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Raising the bar, once again

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Age of Empires was and is a very successful RTS series, and Age of Mythology now raises the bar to an even higher standard. The mix of real units and mythological ones is done in a well thought out manner. It's truly a pleasure to see your hydra decimate an invading army.

If you are familiar with the AOE series of games, then AOM will seem a natural to you. The main differences is that there are only three civilizations that you can participate as. On the face of it, this would sound to be a negative in the game, but each civilization is well done and far more fleshed out than previously. You really get a strong flavor of each civilization as you play them through.

Even better is the amount of variability that you can have inside of each of the three civilizations. This starts from the beginning of the game, as you choose the major god that your people are dedicated towards. Later, as you advance through the various ages, you choose between other minor gods, each very distinct and useful in their own rights. These decisions can alter your civilization in radically different ways than another player who chose the same civilization to play.

For example, if you play the Egyptians you might choose Ra or Isis as your main deity. Ra will improve your culture in aspects such as stronger chariots and miracles such as "Rain" to help you produce food more easily. Isis focuses more on your people, helping them mine gold and food as well as making technological improvements cheaper. As you advance, you will choose others such as Anubis or Bast to affect your people, giving you different mythological creatures and miracles as well as other variances in your people.

Graphically, the game is beautiful. There is little left wanting in this department and it's really a pleasure to explore and encounter the unexpected. Terrain and settings really capture the flavor of the region you are playing, whether that be the green rolling Greek isles or the firey depths of hades.

If you are keen toward the single player campaigns of RTS games, you'll find this one very entertaining and challenging. Personally, I found the whole story line cohesive and interesting, helping to add depth to the gameplay that is usually absent in such campaigns. Multiplayer is also very fun, and new implementations in the game have altered the types of strategies that were so common in the AOE series. The variances in the three civilizations make for very interesting team play games, and even one on one matches can be pleasingly competitive.

Overall, your money is well spent on this game and I would highly recommend it for any game players collection...especially if you are a fan of RTS games, this is a must buy!

An exciting game - hope the producers fix these flaws...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After recovering from the sluggish "Civilization III" - a single game there will last you 14 hours and bore you after 6 - I went back to the fast paced "Age of Mythology" and its "Titans" expansion pack. The differences are stark, with truly evocative visuals, a constantly appealing non-obnoxious soundtrack, and some very special God powers. I would like to point out some flaws - maybe someone at Ensemble/Microsoft Games is reading?

1. Every player would want a massive crushing Titan, but there's little point in bothering when you're using any map of archipelagos and islands. None of these Titans can get across the water, so you're basically spending resources time and energy to create a hundred-ton defensive paper-weight for your island.

2. Unlike the original "Age of Empires", I could not change diplomacy with any of the computer's players. It was fun to double-cross my allies in the past - now I'm stuck with them till we win.

3. The maps are not randomly generated, so after about a week of playing you figure out VERY quickly exactly where you are and what the terrain looks like. This is repetitive. I tried to use the Editor to create my own landscapes, but couldn't get any of the other CPU teams to do anything. Way too complicated.

4. The voices of characters in the actual storyline campaigns are very cheesy - dialogue is also pretty kid stuff.

5. Worst flaw of all - a big one. You must have at least one ally to have a chance of winning any games that have more than 4 CPU teams. When your allies are attacked, they always ask you for aid or troops. But they never help you do anything. Sometimes an Ally builds a Titan and it stays perched in another town until the game ends - which it will as your own civilization is demolished. I miss the old "Give Me Your Extra Resourses" or "Attack An Enemy Now" or "Help! The Enemy Is In My City!" option. Some allies.

Alpha Version...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: September 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is great for any ages fans. The alpha version was released to 10,000 gamers, and I received one. It's great! Plays 3D! The three races don't have the same strategy at all. If you're greeks and you try playing with Norse strategies, you'd get about as far as you would walking into a brick wall. It makes it really interesting. One of the really cool things is all the special god powers. By far mine is in Loki's (Norse god of the dead) last age. He can call up an 1800 hp fire-breathing dragon. Now play this and tell me it ain't cool.

You can't go wrong with these guys!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: November 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Ever buy a computer game install it and find out it is so buggy as to be virtually un-playable? You end up tweaking everything you can on your machine with little satisfactory results so you end up waiting for the proverbial "PATCH." Makes you want to scream don't it?

