enemy's fortification and army is just So Much Fun!

The designers have tidied up some irritations from the other Age of Empires/Kings series; farming is self-regulating, the graphics are much more refined and smooth, unit build-times are shorter (and there are research upgrades that allow them to be built/trained even more quickly), and "main" characters are self-regenerating so it isn't a total loss if they die.

Overall it is very pretty, immense fun and wonderfully satisfying. The first time you get to use the meteor strike, you'll know what I mean.


backwards in time, but not in quality   December 8, 2002
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

age of empires 2 (AOE2) gets a well deserved make over with one of the best follow-ups ive seen in a long time for this breed of rts game. The game itself gives you the usual choice of single player campaign, skirmish or multiplayer options, each is highly polished in its own right.

The campaign has you starting out as the greeks, where you embark on a quest that will take you through the underworld, into the deserts of egypt & onto the northern domains of the vikings.

In order to progress through the game, you have to collect resources (gold, wood & food) as well as build up your forces & your settlements, but, you also have another resource, religion! As you progress, you can choose to worship different gods, each god has different powers & grants different gifts to you the player. Each time you advance to another age, you get to choose from 1 of 2 gods to be your 'minor deity' to follow. As well as allowing additional upgrades to some units, they also grant god powers, including raining massive meteors on a target, and granting rain to improve the rate at which your farms produce food. It is down to you to choose the minor god that best suits your preferred style of gameplay or the particular scenario at the time.

One downside is that the campaign is based upon the greeks and their quest, it would have been better if each race had their own specific campaigns, but that is really the only minor fault i can find with the game at all, which cant be bad can it?
to wrap it up, this game is essentially the best bits from all the RTS games yet made, all bundled up in AOE2 style, but dont take my word for it, get it & make up your own mind!


Age of Mythology rocks!!   August 14, 2003
Owen Shipp (London, England)
23 out of 25 found this review helpful

Ensemble studios bring out another game to the 'age of' series: age of mythology!
It's the same basic idea: your villagers gather resources, you use these to train soldiers and research technologies and then you go and crush your enemies to dust.
However, this game is 3D, your units leave footprints, there are new close-up cinematics that you can change the graphics of, you can use the plus and minus keys to zoom in and zoom out, and much more! The main feature is, of course, you can train mythical units and use god powers (spells). From making your villagers farm faster to summoning a mighty dragon, these god powers will help you loads in your quests.
In Age of Empires games, relics provide you a small, steady trickle of gold, but in Age of Mythology, there are LOADS of benefits from making your trading carts faster to making your towers fire more powerful arrows. While stone is a resource in the Age of Empires games, it is switched for favour of the gods. Greeks gain this by worshipping their temples, Egyptians gain this by building monuments and Norse gain this by giving your enemies the old hacking.
Anything in the main game can be used in create a scenario, from villagers to massive piles of sand hiding the 2nd most powerful unit's sword.
The Greeks are for novice players, because everything with them is so basic. Egyptians build all their buildings out of gold and have pharohs and priests and the Norse use military to build their buildings and use ox carts instead of granaries and storehouses (which are like lumber camps and mining camps put together for you Age of Empires II players out there).
Another feature in this game is the units looking much better when you upgrade them. At first they start with a basic weapon and no protection. As they are upgraded, they gain protection that grows stronger and fancier (and so does their weapon) and in their champion form, they gain wicked-looking golden armour.
The final verdict? Well, if I hated it, I would have said how rubbish the features were, and anyway, the title has a slight chance of tipping you off I don't hate the game. I think it's the best game brought to PC, and if you don't think so, it's just my opinion. I recommend this game!!!!!