Age of Mythology Special Edition

This game is AMAZING! The storyline is great (mesmerizing the first time you play and engrossing every other time) and the speed and skills of the computer player match perfectly with your level of skill. What is truly amazing is the 3D graphics. I LOVE being able to scroll my mouse button and have the entire map move around for me so I can see the fight from a different angle! Believe me, that makes a difference in the middle of a big fight. The technologies are great and the God Powers are fun to use. Having played online, I hate when people use the cheats, but some of them are really funny.

AoM also comes with Random Map, where you can hone your skills against a computer player(and the computer is really smart! I've had to learn to play much more aggressively in order to win) and Edit (where you can create your own map). I love creating maps then having friends play on them to critique.
All in All, this is a must buy GAME. I can't wait for Microsoft to put out the new campaign!


Good game, well worth the price   June 29, 2003
Dennis Rosebrough (Atlanta, GA)
17 out of 21 found this review helpful

If you've played Age of Empires II, you won't be too surprised by anything this game has to offer; it's more or less the same game, with a few tweaks here and there to make it more interesting and fun.

First, the reasons I pegged it a star:

The game is now a fully-rendered 3D game, instead of the 2D bitmaps like AOE2 used. On the one hand, it's kind of need to be able to zoom in and out at will and check out different angles of gameplay, but that's about all you get. 99% of the time, the 3D engine hasn't added anything that the 2D engine didn't do just fine with, but it's bumped up the video requirements SIGNIFICANTLY (i.e. make sure BEFORE you buy the game that your video card will support it), and causes the gameplay to periodically pause and grind on my machine, which, though not exactly the latest state-of-the-art, is not exactly a wimpy either. In my opinion, this was a bad call on Ensemble's part; they should have either stuck with 2D so that everyone could play it or given us more reason to have used 3D, or better yet, given us a choice of how we want to play.

They've also taken away one feature that I REALLY liked in AOE2: the ability to record a game and go back and watch it at will. I used to play people who were better than me, study their strategies, develop as a player, and eventually (a lot of times) beat them by mercilessly exploiting their weaknesses. It's kind of like watching football tapes before the big game. Can't do it in Age of Mythology. I was hoping they'd add a "rewind" feature to AOM, but instead, they took the whole feature out completely.

Now a few notes on why I like the game:

First and foremost, it's more AOE2, which is a game that I really like to begin with.

Also, I really like the idea that there are significantly more differences between civilizations now than just what special unit they get. Fundamental rules between the three major civilizations have now changed so much so that one must use drastically different strategies both playing AS different civilizations and play AGAINST different civilizations. The result is that there is FAR more variety and flexibility in how you play, which, in my book, is always a very good thing.

There are also more different TYPES of units. In AOE2, you basically had six types of units: infantry, archers, cavalry, monks, siege weapons, and naval vessels. AOM has taken away monks, but given us two new types: heores and myth units, and given us a way to affect the game completely outside of the units at all: god powers. Yet more ways to tweak strategies and find new and inventive ways to win. Very cool.

The campaign is very useful. Yes, there is only one, but there are thirty separate missions which walk you, step-by-step, through how to play the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Norse (the three major civilizations) and give you a great feel for what kinds of strategies work and what kind don't.

All in all, I highly recommend this game. If you've played and liked AOE2, it's a no-brainer whether or not you should buy this game. If you like AOE2, you'll like AOM. If you haven't played AOE2 but you like real-time strategy games, this one is currently the standard by which others are judged.