Age of Mythology (Mac)

The big difference between this game and its predecessors are the units. Along with the usual archers, cavalry and infantry, you now get god powers, myth units, and heroes. These are quite fun. God powers, for example, include such devastating attacks as earthquakes, lightning storms, and even pounding your opponent with meteors. They can also be benign, however, such as those that provide rain for your farms, or those that heal wounded soldiers. You must be careful when you use them, though, because you can only use them once.

The myth units are also a blast. Unlike other units, they are created at the temple, but basically they are like other units only with lots of attack and hit points. The Greeks have Minotaurs, Cyclops, and Centaurs; the Norse have giants and trolls; the Egyptians have sphinxes and mummies; but there are many, many others, and they are all unique to their civilization. What is really fun is the way they attack their enemy. The Norse frost giant blows a cold wind at his foe, freezing it in place, then bashes it with its club. The hill giant not only swings his club, but every once in a while hauls back his foot and gives his enemy a mighty kick. The Medusa myth unit, as you would expect, turns the enemy into stone, and the graphic is superbly done. The attacked unit's movement grinds slowly to a halt, then freezes in place and turns gray. There are literally a dozen more I could describe, but suffice to say, they are ingeniously done, and a joy to watch.

But for that, though, any A of E fan will be familiar with this. You still have to have villagers collect food, gold and wood. They still build buildings, and you must create and upgrade your units with the available resources. Which is fine. I never minded this aspect of the game--in fact, enjoyed it--and really, it's an integral part of the strategy. You must protect your own supply and a good way to defeat your enemy is to attack his.

My first disappointment with the game is with the 32 scenario campaign. Oh, don't get me wrong, many of them were a lot of fun. But it doesn't have that specialness, that extra intellectual challenge that most of the earlier A of E games provided. I remember actually lying awake nights wracking my mind to find some new way to end an ever increasing string of failures. What a thrill it was to come up with a new angle, try it the next day, and discover that it worked! (And what a thrill--a truly visceral thrill--to maul and smash the enemy after suffering so many disappointments.)

But this doesn't happen here. For one thing, many of the scenarios are very short, some only twenty to thirty minutes. This is far short of the epic length that I crave. And secondly, even the longer ones often end abruptly. A good example would be one of the later scenarios, playing in the Norse aspect. You are told that you will be attacked. You have five minutes to build your town and its defenses, and you have fifteen minutes to defend it from the enemy. This was a blast, with furious, non-stop attacks from several areas. After the fifteen minutes, you are told that you must then find and destroy the enemy. Yes! This will be where it gets good, I thought. So I sent what remained of my battered forces north, simply to scout out the enemy's strength. I fully expected them to be destroyed, and instead concentrated on my area, replacing dead villagers, repairing or rebuilding smashed buildings, etc. Imagine my surprise when, a mere thirty seconds later, I was told that I was victorious! I looked up to where they had gone and sure enough, there was a huge enemy army up there, but apparently, all I had to do was get to it! Man, what a drag. What a disappointment! And there are at least a few like this.

The random map aspect also leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, there are only two sizes, and the large one is much too small. You can scout out the entire thing in three minutes. And although I've only played it a half-dozen times, I've already begun to notice a depressing similarity in the enemy AI, which can be counted on to attack early, often, with the same units and at the same place. This was not the case in A of E, where from game to game and even within games, strategy and tactics changed and you could never know what to expect.

Lastly and most disappointing is the game's bugginess. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I have a big, powerful computer, and I have never had problems with any Microsoft game like I am having with this one. First, I couldn't get the cursor to appear. Then the game would crash, or the screen would go blank. Now, I will say that Microsoft, through the internet, has been very helpful, but who wants to go through all of this?

Look, this is not a bad game. I have enjoyed it. It's just that I have come to expect so much more from this series. I guess I've been spoiled.


Better than Age of Kings...   November 11, 2002
Tomas MF (San Fernando)
76 out of 86 found this review helpful

I've just acquired AOM this weekend and I got glued to the seat until 3 AM.
It's difficult to indicate precisely which are the features I like most, but I'll try to mention almost all of them.

Graphics: the 3D design is awesome. The buildings & units are so well designed that you can see small details on them. Another feature is the 360 degree rotation, enabling to see units and terrain from every corner. The game is eye-candy completely.

Buildings & units: mythological units such as Krakens, Cyclops, Hippocampus, Pegasus, Colossus (and many more) can be summoned to your side if your villagers pray enough to grant you enough favor from your gods. You can choose which god to adorate and be on your side. Besides, you can count on heroes to lead your armies such as Jason, Ajax, Odyseeus or Hippolita.

Civilizations: 3 different civilization types. Egyptians, Norse and Greek with a full pantheon of gods, special units and buildings.

Campaigns: want to share the siege of Troy and take part of the horse? Want to live mythical adventures in the North? The campaigns are totally interactive and with 4 different play levels.

Wrapping up, this is a game RTS players and fans would not like to miss. It's a brand new game with hours of assured fun.


Forget Warcraft III, check this out!!   August 4, 2002
69 out of 82 found this review helpful

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.


