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	Age of Mythology
	Developer: Ensemble Studios Publisher: Microsoft Genre: Real-Time Strategy Players: 1-12 Similar To: Age of Empires, WarCraft III Rating: Teen Published: 12 :02 : 02 Reviewed By: Ryan Newman Overall: 8 = Excellent

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Intro
The long-awaited and much anticipated real-time strategy opus, Age of Mythology, has finally been released to hordes of hungry gamers. Yearning for the strategic combat of Age of Empires and the imagination of WarCraft III, AoM attempts to fill this void with a mixture of realism and mysticism that combine to make a game that is enthralling and entertaining, yet fails to capitalize on its tactical aspect.

Gameplay: 7.5/10
For fans of mythology, this is quite a treat. Sure, the name implies as much, but Ensemble really went out of their way by including heroes from Greek, Egyptian, and Norse cultures. Age of Mythology is broken up into three sections: Atlantians, Egyptians, and Norse. The game follows the Atlantian hero, Arkantos, as he meets up with heroes from his own realm and beyond. While he won't always be on the map, the game revolves around his ongoing struggle for Poseidon's favor against approaching evils. With a story-rich environment that's similar to WarCraft III, players will be asked to follow one hero and then hop into someone else's journey, instead of following one or two specific units per segment. While this does give the game a great sense of continuity, it can make the 36 levels drag on a bit.

Each race brings their own units to combat; Atlantians will have Hoplites and archers, Egyptians will consist of slingers and axe men, as the Norse will have mining dwarven fighters and axe throwers. All consist of the same basic units: melee fighters, long-range fighters, cavalry, siege units, and so on. The later units will be more diverse with war elephants, chariot archers, and giant warriors introducing variety into the basic combat units. Where the various soldiers and cultures really come into their own are with the hero and myth units. Trained by using raw resources and blessings received from the temples, these heroes and beasts are exceptionally skilled combatants who can wreak havoc on normal foot soldiers and turn the tide of battle. Main heroes can die, but in a nice design move, they will be resurrected once that ground is retaken, though myth units will perish once killed. This is really where the fun comes in as these units include monstrous hydras that grow new heads with every new enemy they eat, trolls that sling rocks, huge gold-laden bucking boars, and even resurrected Egyptian warriors that can leap huge distances and cut foes down with double blades.

The blessings that are required to get these special units are needed for all aspects of AoM. Everything from armor upgrades to siege weapons will need a little blessing from the gods. The gods aren't content to sit by and merely enhance ordinance though, as they will also intervene with their own powers. Whenever it's time to advance an age, two deities will appear to choose from, each offering their own brand of enhancements for soldiers, general improvements like mining faster, new powers, and also new myth and hero units. The powers spoken of are the devastating forces that will lead to the end of several conflicts. As deadly as they are, the developers made a wise decision to not make every power one that can wipe out half the map; instead, players can enhance the armor of their troops, raise deceased soldiers to fight as the undead, heal units, create tunnels that allow for soldiers to travel underground, and also health springs. This isn't to say that the gods won't show their force; there are a handful of powers that can devastate enemy forces with lightening bolts and comets.

With cutscenes before and after missions, the story is always progressing and is really well done. Instead of just lumping all of these mythical legends together, the heroes find their common enemies ganging together to unleash the evils of the underworld on the world of man and must contend with backstabbers and bickering humans to aid in their quest to seal the passages to hell. The game also has a bit of humor, and while it's rare, it is a nice touch. The missions themselves can drag on, though they do try to be innovative; one mission has the player leading soldiers that have been transformed into pigs to a temple to be reverted back to humans, and another involves gathering enough wood to build the Trojan horse. These breaks from the standard objectives of 'build a base and conquer the enemy' were welcome and I wish that there had been more.

My main complaint with Age of Mythology is in how it handles combat. Formations, for some odd reason, are on an entirely separate menu from the initial troop menu and they are incredibly sparse. The postures of aggressive, stand by, and defensive don't always work as the soldiers tend to be eager to fight regardless of what setting they are on. The missions tended to boil down to making mass armies and storming the enemy base, and this also what made the game drag on as there would be a clump of missions that were just setting up settlements and charging. I understand that working the stronger units - which can be unbalanced - into strategies against normal soldiers might've been a daunting task, but it would've made the game much more enjoyable. There is an auto-formation system that has the units walk in set patterns, but this wasn't always the desired choice. I would've also liked for it to have been easier to set which direction they were supposed to face, as archers facing the wrong direction aren't all that helpful.

Extremely polished and with an engrossing storyline, Age of Mythology succeeds on almost all levels, but the limited involvement of the player in combat hampered my enjoyment of it. It's still a solid product with a ton of levels and intriguing units, but it just didn't grab me for long stretches of time.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are gorgeous all-around, from level themes to character design. Units animate incredibly well and look phenomenal. The god powers and weather effects were additional eye candy and went well with the detailed buildings and extra touches of sandstorms and birds getting spooked into flight. The textures aren't quite as good as those found in WarCraft III, though. From the lush environments to the lively units, Age of Mythology is a beauty.

Sound: 9.5/10
I really enjoyed both the soundtrack and voice-overs. The music was a mixture of fantasy and small bits influenced by the different cultures. Their variety and high production values made them all worth listening to and they were of exceptional quality. The voice-overs were also extremely well done, with the voices fitting their digital counterparts very well. It was a solid job through-and-through.

Control: 7.5/10
As stated, the slim selection of formations and the units' tendency to disregard combat stance orders was disappointing. I also found problems with the cursor not switching to the attack icon when over enemy buildings, so clicking on it would either send the unit there to do nothing, or nothing would happen at all. There was also a tendency for the town hall bell to revert back to being un-rung after I would ring it for the villagers to seek shelter; this tended to happen in the later missions, where the villagers would wander about and only go inside on the second ring. Everything else was pretty standard fare, though the separation of menus for the combat characters was an odd choice.

Overall: 8/10
With the departure of Rick Goodman and an absence from the public eye, I had my doubts about the next Ensemble release. Well, Age of Mythology rectifies any doubts I had, with an epic title that spans three races, continents, and dozens of levels. I just wish more control had been given to the player during combat and that some of the smaller issues had been worked out beforehand.

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