The Best Strategy Game You Never Played: Age of Mythology

This is my first dive into KZbin Shorts
If you would like to go beyond that and support these projects financially: / giantgrantgames
Anyway if you are interested I also have a second channel where I play video games (Mostly StarCraft 2): / giantgrantgamesarchives
0:00 - Intro
1:55 - Mission 1: Omens
5:56 - Mission 2: Consequences
10:09 - Mission 3: Scratching the Surface
14:27 - Mission 4: A Fine Plan
18:53 - Mission 5: Just Enough Rope
23:57 - Mission 6: I Hope This Works
27:55 - Mission 7: More Bandits
32:46 - Mission 8: Bad News
37:51 - Mission 9: Revelation
41:01 - Mission 10: Strangers
47:12 - Mission 11: The Lost Relic
51:47 - Mission 12: Light Sleeper
56:33 - Mission 13: Tug of War
59:16 - Mission 14: I CANT SAY THIS WORD Hear My Plea
1:04:39 - Mission 15: This Video Is Really Long Huh
1:10:38 - Mission 16: Good Advice
1:15:31 - Mission 17: The jackal's Stronghold
1:18:48 - Mission 18: A Long Way From Home
1:24:26 - Mission 19: Watch That First Step
1:30:18 - Mission 20: Where They Belong
1:34:03 - Mission 21: Old Friends
1:37:41 - Intermission time! Get some popcorn or something, but not from the theater, it is so overpriced there. My friend once went into a theater to buy popcorn and then couldn't afford to ride the bus so I had to pay for her so I ended up indirectly paying for popcorn and I don't really enjoy it. She is a doctor now and still hasn't paid me back.
1:39:42 - Mission 22: North
1:44:05 - Mission 23: The Dwarven Forge
1:50:18 - Mission 24: Not From Around Here
1:53:44 - Mission 25: Welcoming Committee
1:55:08 - Mission 26: Union
1:59:00 - Literally me talking about encyclopedias. Can I get any more boring?
1:59:55 - Mission 27: The Well of Urd
2:03:26 - Mission 28: Beneath The Surface
2:07:17 - Mission 29: Unlikely Heroes
2:09:16 - Mission 30: All Is Not Lost
2:15:16 - Mission 31: Welcome Back
2:18:49 - Mission 32: A Place In My Dreams
2:27:24 - Mission 33: A Lost People
2:30:22 - Mission 34: Atlantis Reborn
2:35:44 - Mission 35: Greetings from Greece
2:40:05 - Mission 36: Odin's Tower
2:43:32 - Mission 37: The Ancient Relics
2:47:43 - Mission 38: Mount Olympus
2:50:43 - Mission 39: Betrayal of Sikyos
2:55:49 - Mission 40: Cerebus
3:02:06 - Mission 41: Rampage
3:07:33 - Mission 42: Making Ammends
3:13:34 - Mission 43: Atlantis Betrayed
3:18:23 - Fantastic Floating Friends, Super Spicy Skirmishes and Bad Business Bamboozles
3:22:12 - Mission 44: War of the Titans
3:28:51 - Outroduction
Make sure to study, this video WILL be on the test.

[@GiantGrantGames]

Prostagma?

[@gaborsalamon3629]

Volume!

[@SuperSnowshark]

Etimos!

[@pallingtontheshrike6374]

Lege!

[@zommbia]

Best race 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷

[@SquaredSmith]

BEAR NOISE *pew pew pew*

[@SquaredSmith]

Excuse you "Never Played". This game was my childhood

[@SquaredSmith]

Fun fact. Athena in AOM has the same voice actress as Athena in God Of War

[@MrDeflador]

Same, still the age of Game i Liked the Most.

[@lesky927]

Same

[@itaishturm1]

Finished the entire campaign at least 10 times, played it for thousands of hours.

[@SquaredSmith]

@@itaishturm1 Same. I am still terrible at the game though because young me liked cheats too much

[@JeffDaAsian]

Came for a retrospective of my favorite childhood RTS, stayed for the Crocodile rants. Justice for Sobek

[@LunethZolan]

Justice for Sobek indeed

[@fumarc4501]

For the snappy water doggos!

