Age of Mythology

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Game but......
Review: To start off, i have been an avid player of the other Age of Empires titles, i have played for over 3 years and hoped to continue the series by picking up this title.

To start off, the graphics are amazing, sometimes ill just stare at the ocean waves lapping for a bit, the special effects are wondrous, i still get chill seeing gigantic meteors crash into the ground.

Yet, as an AoE fan, this game has let me down a bit. Featuring only 3 civilizations (though each one has 3 diff. gods to chose from so maybe about 9 diff civs) just didnt give me the choices i was looking for and had come to know and love so much in AoE. Ensemble seems to be a little more controlling in this, there is a strict population limit, (a max of 10 houses, giving 10 pop each, though you can get more pop with town centers, though town centers can be only built on settlements, so there are some great battles, but never of the massive armies you would have in AoE,) The focus of the battles is more on countering than full scale attacks.

Multiplayer has dissapointed me in some ways, because it takes away alot of the choices. You cant pick the age you start in, you can add more population (which is a big thing for me)

Another (not critical) but thing that irked me was the scenario editor. A very well done one, a little more complicated than the last it left out alot of the Triggers that were crucial to some extremely fun Custom Scenarios.

For hardcore AoE fans, this game may fall up short, but i still reccomend it to them. The myth units are excellent, a great thing to bolster an army with. the god powers are amazing, and the graphics (i say again) are rich and wonderful. The campaign, boasting over 30 missions have a good story line, and though i havent quite finished it yet, i get frustrated, because it seems like almost every mission requires you to establish a base, build an army and destroy/recapture/kill X person/thing.

All in all, a great game with wonderful graphics, very well balanced, each civilization is a new gameplay experience, and i recomend this to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Thanks to this game, I now actually like RTS!
Review: Having never played any of the other 'Age' games, and the only other RTS in my resume is Warcraft I, II, and C&C, it definitely will take alot to get me to like an RTS game (Warcraft III...only went half way before I got uninspired).

I bought this game on impulse, like so many things I buy. Having read several positive reviews online I was hopeful. Having spent 16 hours straight after getting this game, I was hooked.

There really isn't much variety in units and buildings, but that's a good thing. Following in the veins of WCIII, you don't get to choose which civilization you can take on the Single Players campaign. You play through the boots of Arkantos (there are 3 missions where he is absent, though), a greek hero, but you spend around 10 missions each on Egypt and the Norse region, with the different gods and units of each. Each mission you play is different then the ones you've already played, keeping the game fresh til the very end. The difficulty level, however, is very daunting. Never played easy mode, but the difficult mode is hardly fair.

Although the God powers seem awesome, I played through the game using them only once in a while. But I found that if in a tough situation, using those God powers helped shift the tide of battle.

Enjoyed, and now on the look-out for other great RTS.

Rating:
Summary: Hours of great entertainment
Review: I bought this game when it first came out. I love fantasy strategy games and this one is one of the best. Great art, great storyline, great characters, weapons, and scenarios.

Rating:
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:
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:
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:
Summary: Addicting
Review: First, let me lay down the basics of the game. AoM is a real time strategy game. You choose which civilization you want to be: Greek, Norse or Egyptian (and Atlanteans with the Titan's expansion). You build up an empire using villagers, who gather rescources. You need these rescources to build military buildings, fortresses and economic buildings. These buildings will let you train more villagers, military units and give you acess to upgrades if you have the rescources to "pay" for them. You march your military units to your opponent's town and tear down his or her town to pieces. Or you expand and take over the land, giving you acess to more gold mines and forests, which is very crucial. You also worship certain gods over the course of the game, and they will grant you certain powers, like the ability to turn your enemy's soldiers into pigs.

AoM is very pleasing to the eye. It's fun to see a cyclops pick up a war elephant and chuck it across the screen. When a player casts an earthquake, the whole terrain actually rolls. The more subtler details--like the rocks barely visible beneath the ocean's surface--add a new layer of aesthetic depth as well. The graphics are stunning IF YOU HAVE ALL THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. So before you buy the game, make sure you do.

Single player is very predictable: the AI will mindlessly throw armies at you at the same place over and over again. However, you can control the difficulty level of the game you play against the AI. You will defintely see a difference between the difficulty levels--easy, moderate, hard and titan-- and this will make single player games more compelling.

Once you start multiplayer games, you will see that the game has an ungodly learning curve. The basics are easy to get down, but thats because its the basics: and of course everything goes beyond the basics. The multiplayer games are brutally agressive and fast paced. Wave after wave of armies come and batter your town--and unlike single player games, you have to deal with the unpredictability of humans. You have to defend, attack, expand, manage your villagers, manage your military, manage your rescources, make upgrades, replenish soldiers and lost buildings, all at the same time. Its not all that easy, but its fun. Also, time matters a lot (its called REAL TIME STRATEGY). Even a minute's delay can literally lose you the enitre game. To become an intermediate or expert player, you need to be willing to take an incredible amount of abuse and losses. It can get frustrating, but the good news is that you'll always have a solid challenge.

Rating:
Summary: WHERE'S ALL THE DARNED STUFF???
Review: I find it hard to believe that the world's most powerful software company is putting out an RTS game in 2002 that is this thin. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the other reviewers who say that AOM delivers the best graphics of any strategy game to date. In addition to this, I'd like to add that AOM uses system resources very efficiently (after 10 hours of gaming I have experienced exactly zero crashes), and plays quickly (no more 12 hour marathons like we had with Age of Empires). And suprisingly for an MS product, the game also has pretty darn good instructions (although you really won't need these if you've ever played an RTS before).

But, this is why I give it two stars...
1) Very limited selection of warriors and special creatures --only two types of horseman, two types of footman, and four types of mythic creatures on any one side (AOE has at least three times as many unit types)
2) Only four levels for Single User Random Map Play (and this from a game that advertises on the box: "Strategic Depth")
3) Steep limitations on use of god powers
4) God powers not really that powerful and are, at best, uninspired
5) The games AI that is used to run your opponents is more artificial than intelligent
6) Due to the above and unlike many of other RTS's, this game has very little replay value, and thus isn't worth the steep price MS is asking

Rating:
Summary: Not what I really expected
Review: The expansion really surprises me. 12 scenarios in the campagn was very disapointing. Also there was almost no storyline in the campagn. The Atlanteans were almost the same as the Greeks. The Titans all have the same animations. The Titans really unbalances the game. The new units were not really interesting. But all the graphics and AI were good at least. I did not expect there were only 6 new random maps. (I think)

I honestly believe that the original game was better.

Rating:
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!