Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology | |
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multiplayer |
Age of Mythology (AoM) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on October 31, 2002 in North America and on November 14, 2002 in Europe.
A spin-off from the
Age of Mythology was commercially successful, going platinum four months after its release after selling over one million units.[6] In 2003, it was followed by an expansion pack, Age of Mythology: The Titans. 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 October 25, 2022, Age of Mythology: Retold was announced.[7]
Gameplay
Like many other
There are three playable cultures in Age of Mythology: the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse. Each culture has three "major gods"—important deities such as
There are four major resources in Age of Mythology:
Units
Every unit in the game takes up between one and five "population slots".[12] 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;
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.[14] Heroes are also able to collect relics, which grant the player additional economic or military bonuses when deposited in a player's temple.[15] Most units can be upgraded, making them better at certain tasks.[16]Buildings
Buildings in Age of Mythology can generally be split into three categories:
Buildings are able to research improvements, as well as provide resources for the player.[12] 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.[12]
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.[12] 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.[12]
Scenario editor
The Age of Mythology editor is far more advanced than that of its predecessor, the
Campaign
Unlike the campaign modes in
Multiplayer
Age of Mythology included unlimited free multiplayer accounts on ESO. As of December 2011[update] 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.[21]
In multiplayer games, there are seven different game types available, all of which are provided as standard with the game:[22] 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
Campaign summary
Atlantean admiral and war hero Arkantos arrives at Atlantis after several years[citation needed] of warfare to see his son, Kastor. However, he is ordered by the Atlantean councillor and theocrat, Krios, to sail to Troy to assist Agamemnon in the Trojan War. Just then, the island is attacked by krakens[24] and the Black Sails, a group of pirate bandits led by the minotaur Kamos, a fierce enemy of Arkantos. After the trident from Poseidon's statue gets stolen, Arkantos raids the pirate settlement on a nearby island, where he recovers the trident, although Kamos escapes on a leviathan and vows revenge. Arkantos sends the trident back to Atlantis and sails away, leaving Kastor behind against the latter's wishes.
Arkantos travels to Troy to assist Agamemnon. After a series of skirmishes against Troy, fighting alongside
Chiron takes them north to locate the other prisoners, who are being forced to dig up an entrance to the
Reaching the surface, they find themselves in
Ages before, the Earth was ruled by the
In order to stop him, Arkantos travels with Ajax, while Amanra and Chiron go their separate ways to find the pieces of Osiris. Amanra goes north, where she finds Kemsyt's fortress on an island. With the aid of nearby villagers, she captures the piece he had stolen, but Kemsyt escapes. Chiron finds and recovers another piece hidden beneath a giant
The heroes gather all the pieces outside Osiris's pyramid, which protects another gate to Tartarus. Osiris is resurrected and defeats Gargarensis's army but the cyclops escapes, heading north to the Norselands, the location of another Tartarus gate.
Following Gargarensis, Ajax and Arkantos find Odysseus's wrecked ship on the coast of an island, and so decide to land to look for him. Upon landing, both men are turned into boars by the sorceress Circe. They proceed to rescue Odysseus and his men, who have also been cursed, reverse the curse on them and destroy Circe's fortress. Odysseus continues his journey home, while Arkantos and Ajax continue north.
When they reach the frozen Norselands, they are given directions to the underworld by
With the help of the
Arkantos sails back to Atlantis. When he brings out Gargarensis's head to tie it to the mast in victory, the bag sprouts ravens and he finds the head is actually Kemsyt's, another trick by Loki. Gargarensis is still alive and is trying to break the final gate holding Kronos, which is located at the centre of Atlantis. Gargarensis has captured and fortified Atlantis, and Poseidon himself has possessed a statue in the city center to protect him. Arkantos builds a wonder to Zeus and gains his blessing, giving him god-like power and enabling him to confront Gargarensis and the living statue at the temple of Poseidon. With his new powers, Arkantos defeats the statue, and Gargarensis is impaled by its trident as it collapses. All of Atlantis then collapses into the ocean, along with Arkantos. While the remaining heroes sail away with the surviving Atlanteans, Athena revives Arkantos and rewards him by making him a god.
The Golden Gift
An official campaign, The Golden Gift,[25] was released as a download on Microsoft's website. The campaign follows the adventures of Brokk and Eitri,[26] the dwarves who appeared in the initial campaign. The plot unfolds with both dwarves planning to create a giant golden boar as an offering to the Norse god Freyr. While working separately, Brokk is approached by Skult (also from Fall of the Trident) who warns him that Eitri is making preparations to create the boar without his brother, of which Eitri is also told the same about Brokk. As both brothers race to complete the boar in the great forge, Skult steals the finished piece and holds it in Loki's fortress. The brothers eventually assault the base, and the boar is retrieved and successfully offered to Freyr.
