Age of Mythology
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| Age of Mythology | |
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| Developer(s) | Ensemble Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Latest version | 1.10 |
| Release date(s) | November 1, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T), PEGI: 12+ |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS X |
| Media | CD (2) |
| System requirements | 450MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, 1.5GB Hard disk space, 16MB GPU, 56k Modem for Multiplayer |
| Input | Keyboard and mouse |
Age of Mythology (also known as AoM) is a mythology-based real-time strategy (RTS) computer game by Ensemble Studios. It was first released in November 2002, by Microsoft Game Studios. Following both good reviews and sales, Age of Mythology: The Titans expansion pack was released in 2003. Although it is a continuation of the Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology focuses less on historical accuracy, instead centering around the myths and legends of the Ancient Greeks, the Ancient Egyptians, and the Norse.
Age of Mythology is different from other Ensemble Studios games because it takes place in a Pantheistic solipsistic universe. Unlike previous Age of Empires games, which followed the historical progress of various nations or cultures, "Age of Mythology" follows the exploits of a band of heroes, in an adventure that takes them through all three civilizations.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Civilizations
There are 3 playable civilizations in the game, which strongly differ from each other; also, each of them has a different way of gaining heroes and favor:
| Civilization | Way of Gaining Favor | Way of Gaining Hero or Heroes |
|---|---|---|
| Greeks | Villagers praying at Temple. | Training and reviving them in Town Center or Fortress (Heroic Age and Mythic Age). |
| Egyptians | Building Monuments. | Pharaoh: Receiving it automatically from the Town Center at the start of the game and receiving automatically, also from the Town Center, another one if the previous one were to have died.
Priest: Training in Temple or Town Center. |
| Norse | Attacking enemies or animals. Hersir (Norse heroes) gain favor faster, and also gain a small amount just for existing. | Training them (Hersir) in longhouse or temple. |
[edit] Campaign
Unlike the campaign mode in Age of Empires II, which has five unrelated campaigns with six missions each, the Age of Mythology campaign mode offers a single campaign with one main story. The campaign story, titled Fall of the Trident, begins with the game's opening video. It shows a forty-four year old Atlantean admiral, hero, and commander of the Atlantean military, Arkantos, as he explores an abandoned temple. Within the temple, he has brief glimpses of the goddess Athena, that lead him to many engravings of warriors and several Olympian gods. As Arkantos touches each of the statues, he has strange visions of a fierce war between Kronos, the evil Titan Lord and its army of mythological creatures, and human warriors, aided by Zeus. On his final vision, Arkantos sees how Kronos is sealed behind the huge gates of Tartarus, as the temple he is in begins to crumble. Athena signals Arkantos to escape, and he barely manages to, as a huge trident from Poseidon's statue nearly falls upon him.
The game follows the adventures of Arkantos, and his encounters with the gods and creatures of myth. Arkantos travels throughout all of the mythical world, fighting to keep the enraged Kronos from emerging into the human world and wrecking havoc.
In the Titans Expansion Pack it shows Kastor, Arkantos's son, trying to rebuild a confused Atlantis. He is tricked by Krios to rebuild the Titan's temples. This brings the Titans enough power to escape and wreak havoc on Atlantis, Greece, Egypt, and the Norselands. In the end Gaia defeats Kronos and reseals him in Tartarus.
A new campaign called The Golden Gift is offered for download on the Microsoft Games website. This campaign follows Brokk, a dwarf, and perhaps the greatest blacksmith in all Midgard. Loki plays a trick on him and pits him against his brother Etri. They realize they have been tricked and work together to get their Battle Boar back.
[edit] Gods
Players can choose one of three initial gods of a civilization as they begin, and one of two more gods each time they advance in age. Each god has its own unique technologies, myth units, and god powers (special abilities which can only be used once per game). The gods are:
| Greek | Egyptian | Norse |
See List of Major Gods in Age of Mythology and The Titans for a full list of Gods, their God Powers, improvements and more. Also see List of Minor Gods in Age of Mythology and The Titans for a list of all the minor Gods and their God Powers.
[edit] Units
The bulk of each civilization’s forces are made of ordinary human soldiers. Most units can be upgraded through research (e.g. faster gathering for villagers, stronger armour for military units, better building structure etc.).
