Well, I?ve been meaning to make a thread on this site for a while and I?ve also been meaning to review a game, so this seems as good a blend of the two as any. I have decided to review a relatively old game that was a core part of my childhood. This game is none other than Age of Mythology, the myth based real time strategy (RTS) game from those wonderful people at Ensemble, known for the Age of Empires series, which sadly closed down about a year ago.
The premise of the game is a deceptively simple one. In the context of the game, the ancient pantheons of the Greek, Egyptian and Norse (don?t talk to me about anachronism, just roll with it) gods exist and all myths are real, including the fantastic beasts from said myths. Each of these three civilizations possess the ability to muster armies and build fortifications, just like any other RTS, but with the added bonus of divine intervention. Each civilization has three major gods. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades for the Greeks; Ra, Anubis and Set for the Egyptians, and Odin, Thor and Loki for the Norse. By amassing prayer for their chosen god, which will be talked about later, the player can summon great beasts and monsters from the myths of these cultures to fight alongside their regular troops, as well as call down the wrath of the gods upon their enemies with ?God Powers?, such as bolts of lightning or pestilence.
The game also differentiates itself from other RTS?s in another way. Whilst most RTS?s have some form of tech-tree, a path that allows you to research new weapons, armour and other useful abilities, the tech-tree in Age of Mythology is segregated into four sections: the Archaic Age; the Classical Age; the Heroic Age; and the Mythic Age. In order to progress to the next tier of the tech-tree the player must choose to worship one of two minor gods of their chosen civilizations, such as Apollo or Aphrodite for the Greeks. This adds an extra element of strategy to the game, as certain myth units and improvements can only be built if the correct god has been worshiped.
However, you can?t send your soldiers out into the fray without weapons, armour, pay and food so let?s talk about resource management. Age of Mythology has got one of the most intricate economy systems I have ever seen in an RTS. Most go the Blizzard route of having simply two resources you strip-mine the map of to fund your army, most commonly gold and timber. Age of Mythology adds to this mix the resources of Food and Favour, or Prayer. Food, wood and gold are the three basic resources. The basic worker costs a modest amount of food, the basic infantry unit a sum of gold and food, as well as the wood and gold needed to construct buildings. The fourth resource, favour, is what allows the player to summon myth units and cast god powers. Each civilization has its own ways of gathering each resource.
Food, at the start each game, is normally a hunter-gatherer affair. Any wild animals the players may stumble across will come under their control and can be taken back to the Town Centre to be slaughtered for meat, but will slowly lose meat if not attended as they decompose, and bushes can be harvested for berries, which are also delivered to the town centre. Later, farms can be planted, which never run out of food, and ships can be sent to gather fish from the schools dotted around the waterways of each map. Wood is, funnily enough, simply taken by chopping down trees and then gathering the timber after it has fallen over. The Norse, unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, have a mobile supply depot, an Ox Cart, which allows them to extend the reach of their resource gathering, without extended their area of complete control. The same is also true of gold which after being mined from a vein can be taken to a depot or the town hall. Favour is the most diverse resource when it comes to forms of gathering. Each civilization may build temples to their gods, at which the Greeks can simply set villagers to pray. Egyptians must build extra structures, obelisks, in order to gather favour, whilst the Norse simply gain favour by participating in combat.
The final gameplay mechanic, which for years made this RTS stand out against all others for me, was the ability to construct walls. I like fortresses, I love fortresses, and a fortress is not complete unless it has a wall. I spent hours in this game doing nothing but constructing buildings, and partitioning off each section of my base in the event of an invasion that never came.
Now might be a good time to leave gameplay behind and head over to the story. The game?s protagonist is the Atlantean general Arkantos, who is urged by the Theocrat of the island nation to join the war effort in Troy. He is at first reluctant, until a chance assault by a groups of pirates leaves the city?s statue of Poseidon bereft of its trident. Seeing this as an omen, Arkantos retrieves trident and sets sail for Troy. I will not spoil any more of the story in case any of you have not yet or wish to play it, but suffice to say, Arkantos and his companions end up travelling the ancient world to prevent the Titans breaching the gates of Tartarus where they are imprisoned, seeking help from the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Norse on their quest.
To wrap up, I say that Age of Mythology is an extremely good, solid RTS, with decent gameplay, and an engaging story I do not wish to spoil for the reader. The campaign lasts a good amount of time, depending on the difficulty, and many missions have great replay value, as well as the skirmish missions against the computer. If you are a fan of RTS?s and you haven?t yet picked this game up, I whole heartedly recommend it, and to those looking to enter the genre for the first time, it is as good a starting place as any, it was for me after all.