Development
Ensemble Studios began work on their first fully 3D
Following the announcement of the game for September 2002,[29] a trial version was released.[30] It contained five scenarios of the game's campaign, and two random maps. In the trial version, the player can only select Zeus, but there are nine gods available in the full version of the game.[30] There was debate during Age of Mythology's construction concerning the unbalanced nature of god powers and how to make them "fair" while still maintaining an element of fun in them. It was concluded that the best way to make it fair for everyone was to limit the use of god powers to one a game.[31] Age of Mythology underwent a large amount of beta-testing during its developmental phase, as Ensemble Studios attempted to create a more balanced and competitive game than its predecessors. Greg T. Street commented that one of the reasons Age of Mythology became so popular was because the development team spent many hours working on the game through active testing, rather than just taking advice from a "faceless drone in another building".[32]
Music
The official soundtrack was released on October 22, 2002, under the record label "Sumthing Else".[33] The score was written by Stephen Rippy and Kevin McMullan. Rippy cites musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Tuatara, Bill Laswell, Talvin Singh and Tchad Blake as inspirations for the soundtrack. The musical work done on Age of Mythology was unlike anything Rippy had done before; an example of this was "writing for a seventy-piece orchestra and then flying out to Washington to record it".[34]
Music 4 Games' reviewer, Jay Semerad, heaped Age of Mythology's soundtrack with praise. He summarized his review by declaring: "In all, the Age of Mythology soundtrack is an experience that should not be missed. It's easily one of my favorite soundtracks from this past year." Semerad was also astonished, and appreciative, of the use of instruments such as the
Expansions and other versions
The Titans
Age of Mythology: The Titans is an expansion to Age of Mythology, released on September 30, 2003.
Mythologies
Age of Empires: Mythologies is a spin-off of
Extended Edition
Age of Mythology: Extended Edition is a compilation that includes the main game and The Titans expansion. It adds
Tale of the Dragon
On September 18, 2015, a new expansion was announced, Tale of the Dragon. It was co-developed by SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Empires, the latter having worked on new expansions for Age of Empires II. The expansion added a new culture, the Chinese, with the major gods Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong. The expansion also features a new campaign and multiplayer maps, as well as other features.[42] It was released on January 28, 2016.[43]
Retold
Age of Mythology: Retold is an upcoming game that will serve as the Definitive Edition of the Age of Mythology.[44] The game was revealed on October 25, 2022 and is currently in development. There is no official release date yet. It will be made in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition's version of the Bang Engine and all units and animations will be completely redone. Its soundtrack will be a new fully symphonic version,[citation needed] it will be given lot of tweaks and modernizations, and will contain more options for players. Unlike the Definitive Edition versions of Age of Empires I, II and III, which at launch included all the official content released before, Retold's description only mentions the Greek, Egyptian, Norse and Atlantean cultures, without any content from Tale of the Dragon expansion.[45]
Reception
In the United States, Age of Mythology sold 870,000 copies and earned $31.9 million by August 2006, after its release in October 2002. It was the country's 10th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of the game and its Titans expansion had reached 1.3 million units in the United States by August 2006.
Critical reception
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
GameRankings | 89%[49] |
Metacritic | 89/100[50] (Extended Edition) 66/100[51] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Game Informer | 9.5 out of 10[52] |
GameRevolution | B+[53] |
GameSpot | 9.2 out of 10[13] |
IGN | 9.3 out of 10[54] |
PC Gamer (US) | 86%[55] |
Age of Mythology received critical acclaim, reaching an estimated one million units sold within five months of its release.
Age of Mythology's
The game's
IGN was pleased with Age of Mythology's campaign, and not bothered by its length. Instead, they stated that "the meaningful and engaging single player campaign provides a nearly flawless experience."[59] However, GameSpot was slightly critical of it, claiming that "while some of the campaign missions do feature some unusual circumstances or objectives that change, the game's story isn't incredibly engaging." This was compromised by stating that Age of Empires fans wouldn't expect an amazing campaign; they would "make a beeline for the game's random map mode, anyway."[60] PC Gamer elaborated more on the campaign however, saying: "many of the missions are extremely well-crafted", and that "sprinkled throughout these encounters are moments of genuine comedy — a truly delightful surprise." However, they still found reasons to criticize: "Regrettably, most of AoM's missions suffer from one recurring, frustrating problem: a severe case of 'build base-itis.'" The reviewer elaborated: "I know base-building is inherent to the genre, but even the most ardent fan will be put off by just how much there is. What's most disappointing is that AoM's setting really lends itself to imaginative mission design — and I don't think the designers took full advantage of the backdrop, which is a shame."[55]
The editors of
Scientific study
Age of Mythology's artificial intelligence (AI) was used by four Austrian researchers—Christoph Hermann, Helmuth Melcher, Stefan Rank and Robert Trappl—in a study into the value of emotions in real-time strategy games. According to the abstract, "We were interested whether incorporating a simple emotional model to an existing bot-script improves playing strength."[63] The results of the study determined that of the four bots they tested, the neurotic bot was most capable of defeating Age of Mythology's default AI, followed by the aggressive one. Neither bot was defeated by the standard AI, but the neurotic bot won, on average, twenty five percent more rapidly.[64] Plans were made to extend the research in the future by pitting the neurotic bot against a human player.[64]
See also
- List of PC games
Notes
- ^ Extended Edition developed by SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Empires.
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