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Age of Mythology (Mac)

Age of Mythology (Mac)

List Price: $49.99
Your Price: $49.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great game. Buy it Now.
Review: Wow!!! This is an all around great game. For those who never played Age of Empires, it puts you in control to create an empire with real ancient civilization. You must either create an army and destroy you enemy, or you can build wonders and collect relics to win. Age of Mythology has much better graphics then Age of Empires. Age of Mythology has a feel of Age of Empires but is different in so many ways. In stead of collecting stone,one of the resources youe gathered in Age of Empires, you collect the favor of the gods. Anyway, Age of Mythology requires alot more thought and planning. The new addition of units makes it much harder. Besides regular soldiers, You now summon myth units which can easily conquer soldiers, but then there are heroes which can go through myth units with ease. The last difference is that when you advance through the ages you choose gods which can greatly change the odds. You can destroy towns with earthquakes, destroy armies with electical storms, summon the mighty norse dragon, casting eclipses over the world and making myth units grow stronger,or something more peaceful like enchanting farms and making them grow faster. Anyway enough said. Brilliant campaign, great new units, buildings, and options. Great game overall. 5 stars. A++++++.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Forget Warcraft III, check this out!!
Review: I am a big Age of Empires fan, and I think it is a great improvement going to 3D images in Age of Mythology. The basic idea is that you can choose one of three civilizations; Egyptian, Greek, and Norse. Each civilization has a choice to worship one of three main gods, and as you progress through the ages you can choose a minor deity to worship. Each god and deity gives your civilization technologies, unique units, and one god power. This can make the gameplay more diverse, even if two people are fighting with the same civilization.
A resource called "favor" has replaced stone, it is generated in different ways among the civilizations. Mythological units such as Minotaurs, Valkyries, and Giant Scarabs can be trained, provided you have a good amount of favor. There are so many differences between AOM and AOE, it would take a while to tell them all. Gameplay should be easy players to get used to, and even easier for AOE veterans. Bottom line: This game looks like it's going to be a hit! I recommend that anybody who likes strategy buy it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as expected
Review: I bought Age of Mythology expecting more of the same Age of Empires playing experience. To be honest, this AOM fell somewhat short of my expectations. The graphics were too "spongy" compared to AOE and I thought that the dieties were "gimmicky" and really added little to the playing experience. If you are looking for more AOE, try the Conqueror's Expansion pack. AOM is diverting but gets old fairly quickly.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well worth your money & time
Review: This game was originally for my brother for his birthday, but i think i've played it more than him!!! It's so much fun! I've spent hours on this wonderful game, marveling at it's great graphics and many twists and turns. I have always been a big fan of ancient mythology and my favorite computer game was Zues, which came close to my myth satisfaction, but Age of Mythology is far better. One minute, I could be storming my enemie's lands with an army of Medusa archers in the Greek world, and the next, destroying enemy docks with a mighty water Krakken in the Norse world. If you're not into all the extra stuff(like my brother and I) I suggest not getting the collector's version. It's a lot of money for things that we just weren't interested in (for example, the movie poster and the DVD) so if you want an excellent game with a high replay value, get this game, you'll be sorry if you don't!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as Impressive as it Probably Should Be....
Review: 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.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good expansion pack.
Review: I had higher hopes for this expansion pack, especially after having played expansion packs for Warcraft 3 and Command and COnquer: Generals. To that point, I was dissappointed. The single player mission was too short. It took me only 10-12 hours to beat the 12 missions. Compared to the afore mentioned games, that is way too short. But that is the only real negative about the game.
For multiplay, you have a new race (the Atlanteans), better and more colorful graphics, new gods, new god powers, new myth units, and a Titan unit you can now build. The Titans are pretty cool and there is more than 1 different Titan depending on the God you start with. And if you get one built and no-one else does, watch out because you are gonna cause massive damage.

The Atlanteans are also a unique civilization in that you don't have to build nearly as many buildings as they don't have to drop off their supplies. They also have less units for you to purchase which gives you less options to choose from which can be good.

But the real strength of this game is all the new god powers and myth units that are available. Some of the new god powers include a portal that you can build that continues to spew demons until the portal is destroyed and Chaos which makes a large group of units fight each other to the death. Some of the new myth units is the Argus which is just a blob with eyes but expells a corrosive slime that melts enemies away and the Promethean which is a powerful clay unit that splits into two smaller versions of itself when mortally wounded and continues to fight. There are many other god powers and myth units available.

