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Age of Mythology

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Age of Mythology (sometimes abbreviated AoM, also known as Age of Myths) is a real-time strategy computer game by Ensemble Studios. It was first published in November 2002 by Microsoft Game Studios. Although being a spin-off of Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology has less of a focus on historical accuracy. Instead, the game centers on the myths and legends of the Ancient Greeks, the Ancient Egyptians, and the Norse of Scandinavia, allowing players not to control only the historical aspects of these three great civilizations (such as Hoplites, Pharaohs, and Longboats, respectively) but also mythological creatures such as Minotaurs, Centaurs, Phoenixes, and Valkyries in order to defeat opponents.

Age of Mythology is different from other Ensemble Studios games, because it takes place in a Pantheistic solipsistic universe, and it contains one large, fictional story which encompasses all the civilizations and scenarios, and which follows the exploits of a band of heroes, rather than the historical progress of various nations or cultures.

Contents

Campaign: The Fall of the Trident

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story starts off with the Atlantean hero, Arkantos, discussing with the Theocrat how they are losing Poseidon's favor. Pirates then start attacking Atlantis, whom Arkantos (the player) successfully drives off. (this also functions as the learning scenario.) However, as the pirates were fleeing, their leader, Kamos the minotaur, stole the trident from a Poseidon statue. Arkantos follows Kamos, gets the trident back, and unsuccessfully tries to kill Kamos, who flees on a Leviathan. He then proceeds to Greece where he fights in the Trojan War alongside the Greek heroes Ajax, Odysseus, and Agamemnon. Arkantos first destroys the ports of Troy, allowing Agamemnon's army to land. He then destroys the Trojan Gate and waits for Ajax's army to arrive and finish off the city. He learns from a messenger that Ajax is surrounded by Trojans; Arkantos goes to help him. After Arkantos rescues Ajax he destroys Troy's forward military base. Finding that Troy's gates are repaired again, Arkantos and Odysseus think of the Trojan Horse to help win the war. He has his villagers construct it and then he, Ajax, and Arkantos enter it to sneak into Troy. They destroy the Trojan Gate from the inside, which allows Agamemnon’s army to enter. Together they obliterate the city.

After winning the war, Arkantos and Ajax sail to Ioklos to mend their ships, but end up rescuing the centaur Chiron from bandits who had taken over the city. Chiron tells them that the bandits had invaded Ioklos and taken all the men with them to their stronghold, which the three heroes raid. There they discover the Cyclops Gargarensis, who is the story's main antagonist, using the men to dig a passage into the Underworld. Gargarensis enters into the passage (using meteors to kill most of Arkantos's men), and the heroes follow him. They later prevent him from opening a strange gate in Tartarus.

In anger, Gargarensis traps the heroes in Tartarus. However, the heroes soon escape the underworld with the help of shades (robed living dead inhabitants of the Underworld) and Zeus, only to surface in Egypt. There, they help the Nubian warrior-woman Amanra dig up an ancient sword that is said to bring a statue, that serves the person who brings the sword to it, to life. The heroes bring the sword to the statue, which becomes animated. The statue, named the Guardian, destroys the rampaging army of Kemsyt, a common enemy and ally of Gargarensis who was in charge of the Ioklos bandits.

The protagonists then begin to assemble the pieces of the body of the Egyptian god Osiris, in order to bring him back to life and prevent Gargarensis from opening a similar underworld gate in Egypt. Amanra captures a piece of Osiris from Kemsyt, who flees on a Roc. Chiron gets the head of Osiris from a huge tamarisk tree with the help of a group of Norsemen who have tracked Gargarensis from the damage he did in their homeland. Arkantos and Ajax get a piece of Osiris from Kamos, whom Arkantos kills. Athena visits Arkantos in a dream to inform him that behind the gates is the imprisoned Titan Kronos, who has promised Gargarensis immortality in exchange for setting him free to conquer the world. According to her, the adamantine doors that seal Kronos in Tartarus can only be opened by a mortal. For this reason, Kronos uses Gargarensis to try to destroy the doors. In his dream, Arkantos destroys a "strangely familiar city," which turns out to be Atlantis. After this, Arkantos wakes up. The heroes bring all the pieces of Osiris in front of a pyramid dedicated to Osiris. Osiris is reborn and he crushes Gargarensis' forces before they open the Gate, forcing Gargarensis to the Norselands to open another gate there.

