Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology is a 2002 real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A spin-off of the Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology takes some of its inspiration from mythology and legends of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse, rather than from actual historical events. Many gameplay elements are similar to the Age of Empires series, while mythological creatures and supernatural powers move it beyond the realm of realism. Its campaign follows an Atlantean admiral, Arkantos, who is forced to travel through the lands of the game's three cultures, hunting for a cyclops who is in league with Poseidon against Atlantis.
Age of Mythology was commercially successful, going platinum four months after its release after selling over one million units. In 2003, it was followed by an expansion pack, Age of Mythology: The Titans. A board game adaptation, titled Age of Mythology: The Boardgame, was released in 2003 by Eagle Games. On May 8, 2014, Age of Mythology: Extended Edition was released for Windows via Steam. This was followed by a second expansion pack, Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon, released on January 28, 2016. On September 4, 2024, a remaster, Age of Mythology: Retold, was released.
Gameplay
Like many other real-time strategy games, Age of Mythology is based on defeating enemy units and towns, building your own units and towns, and training villagers and fighters. In this way, players are able to defeat and conquer rival towns and civilizations. Players advance their tribe through four "Ages": starting in the Archaic Age, the player may upgrade to the Classical Age, the Heroic Age, and finally, the Mythic Age. Each upgrade to a higher Age unlocks new units and technologies for the player, which strengthens their settlement. However, upgrading requires a sum of resources to be paid and a certain prerequisite building to be constructed.There are three playable cultures in Age of Mythology: the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse. Each culture has three "major gods"—important deities such as Zeus, Ra, or Odin. The player chooses their major god before the game begins. Every time a player advances to the next age, a "minor god" is selected. Minor gods are slightly less significant historically than their major counterparts. Some minor gods include Bast and Aphrodite. All gods grant the player unique technologies, myth units, and a unique "god power"—A one-time special ability that can either damage an opponent, or benefit the player that uses it.
There are four major resources in Age of Mythology: food, wood, gold, and favor; unlike previous games by Ensemble Studios, this game does not include the stone resource. Resources can be used to train units, construct buildings, and research technologies, among other things. Civilian units—namely, the Greek villagers, the Norse gatherers and dwarfs, the Egyptian laborers, and fishing boats—are used to gather resources. Hunting animals, gathering berries, harvesting livestock, farming, and fishing are all methods by which food can be gathered. Wood is gathered only by chopping down trees, and gold is gathered from either gold mines or from trade. Players can purchase upgrades that increase the rate of gathering these resources. Favor is acquired in different ways by different cultures: Greek players gain it by having villagers pray at temples; Egyptian players earn it by building monuments; and Norse players receive it by fighting/hunting animals or by possessing heroes. Resources can be exchanged at a player's market, with the exception of favor.
Units
Every unit in the game takes up between one and five "population slots". Building additional houses or Town Centers—the main building in a player's town—increases the population capacity, up to a maximum of 300.Units can be classified into seven categories; infantry, archers, cavalry—the three of which are broadly classified as human units—siege units, naval units, heroes, and myth units.
The rock-paper-scissors model governs most units in battle. For example, infantry does additional damage to cavalry, cavalry does additional damage to archers, and archers do additional damage to infantry. The same rock-paper-scissors formation exists in the three different types of naval units—arrow ships, siege ships, and hammer ships. Siege units are generally exempt from the rock-paper-scissors model but are instead able to destroy buildings easily while being vulnerable to cavalry attacks. Heroes are extremely effective against myth units, which in turn do large amounts of damage against human units. Heroes are also able to collect relics, which grant the player additional economic or military bonuses when deposited in a player's temple. Most units can be upgraded, making them better at certain tasks.
Buildings
Buildings in Age of Mythology can generally be split into three categories: economic, military, and defensive. The most important economic building is the Town Center, which is similar to the building of the same name in the Age of Empires series games. Most civilian units are trained at the Town Center, as are some improvements. Most importantly, players advance Age via the building. The Town Center provides 15 population slots, and building additional houses will earn the player 10 additional slots per house. In the Heroic Age, players may claim settlements for additional population slots. In some cases owning all town centres will trigger a countdown to victory. Other economic buildings include the farm and market.Buildings are able to research improvements, as well as provide resources for the player. All units except civilians and myth units are trained at military buildings. These buildings differ in name and purpose between culture, but all are able to train similar units. Military buildings are also used to research military specific technologies, such as armor upgrades, and attack improvements.
Walls and towers are defensive structures, which are not able to train units, and are used only for the purposes of defense. They are able to research some upgrades, although these are generally only useful to the building performing the research. Another type of building available to players is a Wonder: a grand building that represents an architectural achievement of the civilization. In certain game modes, once a player builds a wonder, a ten-minute countdown begins. If the wonder is still standing after the countdown ends, the player who built the wonder wins.
Scenario editor
The Age of Mythology editor is far more advanced than that of its predecessor, the Age of Empires II scenario editor. In addition to standard unit placement facilities, the editor allows units to be overlapped, and it facilitates for large mountains, and steep terrain. Triggers, a popular aspect of scenario design in Age of Empires II, are also present in Age of Mythology's editor, as well as cinematics and other special effects.Campaign
Unlike the campaign modes in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology only has one central campaign, Fall of the Trident. The campaign is significantly longer than campaigns in previous games, with a total of 32 scenarios.Multiplayer
Age of Mythology included unlimited free multiplayer accounts on ESO., it is no longer possible to create new accounts but access to already created ones is still possible. Similar in function to Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net, ESO allows players to play matches, as well as chat with other players.In multiplayer games, there are seven different game types available, all of which are provided as standard with the game: Supremacy—the standard game mode—includes randomly generated map and all gameplay aspects; Conquest is similar to Supremacy, but victory is only possible by defeating all other players; in Deathmatch players begin the game with high resources, but the game is otherwise the same as Supremacy; in Lightning, the gameplay is identical to Supremacy, but the game plays at twice the normal speed; in Nomad mode, players start with one civilian unit, and no Town Center, and must build up on a settlement; the goal of King of the Hill is to control a monument in the center of the map for a set period of time; and in Sudden Death, a player loses if their Town Center is destroyed, and they fail to rebuild it within a set period of time.