Not so with Microsoft/Ensemble Studios - these guys get it right, right out of the box and with Age of Mythology they not only shipped a stable game they have, in my opinion, produced the top RTS of all time. There is simply to much gaming goodness to go into all of it here, but some of the highlights that jumped out at me...

The game looks terrific. The user interface is smooth & beautiful. Makes you feel like you are driving a hand made Italian sports car. The music is a perfect fit for mythological times and some of it can only be defined as well.., "lovely." In fact my wife stuck her head in the game room and said, "that is haunting music, what is it"? At first she didn't believe it could have anything to do with a computer game.

You can play three civilizations Greek, Egyptian & Norse. And the different nuances are considerable. One civ is not just a rehash of the another with a bit of a different look. If you try to use the same tactics that were successful with the Greeks while playing the Norse you will go down to defeat. You have the option of playing a 36 mission single player campaign covering the Greek, Norse & Egyptian civs which is top notch but I suspect most hardcore RTS players will jump right to random map or multiplayer which may not be the best idea. Single player will give you insights that may be very handy before random map or going on-line.

The developers were very very smart with this game. If you are an Age of Empires fan you can dig right in and start playing Age of Mythology as both games have the basic RTS theme of rescource gathering, building, up-grading, attack and defense. But there is so much more in AOM - Do I want the standard infantary and ranged attack army or how about a mob of mythical creaturs to do my bidding? What major god do I choose to honor? What minor god? Do I want a magical underground tunnel that will take me immidiately to the enemy's gates or do I want that mind-blowing meteor shower instead. There are 9 major and 27 minor gods to choose from with differnt creatures and powers to be had. The permutations and combinations seem endless.

AOM will win RTS game of the year hands down and will likey be game of the year overall winner to boot.

Last item to consider, if you are buying the game as a Chrstmas gift go for the Collectors Edition, the extra money is worth it.

Fun game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I generally avoid strategy games as they're generally mind-numbingly difficult, and I get frustrated easily.
This said, I find Age of Mythology fun, challenging and just eyecandyish in general. The graphics are beautiful, the background history (though generally glossy) is interesting, and the units are great and varied.
I disagree that this game is very much like Age of Empires, a game I found difficult and overly uniform. In AOM, the units and buildings vary significantly - both by function and looks. All 3 races are unique and interesting.
Overall, a great game.

Too PC or not PC enough....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have a Mac and my wife has a PC. We like to play games together. AOM is one of her favorite PC games, so I bought the Mac version so we could play together. Found several problems with this. The first one is that Mac and PC versions can't be played on the same server. This may be an inherent problem with the programming or it could be because the PC version is several updates ahead of the Mac version. Second, there's been little effort to "Mac" the PC game. For example, the manual and pop-up help instruct you to "right click" in order to do a lot of things, which are actually done by "control" clicking. I've played the PC version of the game as well; even though I'm playing on a high spec machine with my Mac, the game has a sluggish, unresponsive feel on my computer. AOM is a great game, but it feels like MacSoft didn't spend as much time on this one as they should have.

Age of Mythology is Awesome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: March 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My son is enthralled with this game! He is learning while being entertained. The graphics are exceptional, music is great, situations are complex and challenging and it works on the MAC! What more could we ask for?

Age of Empires was the best!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: July 31, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've have played a demo version and have seen seen many screenshots for Age Of Mythology. The graphics are incredible to say the least. This one of the very best games ever, certainly not to be outdone for years to come. It's incredible to have a game like AOE but with the ability to release the rath of the Gods and mother nature on the primitive inhabitants of Earth. The learning curve will be lengthy for those who have not played AOE, but don't let that discourage you, in time all who play will become addicted. For those who have come to love AOE as I have it will be all fun and games getting used to this game. Plan on spending a fair amount of time on your computer.

Not as Impressive as it Probably Should Be....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: January 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I rate games based on the quality of their single-player campaigns and skirmishes. I was a huge fan of AOE I&II. Ensemble Studios was really onto something with those games.
However, the fact of the matter is, Ensemble has been working on Age of Mythology for some years now. Some of us have come to expect a little more bang for our buck...and I'm dissapointed to say that they've fallen short with their latest endeavor.

Age of Mythology features beautiful graphics and ease of play. However, there's nothing really innovative here. It's too much like its siblings AOE I&II. Simply put, the game gets old fast. Ensemble still fails to implement the good ideas other studios have used in their RTS games (such as a unit explore button).

