In a list of 1001 games you must play, you'd have expected some titles that were similar to others, and some that were sequels in exceptional series. You can't have 1001 unique titles, and that's why everything felt like a space shooter back in the 1970s and 1980s: all the games worth playing were space shooters.
Here we are in 2001, consoles are common, technology is increasing at a ridiculous pace, and developers can do things we've never seen before. Or they play it safe and give their new overlords guaranteed sales, like you might argue was the case for Age of Mythology.
I liked Age of Empires, and when Age of Empires II turned up on this 1001 list, I liked that too. I enjoyed it more, because of the game improvements and ye olde world setting. That there was an HD Edition worked wonders for it, too. Ultimately, though, it was more of the same.
So what's Age of Mythology? It's more of the same, but weirder.
Fun Times
I'm playing the Enhanced Edition of Age of Mythology, but I have no idea what the differences are between this 2014 release and the original 2001 release. I assume the graphics have been bumped up because this looks rather fancy, doesn't it?
A brief intro cues us into the changes this time around: getting in the good books of the various Gods and Goddesses across the varied ages and locales of the game, from Ancient Greece to Ancient Egypt.
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| He's... he's right there. |
The tutorial plays out like previous Age of titles, telling you how to walk, point your villagers to jobs that need doing, building structures and training soldiers... it's so samey that I don't know whether it was quicker than previous titles, or if I just know it all and zipped through it in no time.
Left-click to select stuff, right-click to send that stuff to do something, pick an icon to build it. You can work out whatever everything does with little effort, though I still haven't looked into keyboard shortcuts for anything. I'm sure I'll survive.
New to the tutorial - and the game at large - is the idea of worshipping a particular Deity of your choosing (from a limited selection at each age, admittedly), each with their own bonuses granted to you, in terms of new units, abilities and more.
This first choice, between Dionysus and Aphrodite, was a no-brainer. Of course I wanted some Centaurs.
Wait, what? If I worship hard enough, I get the ability to train Centaurs? Walking, fighting, half-man, more than half-horse Centaurs? That's what Age of Mythology brings to the series; strong mythical creatures who will follow your command. But that's not all...
As I sent my Centaur-supported squad down the path towards my pirate neighbours, I was informed about a Meteor-strike that I could deploy, if that's the best choice of words, to aid my troops. Might as well see what that does, right?
Holy Moly, that's how you end a tutorial.
Age of Mythology's campaign then kicks off with some barely engaging plot. Some guy moaning about Atlantis in the middle of a mustard gas attack, I don't know. It's voice acted, but I've no investment in this guy, whether he killed a Cyclops or not. Also, this Aphrodite doesn't look like the Aphrodite I was worshipping five minutes ago. Is that a bug?
A Kraken? Just like that? And we happen to be the one guy who is skilled at taking on the giant squid? We should try out the catapults as well, though, to be sure.
The seaside town of... here... is under attack from Kraken and Pirates, who slowly appear in waves, and seem to do so little damage as to be laughable. And then a wave of five ships and two or three Kraken emerged and caught me out of position, and I'd been an idiot and not bothered training newer, stronger troops with my many free resources, so I was left to defend the shores with only a handful of-
Where the hell were you guys hiding? Anyway, a couple more waves and the victory was ours.
Frustrations
Then the game started properly, where we went back to picking berries, chopping down trees, mining gold, building houses to house the new villagers, building barracks to train new troops, building homes to house those troops, building Temples to pick a God for some more bonuses... Ugh, it's too dull to even recall and put into words.
Age of Mythology, like the previous titles, can feel like it takes an age to get going. You've got to build your resources, you've got to spend them wisely, you've got to explore the landscape to find your objective, and then gather everybody together to deal with it, often by force.
It is exactly the same as Age of Empires, only with Centaurs and giant scorpions and God-given special events, and none of that wows me.
Final Word
After my run through a couple of introductory levels, I just didn't want to go through anything more. The setting I was in wasn't bad, but having spent close to a hundred hours in Assassins Creed Odyssey, spending another one in Ancient Greece didn't appeal, and nor does Ancient Egypt or whatever the other one was.
They are settings that are full of stories from which to pull content from, in terms of missions, events, and units, but they don't do it for me, and they aren't enough to make Age of Mythology any better than Age of Empires II.
This series is, as I've discovered thanks to this 1001 list, quite important to the RTS genre, and they're worth playing, definitely, but with so many Age of titles that are so similar, choosing one to play is probably down to personal preference now, rather than picking the 'best'. How would you define the 'best' of the bunch, anyway?
If you need to play an Age of game, go an play one. Any of them. Whatever takes your fancy, Mythology included. They're all solid games. Solid, samey games.
Fun Facts
Oh, yeah. Mythology uses a 3D engine. Even watching the camera moving in the cutscenes, it looked so similar to previous titles that I assumed they all had a 3D engine, but nope. That's another new thing. Enough to push it above the other games? Eh, probably not.
Age of Mythology, developed by Ensemble Studios, first released in 2001.
Version played: Age of Mythology Enhanced Edition, PC, 2014.