I would have given this a 5 if the single player mission was longer and/or harder. That would be my only other complaint is this game wasn't too hard. It offered a medium challenge at best. But other than those two things, this is worth the money and I would reccommend it to all who own the original game.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lead thy loyal subjects!
Review: Last year, I had gotten two of the Age of Empires games, which were my favorie games. However, they got more and more boring as I played them more and more often. Then, my friend called me, and told me about Age of Mythology. So I saved up for it, and when I got it, it was the only thing I played for weeks!
Unlike Age of Empires, which all have basically the same units, buildings, and technologies, Age of Mythology had all different units and completely different buildings for each civilization. The ability to worship the Norse, Greek, or Egyptian gods/goddesses gave a unique and original quality to it. Batter down enemy walls with the huge Egyptian scarabs, summon the Norse dragon, Nidhogg,from his lair, or storm enemy fortresses with armies of Minotaurs. The 32 scenario campaign is far better than the multiple Age of Empires campaigns, for it is not as challenging. The only features that I disliked about Age of Mythology were that it was inaccurate to Mythology. For example, in the Troy levels of the campaign, never once did it show Achilles, Hector, Menelaus, Paris, or Helen. Also, there was only one Medusa, Minotaur, and Scylla in Greek mythology, right? Well, in this game, you can make about 20 of each unit! All in all, I reccomend this game for fans of Warcraft and Age of Empires. Pick up your lightning bolt and get redy to gather resources, establish trade routes, wage war, and forge an empire!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loved it! Loved it!! Loved it!!!
Review: I played Age of Empires II (AOE2) and loved that game so much I went out and got Age of Empires I (AOE1). I heard about Age of Mythology (AOM) and knew I had to get it.
I've always been a fan of games that make you think (Zelda, Deus Ex, etc). This game is so much better than AOE1 and AOE2 because the civilizations are all different. Rather than each civilization have 6 or 7 from every other civilization differences each 3 has literally about 100 differences. And the 3 that are similar still have a dozen diifferences. This allows for more variety.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: same old, same old - but not quite
Review: Basically AOM functions similarly to AOE in that your basic approach is the same: you collect resources and use them to develop technologies and units. instead of collecting stone, you now harvest "favor." Sure, the units are different than what we saw in AOE and have different abilities: Some are now Myth units which have abilities that AOE units did not have. In addition, before progressing to another age, you now have to chose a minor god that is contingent on the civilization (and god) you chose at the outset. Overall, however, the game is basically the same as AOE - I don't consider applying new labels to units as a vast improvement or change to the basic tenets of the game. Speaking of improvements: I really don't see any. Actually, i do see quite a lot of the opposite. While we had many civilizations to choose from in AOE, we are now very limited - which reduces the joy of re-playing this game. In addition, difficulty ratings are pretty horrible. In the "Easy" mode, you basically fall asleep since nothing ever happens. You just collect and develop until you are strong enough to dominate the world. You won't get much hassle from you computer opponents. Switching to "moderate" won't help you much, though. All of a sudden, you don't have any opportunity to really collect and develop anything since you are overrun by your opponents. You are faced with constant attacks - which takes away any enjoyment.

If you've played and enjoyed AOE then this game is simply boring. However, if you are new to this kind of game, then by all means, go ahead and have fun.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't try to fix what ain't broke
Review: Don't get me wrong; this expansion pack is great. It just wasn't really necessary and didn't add that much to an already almost flawless game. Basically, this expansion pack adds a new civilization, a new single-player campaign, and four huge, almost all-powerful "Titans," one for each race.

The new civilization (hereafter "civ") is the Atlanteans. At first this confused me--wasn't Arkantos is the original campaign from Atlantis? and if so, why did it say he was a Greek?)--but it turns out that the "true" Atlanteans got their start from Kastor, Arkantos's son. As a civ, the Atlanteans are good to the point of imbalance. Their citizens, even though they're more expensive and take longer to build, are like citizens on steroids. They are tougher, bigger, and faster-building and gathering. They also don't need to drop off resources at drop-off spots. This sort of uber-unit is typical of the Atlanteans. I won't go into detail, but rest assured that the Atlanteans could easily be called the most powerful civ. For example, any unit can become a hero. Their god powers and myth units are also really souped-up, like the self-repairing Automaton.

The second new feature in the expansion is the new single=player campaign. First of all, I don't see why people aren't impressed with the original; the voice-acting is good, the story is interesting and is intertwined with "real" myths (rescuing Odysseus and co. on Circe's island in pig form was awesome) and the in-game cinematics were nice-looking, if not phenomenal. The new campaign continues in this vein, although I don't know about the myth aspect as the Atlanteans weren't real. The new campaign follows the story of Kastor, whom we briefly saw as Arkantos's son in the original AOM. He has grown up a lot, and now sports a deeper voice and a dorky (IMHO) ponytail. Now he leads his people, the Atlanteans, to a new land where they try to rebuild their shattered lives. Players of the original will recognize many of the main characters, including Queen Amanra and Arkantos. Since the new campaign sports only 12 scenarios, compared with the original's 32, their isn't quite as much depth; however, it's still interesting and fun to play--that is, until about halfway through, when the Titans are introduced. Then almost all the missions involve defending your base against a given Titan. No fun--not because it's especially hard, but because it's boring. Still, overall the new campaign is up to snuff, and players who like the defensive maps in Starcraft and Warcraft (Helm's Deep, Redwall, Bunker D, etc.) will no doubt be pleased.

The third and final new feature is the addition of the Titans--massive (really massive, like 80 feet) creatures from the depths of the Earth that are pretty much omnipotent. Although each civ has a different Titan, they are really the same in every aspect except graphics. The Greeks have a three-headed dog (Cerberus, Fluffy), the Egyptians have a huge eagle which I think is one of the three gods (probably Ra) the Norse have a sort of pumped up Frost Giant with a huge wooden hammer (not Thor), and the Atlanteans have an odd humanoid with some kind of crystals on his back. I have two main issues with the Titans. The first, and major, one is that they tend to tip the scales hugely. Whoever gets the first Titan usually wins, although a skilled player can manage to defeat an enemy Titan. This can cause games to evolve in a massive tech-fest, with each player desperately gathering resources enough to get a Titan. The second issue is that Titans can't cross water. This is sort of a minor issue, but it can get very annoying when you're playing on the Island map, or any other map with large amounts of water (the Nile River is particularly frustrating). Still, the Titans are awesome, if only because of their sheer brute force and incredible size (I'm really not kidding. On my 17-inch CRT monitor, they're literally 2 1/2+ inches tall and an inch thick).

To conclude, this expansion pack is really nice. What little it added was excellent and well thought-out. Go out and buy it.

Now.


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