[@arasgee9184]

Cheese🧀

[@jirocochico1269]

All hail the Sperm Lord

[@John-qv5ux]

All hail Sobek! All hail the lord of Semen!

[@chrayez]

Fun fact about Osiris in myth: his wife, your “patron goddess who shall not be named” was able to find every part of his body except one. The one missing part was the one most important for *cough* husbandly duties. So she made a replacement out of gold, brought him back to life and he lived exactly long enough to *cough* perform once, before dying again.

[@hannibalburgers477]

He put all of his lifeforce into one last shagging. So, I just wonder, what is the moral of this story?

[@rama4315]

Why couldn’t he say Eset or Aset, or is that still pushing it?

[@Yell0wPhoenix]

@@rama4315 the patron goddess was ISIS, he didnt want the youtube auto algorithm system to cause problems and hide the video, due to the history of the ISIS organisation as mentioned in the video. ESet & ASet arent an issue no?

[@rama4315]

@@Yell0wPhoenix Ah, thanks for the info.

[@thorzap1374]

No one played the Chinese campaign, but I remember seeing that in one of the missions there's a merchant who is looking for a piece of Osiris that ended up in China for some reason. My head cannon is... Well, that box held the "lost part" lol.

[@_saw_aom]

What’s insane is that Arkantos is basically retired by the time Fall of the Trident begins. There’s so much back story behind his character that I would love to see in the form of campaigns in the new aom Retold

[@arasgee9184]

Cheese🧀

[@Hisha1303]

I love that the resolution to the conflict with Kronos is to call his mom

[@alexkoder1982]

Kronos: I can't believe you called my mom on me.

[@fumarc4501]

Atlanteans: “You know what you did!”

[@twentychromosomes7123]

his mom and his wife at the same time

[@NeoAmon678]

@@twentychromosomes7123 no his wife is Rhea, Gaia is the wife of Uranos

[@lostfan10000]

47:04 Hades also has a massive reason for helping the heroes keep Tartarus closed seeing as he lives next door.

[@Anergyne]

Not even next door. Tartarus is basically his basement.

[@GarmrKiDar]

I can't help but imagine Kronos bursting from the floor and wrecking the living room on his way out while Hades is just like "Excuse me what the fuck"

[@marley7868]

@@GarmrKiDar pulls spear out "back back I say"

[@thedeathray8620]

Hades be like: 'Back in the basement, dad! I still haven't forgiven you for eating me as a baby! If you didn't want kids, why didn't you castrate yourself with a sickle, just like you did with grandpa Ouranos? Or were you afraid another beautiful women like aunt Aphrodite would rise from the sea, if you chucked in your own?' I love greek myth.

[@iToxicMochi]

Though to be fair, Hades WAS the one that casted the Serpent power on your cadre when they were passing by the ruins.

[@anisthetic4151]

I remember my dad getting this game thinking it was a movie 💀 (to his defense he’s pretty old) and m still revisiting it after so many years, such a good game.

[@vario6492]

It kinda is 😂 This lad made it a feature length documentary/mythos epic

[@cipher4e]

I can't remember exactly where I got this game but it definitely wasn't a retail store. I think a school book fair

[@CountlessPWNZ]

​@@cipher4edamn, i picked this game up at target in 2004.

[@xakoman8003]

"If this bombs I spent 4 months working on a dud" *Becomes the most popular video in the channel by far*

[@coolnerdstuff]

It was almost a joke in my old friend circle how like 70% of us learned our ancient mythologies through those unit info pages. I remember my bro and I playing this game back in the day, he was partial to the Norse and their more aggro playstyle, whereas I tended towards Egypt cause I liked their myth units more. So many good memories, we might even still have the physical disks back home buried somewhere, if any of our computers can run it.

[@jonahglass-hussain4568]

nowadays we learn it through Rick Riordan

[@GarkKahn]

History: Age of empires Mythology: This game

[@el_tabarnako9224]

That was awesome thanks

[@abcdefghij337]

It’s available on Steam.