Is the Collectors Edition worth your money?   November 4, 2002
54 out of 57 found this review helpful

(First of all, this was a birthday gift from my husband, so I had no choice in the matter)

This is a hard product to rate. The game is fantastic, though if you have a low end video card, the graphics are not as good as they could be. My husband has an excellent graphics card and it made such a difference in the feel and look of the game! I'm not going to give a review of gameplay - there'll be many of them. I just wanted to help others in deciding whether they should splurge on purchasing the collectors edition over the regular retail version.

First everyone is saying they want those "large tech trees" included in this version. They are no where near large. They are very tiny things and the Age of Kings Tech trees were much bigger than these. If you want tech trees, you can view the .pdf files that come with the game. Check your read me file and you'll see where they are. I'm assuming that these files also come with the regular edition too. I am dissappointed that there is no handy list of what is good against what and what units you can counter with. I loved this with my Age of Kings game and I hate to flip through the manual for it this time around. With a lot of new units and different names for the units, it is going to take a while getting it all straightened out.

The minotaur figurine - the box makes it look pretty cool looking from a grotesque/fantasy slant if that is what you like. I find the the minotaur looks much better in the game. Personally I find it an ugly looking thing and would have much rather had figures of the gods, especially Isis or rather the Pegasus scout unit as a figure. The minotaur figured on the box doesn't look like the actual one you get. It is a figure of cheap lightweight plastic and looks like something you could easily get from a McDonald's happy meal. Actually, I have seen better in a McDonald's happy meal! The paint details are a little different as well in terms of colour. The figure comes in a little plastic baggie, so already my ugly bull man has a flaccid double axe because of the small bag. He should have come in a plastic mold case at least to keep his shape properly.

There is a large poster of the game with signatures of Ensemble Studios staff ... I have no place for this sort of poster in my home unfortunately. It is a large poster too.

The mini posters of the gods are superb. They are good quality laminate poster board about 8x10 in size. I didn't really care for the gods though, except for Isis - I had to have her, since I've been looking ages for a beautiful print of her for my personal shrine.

Of course you get your little manual and 2 cd case of the game itself.

There is also a DVD of the making of AOM, which I can not use as I don't have a DVD player. There is also a CD AOM music soundtrack, which is lovely for providing atmosphere to your game, yet, there is already the same background music in the game itself. Here it really depends if you want to play that cd in another room besides where the one your computer is located.

You also get a small paperback copy of Bulfinch's mythology book, which is a classic for anyone's library, though I didn't really need it to come with the game. I already have an old hardcover edition of Bulfinch's book and If I need extra information on a god or myth, the library or the internet is good enough and Bulfinch shouldn't be counted on as one's sole source on mythological education.

The game itself is worth every penny, as well as the poster of Isis, and I do love the tech trees, but you can can get most of the essentials yourself without the extra goodies already provided for you.

As a degree holder in Classical Studies and a gamer of Age of Empires Games and gamer of Zeus and Pharaoh and Caesar games, Age of Mythology is a dream come true. It is an incredible and addictive game. I just don't think the collectors edition is worth it, though it depends what you really want from it.

There are only 5,000 copies of the collectors edition, which may influence your decision and there is a sticker on the box that tells you what number yours is out of the 5,000, plus a sticker certificate of authenticity on the box. Thing is with computer games, once it is open, the value would obviously decrease and I had a hard time, pulling that sucker out of the box, so unfortunately there is already a small rip on my box.

Up to you.


This is a GREAT game!   February 2, 2003
Ny-er (NYC)
49 out of 58 found this review helpful

This is a great game! I've just gone through the entire tutorial and wow, even IT'S great. The tutorial is more of a series of stories, based on Greek mythology, which take you through a learning process without being patronizing. Nor do you even notice that it's a tutorial ... you get so immersed in the game itself.

It is similar to the other war strategy games out there -- Civilization III and Empire Earth, but it's different -- from the mythic creatures you get to use in battle (medusa to cyclops to hydras), to the mini-movies in between that give voice to the characters you're using.

The tutorial gets progressively more challenging and more detailed -- it, in itself, can make you lose about 8 hours -- and incorporates the plot from the previous lesson you've learned. It furthers the storyline, in other words.

This game is huge. The tutorial is but one tiny part of its whole. You can then go on to play different combat scenarios; play as Greek, Egyptian or Norse fighters, and explore various worlds of mythology and its creatures.

The graphics are nice. Nothing like you'd get on Two Towers for XBOX, but with great detail and fluid motion, seamless design.

This particular collector's set comes with mythic posters, a little plastic minotaur, a dvd on how the game was made, along with a music CD and heirarchical settings map for the various cultural "teams" (Norse, Greek or Egyptian). I personally could have done without the extras, but for the keen game player, this might be the set for you.

But it also comes with a pretty neat little book about mythology.

The beauty of this game is not only the ease of play and the increasing challenges, but the fact that it's expansive ... HUGE ... you'll be playing it for a long time, as opposed to other war strategy games out there that have a finite playability.

Check it out. It's a great game.