Episode 195: Classic Game Analysis - Age of Mythology

[Troy Goodfellow]

Rob and Troy welcome freelancer John Peter Grant to the show to talk about one of the greatest real-time strategy games ever made - Ensemble's Age of Mythology. The art, the story, the balance, the structure -- everything is examined in a deep and wide-ranging conversation about why this game still stands as a landmark title with a lot to teach the modern RTS developer and player.

Listen Here.

Troy's three part history of Ensemble Studios

[RTS Novice]

Just listened to the episode. Great to have a new RTS devoted episode I can relate to.

Btw, SWGB (plus expansion) was a Star Wars game built on the AoE II engine. It isn't simliar to AoM anymore that AoE II is. I get the impression that generally it was looked down upon as basically a mod that cost money. That said, I have played it and it does have more units, structures, and upgrades than AoE II. Not that that makes it a better game, but it is a difference between the two. Oh, and you do age up tech levels.

[ShadowTiger]

Yeah I remember playing SWGB (probably just the demo). It was pretty clunky and it didn't appeal to me. I do enjoy playing Star Wars Empire at War though I think it is much different in terms of design and the Space Battles are much better than the ground battles.

I never played much Age of Mythology (again, just the demo). It didn't really appeal to me, I was more of a C&C and Starcraft player... I guess I still am. I do really like Age of Empires 3 and spent many hours with 1 & 2. I would love to pick up a digital download of the game, but the only thing available is a crappy reprint that has no online functionality. Ubisoft has the rights to physical distribution... I wonder if they have exclusive digital rights.

I do have Age of Mythology for the nintendo DS and it is a pretty nice simple TBS that reuses the same design. Any opinions on that game?

[SouperMatty]

Cheers for the podcast, good work as always - 3MA is shocking for getting me to buy stuff I might not have bought otherwise! I never played AoM at the time.

For Australian listeners who are wondering how to get a copy of this game, JB HiFi online has AoM Gold for $14.98 new BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE - it's also part of a "2 for $20" promotion, which includes the also-sometimes-hard-to-track-down Rise of Nations Gold! I just bought the two titles together for $21.98 delivered - seemed a good deal considering their scarcity. If you don't want/need RoN there are plenty of other titles to choose from in the bundle deal.

Something I'm a little worried about is that RoN is actually out of stock, but I'm hoping against hope that they can dig up a copy just for meeeee... either way, I've still got AoM hopefully coming my way, and was only charged $10 for it thanks to the bundle deal. Will post an update when I hear about RoN.

Heads up: the JB site is a little bit awful (example: instead of resetting, they send your *actual password* in *plain text* if you request a "forgot my password" email) but at least they're a pretty well known store in Aus.

LINK FRENZY!

Age of Mythology (in stock, hooray): https://www.jbhifionline.com.au/game/pc-games/age-of-mythology-gold/416180

2 for $20 PC games (lots here, though most available online, unlike AoM and RoN): https://www.jbhifionline.com.au/game/pc-2-for-20.htm

Rise of Nations (not in stock; fingers crossed they will replenish from some magic well somewhere) https://www.jbhifionline.com.au/game/pc-games/that-s-hot-rise-of-nations-gold-edition/234503

[General Crespin]

Galactic Battlegrounds was my first Age game. I put hundreds of hours into it, and a friend and I still play now and then. I think because of that, AoK never did anything for me.

Anyway, I *loved* this episode. Great show, I passed it on to a friend that plays AoM (also with his wife!), and he loved it. I think you may have a new listener.

One question I do have, is that expansions often bring enhancements to the base game, and patches for the expansion will fix bugs in the base game. Does Titans do anything like that? IE, is it worth installing Titans just for patches and bug fixes for the three main civs, and having a gentlemen's agreement not to build Titans?

[chanman]

I don't remember if it was this particular episode when you guys discuss the change in RTS's with the change from resource collection to fighting for territory. (I think it may have been Episode 143 on character and strategy games), but Relic was definitely not the first with Dawn of War. Does anyone remember Z from Bitmap Brothers? I think it was published by Westwood back in 1996 for Dos/Windows 95. It looks like the original makers are trying to bring it to iPad.

Anyone else remember playing this game way back when?

[RTS Novice]

"Does anyone remember Z from Bitmap Brothers? I think it was published by Westwood back in 1996 for Dos/Windows 95. It looks like the original makers are trying to bring it to iPad."

I saw that it's available for Android. From what user reviews I've read it's been updated some already and is supposed to be quite a good version now.

Has anybody played the Z Steel Soldiers 3D RTS? I tried the demo, and sucked at it. It's completely a zone control game as well.

[RTS Novice]

A couple other things:

Calling down meteors existed in the Earth 2150 games as weather control tech that one faction had. It may not have existed until the first exp., The Moon Project. Not sure. Maybe that's not equivalent to god power in AoM being that it regenerates / becomes available again after some time/cost?

ShadowTiger - Yeah, SW EaW is a very different game. It's made by former CnC devs, right? I find the vanilla game is not great for single skirmish battles because they are so limited, but there are so many mods out there that I've found some variety that way. There's even a Halo mod (ground skirmishes) that's somewhat incomplete but works fine, and I've noticed there's another in development. I don't think I've found many good custom maps, but I don't remember that I searched very hard for them either. Some of the other mods add a larger variety of SW universe units to each faction. I've mostly played the ground game though, so I'm not sure how much they add to space battles.

[chanman]

I'd say calling down fire from the heavens goes back to at least C&C. The GDI Ion Cannon was definitely fire from the heavens. I don't recall if Warcraft 1 had a meteor storm spell, but that was an ability of an on-screen unit as opposed to the click-o-doom of the ion cannon.

[Roderick]

I never played Age of Mythology, though I played a ton of Age of Kings. You were so right in saying everyone was playing that. When AoM came out I couldn't help but see it as a lesser spin-off, but this podcast convinced me I should pick it up. I love it when factions are really different. It's insane this isn't on Steam yet, though. Absolutely baffling.

[Corelli]

Never really played it - I was fully entrenched in Warcraft III and it passed me by. I do own it, though I have no idea how I acquired it or when.

Edit: I still listened to the podcast, though; a retrospective about a game I have never played. I don't know what this says about me.

[RTS Novice]

Edit: I still listened to the podcast, though; a retrospective about a game I have never played. I don't know what this says about me.

I bet a lot of people listen to every episode of the podcast regardless of whether they've played a game or not. I don't care for many turn based or squad based games, but I listen to every episode.

[natetwoc]

Absolutely loved AoM think it was the first RTS I ever played. The campaign was actually solid I remember really enjoying the story. Was also my first LAN experience playing with my bro...all in all just some fond memories.

[Berzee]

As an added bonus, the bad guy in the AoM single player campaign walks around quoting G.K. Chesterton's "Lepanto" out of context all the time.

[vyshka]

I noticed on Amazon that Ubisoft is shipping AoM. How the heck did they end up with this title?

[otthegreat]

And apparently Age of Mythology will soon be available on Steam. It goes without saying that every 3MA listener should go pick it up as soon as possible.