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When many people played both AOE and AOK an often heard comment was how neat it would be for a fantasy element to be added to the game. The crisp graphics, well balanced economic model and great game play attracted many new players to the genre and many a fantasy lover drooled at the prospect of adding mythical creatures into the game play. Some game developers (We won't mention any names) sought to take on this challenge, however most with little or only marginal success.

So is AGE OF MYTHOLOGY just AOK with monsters or is it another ground breaking game from the Microsoft stable? Without a doubt Microsoft and Ensemble have surprised and delighted fans of their earlier games by creating a new game engine and a depth of strategic and tactical game play never seen before in RTS games.

AOM is based on the gods, creatures and mythology of the Egyptian, Norse and Greek empires. The game therefore has retained its historic connection with monsters (myth creatures) based to a degree on accepted mythology.

Gameplay

Within the game you have the ability to play as either the Norse, Egyptians or Greeks. At first glance this seems restrictive, however with each mythos you have the choice of three main deities as well as an additional three minor deities. You can also choose from a pool of 9 other minor Gods for each mythos. Effectively, this gives you a possible 70 plus combinations. Each of the minor deities have their own special myth units (monsters) and each has one god power.

At first play this game plays much in the style of its predecessors with resource collection (wood, gold and food - yes no stone) with the addition of a new resource called favour. This resource is achieved in the instance of Greeks by worshippers (villagers) assigned to your temple, with the Egyptians it's gained by building monuments and in the case of Norse it is earned by killing your enemies. The favour is expended to achieve certain technological advancements or in the purchase of myth units.

One major change is that the population limit is now determined by how many villages you have built town centres on. Town centres can now only be built on a limited amount of pre-determined village sites - the more you have the bigger your population limit. Additional housing still adds to the total as well however you can now only build 10 houses. With this, upgrades and new town centres you can now reach a theoretical limit of a population of 300. Some of the mythical units however take up more than one population unit so you need to balance your population carefully.