Average Rating: 
Rating:  - It was a long wait, but not in vain!
As a long time fan of the Age of Empires series I sure have impatiently waited for this one. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the alpha testers a few months ago, and those few weeks of testing the game left me stunned and amazed.Age of Mythology has it all, and so much more than has been seen before. Now you have true 3D graphics in a brand new engine. You are going to love the way the waves hit the beach, the different seasons, night and day, fire and smoke etc. And your viewpoint is completely flexible and controlable. You have the choice between 3 different races, that all play completely different. I said COMPLETELY different. Within those you have loads of choices to finetune your race to your playing style and or to meet the playing styles of your opponents. All done by choosing between 3 major gods within each race, and then a combination of 3 other subgods under your major god. Each have different bonusses and skills... All of these races are chokeful of weird and wonderful units, consisting of ordinary units, heroes and mythological creatures with supernatural powers. You gotta see the powerhouses called Fire Giants of the Norse race, or the leaping and snarling Anubites of the Egyptians or the man-hurling Cyclops of the Greeks. And the list goes on. Each have unique skills, whether he is a lowly footsoldier or a fearsome monster. The combinations and possibilities are simply endless! God powers. Totally awesome! Makes you wish for that opponent camera option, when you litterally shower his towncenter and fortresses with meteors. Visually it is SO incredibly stunning! Or giving him a good earthquake, or how about teleporting your army straight into his city through a supernatural underground passage, or how about turning his army into swine (which you can hunt for food later ;-) ) and the list goes on. Each combination of major god and subgods will give you a unique combination of 4 god powers which you unfortunately only can use once... Everything is neatly balanced. All in all Age of Mythology is worth the long wait as it will guarantee you an epic strategy experience!
Rating:  - Step-by-step analysis on Age of Mythology: hope this helps
This game is fun, but it does not offer anything new compared to the old Age of Empires series. I've played all four of the Age of Empires titles, and this game offers nothing very new. In fact, it has regresses in certain areas.Graphics- unbeatable, they are in stunning 3D and are near-perfect. No complaints here. Sound- This is one of my major gripes. While the battle sounds are decent, the music is ismply abhorrable. Listen to the original, epic AOE music, and then listen to this .... You will see how much the Ensemble Studios music department has regressed since 1997. It is pathetic- the music is random bits of notes strung together into something that can barely even be called a soundtrack. And the opening musical theme- I don't know how to express my dismay about it. The composers were proud at being able to use a "real orchestra" to create this "music" but that didn't help. Gameplay- It gets a B+, because while the exotic myth units and "god powers" are fun, you will have to think to much about balancing the units and creating counter-units to the enemy's units, and making sure that cavalry don't come up against infantry, and infantry don't fall under the fire of archers, and archers avoid cavalry, and human units avoid myth units but still attack heroes, and myth units about heroes but deliberately try to attack human units, and heroes stay away from human units and focus on myth units... you get the idea. Playability (how addictive and fun is this game?)- The single-player campaign is VERY good, and it is well written and will give you hours, if not days, of fun. As for multiplayer, Ensemble Studios has set up an elaborate (albeit cumbersome and confusing) system where you can find opponents who are equal to you in skill. This allows you both to improve, and prevents you from unknowingly being crushed by experts. There is also a rating system so that you will know how you rank, in skill, compared to all of the other players in the world. The multiplayer connection also allows you to download free "patches" that fix bugs and errors in the game. Overall, this game is good, but not anywhere near perfect. The gameplay is a virtual clone of the original Age of Empires games, there is barely any sense of "newness" in AOM. The sound is pathetic, and personally I think they ought to fire the Ensemble Studios music department, or at least make them churn out better music. The gameplay is too complicated for a casual gamer to embrace quickly, but it is rather addicting (which is usually a good sign in a game). This game is, overall, nothing new or great; the designers had over 1.5 years to work on this title, and yet it still has its vital flaws, and that is why I give Age of Mythology a 3/5.
Rating: - Thanks to this game, I now actually like RTS!
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.
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