There are 4 major resources in Age of Mythology; food, wood, gold, and favor. Resources are gathered by civilian units; the Greek Villager, Norse gatherers and dwarves, and the Egyptian laborer. The Egyptian laborer gather resources at a slower part than his Greek and Norse counterparts. The Norse, in addition to their gatherers, can build dwarves, which cost gold instead of food and mine gold faster than other civilian units, but they collect food and wood slower. Food can be collected by hunting animals, gathering berries, harvesting livestock, farming, or fishing with civilian units known as fishing ships. Wood is gathered from forests, and gold is gathered from gold mines. The Norse civilization uses a unique unit called the ox cart as a drop off point for resources. Greeks use storehouses (wood and gold) and granaries (food), while Egyptians use granaries (food), lumber camps (wood), and mining camps (gold). Each civilization can purchase upgrades that will increase the rate of hunting, gathering from sheep goats and pigs, fishing, chopping wood, and mining gold.
Infantry units, such as hoplites, militia, and huskarls, use melee combat to attack at hand-to-hand range (although the throwing axeman can attack at a short range). Norse infantry are capable of constructing and repairing buildings (Norse gatherers and dwarves can only build farms). Mounted units are melee units which are mounted on horses, camels, or war elephants. Archers are either on foot or mounted, and attack at range. Siege weapons are of four types: catapults, battering rams, ballistas, and siege towers. There is the Egyptian siege tower and the Greek siege tower, the Helepolis. All siege weapons do crush damage. Catapults hurl stones which generate splash damage, affecting all units in a small area, and are especially effective against buildings. Battering rams knock buildings down with large moving beams. Ballistae are less damaging against buildings, but are much faster than catapults, and are the most effective siege weapons against units. Siege towers can transport units, and they are moderately effective against buildings and units.
Naval units play a secondary role, and are not as prominent as in other Age of Empires games. Fishing boats are similar to villagers, in that they can gather food from fish. Egyptian fishing ships are also capable of constructing certain buildings when by the shore. Transport ships carry land units from one area of land to another. Aside from attacking enemy ships, warships can be very effective in attacking land-based units close to the shoreline (because the land-based units cannot fight back, unless ranged). Warships are classified as arrow ships, ramming ships, and siege ships. Arrow ships are strong against hammer ships and units, hammer ships attacke in melee and are strong against seige ships, and seige ships have long range and are strong against arrow ships and buildings.
Mythological units are representations of non-human creatures in mythology. For example, there was only one hydra in mythology (slain by Heracles), but multiple hydra may be summoned in Age of Mythology. Myth units generally have special abilities that human soldiers do not possess (such as flight or petrification). In addition to normal resources, myth units require an amount of the Favor resource to be summoned. Myth units are deadly against human soldiers, but are weak against Heroes, who are normally unaffected by their special abilities. Myth units are generally very expensive, a single myth unit is usually worth several human soldiers, both in battle and cost-wise. Myth units also take up more population slots than human soldiers (except seige weapons). Examples of myth units are minotaurs, colossi, centaurs, phoenixes, valkyries and mummies.
Heroes are representations of the epic characters within mythology. Heroes in Age of Mythology are very effective against myth units, but are weak against human soldiers. They can also pick up relics. Each culture has a different way to get heroes. The Greeks can have four pre-determined heroes from Greek mythology, one for each age. Greek heroes are more expensive and powerful than those of other cultures, and can be re-trained if killed. Each Greek hero is unique, and the ones available to you will depend on your major god. Egyptians have two heroes. The first is your Pharaoh. The Pharaoh can empower buildings (speeding construction, resource gathering and improving combat ability, if any), heal nearby units, and have a ranged attack which increases in power in later ages, and is devastating to myth units. You can only have one Pharaoh; if he dies, a new one will be born at your town center a while later. Pharaohs of Set can also summon beasts of Set - very cheap and weak animal units that train quickly.
The second Egyptian hero is the priest, who can be trained at your temples and town centers. The priest is in essence a weaker version of the Pharaoh - they can heal nearby units, and have a weak attack very strong against myth units, however they cannot empower (unless you have Ra as a Major God), but you can build as many as your population wil allow. Priests are also able to construct Obelisks, cheap buildings that build very quickly, with no attack and a large line-of-sight, which allow priests to serve as scouts. The priests have additional abilities, depending on their Major God: Priests of Ra can empower (not as well as the Pharaoh), Priests of Isis can build obelisks faster and more cheaply, and priests of Set can convert wild animals into beasts of Set.