[@alexvlaxos6620]

Man,me and a couple of friends reinstalled the game and played,also did some editor creation😋

[@jstager]

This was the game that introduced me to both strategy games and ancient mythologies. Thank you for the wonderful memories mom.

[@todalio9238]

Same for me. I loved the game so much I even did a oral presentation about it when I was 10. XD

[@biocode4478]

to this day i refuse to unlearn that osiris' quartered remains were dragged across the desert by a ragtag group of greek and egyptian heroes for his resurrection

[@rileyjackson1762]

Funnily enough it was the ds version that then got me into the computer.

[@AegisAuras]

Mom coming through with the childhood nostalgia building as usual. Thanks, mom.

[@ValasHune]

Most of my mythological knowledge comes from playing this game. It was so awesome learning about all the different gods while doing battle with their creatures and cultures.

[@shoobydoobydoooo]

Okay so, one reason I think you had Set as the patron God in Mission 13 (the tug of war mission) is probably because of the betrayal right at the start of the NEXT mission - most likely it shows that the base you used for mission 13 was actually worshipping Set, and thus turned on you the moment you got the God piece. I thought it was a fairly smart piece of foreshadowing, while also giving you a chance to test Set stuff for a bit in the campaign.

[@PineJayForge]

I think there was also an offhand line about rogue priests of Set who wanted to help you if I remember correctly

[@bigbang2a]

Interesting, though visually it's really not clear that both sc13's and sc14's bases are the same (building placement, mountains...). Scenario 13's base is a war camp, white 14's looks more like a city. I would have loved more visual connections between 12, 13 and 14 regarding the shape and look of places, because they feel so disconnected of each other :/

[@Sintakhra]

"They send loads of hero units like Hercules, Achilles and Jason but that is Argonaut my problem" I love you, good sir.

[@TheDukeofDorks]

If ever there were a game deserving a 3 and a half hour long video about it, it is undoubtedly this one. Criminally underrated masterpiece, I hope we're living in a timeline where Retold does well enough to justify a level of support comparable to what Age 2 is currently getting.

[@ondrejmrazek8209]

I hope Hades gets reportraied as a chill dude for once.

[@singularleaf3895]

​@Ondrej Mrazek at least he isn't shown as the Evil guy in this game. That's actually reserved to his brother.

[@12anbufan]

@@singularleaf3895 yeah actually, even if the bad guys have him as a major god, the story at least shows that poseidon is the one causing trouble this time

[@gyppygirl2021]

@@12anbufan I really do kinda think they threw Hades in as the major god for that mission just to cover all the bases. The Erebus missions are no-build missions, so having him there admittedly would've gimped things gameplay-wise, even if it would've made sense.

[@solorollo9756]

Need a better spectating function in the remake for that to happen

[@silas0757]

Glad to see you branching out to KZbin shorts Grant. I really think it will benefit you in the long run to have these short and low effort videos for some consistent content.

[@LuminousLead]

"Short"s XD

[@catnipflowers5803]

I agree. While i will miss the older quality content, this will suffice.

[@galeanart7209]

Even though this was a short , it would be nice to have just a little bit longer video

[@thiagovivaldi]

Dude, AoM was THE game of my childhood. I remember going to my grandma's house (where my uncle's "good" PC was) and playing all day long throught my school holidays. It's been 20 years, my grandma passed away in 2021 and your video brought back a lot of good memories for me. Thank you so much for your effort and amazing work :) Cheers from Brazil!

[@nervosadustbolt9642]

You never had a childhood. You came out of your mom fully grown & by the time that happened. This game was already long over. So, you're a liar. Apologize to me for wasting my dang time, you pretender.

