No, seriously, this was a wonderful studio only rivaled in RTS status by Blizzard's Warcraft and Starcraft games (I was never a fan of Civilizations, and I really haven't had much exposure to Command and Conquer...but I may give them both a chance again soon), and they deserve much respect for such. While Halo Wars was their swan song though, Age of Mythology will be the one I will remember them for.
Age of Mythology Box Art
However, it wasn't my first exposure to the company or the series. No, I'd actually come across Age of Empires II first. This was a wonderful RTS, with a series of campaigns spanning the globe and ages. My favorite was the Atilla the Hun series and the William Wallace set, however, I'm getting off topic. From there, I got that games expansion, and it's prequel, Age of Empires, and it's expansion. I liked the series. A lot.
As such, I was anxiously awaiting the next game in the series. Age of Empires III was still a few years off, but I'd heard about this game being a sidestory, so I thought I'd pick it up in the mean time, and holy hell, this game was amazing. Just look at the trailer.
Starting off, the gameplay was much the same as the earlier games, and RTS, and there's not a lot to explain. However, some of it's unique components gave it something special. The first of these were favor points. While this has manifested as tech points or other types, this addition to the three basic elements of RTS (currency, food, materials) added a whole new element (I am aware that other games had done it before, and better after, but this is the one I like).
Additionally, hero characters, rather than being just given unique stats and situation abilities, they were given abilities above and beyond normal characters. For instance, Arkantos (the hero of the campaign) was given a major stat boost against other hero characters and could cause them to flee if hit hard enough. A subset of these, aid units, were special civilian classes that could force development to be faster; Pharaoh's were the most common of these.
Finally, god powers. Where do I begin with these? The ability to cause massive changes in the map landscape, unit/building destruction, and increased building/unit buffs was simply awesome. Depending on your starting God, you were given a set of choices of minor Gods to choose your secondary powers. This also effected your tech trees available.
There are three major gametypes. Random Map, a randomly generated game, based on your preferences at the start. Multiplayer, a standard RTS multiplayer experience, but the god powers added a definitive twist. And the aforementioned Campaign type. The last one will be the main focus of this review.
The campaign was obviously constructed to be a tutorial for the multiplayer in that it takes you through the three major mythologies (Norse, Greek, and Egyptian., and then has you playthrough each of the three gods in each. This is simply so it can teach you how to play the three classes, and let you decide how you like to play the game. For me, it's Hades->Athena->Apollo->Hephaestus in the Greek line or Thor->Forseti->Bragi->Tyr in the Norse.
However, even with that in mind, the team still built a compelling story about the Fall of Atlantis at the hands of the cyclops, Gargarensis. The game follows Arkantos, the hero of Atlantis, and a warrior at Troy, as he battles his way through Illiad-cycle and begins to realize that there is more happening.
Kamos, a fiend who has attacked his homeland before, reemerges near a gate of Tartarus. Arkantos and his allies, quickly fight to stop him, but even as they're sucessful, they learn that he's only a puppet of Gargarensis, who then traps them in hell.
Braving the shores of the river, Styx, the companions reach a shrine in hell to the three Greek gods. Arkantos learns their that he is not favored by the Atlantean god, Poseidon (who happens to be the father of the cyclopes, including Gargarensis). Instead, he is favored by Zeus, who saves them from the abyss, and they reemerge in Egypt. There, they meet up with Queen Amanra, and the Egyptian portion of the campaign begins.
The plot is then rinsed and repeated as the heroes fight against Kemsyt in Egypt, and finally come up against Gargarensis, himself, in the icy north. He escapes, leading to the final battle. The final battle is epic...think the first time you grabbed the fire flower, or collected all of the chaos emeralds, or put on the Fierce Deity Mask. The final battle gets awesome enough to keep up with those moments in gaming, however, I won't spoil it for you.
The fact that the campaign is fifty battles long, with each lasting anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours, this game easily gets up into the fifty hour range, and unlike other RTS's, it's all one epic long story. You should check it out if you like RTS games, I promise that you will like this one.
So, if you played it, let me know what you think about it. I've never gotten the chance to play the Titan's Expansion, so if you have, please tell me, and everyone else about it. Would love to hear what it adds.
-Sara
Edit: SamandtheSymbioteGamer discusses the expansion pack that I couldn't cover as a follow up to this one. There are spoilers for the first game as it acts like a sequel. You have been warned.
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