Norse heroes are Hersir, trained at temples and longhouses. Hersir, like all Norse infantry, are able to construct buildings. Hersir, as heroes, do bonus damage against myth units and, as infantry, are also strong against cavalry. Like priests, you can build as many as your population will allow. Hersir, although not weak, are not cost-effective for use against human soldiers, especially counter-infantry and archers. Hersir generate favor faster than other Norse units, and even generate some favor just for existing. Hersir that worship Loki as a major god also spontaneously summon random myth units into battle. The summoning is random (the units just appear while the Hersir is fighting), and the units are under your control. You need not be able to summon these units at your temple (followers of Loki are never able to summon valkyrie at temples, for example, yet valkyrie are a fairly common unit for Hersir to summon), although you must be in the requisite age to summon the myth unit (you cannot summon mythic age units in the classical age, for example). Hersir can only summon land-based Norse myth units, but they cost no resources (they still take up population, however). Heroes can be killed like other units, but those important to a scenario (such as Arkantos) merely fall down, until enemy units are eliminated and friendly units are nearby (a concept replicated with Explorers in Age of Empires III).
[edit] Buildings
Buildings are used for a variety of purposes in Age of Mythology. Town Centers are the main buildings in the empire. They serve as drop off points for resources, and can shoot arrows, garrison units inside them, train villagers or heroes, and, depending on the civilization, can train ulfsarks, priests, mercenaries, and mercenary cavalry. Building upgrades and age advancements are also researched here. Town Centers can be built on free Settlements. A single Town Center provides 15 population points. In order to gain more population points, either more Town Centers or houses must be built. The population limit is 300.
Military units are created at specific buildings, corresponding with their combat type (e.g. archers are created at an archery range). Myth units are created at temples. All sea units are created at the docks. Walls and towers are defensive fortifications, and a fortress is a fortified building which can train special units, such as siege weapons or heroes. Farms are used to produce food. Granaries, storage pits, and the Town Center are used to store resources (deposited by the villagers).
A Wonder is a large building that represents an architectural achievement of the civilization. Wonders have many hitpoints, and take a long time to build. In certain game modes, once a player builds a wonder, a ten minute countdown begins. If the wonder is still standing after the countdown ends, the player who built the wonder wins. Also, all computer controlled, allied military units are programmed to guard wonders, while enemies are programmed to destroy them. The wonder only works in supremacy and Lightning game modes. It does not work on Deathmatch, conquest, or any other scenarios. It also slowly produces favor when built by Greek or Atlantean civilizations.
[edit] Rushing
Sometimes players will want to end the game quickly against a certain civilization or on a certain map, some popular rushes are the Loki Rush (Hersirs), the Zeus-Athena rush, the Kronos Rush (works well against Norse) , and on Mediterranean, rushes within 5 minutes with boats and men are extremely common. However, with the release of the Age of Mythology Expansion, rushing on water has become much less powerful due to shooting docks, an addition of AoT. Common Permutations of Rushes include: Loki 4:00 Land Rush Loki 4:20 Land Rush Kronos 3:30 Rush
[edit] Relics
Many game maps in Age of Mythology have relics, which are scattered throughout the land. Relics can be picked up by heroes and brought back to their temples. All relics have a special bonus that is awarded to the civilization who places that relic in one of their temples. A temple can hold a maximum of 5 relics. Holding them all does not trigger a victory countdown like in Age of Empires II .
[edit] Scenario editor
The scenario editor is contained in AoM extras. It is far more advanced than that of Age of Empires II ,or any other comparable game at the time. It allows a map to be created from placing buildings and units, to raising the land into steep mountains and even place cinematics or special effects. You can modify units by using the triggers section. All you have to do is go into triggers, select "effects", change the effect to "modify protounit", select the effect and click insert for a new effect. You can play with the effects to find different types of effects.
[edit] Reception
Age of Mythology was well-received by the public, reaching the one millionth sale mark within five months of its release. The game was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Interactive Achievement Awards for PC Game of the Year, as well as PC Strategy Game of the Year.
[edit] Trivia
- On the (main) campaign "Fall of the Trident", the island of Atlantis is modeled after the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.
- After the credits, you hear voice acting bloopers.
- "Fall of the Trident"'s principal villain, the cyclops Gargarensis, recites lines from G. K. Chesterton's famous poem Lepanto.
[edit] External links
- Official Age of Mythology website
- Official Age of Mythology: The Titans website
- The Vandhaal RTS scenario design
- Age of Mythology: The Titans at Game Rankings
- Age of Mythology: The Titans at MobyGames
- Age of Mythology at HeavenGames.com
- Age of Mythology Fansite
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