[@Wargulf2838]

so... as an AOM player, i'd like to talk about some things about the game: 1: The factions have mechanical identities rather than having RTS counterparts. -Greeks are all rounders, stable balanced gameplay, it's an AOE faction. click buttons, train dudes, fight, win. -Egyptian are value monsters. big economy (especially Ra, my go-to) HUGE defense potential, garbage cheap mid tier units (basically meat shields) but godlike myth units. they are huge for intermediate players. -Norse are rush/harass based. it's build fast, fight faster, train a lot, no defense at all, and tower rushes, the game usually stops at heroic age. but at mythic age, basically they get a "double or nothing" button, either ragnarok which kills economy outright, Hel's myth unit speed buff, sending your resource stockpile to nothingness, and Fimbulveltr which deal a huge blow to enemies' entire economy, building and gameplan altogether but leaving you with nothing if those fail. -Atlanteans are late game/steamroll/snowball they are decent at most things, economy is really good, but their units are really pricey. powers are BONKERS powerful, and sometimes end the game outright if well placed. (it's exactly the faction with which you tend to hold your powers until a big fight gets going, or you have an opportunity to summon a tartarus door in the enemy's backdoor/economy zone.) myth units vary, but they are usually either mediocre to good support units, crazy deathballs (hello automatons), or plain broken (Hecatoncheires and Lampades my beloved.) 2: Indeed you are right, Valkyries are very good in AOM. any kind of fast rushing strategy is good as Norse, especially since their cavalry are not that good (it's good but not... hersir good.) having a fast striking force at classical age, with a harass power in the form of forest fire (oh are you cutting wood? wouldn't it be a shame if i scouted you with my Valkyries and burnt your forest and villagers, setting you back on eco, and forcing you to take bigger risks to harvest wood) and said fast striking force at classical age can heal itself back to full if left unchecked, making it a rush strat that could spiral out of control? Ya it's good. 3: The Ulfsark gameplan is a strategy rather well known (or at least i know it well, i've wielded it against all my friends) it's basically a Zerg rush from starcraft, going Thor Forseti Braggi Tyr into upgrade the hell out of the ulfsark and making max population ulfsark is a very strong strat... if games last long enough. but at the moment your opponent sees Fimbulveltr, and a freight train of ulfserk charging and building a fortress in your base, you know you're basically screwed. 4: Fimbulveltr is not a standalone power like Hera's storm. it's an Assist, and a damn good one. it combines a small harassing force of meatshields, attracting tower and fortress fire off your units and to the expendable wolves. but the most important is that it's a power shield. while Fimbulveltr is in effect, no other power can be used. for 35 seconds, no thunderstorm, no eclipse, no ceasefire, no frost, no bronze, no ancestors, no shockwave. if you use it while you push an opponent with your army, you're almost certain to have an impact, and if you play correctly, and you have the army to keep up, you could put an opponent to ground zero right there and then. (example: Fimbulveltr, push with your main force against opponent, use a flanking maneuver with crush comp, before timer runs out, snipe enemy forum if you can, as timer runs out, cast Frost on opponent's fighting force, build your own forum upon the now free colony, and pick apart the rest.) 5: Automatons are indeed a meat shield. they are most powerful in a big number as a frontal assault paired to a flanking army. they are tanky and sure they are not the best damage dealers but if left unchecked due to... say... a big army flanking left side and a tartarus door? they are monstrous, because they don't die unless they fight huge hero comps. TLDR: greek are balanced, egyptian are economy, norse are harass, and atlantean are late game oriented valkyries are a pain at classical age ulfserk are zerglings use Fimbulveltr as you push your opponent, not as a standalone power, but it's a protection power. automatons are an anvil to an anvil and hammer strategy.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

A 3.5 hour video on a 2 decade old RTS game and it's at nearly a MILLION views?! What godly power is this? Definitely deserves it though. This was a love letter to a game that stands the test of time. And yes I did watch all 3.5 hours of it and it was worth it. Justice for Sobek!

[@ultralysp]

Took me 2 days to finish but I loved it.

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

Sometimes justice exists.

[@symmetrie_bruch]

it´s the power of clickbait

[@ninjaAsassasin1212]

Alot of people figured they were special and the only ones who played this.

[@farrel_ra]

​@@ninjaAsassasin1212 ikr, this was at least million kids childhood, statistically.

[@piney4562]

You are so right about sound design. Hearing the voice lines from the units was an instant nostalgia hit. Far bigger than any of the visuals.