Multiplayer tournaments and LAN parties are popular throughout the world, with many players visiting computer gaming lounges to participate.
Campaign synopsis
Atlantean admiral and war hero Arkantos finds himself leaving his home of Atlantis and his son Kastor, in order to pursue the minotaur Kamos, who raids his homeland to steal a trident from a statue of Poseidon. Whilst Kamos manages to escape, Arkantos recovers the trident and returns it home, before proceeding on the instructions of the Atlantean council to assist the Greek king Agamemnon in the Trojan War. Aided by the heroes Ajax and Odysseus, his Atlantean forces eventually win the war against Troy through the use of a Trojan Horse. Leaving Troy, Ajax accompanies Arkantos to Ioklos as he seek assistance in repairing his ships, only to find the city occupied and its people enslaved by an army led by Gargarensis, a cyclops warlord, and Kemsyt, an Egyptian priest.Rescuing the city's guardian, the centaur Chiron, the pair are led by him to a dig site which the enslaved citizens are working at. Finding the site hides an entrance to the underworld of Erebus, the group venture below and discover Gargarensis attempting to break open a large metal door. Believing this must not happen, the group use their forces to destroy the ram, prompting the cyclops to entrap them within Erebus. After searching the underworld for another way out, Arkantos comes across a series of temples dedicated to Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades. When he finds his prayers to Poseidon unanswered, Chiron suggests to him to pray for Zeus' blessing, which leads to the Greek god showing favor by providing the group with a route to the surface.
Travelling out of Erebus, the group find themselves in the deserts of Egypt, where they befriend Amanra, a Nubian leader seeking to revive Osiris following his death at the hands of Set. The group learn Kemsyt seeks to prevent this, and so work with Amanra to find the pieces of Osiris' body scattered across Egypt. During their search for the first piece, Arkantos is visited by the goddess Athena in his dreams, who reveals that the incident in Erebus was being influenced by Kronos, one of the Titans who ruled over Earth until Zeus imprisoned them. Seeking his freedom, Kronos is influencing Poseidon and Gargarensis to find the Tarturus gates, adamantine doors that seal the Titans' in their prison and break them open, in exchange for granting them what they most desire. Athena pleads with Arkantos to stop this from happening, as Zeus cannot involve himself without starting a war amongst the gods.
After securing the first piece, Arkantos learns from an Egyptian pharaoh that Osiris' pyramid guards another Tarturus gate, prompting him and his allies to split up and find the remaining pieces. Each successfully recover the missing pieces, with Arkantos confronting and killing Kamos for aiding Gargarensis. Managing to restore Osiris, the Egyptian god thwarts Gargarensis' plan by sealing access to the gate under his pyramid, and forcing him and Kemsyt to flee Egypt. Following their escape, Chiron reveals to the others that he encountered Norsemen from the Norselands during their search, who reveals the cyclops' army are seeking to invoke Ragnarok in their homeland, leading Arkantos to lead their forces north.
Arriving in the frozen Norselands, Arkantos and his friends encounter Brokk and Eitri, two dwarven brothers, who they help with reclaiming a dwarven forge in exchange for a safe route to Midgard. Proceeding deeper into the Norselands, the group are tricked by Loki, who they learn is aiding Gargarensis. Aided by the valkyrie Reginleif, who sent the Norsemen to Egypt, they eventually find the next Tartarus gate within the Norse underworld Niflheim, whereupon Chiron sacrifices himself to stop a horde of fire giants pursuing his friends. Needing to prevent the gate from being opened by another battering ram, Arkantos is surprised when Brokk and Eitri turn up with pieces of Thor's hammer, which Loki had attempted to destroy. Reforging it anew, the group witness Thor reclaim it and use its power to seal the gate.
Pursuing Gargarensis to the surface, Arkantos receives fresh reinforcements from Odysseus, allowing their forces to capture the cyclops, with Ajax beheading him. As the heroes return to Atlantis, they become shocked when they find Loki had deceived them, after finding Kemsyt's head in the place of Gargarensis. Arkantos realizes that the cyclops is heading for Atlantis, which houses one final Tarturus gate, and fears for the worst. Upon arriving on Atlantis' shores, the group discover the main city occupied and fortified, with Poseidon having possessed a colossal statue to guard it. Fighting to retake the city, Arkantos discovers Poseidon and Gargarensis are too powerful, and so orders a wonder to Zeus to be built in order to beseech the god's help.
In response to his actions, Zeus gives Arkantos god-like powers to tackle Poseidon, while the others, led by Kastor, evacuate the Atlanteans from the city. With his new powers, Arkantos sacrifices himself to destroys the statue, causing it to kill Gargarensis in its destruction, whilst also plunging Atlantis beneath the ocean to ensure the gate beneath it is sealed forever. Whilst Kastor and the others mourn his loss, Athena revives him, rewarding his heroism by elevating Arkantos as a new god.