Title: Age of Mythology
Developer/ Development Team: Ensemble Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Release Date: October 30 2002
Genre: Real-Time Strategy (RTS)
No. of Players: Single player campaign with up to 12 players in a multiplayer match
Where to buy it: On Steam or second-hand at your local EB or Gamestop store/s
M.S.R.P.: $19.99
ESRB Rating: Teen for Blood and Violence
An old relic from isometric view RTS games, Age of Mythology stands out as one of the stronger ones. Having good graphics for its time, an epic soundtrack and impressive voice acting for its campaign, it was definitely an RTS you could play for hours just on your own. It doesn't stop there either, Age of Mythology (or AoM for short) could feature up to 12 players either online or on a LAN connection, with a plethora of in-game maps to use. Developed by Ensemble Studios, the same people who brought us the often heralded Age of Empires (AoE) franchise, it's no surprise that these games function so similarly to each other. The game features three different races, as opposed to AoE's one or two dozen, the ancient Greek, Egyptian and Norse (a.k.a. Nord's or Vikings).
From an aesthetics stand point, the game looked impressive for it's time, with the trees and various other flora and fauna being incredibly detailed. AoM does feature a high detail and low detail mode that changes how the game looks, it's best to go on low when you're playing with huge numbers of people or you're on a machine with a CPU lower than an I5 or A6 chip. The weapons and amour sets of the various soldiers of each race match the time and the buildings of each race also match the era that they come from. The game uses an isometric overhead view of the world which, in most games would infuriate you, works here because you can turn on an option in the menu to allow you to turn the isometric around using the scroll wheel of your mouse. Since the game requires little CPU and GPU power, a modern baseline laptop can easily play the game at 30 fps.
The soundtrack and sound effects are amazing. The soundtrack changes depending upon the race you play, with the Greeks having a lot of string and brass instruments, the Egyptians having a lot of drums and the Norse just have a lot of aggressive sounding music. Just like AoE, the units will say different phrases when doing different actions. The baseline Infantry, Cavalry and Archers share a lot of the phrases of different races, but specific heroes like Odysseus or the Norse Hersir have unique voices and often have unique phrases as well. The voice acting through the campaign is superb, holding up incredibly well for an early 2000's game. The emotion really pulls through in the voice acting as well, immersing you even further into the world.
The gameplay is solid as far as RTS games go. It's mostly copy-paste of AoE since it's a direct spin-off so I won't go too much into the base stuff. Instead I'd like to focus on the major differences in how the two franchises operate. First off, Stone is gone as a resource. No more do you have to look for tiny stone veins across the lands to build your Fortress/ Migdol Stronghold/ Hill Fort. This also means that Walls no longer cost stone either, instead only requiring 3 x 1 in game metre (baseline) gold. New units were added in the forms of heroes and mythical beasts. Heroes do more damage to myth units and are generally good overall. Different races have different kind of units; the Greeks have one unit per age, the Egyptians have Priests, Pharaoh's and if you worship Osiris, the Son of Osiris, and the Norse have the Hersir.
Ancient Greek heroes are the strongest in the game (after the Son of Osiris) and can take on many soldiers or even myth units at once, hence why there is only one per age. The Egyptian Priests and Pharaoh are generally terrible to begin with, having awful range and attack, but this increases with each age you advance. The Norse Hersir is a hero version of their baseline infantry, the Ulfsark. They do slightly less damage but have better overall bulk, sporting better Health, Hack and Pierce armour. The other new units are the Myth units, which are trained from the new temples of each race. These myth units are based on the Mythology of the ancient civilizations, for e.g. the Minotaur from Ancient Greece, the Mountain and Frost Giants from Ancient Nordic culture, and the Petsuchos from Ancient Egypt. For the most part, they have special abilities. New abilities were brought in called 'God Powers' that work surprisingly well given the way the game functions. They're not entirely game breaking but can turn a loss into a win if you play your cards right. The game also features a tutorial mode as opposed to AoE which did not, and the tutorial mode is solid. It eases you into gameplay and teaches you what you need to know.
However, not all is well with the game. Just like AoE it suffers from having terrible in-game AI, being almost stagnant in multiplayer modes and making the campaign incredibly easy unless you're either new to RTS games or aren't playing the game on Hard or even Titan mode. The game is 1020p capable but not native, so if you play in windowed mode you may experience some frame rate issues. Speaking of, if you're playing on a mid-range PC against 9 other players or more, you're fps can tank to below 30 fps every now and then. The in-built maps can get old fast but thankfully you can find more maps online made by modders. Speaking of modders, you can get various mods to change how the game looks.
Overall the game is fantastic for its time and plays extremely well, on- and off-line. The story of the main campaign is solid, the overall voice acting holds up well, the new units balance the game extremely well and the loss of gold as a resource means less overall micro-management. I'd easily recommend the game in its current state and look forward to the release of the extended edition on Steam. An 8/10 overall.
Overall rating: 8/10 - A must buy for RTS fans, new and old alike.
No comments:
Post a Comment