[@none62092]

Prostagma?

[@jacobp.4593]

@@none62092 Talos

[@aletheran8590]

Even my mom still recognizes those from hearing me play this in the background 20 years ago xD

[@Stue-e]

@@none62092 Vulume!

[@alexvlaxos6620]

@@jacobp.4593 Kalos!

[@Ctrekoz]

An absolute masterpiece, such a legendary game.

[@lewisgreen5910]

The fact many people still enjoy playing it despite its age speaks volumes!! I'm happy this game was a part of so many of our childhoods.

[@cabobo1600]

One might say... MYTHICAL!!!

[@nervosadustbolt9642]

Okay.. I heard that you told, Clarence, that this game sucked Moose eggs, but you just pretend that you like it to save face. You rather go along to get along. Are you going to call Clarence a liar.. Or, do you ADMIT to your wrong doing?

[@thegamingpigeon3216]

1:27:22 I've always been surprised they didn't remove the Roc from this mission for the sole reason that it can be used to completely ignore Kamos' main base and attack him directly and quickly beat the mission in under 10 minutes. It's fairly simple: get to the town center, rush ages, worship Hathor, build a Roc, put as many powerful units into it as you can, fly south to the starting island, east to the eastern corner of the map and then follow the map border up to the rear of Kamos' base, disembark your units from the Roc and attack Kamos himself. Once he reaches a certain health threshold, you win.

[@mbos14]

I think they left it in because it was an alternative to the boats to move units later on if you didnt want to make an navy. i also dont think that many poeple tought of that cheese/did it.

[@solomonahmad164]

Wow I can't believe Grant promised us he would do an AOM deathless run, how kind of him :^) looking forward to it.

[@ravenouself4181]

I am going to guess that it's as hard as not getting killed by CAS in War Thunder.

[@notdax3620]

no

[@alicedruitt4805]

@@notdax3620 I actually started planning a deathless AoM run recently; I'm probably not going to actually do it because I don't have the energy, but it would be very possible, if a bit of a bastard.

[@vicdansanch]

​@@alicedruitt4805 without remembering all the missions i believe its pretty impossible with all the lighting storms , especially the dream mission with the lighting statues

[@alicedruitt4805]

@@vicdansanch Yeah that'd be the tough one. I checked the speedrun for AoM though (Which exists!) and I think it would be possible (you never build a base and instead rush your forces up the coast to the wonder) but it'd require some *careful* savescumming.

[@Thundrfox]

“A place in my dreams” is such a badass mission name considering that’s how all the foes akantos has slain are described.

[@quinnholloway5400]

Arkantos is the chad

[@kukuhimanputraraharja8084]

arkantos: ANY WHO THREATENS MY HOME, AND MY FAMILIES... WILL SOON HAVE A PLACE IN MY DREAMS... ^thats the most memorable badass line from arkantos that would stay in my nostalgic childhood memories forever... though as adult, looking back to it now... i;ve understand its a terrifying statement that arkantos will force his enemies to fight him ad infinitum in his dream arena and kill them again and again...

[@kaisarfaust5625]

This is my second listen through - and I just wanted to say that your enthusiasm and passion is absolutely infectious and brightened up my day! This game was also a massive part of my childhood so it is nice to be able to re-experience it with a guide.

[@harkov_416]

I think I spent as much time playing as I did reading everything about the units, buildings, weapons, missions, etc. It was literally an encyclopedia and even had passages from a lot of works from their civilizations. I kid you not, this inspired me to read the classics when I was younger.

[@SmugLookingBarrel]

I played this campaign probably 10 years ago and was completely shocked by how many of these missions I remembered. Not only did I remember the major story beats as you went over them, there were so many times when you talked about a mission's gimmick and I was like "oh yeah, I remember that mission". I think that's the mark of a really well made game.

[@planescaped]

Same, I recalled a surprising number of missions as well. From map layouts to even objectives on some of them.

