Age of Mythology Preview

Trust me; if you liked Age of Kings, you’re going to looove Age of Mythology! We’ve managed to get our dirty little mitts on the final version of the game, and have been playing it excessively for the past 24 hours. Ensemble Studios has really outdone themselves this time, creating a more cinematic and definitely more intricate in-game world than the one in Age of Kings.

On the surface, the game plays much like Age of Kings - you have your three basic resources: food, lumber and gold; structure building is much the same, and so is the unit movement. However, after playing a couple of missions you’ll realize that Age of Mythology achieves a far more cinematic experience than AoK; one that sort of resembles that from Warcraft III. You have your heroes and myths. A well-told and directed plot begins to unfold as soon as your quest is under way, and as the campaign progresses you’ll be dragged more and more into the world of Ancient Greek mythology, rich with human-like deities and deeds of great wonder and courage. It is these gods and heroes that separate this installment of the ‘Age’ series from the others, introducing a concept similar to what we saw in Warcraft III. Heroes play a bigger role, but here, you’ll have the addition of mighty gods, like Poseidon and Zeus. Just like in Ancient Greek Mythology, certain gods will favor certain heroes, and will be able to evoke mythical creatures. Here, the true beauty of this game lies. Ensemble has managed to improve the already smooth gameplay mechanics, and build on that by adding a whole new world, rich with supernatural creatures from the Greek Mythology that will let your imagination run wild. I mean, why create a whole new fantasy world when you have centuries and centuries of magnificent stories available to you at a touch of a button, and free of charge!

Seriously, I’m pretty sure that many of you will be captivated by such a wonderful premise, and this especially goes for those of you who’ve enjoyed playing Blizzard’s Warcraft III. It’s too early still to make any worthwhile comparisons, but judging by these first few missions, Age of Mythology seems to be a cross of AoK and Warcraft III, in a sense that it has all the great aspects of both of these games, only a far more advanced tech-tree. Remember, the gods play a big role in Ancient Greek stories...

Naturally, the visuals have gone through a thorough makeover as well. Age of Mythology is a full 3D RTS played from an isometric perspective. The poly-count of the models is not the highest I’ve ever seen and the circular shadows leave something to be desired, but that can hardly be construed as a drawback since this is a strategy game after all. The unit animation on the other hand, and the special effects all look topnotch, and will be quite sufficient to please those of you looking for some sweet eye-candy in your PC games. In addition, the frame rate is as smooth as a baby’s butt (complex shadows wouldn’t really help in those regards), even on very high resolutions and maximum effects.

But the main trump of the audio/visual impression has to be the excellently acted voiceovers and the catchy and professional soundtrack. You can just tell that a lot of money, time and effort was spent on this project. The opulent and vibrant world of Ancient Greece is truly brought to life by the excellent voice acting. Together, with the pleasing visuals and enticing gameplay, this makes for some really enjoyable strategy gaming. Stay tuned for our full review, folks!