Age of Mythology still has a lot of value beyond nostalgia, then, but I’d wait for a discount before committing your cash, especially if you already bought it a decade ago. This isn’t a total remake, so don’t go in expecting one. The Extended Edition is still a really well-paced and entertaining RTS, one that revels in over-the-top imagery and remains a one-off in subject matter within the oeuvre of the sadly departed Ensemble.
Age of Mythology is a good game. Even today. The mission design is still exciting, the balance between the people and the units is true, and thanks to the numerous combinations of gods and nations, there is always something new to try.
Extended Edition is addictive, but owes it to the brilliance of Ensemble (the developers of the original AoM), not SkyBox, who basically put their name under someone else’s work after introducing changes so marginal that you might not even notice them. [07/2014, p.70]
The Extended Edition doesn't quite deliver on its potential. Still, it's a good chance to experience this classic if you didn't get to play it when it originally came out.
Age of Mythology: Extended Edition is an excellent strategy game in its core. The scanty treatment it got for this Extended Edition makes this pretty disappointing. A few additions and graphical updates don't justify the high price tag.
It's still a disappointment to see that, after so long, Age of Mythology doesn't quite hold up to modern RTS standards, but there's enough here - and likely enough coming - to warrant a look regardless.
Such derring-do from developers. They grabbed an excellent strategy game, they broke the most important part of it, and they are selling its outcome for a ungodly price. A copybook remake of how to not redo the old games. It's a great disappointment indeed.
For those who have never played, I think it's hard to play today due to the graphics, but the main campaign is very cool and yielded many hours of gameplay 15 years ago.
I didn't find anything new compared to that time.
67 out of 100
Another low budget piece of junk from Ensemble Studio. I have computer science education and have near 20 year experiences playing RTS games and let me tell you why this is a low budget piece of junk. I have played so many RTS games and never have seen a game where the hardest level is unplayable to me. It is obvious the game designers have never played the Titan level because it is simply not playable. This is due to the low budget nature of this game and the developers have not enough time to test the game's balance. Normally within 5-10 minutes of the game, you are rushed with pre-built(not built within time frame of the game) large group of enemies, which is all but impossible to beat due to the short time frame. What is worse, sometimes this large group of enemy appears within about 5 minutes, in which time you have built less than 10 workers! To make things worse, the AI has infinite resources and every 5 minutes it sends you a large group of enemies, but on your side, you have finite resources which means even if you manage to beat the first few waves, you exhaust your resources within less than 30 minutes but AI has infinite resources, the waves the AI sends you are infinite. The whole thing is ill designed.
Also, the games has appalling routing algorithm and units often get stuck on map. Also controlling the units are very clumsy, for example the "attack move" move which is the bread and butter of the RTS games does not seem to work. It either worked like normal move or gets the units stuck. From these details you can definitely tell this is a low budget rushed product. Age of Empire 3 from the same company is about the same type of low budget junk.
Age of Mythology, one of my favorite games of all time. When I tested it back then, I felt it's uniqueness and as I progressed further into the game, I loved it even more. Then the expansion came in... My god was it good: a new race, with three different titan gods and new minor gods for those, (apart from the unique units and game system of the new race), the ability to raise titans themselves, and a new campaign. I've been playing it until very recently, but unfortunately the multiplayer stopped working for me, and the support I could get couldn't explain the issue, so it was me against the A.I, which was a little boring.
Then I saw this announced and knowing what they initially did with age of empires II hd (which was barely functional on my then recently armed PC) I decided to take a look on the new features and I liked them: there was a little graphical improvement, optimization for the online system through steam, and a night-day cycle. The widescreen support followed by the steam matchmaking system and multiplayer should be enough to justify the remake, right? Well no when the game is 30$! Just like with AoE II HD, Microsoft seemed to be out on the hunt of cash again, so this time I wanted to know and seeing it had been already posted in several sites I downloaded it in order to see the technical issues it bore and if it was really a remake worth of being called a remake. Expecting the worse I booted it and... surprise! it run smooth as silk, had a bunch of new graphical options (FXAA, SSAO, High quality Shadows...), widescreen support, and the minimum changes were appealing (new terrain, and water textures, light rays, redone door textures to match the race they belonged to...) so... It's a nice remake... It runs nice... WHY ON EARTH DO YOU CHARGE IT FOR MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL GAME??! TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM BUYING IT?! AoM cost me 20 bucks when I bought it in the same year of its release, in a stand of my town, with the official box, officially labeled, perfect conditions, perfectly sealed... and the expansion cost me 7.99 bucks! it says it in the cover!! why in the hell do you charge 30 bucks for a game that 12 years ago cost me 27.99, if it was 10 bucks It would be on my possession right now, if it were 15, i would be thinking about it and i'd probably had bought it, but for 30 bucks? hell no!, maybe I'll buy it after it lowers down 10 bucks or less, or maybe I just wont buy it and keep playing the original, because you're starting to seriously piss me off after AoE II HD and "the forgotten empires"
SummaryThe classic real time strategy game that transports players to a time when heroes did battle with monsters of legend and the gods intervened in the affairs of mortals. Use mythological creatures like Minotaurs and Cyclopes to bolster your armies' strength. Call upon the gods for assistance in flattening enemy towns with meteors or scatte...