A screenshot of Age of Mythology
Enlarge
A screenshot of Age of Mythology

While the heroes are traveling to the Norselands in pursuit of Gargarensis, they see Odysseus' ship, which is now a wreck on the shore of an island. The protagonists land on the shore and see strangely-acting pigs. While the heroes look on, the sorceress Circe turns Arkantos and Ajax into boars. Arkantos and Ajax, now boars, bring the pigs and themselves to a temple of Zeus, where they get changed back into humans. Odysseus, who was alive, thanks them and the heroes continue their journey to the Norselands, arrive, and get caught in an avalanche, which was a trap Gargarensis set for them. They fight their way out of the pass they are caught in and help two dwarves, Eitri and Brokk, reclaim their forge that was captured by giants. The heroes then journey to Midgard, where they meet Skult, who says his flag can unite the warring Norse tribes. He offers to help them if they can get him safely through the giant lands. They accept the offer, and at one point, their path is blocked by a boulder wall. The heroes manage to break through just before giants close in on them. The heroes escape and hardly any distance later, their path is blocked again, this time by an impassable forest. They are only saved when Odin sets the forest on fire, causing the trees to fall and allowing them to flee. To the heroes' confusion the tribes start attacking them when they see Skult's flag. They discover Skult, who disappears, was a servant of Loki and Gargarensis. With the help of the valkyrie Reginleif they unite the Norse tribes by undertaking a series of quests for them. For the first chieftain, they rescue some dwarves that were captured by trolls. For the second chieftain, they help defend his town from giants. For the last chieftain, they rescue his daughter, Greta Forkbeard, from giants. They fight their way to the Well of Urd (under Gargarensis' control), which is a passage to the Underworld. They find he is trying to open the Underworld Gate again. However, they are beaten away from the Gate by powerful fire giants, and are only saved because Chiron gave his life causing a rock fall between the giants and themselves. The disheartened heroes however manage to save the day by helping Eitri and Brokk, who they meet again, reforge Thor's hammer Mjolnir, which is used to shut the Gate just in time. The area around the gate explodes, and the heroes get blasted out of the underworld.

After the heroes awake from their unconsciousness, they learn Gargarensis is furious and is sending an army to get them. The heroes withstand his rage and capture Gargarensis in a last mighty battle with the help of the Norse heroes and Odysseus, who arrives with an army, and decapitate him. Arkantos, Ajax, Amanra, and Odysseus then sail back to Atlantis, only to discover that it is under Gargarensis' control. Apparently the heroes were tricked into believing they had killed him when in fact they had killed Kemsyt, who himself was made to look like Gargarensis by Loki's magic. They then discover that the last gate to Tartarus is right under the great temple of Atlantis, and Gargarensis was attempting to open it.

Arkantos fights his way to the gate, evacuates the people, and, with the help of Zeus, who grants him demigod-like powers, defeats the powerful living statue of Poseidon that was guarding it. Gargarensis is killed as the crumbling statue's trident falls on him. Atlantis is torn to shreds by earthquakes, storms and meteor showers due to Poseidon's anger. The final scene of the story shows Athena making Arkantos a god for his monumental deeds.

Spoilers end here.

Gods

Players can choose one of three gods of a civilization as they begin, and one of two Minor Gods each time they advance in age. Each Minor God provides you with new God Powers, Myth Units and technologies.