The BIG problem is the single player "skirmishes". If you set the computer opponent to 'easy' it simply does nothing to attack you. The AI will never send a single unit to attack you. Set it one notch higher to 'moderate' and the AI assaults you with wave after wave of units until you give up. I can't beat the computer on 'moderate' yet I've beat it several times playing 'titan'. Hmm? Ensemble obviously could have spent a lot more time working on their AI.

A failed experiment on all fronts

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 20
Date: July 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I remember the previews for this game. It was to have neat god powers, ballanced myth units, and take what Age of Kings made great and make it even better. Well, where the heck did that game go anyway? This surely isn't the game I saw in the previews. Let me get right to the heart of the problems with this game.

1.) The battles are oh so dinky and boring. This is impart to the fact that there's a set limit of only 10 houses you can build limiting your population limit to a low default. That's right, there's no adjusting your population limit like in Age of Kings or its expansion pack (which I now will refer to as AOK TC for short). Add to the fact that each base soldier costs 2 population limit, and you have a really small game. Myth units cost more pop limit, but that sure as heck doesn't offset the fact that...

2.) Myth units are way overpowered. I know ES wanted to show how powerful they are, but some were just out of this world. Like the Anubites only costing 100 food, have 3 times the HP of a base human soldier, twice the attack rate of a human soldier, and an attack bonus vs human soldiers. The myth units just dominated everything. I mean, having 3 or so gold colossus in battle usually means your going to win it no matter what, which isn't fair. AOK TC didn't have any 1 unit that can dominate everything else, here otherwise it's different.

3.) Defense is just as useless as well. In AOK TC, you had to ballance between defense and offense. In AOM, you only work on offensive play. If you're use to someone like the Teutons in AOK you're going to get ate up alive here, since walls are pathetically weak, and fortresses only have 1/5th the HP that castles have in AOK! Who was ES making this game for, nothing but Goth players?

4.) For some reason ES made it so the buildings were back to AOE style. Why I have no idea, since being use to having the units scale to the buildings in AOK TC, it looks really retarded having a villager tower over a house again. Don't forget that you can only build TCs on those settlements that are randomly set on the map, so if an enemy takes your Town Center out in late game and has the map scouted, he knows exactly where you have to build a TC and can defend them well .... you over.

5.) The difficulty was also poor. In AOK, the AI gives you a fair chance to learn how to play on easy, and wasn't a complete cheat on hard. In AOM on easy the computer is comatose and on moderate the AI shows no mercy and plays like ... AOK. Hard is just ungodly difficult and gives you no chance before you're rushed brutally. And unlike in AOK, you can't handle a hard rush in AOM since there is jack in defensive structures and no pop room to have defensive units laying around.

6.) The 3D graphics didn't impress. In fact, I thought they took a step back from AOKs. The units just look bland and blocky, and the terrians look dull and nothing like grass or snow. The water was really nice though, but that's it, the rest looked rather bad. The 2D engine was just right, so why fix something that's not broken? Also there's a whopping 2 map sizes to choose from (unlike the 5 or so in AOK TC), and all of them are dull and bland to look at and play. What fun!

All and all I hated AOM, and I stopped playing only after 2 weeks. The gods barely differed in playing styles for each civs, and it was just didn't have that magic that AOK did. I didn't care about the battles in AOM when I saw the myth units and heros ripping everything apart with no way of me using a superior tactic or something to take them out with my human soldiers.

Crushing down someones wall to degut their town had little excitement since only 1 ram is required for about 1 minutes worth of work before half the wall falls. AOMs Xpac doesn't look much better, it introduces a super unit that costs as much as a wonder and requires another one to defeat it since they're so impossable to defeat. And much like the rest of AOM, it doesn't constitute as fun, it's just stupid.

The game does have some good points, like how each of the 3 civs play radically different from each other. But there's also a down side, that's it only 3 civs. After a short time they get boring with no wide choises other than the minor gods little influnces to the civs playing style. The instruction book also tells you nothing, almost topping Dark Clouds Strategy Guide in being the biggest waste of paper ever. Instead you're prompted to go to their website and print off the real handbook! This is inexcusable, and I expected better from ES.

I know that people are craving another RTS from ES, but in all honesty this felt like a big failed experiment. Even Age of Empires with the Rise of Rome Expansion set is funner than this game, since it sadly seems to be more ballanced than Age of Mythology. Buy the AOK gold bundle instead and play a real game, not a failed experiment. Hopefully ES will learn from this and make Age of Empires 3 a worthy sequal instead of the series unworthy cousin.

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