Age of Mythology

Estimated Release: September 2002

Welcome to 3D

Like Blizzard, Ensemble Studios has joined the 3D world with its latest RTS, Age of Mythology. Where the two companies differ, is in their approach. Age of Mythology maintains the same look and feel of its hit predecessors, Age of Empires and Age of Kings. Players still maintain an isometric view of the battlefield – only now, cut-scenes in the single player game will zoom in on the action, and then seamlessly zoom out to bring the player back into the game. You’ll also be able to rotate the map if you wish, a feature that is notably absent in Blizzard’s WarCraft III.

AoM features nine different civilizations, split evenly amongst three different mythological themes: Norse, Egyptian, and Greek. Like previous Ensemble games, each civ will have its own advantages, disadvantages, and bonuses, but the civs within each subculture share some specific attributes.

Hydras, giant beetles, oh my!

A Greek city

Norse Tornado in the bay

Norse

The Norse are nomadic, so they get advantages in that they have mobile gathering sites. Whereas other civs need to build granaries to collect from farms, and lumber sites to collect wood, the Norse have one, all encompassing cart that can be moved to collect any kind of resource. Is the treeline receding as you chop? Move the cart in closer to make gathering more efficient. Berry bushes depleted? Move the cart over to that gold patch and start mining. They’re also unique in that their military units can build structures, making it easier for them to lay siege to towns and build forward support.

Egyptians

The Egyptians have lots of different buildings compared to the other civs. This is because in order to gain favor from their gods, they need to build a number of monuments. They also have a unique pharaoh unit who acts as sort of a super-priest. You can only have one pharaoh at a time, but he’s always there – if he dies, he regenerates. His advantage is that he can bestow favor on any particular building, enhancing its ability. Stick him in a tower and it will attack more effectively. Put him on a barracks, and it will make soldiers faster. Stick him on a farm, and you can gather more food, more quickly.

Greeks

The Greeks are the more traditional of the three, making them the designated transition race for players who are too used to AOE or AOK.

Rolling hills

Egyptian town

Greek city with hero

God powers and age bonuses

Every time you move up an age in AOM, you get to choose one new god power and one age bonus for your civ, which is a change from previous Ensemble RTS games. This means you get four god powers total by the final age, but the catch is that you can only use each of them once. The god powers are extremely powerful – one of them is called Bolt, which, as the name suggests, is a lightning bolt called from the sky that can strike dead any one unit in the game. Since you can only use it once, it might not be wise to use it early on a siege unit that’s causing you trouble. Later in the game when your opponent comes at you with a dragon, you may wish you had it back. There’s another god power that causes rain to fall over the entire map, increasing the fruitfulness of your farms. The catch is that it has the same effect on your opponent’s farms. Obviously you’ll want to rush to get farms first before your opponent if you want to call down rain.

The age bonuses are unique in that they can customize your race’s bonuses on the fly, to keep you from being predictable. In previous Ensemble games like Age of Kings, you could always count on a Frankish opponent to go heavy on the cavalry. With Age of Mythology, you could pick a civ that has natural cav bonuses, then choose age bonuses that give benefits to infantry. This would allow you to change your strategy on the fly and surprise your opponent.

Heroes and mythological creatures

No mythological game is complete without heroes and monsters in the army! Choose from Minotaurs, Nemean Lions, Griffons, Cyclopes, and more. You’ll also be able to control heroes in the game like Jason (and his Argonauts) and more.