We sit down and take a close look at Age of Mythology on the PC, the second title to come FROM the Age of Empires series.

A couple of years ago, Microsoft released a game that went down a bit of a storm in the gaming community. Age of Empires was the name and it was actually the first in a trio of RTS games taking in the history of the world from Romans to the present day. Age of Empires II followed, equally successful, and the third game in the series was eagerly awaited. However, developer Ensemble Studios has decided to change tact as well as game theme in their next offering, Age of Mythology. Ian Fischer, lead designer on the title explains further to Derek dela Fuente, why. <br /> <br /> “Age of Mythology is not the next instalment in the Age of Empires series, but it is very much a game in the that universe. The core concepts fans of the Age series are familiar with such as resource gathering, exploration, raising armies, fighting epic battles, and empire building are present but we’ve also added a number of new and unique twists to this established gameplay. As for why we chose to do this game instead of Age of Empires III, we decided on the mythological game mostly because we were interested in the subject and excited by the game aspects this setting would allow us to explore. It’s a way of refreshing the RTS genre. Another attractive aspect mythology offered was the ability to put a new spin on the things we have explored in our past games. In both Age of Empires and Age of Kings we used history, as we understand it today, to form a general theme for the games. The concepts presented there are based on the way we understand things working during that time. On the other hand, with mythology we get to present a world that works the way people at the time thought it worked. Ancient Greeks believed that bad harvests could be caused by not pleasing the gods. They believed that fantastic creatures roamed the countryside, or that when a thunderstorm appeared it was the work of a god. Some of the elements that we have in the Age of Mythology world would be difficult to fit into a historical setting without really stretching things. Mythology doesn’t necessarily allow us to do vastly better things than history, rather it allows us to do different things, which is what we wanted.” Try to imagine meteors streaking out of the sky to explode the middle of an enemy town, or a Cyclops picking up enemy units and throwing them over a forest, or a Medusa turning enemies to stone for example, and you get the idea. <br /> <br /> The game itself utilises three cultures that were big believers in myths and legends: Egyptians, Greeks, and Norse and there will be three civilisations for each race. Each of the nine has unique bonuses similar to the ones that the civilisations had in Age of Kings, and each also has a god associated with it. (The Greeks have Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon.) In addition, the Greek civilisations play differently from the Norse, who play differently from the Egyptians. “In effect, it’s a game that can be played nine times and each will be different.” My first thought when I heard that the third game in the Age series was going to be based on mythology was one of it leaning toward the role playing genre, especially when you realise there are heroes in the game. “Age of Mythology does feature a story-based single player campaign in which the player guides a hero and his armies through an epic adventure. These heroes, like Ajax, Hercules, and Odysseus, will be familiar to people but they don’t operate in a very RPG-like fashion. We aren’t attempting to blend genres here – Age of Mythology is very much a real-time strategy game.” Something else the team isn’t doing is using the AoE engine. Whereas that game used a sprite based 2D one (as did AoK), this one makes use of a completely new, internally developed, full 3D, engine allowing for the production of realistic chariots moving over equally realistic terrain. <br /> <br /> The theme may not be the usual one the strategist is used to, but Ensemble Studios aren’t worried about alienating the traditionalist player. Essentially, they’re aiming Age of Mythology at anyone who likes to have fun. “We’re spending a lot of time making the game approachable and easy to understand so that casual gamers will have fun with it. At the same time, we’re ensuring that the game has the same depth our past products provided in order to satisfy the more expert players. I certainly don’t think strategists are going to be alienated by this. If anything, Age of Mythology offers far more strategic options than either of our previous games.” Actually, the most unique and innovative aspect of the game at this stage, however, is likely to be the strategic depth it offers. In my humble experience of these things, almost all strategy games eventually end up with only a handful of valid strategies for players to pursue and, once these are learned, the game tends to grow stale. The developer wanted Age of Mythology to offer a larger