[@badger2575]

One fun little crossing of narrative and gameplay happens during the mission "Unlikely Heroes" (if I remember correctly). There's a moment where a Nidhogg shows up to attack you and one of the dwarfs says that Reginleif is the only one who can slay it. It comes across as this, "only the destined hero can slay the beast" kind of thing, but since Reginleif is the only ranged hero you have, and the Nidhogg flies, she really is quite literally the only one that can slay it. :)

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Lmao I don't remember that, that's hilarious

[@zonetropper]

You do technically get at that point other ranged units that can hurt it but Reginleif does the most damage :)

[@thomasel9171]

I grew up with this classic, glad its getting some recognition.

[@nervosadustbolt9642]

You grew up with? No, you didn't. It's an inanimate object, it doesn't grow. Now, that you're a proven liar. Apologize to your mom.

[@NightGC]

Age of Mythology was my descent into the RTS game hole. Absolutely love experiencing different units and different perspectives, which is why to this day the games I've played the most are AoM and Starcraft 2. Thanks for reminding me of great times in my childhood.

[@lucalovespopculture3743]

Age of Mythology was one of the first PC games i played as a kid. It came out when i was 7 or 8 years old and saw my father playing it and wanted to play it too, so i did. I loved it so much, that i even did drawings of the heros and monsters.

[@FormerGovernmentHuman]

Thats how Exactly how I got into AOE2, AOE1 and counter strike. Watching my dad and uncles play it but we only had the one PC so I had to watch my dad play until he got off or gave me some play time. When he saw that I was legitimately good at the games right away he got me my own pc! That was a happy day Some of my best memories with my dad are finally being able to game with him instead of just watching.

[@tmi1234567]

I am glad to see that other kids had the same childhood for myself.

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

My original PC Gaming Experience was Civilization 3, Age of Mythology from disc, Oldschool Runescape before it was called Oldschool, and Bloons Tower Defense 3. My console gaming was all of Pokemon Gen 4 on the DS lite, Mario Party Seven on the GAMECUBE, Need For speed Underground 2 on the PS2. I'm an OG Gen Z and I'm proud of it. Needless to say AoM was a big part of why I like Strategy Games.

[@pcost]

I played this game when I was 10 yo and used to draw every single thing, from buildings to the units in detail. I went to the (incredible) length of making "tabletop RPG" off of it (without even knowing by that time that such thing existed), which I would pick the drawings of the units, and use popsicle sticks on each turn to "build" buldings and catapults, to defend and to attack others. Pretty simple mechanics but I used to have so much fun bringing that game --- which I invented myself based on AOM --- to school, to play with my friends there. Seriously, this game is by far the one who single-handedly made me a history nerd, my biggest scores were always in history exams and to this day I remember every single detail from Age of Mythology. Guys at Ensemble Studios managed to be part of a whole generation. Thankful for having lived such time.

[@Spiningout]

Small fact regarding the market introduction at Troy mission 2. The market at the center of Troy is connected to the smaller city on the right side of the map and the settlement near your base is just for unit expansion/supply. If you explored the map a bit more you’d see the trading units going between the main market and smaller city, and there are also relics in the smaller city. Also, there is gold on the smaller ocean islands, incentivizing new players to explore.

[@synthetic240]

He even showed a ship going past that island with gold on it, but said nothing about it.

[@maseface1227]

One of my favourite scenarios! So much to do in that one

[@JoshSweetvale]

"Smaller city" That's f*cking _Tyre._

[@calilaployploy2827]

Also the island filled with gold that would put you in contact with the left town

[@HenrikEbert]

Classic youtuber/streamer blindness :D

[@Corcky54]

Absolutely loved this game growing up as well. I love how like minded we are. I say "I hope he says how cool Ajax is" and you say "Ajax is the best character by far." I say "I hope he says how awesome the Hydra is" and you say "The Hydra is the best unit." Also... I know exactly what you mean by not saying a certain word on KZbin. I had a Cockatiel growing up, and I named it THAT name... Specifically because I mained Egyptian and wanted to name my future birds after the deities. For example my Sun Conure was named Ra because duh. Once that certain name became more known for a terrible organization it was SO awkward saying my birds name. Amazing video. You definitely captured the uniqueness of this game. Competing with Red Alert, Warcraft and Starcraft is obviously extremely difficult to do. I wish more people knew about this game. Also Rise of Nations... but that's a whole nother story.