Greek

Egyptian

Norse

Myth units

Mythological units are a new addition to the 'Age' series. They are units with special abilities that normal, realistic human soldiers do not possess (such as flight, petrification etc.). In addition to normal resources, they require an amount of godly Favor to be summoned. They are deadly against human soldiers but can be easily countered using Heroes, the only units normally unaffected by myth units' special abilities. Here is a list of Myth Units:

Greek

Egyptian

Norse

Special

Pharaohs of Set can summon the following animals for combat or hunting purposes. Many players use them for cheap and quick attacks, and their stats have been toned down in later patches.

Heroes

The main ability of heroes is to counteract myth units; most of them can also pick up relics. Greek heroes are named and unique, whereas Norse and Egyptian ones are broadly generic.

The heroes are:

Here are the Egyptian and Norse heroes:

Human units

The bulk of each civilization’s forces are made of ordinary human soldiers. Military units are classified as infantry, archers, cavalry, siege weapons, or ships.

Economic

Infantry

Infantry are powerful against cavalry and weak against archers. The Norse infantry can build buildings as Norse gatherers and dwarves cannot.

Archers

Archers are powerful against infantry, but weak against cavalry.

Cavalry

Cavalry are strong against archers and weak against infantry.

Ships

Naval warfare is not as prominent in Age of Mythology as it is in Age of Empires. Each civilization has three basic types of ship.

Siege weapons

Siege weapons are used in Age of Mythology to destroy buildings. They are also effective against ships. However they are fairly slow and are weak against human units, especially cavalry.

Buildings

Buildings in Age of Mythology are used for a variety of purposes. They are used to train units, can be used to garrison units, or can be used to drop off resources.

Greek

Egyptian

Norse

Campaign heroes

There are some heroes that are only in the campaign, and there are some that are in the single-player mode but have special abilities.

Name Ally or Enemy Special Ability
Arkantos Ally Temporarily raises troop attack power.
Demigod Arkantos Ally Causes all adjacent units to fly away and take damage.
Ajax Ally Sends enemy infantry flying with his shield.
Odysseus Ally None.
Agamemnon Ally None.
Chiron Ally Fires three arrows on his first shot.
Amanra Ally Leaps into battle like an Anubite.
Setna Ally Can heal allied units.
Reginleif Ally Can heal allied units.
Eitri Ally Can gather resources.
Brokk Ally Can gather resources.
Gargarensis Enemy Throws enemy units.
Kamos Enemy Gores enemy units to send them flying.
Kemsyt Enemy None.
Circe Enemy Shoots lightning.
Theris Enemy Jumps into battle.

God powers

God powers are special effects that benefit your empire in some way. They can help you gather resources or aid you in battle. They can only be used once. Here is a list of them:

Greek

Egyptian

Norse

Relics

As in the Age of Empires games, Age of Mythology has relics which are scattered throughout the land. But unlike the relics of Age of Empires, which only generate a steady income of gold for the controller, the relics of Age of Mythology helps players in a predetermined way, depending on the relic. Relics can be picked up by heroes and brought back to their temple. Here is a list of them:

Spoilers end here.

The Golden Gift

Acting as a small prequel to the original game, The Golden Gift was available as a free download from the official website. The Golden Gift was a mini-campaign consisting of four scenarios, and featured Brokk and Eitri, two dwarves from the original game, and includes brand new voice acting by the original actors.

Expansion pack

In November 2003 , an expansion pack for Age of Mythology, was released. The Titans also has an all-encompassing story, although it is only a third of the length of the original, and this time focuses mostly on the Atlantean civilization and its leader, Arkantos' son, Kastor. Arkantos, who is now a god, also makes a few minor appearances here. The story is set ten years after the events of the Age of Mythology storyline. The player must fight Titans, who have allied with the Atlanteans.

Collector's Edition

A limited edition version of the game was also released that included: The package was contained within a large decorative box which measured approximately 1.5'x1'.

Board game

A board game based on Age of Mythology was made in 2003. It was designed by Glenn Drover and published by Eagle Games and Edge Entertainment.

Awards

See also

External links

Official sites
Game Archive and Review sites
Reviews
Multiplayer Support for Macs
The Age of Mythology Board game

 

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