Magical world of heroes is gift from gods
For those used to playing the historical Age of Empires series, it takes some adjustment to play in a magical world of ancient mythology. It feels like one is participating in a fantasy film where fire giants, Minotaurs, sphinxes, dragons and mythological figures come alive.
The battle scenes are amazing. In one battle, my Greek cavalry and Minotaurs, supported at the back by bow-wielding Centaurs, engaged my ancient Egyptian enemy. I was dispatching the enemy forces to Hades when their reinforcements arrived in the form of Jackal-headed Anubites that leaped over my Minotaurs to attack my Centaurs. Unfortunately, my reinforcements did not arrive in time.
Age of Mythology is the latest real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios and pits three ancient civilisations - the Egyptian, Norse and Greek - against each other.
Each civilisation can create regular armies of infantry and cavalry, but these can be spiced up with heroes and mythological figures by garnering 'Favour'.
Egyptian Favour is collected when monuments are built that please the ancient Egyptian gods. Their mythological units include Mummies, Scarabs and Scorpion Men.
The Norse are aggressive by nature and collect Favour by fighting. Their heroes are the weakest but there is no limit to how many they can create. Wolves, giants and Valkyrie are some of their mythical units.
The ancient Greeks have the most powerful heroes, with familiar names such as Jason and Hercules, but only four of these 'superheroes' can be created. My favourite ancient Greek warrior is the Hydra. It looked like a dopey dinosaur at first but as it gained combat experience it started to grow more heads. Very cool.
The three major gods that represent the Greek civilisation are Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. The Norse have Odin, Thor and Loki and the ancient Egyptians have Ra, Set and Isis. During the game you choose three more minor gods to worship. Being able to choose your gods gives the game fantastic replay value, and varies the strengths and weaknesses of your civilisation.
What can the gods do? Some acts of divine intervention are battle orientated, such as meteor showers and locust swarms, but beneficial acts are also possible, such as making rain. Each of the minor gods also gives you the power of divine intervention but only once per game, so timing is important.
The simple paper, rock, scissors model of combat from Age of Empires still exists, but once the hero and mythological units enter the fray, complications ensue. Heroes play a strong strategic role in the game. When mythological units such as Cyclopses or Mountain Giants come knocking, it is time to send out the heroes.
Multiplayer is seriously challenging on the Internet with many veterans of Age of Empires having migrated to this new three-dimensional game.
The campaign gets high marks for excellent scenes and amusing dialogue. It is a strong campaign with good continuity as each civilisation is smoothly introduced.
The movement artificial intelligence needs some work. During combat, many of my units ran around the back of the fight, jostling for position, but not really participating. This means that the game favours ranged units that can stand from afar and unleash hell.
A big disappointment was the lack of tables in the documentation to show the relative strength and purpose of each unit, unlike the more complete documentation of games from the Age of Empires.
Age of Mythology gets top marks for fluid 3D graphics, impressive creativity and great replay value. I will be playing this for ages to come.