number of ways to try to win the game and the mythological elements have really come through in this regard. “It’s a lot of fun to see how clever players will make use of their mythological abilities in the game.” Being part of the Age series means you’ll still make your way through the ages, but Ensemble are attempting to make each age a viable game in its own right, negating the way players rushed through to the third age in Age of Kings. <br /> <br /> Not only has the direction of the brand altered, but Fischer admits the team has learned from their two previous games. “Yes, the interface has changed substantially since Age of Empires. We learnt a number of important lessons about making an approachable user interface during the development of that game and made use of them in the development of Age of Kings. The same is now true with this title.” Beyond making use of these ‘lessons learned’, there is far more usability testing on Age of Mythology than for either of the other games. In fact, to support this, Ensemble actually added a usability lab to their office and recently started bringing people in to play the game to find out where they get confused or frustrated. <br /> <br /> Moving away from the workplace, one of the big additions within the Age world is the appearance of ‘favour’ (or ‘favor’ as it will undoubtedly appear) as a resource. Yes, that old favourite, stone, has been removed to make room for a new kid on the block. Forget gold, silver, precious jewels and all those other material resources: ‘favour’ is this seasons new ‘black’, as they might say in the fashion business. Unlike other games in the genre, players won’t be able to hoard the resource for a long time and then spend it all at once: you’ll have to think a bit more about how and when you’re going to make use of it. Although being finite and much more difficult to amass, it will be limited to 100 ‘units’ simply because it provides for some interesting decisions within the game. Do you opt for physical assistance in the form of heroes or mythological creatures, or try your luck with divine intervention? This take on mythology won’t have a humorous element found in a game like Populous, though. There aren’t any actual gods within the game; rather they have an indirect influence over proceedings by their actions. “The different civilisations gain ‘favour’ in different ways. Greeks get it by having villagers pray; Egyptians get it by building monuments; Norse get it when they are in battle. That’s the initial decision you have to make: what race do I choose?” <br /> <br /> The actual playing of the game will be similar to the other two Age games as will the controlling of large armies. Still to be decided is the make up of the available units (the final number could be about the same as AoK) but you can be certain that the usual assortment of archers, swordsmen, spearmen and axemen will be joined by an array of trolls, centaurs, golems and other wonderful imaginative units. One thing that AoM is going to dispense with is the traditional ‘line-of-sight’ and unit morale. Why? Well, apart from the developer not wanting to over complicate things, the issue of realism is raised. Firstly, how can anything mythological be realistic and, secondly, the fact these creatures can’t actually see you isn’t something they’ll let stand in their way. <br /> <br /> As I’m writing this feature I think I’m allowed to say that I’m not a big fan of multiplayer games. In fact, I don’t like them. Give me a good old fashioned ‘single mind against the computer’ game anytime. But that isn’t to say multiplayer games don’t have a place. Their popularity shows that, and in that respect, Ensemble Studios are attempting to make that part of Age of Mythology more accessible to the non die-hards (those people who don’t spend every waking hour organising their units). “We want to make it less daunting for those players.” Without being too specific – mainly because I don’t actually know – AoM will also include some new multiplayer game types alongside a scenario-editing tool similar to that found in Age of Empires. <br /> <br /> But what does Ian Fischer believe to be the factors which make AoM stand out in a very crowded market? “Age of Mythology features a number of elements that make it unique and innovative. The first thing people generally notice is the overall appearance of the game; there simply isn’t anything else out there that can provide the same rich, immersive, realistic looking world that this offers. The mythological elements we’ve built the game around are, of course, also something new. Additionally, there is the single player campaign, which is completely beyond any single player experience ever offered in a game such as this. We’ve also done a great deal of work on developing and refining the game’s interface and mechanics to make Age of Mythology easier for anyone to learn and play.” <br /> <br /> No date has yet been given for the release of Age of Mythology and I, for one, will be surprised to see anything before the end of the year.