AGE OF MYTHOLOGY

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Ensemble Studios

Publisher : Microsoft Game Studios

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Real-Time Strategy

Release Date : November 1 , 2002

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 98 / Windows 2000

CPU : Intel Pentium 3 Processor / AMD Athlon XP 1600+

Memory (RAM) : 128 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 8.1 Compatible Video Card with Memory 16 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 1.5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Featuring lots of interesting, inventive design decisions, plenty of fun-to-use units, and tons of variety, Age of Mythology is the last real-time strategy game you'll need for a long time. Age of Mythology essentially combines these two philosophies by offering you the chance to control one of three radically different civilizations--the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Norse--as well as three different subsets of each one, based on these respective cultures' major deities. There's variation even within each subfaction--during the course of a match, you'll get to ally yourself with a number of different minor deities, each of which confers its own unique benefits on your civilization. And not only does allegiance with any of the game's deities give you special bonuses, but you also get a one-time-use miracle, a unique mythological unit of some sort, special technology, and more. The option to choose from three civilizations, nine major gods, and 27 minor gods adds up to a huge amount of variety. You need ample supplies of food to build new units and advance from one stage of civilization to the next, and food is once again obtained from hunting, gathering, farming, or fishing. You need gold to research new technologies and construct military units and structures, and gold is mined from clearly visible deposits you'll find scattered about each map. You'll also need to chop plenty of lumber. Favor represents the powers of your civilizations' gods and is used for summoning your civilization's powerful mythological units, as well as gaining some divine technological bonuses.

Civilizations each gain favor differently. Greek villagers can be ordered to pray at a temple, which gradually increases favor. Egyptian workers can construct monuments to their gods--four different, successively larger ones--that generate favor. And the Norse earn favor by waging war. Civilizations also each have different types of hero units available, which specialize in defeating mythological units. The Greeks have a handful of legendary heroes such as Odysseus, Jason, and Heracles. The Egyptians have priests and a pharaoh, a powerful leader that can be used to speed construction of buildings, increase production, or serve as guardian of his people. The Norse can produce innumerable helsirs, mighty warriors that are most favored by the gods. Greeks can generate favor pretty easily, but cannot have as many heroes in the field as the Norse. Meanwhile, the Norse can have plenty of heroes in the field, perfect for dealing with the Greeks' large mythological armies, but cannot earn favor as readily as the Greeks or Egyptians can. Furthermore, the different civilizations gather and use resources differently. The Egyptians don't build structures as quickly, but do not use wood for making them. The Norse use their burly infantry for construction, while their worker units are used only for gathering resources. The Norse also use oxcarts as mobile drop-off points for resources, rather than the stationary structures of the other civilizations. Besides having different resources to manage, and myth units and hero units to summon, you also have a wide variety of conventional forces at your disposal, including various foot soldiers, cavalry, archers, siege engines, ships, and more. Some of these are specialized to be exclusively well suited against certain other types of units, and all can be upgraded. While myth units can often make short work of conventional forces--units like the cyclops and the minotaur can slay most human soldiers in a single blow--you absolutely need to balance your myth units with your standard armies. For one thing, myth units can't be produced as readily as conventional forces can. For another, conventional soldiers are well suited for overwhelming enemy hero characters, which, as mentioned, are the biggest threat to your myth units.

Actually, one issue with Age of Mythology is that most of the units in the game appear very small, and hero units in particular--though they're distinguished with a slight glow--can be tough to pick out of the fray. Hotkeys are available for quickly cycling through all hero units, though, as well as for locating any idle villagers. Age of Mythology visually represents your unit groupings with onscreen banners that indicate the makeup of that group--you'll be able to quickly distinguish your cavalry group from your siege engine group, for example. Age of Mythology includes a linear, story-driven single-player campaign spanning three dozen missions, which let you control Greek, Egyptian, and Norse forces as you progress. Some decent-looking cutscenes using the game's 3D engine are used to drive the story along, which concerns an Atlantean hero and his legendary journeys on land, sea, and beyond. The mission variety in the campaign is good, and four different difficulty settings ensure that just about anyone should find a suitable challenge from the computer opponent. The campaign also does a fine job of introducing you to most all of the game's units and concepts contextually, or it'll at least give you some opportunity to play around with most of the units, technologies, and structures to get a sense of how everything works. Age of Mythology also sounds terrific. It has a stirring musical score that's distinctly different for each of the civilizations, and unit voices are done in the three cultures' native languages. The campaign's cutscenes are in English, but its voice-over is still very good, giving you a strong sense of the different characters' personalities even when the rapid-fire missions don't leave much room for development. Of course, what's most important is that Age of Mythology plays remarkably well. Featuring lots of interesting, inventive design decisions, plenty of fun-to-use units, and tons of variety, Age of Mythology is the last real-time strategy game you'll need for a long time.

GAME REVIEW :-

9/10

Age Of Mythology Trailer :-