[@trifonmihaylov6140]

2:41:00 The reference ''as the raids keep coming and they dont stop coming'' really got me

[@GreasyDaddy]

I got this at a scholastic book fair when I was kid. My parents were a little annoyed because I was supposed to buy books of course. But once I showed my dad some game play and talked about the mythological aspect and the strategy elements he was sold and even played with me. Really excited youre covering this!

[@paulzinner9917]

Thats a cool story, for me it was actually the other way around. Some of my best childhood memories are playing AoM with my dad. Good times :)

[@MegaMaster1021]

You're so lucky my never had games

[@TheOrangeCat2]

The fun thing with Colossae you didn't mention is that they can heal by eating gold mines or trees. It's an awful exchange rate resource/hp wise, but you can retreat these guys to just out of defense range, and then literally eat up your enemy's resources and heal your showstopper units. This game has so many cool things you can do with a little creativity it's insane.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Another cool thing about it is that let's you cut down forests that people use to make free walls without putting villagers at risk

[@flamboyantwarlock7101]

That sounds horrifying. Imagine being a peasant who hears about these giant metal monsters ravaging the countryside and slaughtering the king's men, and then you turn and see one off in the distance, literally eating a gold mine.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

@@flamboyantwarlock7101 I think the idea of you and a squad of guys get sent to kill it, and once it's clear that it won't survive instead of fighting back to the death it just starts eating trees like candy is hilarious

[@tychusenfieldlarsson206]

if only the animations were smoother. And attack move is kinda bad.

[@arielmino643]

I've played this game since 2006 and i never thought of doing that with collossus. Pretty good strategy

[@thecamperguy1234]

As a kid this was by far my most played game. So glad people still appreciate it!

[@KnoxZone]

Man, I am super late watching this, but I just want to thank you for sending me down a wicked nostalgia trip. I love AoM so much. My friend and I occasionally boot it back up and play some coop games together. It's truly a one of a kind experience and I hope it finds a way to resurge in the future. Also Petsuchos are my favorite unit and I am horrified to learn the painful truth of my beloved laser crocs. Thank you for enlightening me on this grave injustice.

[@alexandermaxey3354]

The Trojan horse mission is definitely doable with not letting any attacks escape. There is a relic out there that makes your cavalry faster, so your already slightly faster prodomos can now outrun them reliably. In addition, pre planning some cavalry to cut off their escape during the fight means you can get in their way and hit them before they get too far

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Another way is to use minotaurs, there abylity to knock enemies away allow you to flank around and throw then away when they try and escape, letting you collapse on them, or just shoot them, the masterbolt works for cleanup if you mess up

[@joshuakim5240]

I remember just for fun i tried to see if it was even remotely possible to ignore building the horse and assault Troy itself. Yeah...in hindsight that was a dumb idea but it was really fun creating a huge death fortress and army only to run into gates made out of god flesh that ignore all damage while a legion of enemies tripled the size of my army just waltzed out and clowned on me.

[@sandormatyasgobolos]

My thoughts exactly. You just need to focus on cavalry and the occasional defensive structures. ​ @joshua kim It is possible to beat the mission without the Horse. It's a pain and requires a lot of resources (and Apollo's god power) but it can be done as you just have to destory the 3 fortresses and you've won. Would be way easier without the restricted tech tree though.

[@sebastianviruzab7986]

Also, you can underworld passage outside the walls, on the cliff, near the the TC between the 2 fortresses left of the main gate and then hoplites ONLY and villagers can glitch through the walls and you can kill all the trojan fortresses and destroy most of the base. Too bad you don't have petrobolos for a more normal siege but you make do with what you have 🤣

[@GarmrKiDar]

@@joshuakim5240 That is possible though, I did it on my last playthrough (Titan). The tiresome part are the death canyons of towers on cliffs, which took a lot of time to clear out, but past that it was perfectly feasible.

