All images are edited from screenshots I took during my personal gameplay, or were taken from livestream on twitch from the game Age of Mythology Extended Edition
Age of Mythology Extended: A Timeless RTS Revived
And no it's not Age of Empires! Greetings folks and welcome to another video game review. This week we are taking a look at one of my favorite RTS games of all time: Age of Mythology. An RTS game that presents tactical real time strategy that sports mythological units across various mythologies and incredibly tactical and succinct gameplay, this is without a doubt one of the best RTS games I've ever played (I have played many) and we'll get into why a bit farther below.
Gameplay: Obliterate other Cultures with Force
Economy first: In this game as with most RTS games you need to set gatherers to gather things (like wood and food) to get upgrades and additional units etc. Typically in this game in particular it means getting a bunch of villagers gathering resources and getting to the classical age to build military units as fast as you can.
Settlements: A population race
In this game settlments are important to grow your population and are scattered (somewhat) randomly about the map. You can only expand you population so far with just houses, so these become key to a miltary dominance victory.
Troop types: Active counters
Like with most RTS games there are active counters to troop types, and unlike with the original AoM extended edition actually offers options to all pantheons (Norse didn't used to get archers etc etc).
End game: there's even avengers
Pun aside, these matches are not meant to be drawn own or long and typically can end very fast. There are also additional mechanics that help "end the game" once it has reached the stage where one overtly dominant civilization is trying to take out some stragglers (sometimes the stragglers come back but the game is designed to not allow for "trolling" by being the cockroach that won't go down).
You can only build a titan gate to summon a titan ONE time, if they destroy it or build theirs first it is OVER! Wonders can be built at whichever stage to initiate a timer to win the time in 10 minutes if it survives. Matches tend to last 15 minutes to an hour, more often being on the short side than the outlier hour long match. The game is weighted around having an active military or actively defending until you can push to end the game or you depend until your wonder lasts until victory. This allows for various methods of play, but all of them tend to end rather fast regardless due to the game's pacing. There are a lot of builds and strategy to this title since the extended release, I've been truly impressed revisiting it.
Look and Feel: Not so timeless graphics
The graphics (while improved from when it originally came out) are nothing ultra aesthetic to look at. But this is an RTS, in depth graphics aren't the most important and what graphics are there are nice at displaying what is meant to be displayed in a fun setting. The graphics while less than pretty do not effect the gameplay.
The setting/campaign: Where it shines
The setting and maps are well made and the random generation on the random maps is well thought out with interesting "brigands and exploratory hazards". The game also supports modding and your own maps, what's not to love.
Is this game different from Age of Mythology? Better?
Yes, and yes. This game is actually just better than the original Age of Mythology from days of old, they added aditional units to fill out some patheons so they couldn't be cheesed easily with irritating builds (norse not dealing with flying effectively or having ranged siege options etc etc.) to create a balance online experience. This only somewhat effects the campaign as different units are able to be built compared to previous (not a huge deal, just new units nothing got removed). The day night cycle is a fun setting that actually effects the line of sight of your units that was previously unavailable, and you can also play as gods from Chinese mythology (these gods appear to be strong but hard to compete with online). When I played AoM ages ago the online scene was nonexistent and the meta was warped and busted around a few gods. It is now the case that all of the pantheons feel strong and matchmaking is a varied experience. It's better than how you remember visually aswell, even though it's still not the greatest.
Achievements and personal milestones: To 100
The achievements in this game all seem achievable, a lot of them just seem moreso like endurance achievements where you have to play 1000 online matches etc. I'm already done with 54 percent of them just playing quick matches against folks and with friends. I haven't even started with the campaign or anything either (saving that for the very end as this can be done even if there is no online playerbase on retold's release). Since this is a game I have fun playing anyway, eventually playing 1000 online matches before the sequel/in depth remaster is finished (right now it's just being teased at) doesn't seem that crazy. I look forward to slotting this in the 100 percent achieved shelf eventually, it'll get there.
TLDR: How Many Stars Damn it?
This game is an RTS, if you aren't a fan of the genre the most that can be gotten from this is about 10 hours of story that is probably worth the go through. If you are not a fan of the genre the vs gameplay will likely be you cup of tea. That's why I have the review set at 6.5 out of 10 if you aren't a fan of the genre and an 8.5 if you are a fan of the genre (hell maybe even a 9). 100 percent worth picking up if there is ever a steam sale, even worth considering at full price. It isn't SC2 or Age of Empires 2, but it isn't meant to be and is still a very fun time. Active userbase maintains online play count in quickmatch and online lobbies, plus endlessly replayable single player scenarios and random gen maps. These players are likely to switch over to "Age of Mythology Retold" when it launches at a later date (to be teased by microsoft later) so this aspect of the review is likely to not be a point that will be maintained forever. The matches are short and sweet for an RTS, which is uncommon in the genre. Definitely worth picking up before retold is launched, afterwards I would recommend picking up Retold to be where the playerbase is. Cheers, thanks for reading everyone you all rock! Thanks for the continued support.