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Wow, that's a lot longer than I thought it would be. Any comments posted will be answer tomorrow, or later today since it's 1:20am here and sleep seems like a good idea right now. All feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive and not trolling.
The premise of the game is a deceptively simple one. In the context of the game, the ancient pantheons of the Greek, Egyptian and Norse (don?t talk to me about anachronism, just roll with it) gods exist and all myths are real, including the fantastic beasts from said myths. Each of these three civilizations possess the ability to muster armies and build fortifications, just like any other RTS, but with the added bonus of divine intervention. Each civilization has three major gods. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades for the Greeks; Ra, Anubis and Set for the Egyptians, and Odin, Thor and Loki for the Norse. By amassing prayer for their chosen god, which will be talked about later, the player can summon great beasts and monsters from the myths of these cultures to fight alongside their regular troops, as well as call down the wrath of the gods upon their enemies with ?God Powers?, such as bolts of lightning or pestilence.
The game also differentiates itself from other RTS?s in another way. Whilst most RTS?s have some form of tech-tree, a path that allows you to research new weapons, armour and other useful abilities, the tech-tree in Age of Mythology is segregated into four sections: the Archaic Age; the Classical Age; the Heroic Age; and the Mythic Age. In order to progress to the next tier of the tech-tree the player must choose to worship one of two minor gods of their chosen civilizations, such as Apollo or Aphrodite for the Greeks. This adds an extra element of strategy to the game, as certain myth units and improvements can only be built if the correct god has been worshiped.
However, you can?t send your soldiers out into the fray without weapons, armour, pay and food so let?s talk about resource management. Age of Mythology has got one of the most intricate economy systems I have ever seen in an RTS. Most go the Blizzard route of having simply two resources you strip-mine the map of to fund your army, most commonly gold and timber. Age of Mythology adds to this mix the resources of Food and Favour, or Prayer. Food, wood and gold are the three basic resources. The basic worker costs a modest amount of food, the basic infantry unit a sum of gold and food, as well as the wood and gold needed to construct buildings. The fourth resource, favour, is what allows the player to summon myth units and cast god powers. Each civilization has its own ways of gathering each resource.
Food, at the start each game, is normally a hunter-gatherer affair. Any wild animals the players may stumble across will come under their control and can be taken back to the Town Centre to be slaughtered for meat, but will slowly lose meat if not attended as they decompose, and bushes can be harvested for berries, which are also delivered to the town centre. Later, farms can be planted, which never run out of food, and ships can be sent to gather fish from the schools dotted around the waterways of each map. Wood is, funnily enough, simply taken by chopping down trees and then gathering the timber after it has fallen over. The Norse, unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, have a mobile supply depot, an Ox Cart, which allows them to extend the reach of their resource gathering, without extended their area of complete control. The same is also true of gold which after being mined from a vein can be taken to a depot or the town hall. Favour is the most diverse resource when it comes to forms of gathering. Each civilization may build temples to their gods, at which the Greeks can simply set villagers to pray. Egyptians must build extra structures, obelisks, in order to gather favour, whilst the Norse simply gain favour by participating in combat.
The final gameplay mechanic, which for years made this RTS stand out against all others for me, was the ability to construct walls. I like fortresses, I love fortresses, and a fortress is not complete unless it has a wall. I spent hours in this game doing nothing but constructing buildings, and partitioning off each section of my base in the event of an invasion that never came.
Now might be a good time to leave gameplay behind and head over to the story. The game?s protagonist is the Atlantean general Arkantos, who is urged by the Theocrat of the island nation to join the war effort in Troy. He is at first reluctant, until a chance assault by a groups of pirates leaves the city?s statue of Poseidon bereft of its trident. Seeing this as an omen, Arkantos retrieves trident and sets sail for Troy. I will not spoil any more of the story in case any of you have not yet or wish to play it, but suffice to say, Arkantos and his companions end up travelling the ancient world to prevent the Titans breaching the gates of Tartarus where they are imprisoned, seeking help from the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Norse on their quest.
To wrap up, I say that Age of Mythology is an extremely good, solid RTS, with decent gameplay, and an engaging story I do not wish to spoil for the reader. The campaign lasts a good amount of time, depending on the difficulty, and many missions have great replay value, as well as the skirmish missions against the computer. If you are a fan of RTS?s and you haven?t yet picked this game up, I whole heartedly recommend it, and to those looking to enter the genre for the first time, it is as good a starting place as any, it was for me after all.
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Wow, that's a lot longer than I thought it would be. Any comments posted will be answer tomorrow, or later today since it's 1:20am here and sleep seems like a good idea right now. All feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive and not trolling.
