Age of Mythology is a spin off from the popular RTS game Age of empires. The game released in 2002 has similar gameplay elements of resource gathering, and building up a military with a nice twist - ancient mythology.

The game like any other RTS games has you choosing a team and controlling your units with tasks for the ultimate purpose of victory for you and your allies. Villagers are solely for resource gathering namely wood (from trees), gold (from gold deposits) and food (hunting animals, farms and berry bushes). This accounts for the economy of your respective team and will be essential in supporting a must needed military.

building are also a key part of the game from houses to support your growing population, to walls, castles, defensive towers, training building for infantry, archers and cavalry. In addition AOM has the unique element of temples and worships so you can gain favour the fourth resource.

Each civilization namely greeks, egyptions and the norse choose a god who grants them powers such as a lightning bolt from zeus or underworld passage from hades. Each god and civilization has its own unique units and powers which make each game distinct in its playing style. The norse, egyptions and the greeks have major differences in gameplay styles from each other which is a big stepping stone over previous age of empire games.

The graphics are definitely upgraded from the previous titles and looks fresh particularly damage to building and environment. The music and sound effects from full scale battles to a building being razed clearly stands out. The music also tends to change during battles and so on.

The campaign is truly a work of art as you play Arkantos, an Atlantian general as you chase a cyclops who appears to have the blessings of Posiedon. You and your fellow characters then play across wide area of maps from ancient greece, troy, egypt and to norselands. The campaign will keep you involved for weeks if not months.

Sadly the random map generator is not as random and doesnt have the diversity seen in Age of Empires.
Overall the game is fantastic and in my opinion a definite upgrade over previous installments. I myself learnt and got interested in greek mythology after playing the game. However if RTS or mythology is not your cup of tea then avoid this, otherwise give this a go.