Age Of Mythology Gold Edition

I've played all the Age of Empires games. Back in the day, it was a very over-used genre. The Age of Empires games, while pretty decent, were really boring and the battles seemed really small. The conflicts were never large enough and the maps themselves were smaller. The campaigns were interesting but not gripping enough.

Age of Mythology is a whole new cup of tea.

It is one of the sweetest games of its day. A tad underestimated, but still something to teach you a LOT about European and Egyptian mythology. The game was wonderful, the story was wonderful, the challenges were reasonable, the cheats were delightful.

The game's skirmish mode is enough to prove itself a good three hour distraction every time. The maps are immense, the armies are diverse. Sure it might get repetitive, and the AI is still as dumb as it was in AOE, but the game is still a lot better.

I wish they'd made another installment after the Titans, or focussed on Hindu mythology. Reenacting the Mahabharata would have been epic!

This is a game from the past. I like it, but not many seem to play this in the presence of many alternatives. Unlike shooter games this is a strategy game and hence belongs to a different class to those games on PS3 and Xbox. In fact if someone is even aware of this game, it's easy to put them in th 25+ age group!

The main story (worth a movie based on it) follows Arkantos(Greek or is it Atlantis?) and his friends (Egyptian and Norse) on their campaign to stop Kronos (who's he?) from being raised from Tartarus (what's that?) -- with wikipedia by one's side this is going to be a fun filled exploration of Greek, Egyptian and Norse mythologies.
This game has a simple premise: manage resources, build your infrastructure and ready your army in 30 mins; the next 30 mins is going to be non-stop war! Choosing your Gods properly, timing the application of God powers and securing relics can tilt the game in your favour. (I play Egyptian with Isis, 'cos it gives initial population of 18 people 3 more 15 for all other combos).
It's fun figuring out the right set of decisions among the numerous combos that puts you in a strong position.
Remember, you are doing a supply-chain management here:
labourers produce food, wood and gold, which in turn are needed to raise various units of your army, on top of it is a limit on population (labourers+military+buildings). If you don't figure out a balance fast, you'll find the enemy forces walking all over you from the 10th min onwards!
More than these, what I found was that this game inculcates team spirit. For best effect, try playing this with a partner over LAN against 3 enemies (AI) at the hard level (but before that graduate from 2 against two). [Fun observation: the battle score is played in Times Now news when some dramatic story is being covered!] It's a good idea to play the main story-line first before playing the maps.

This is an excellent game and once you start playing, time flies, literally!

Taking on the role of one of nine ancient civilizations, players guide their people to greatness by commanding all aspects of their empire: gathering resources, raising massive armies, waging war against enemies, establishing profitable trade routes, building new settlements, enhancing production or military might with improvements, exploring new frontiers, and advancing through four distinct ages.

However, buying an original CD does not guarantee you online play as there have been plenty of people with CD KEY issues.

The biggest plus point of the AOM games is how well the various civilizations have been differentiated. Even within the same civilization, how you age up changes the kind of units you have. The unit bonuses have more effect (for example, cavalry are better than archers).

The graphics are also really great.

However, I did not like the campaigns. It would have been better if they were based on some "real" mythology instead of a story they cooked up. The titan's campaign is too small and not very interesting.

I would still place AOEII and the Conqueror's Expansion above this but even the AOM series are worth it. I wish Microsoft made an AOM II instead of AOE online.

If you're playing a random map game or multi-player with friends, this can be a ton of fun.

It's another RTS by Microsoft. The game is though mix of fantasy and fact, but still it gives you an awesome kick to your knowledge and adventurous journey of Mythological Scenes, with good graphics(of course, not comparing with Crysis or Battle Field class graphics). It just a game you can't stop until you finish the journey. The storyline is nice and well fabricated with right-in-place music. If you're a big time fan of RTS games(esp. from Microsoft's 'Age of' series). Just go for it, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Cons:
Expected the Titan Expansion a bot more lengthier though, but together it's one of my best RTS gaming experience.