[@maxbuchanan8869]

The audio is literally the most memorable part of this game for me. Music especially but hearing the troops speak when ordered brings back so many memories

[@coltonprovence833]

reminded me of the original Warcraft 2. "at once my lord" lmao

[@jeffsmith1867]

Prostagma!

[@maxbuchanan8869]

@@jeffsmith1867 couldn't have said it better myself

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@jeffsmith1867 Voulume!

[@dankmersi4282]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn Izvoli!

[@ViralHeadcase]

Can't wait for the remaster! This is one of my favorites because of exactly what you explain at 3:26:00 - it is fun to play. I've replayed the campaign so many times since 2003. I could never advance far in any of the other RTS campaigns without cheats (PowerOverwhelming, WhosYourDaddy, i r winner LOL) but this game and the difficulty settings allowed me to experience the awesome story and gameplay at my own skill level. For this reason Age of Empires III is my second favorite Age game (Starcraft II, Warcraft III are my 1/2 are my favorite overall RTS games). This was an awesome video!!!

[@adrianwelch5915]

Watched this all the way through. Thank you for making it, it brought tears to my eyes, true nostalgia. Amazing video.

[@amzinoji1582]

God, a 3 and a half hour breakdown about one of my favorite childhood games from one of my favorite content creators; it's like Christmas

[@justorago285]

58:18 That is foreshadowing about the next mission, where the people you were working with during the tug of war betray you and Amanra has to pull everybody out of the fire with just Myth units.

[@filipvadas7602]

I thought the base was the same city that you sieged in the previous mission xD

[@bigmen0]

That is the story reason probably, the gameplay reason is that they probably tested it with ra or the major god that shall not be named and one specific unit wins the mission by itself: The Son of Osiris, you start with enough stuff for the mythic age and they probably saw that rushing your pharaoh forward and upgrading it would trivialize the mission, so they gave you the one major god that couldn't (not that it matters since you can win in 7 mins without training a single unit anyways even on titan but w/e). Plus, for a campaign they wanted to give you a mission on each major god at least once, so set had to fit somewhere-

[@MegaMaster1021]

@@bigmen0 indeed

[@calebbarnhouse496]

​@bigmen0 I mean they just could have locked you out of getting that god power, it was definitely a hint to what will come, particularly as we see that we play as loki when he tricks us, the main reason for the betrayal would likely be so you can have gameplay as each of the gods in each faction

[@zonetropper]

@@calebbarnhouse496 Disabling godpowers for the player is something outrageous to do for scenario design in AoM, from a game design perspective Set was chosen to fit the role of playing every major at least once and the rest is to fit the lore with the logic behind it. Giving you Tornado/Meteor at the start would make the scenario very easy because you could just kill the ambush forces and easily retrieve the cart. As for the scenario, it's rather obvious why are you playing Set here, he has the best Chariot archers and chariot archers in this scenario are the key to victory.

[@PadelbootStudios]

I keep coming back to this retrospective. What I love about it is how you talk about every single level, breaking down it's design and goals and how it works or doesn't. It really helps to understand the thought behind each level and heck even helped me to think more deeply about my own custom levels in another game. The bursts of humour also keep me greatly entertained and the video itself is pretty relaxing. Very well done. I hope to see more stuff like this. Having campaign broken down to each level and their strenghts, weaknesses and design philosophies is super interesting.

[@HFShaf]

I watched this over the course of 2 days and i will say you captured the feeling i had with this game as a kid spectacularly. Great breakdown

[@alterranlongbow5067]

47:42 In Rise of Legends, the three factions each have separate campaigns, but they're knit so tightly it feels more like it was one story split into three parts. The main character is the same throughout, while pieces of your original faction make returns as they were brought along from the previous part. The story also follows this, in that you're fighting to stop the same villain, whose plans are growing increasingly desperate and dangerous as you thwart him in the previous part, before he escapes into the territory of the next faction. edit for the road: KRIOS HAS SUPPLIED US WITH ANOTHER FIRE SIPHON

[@mrskwid1]

I was going to say the same thing. That game has a great campaign. It has so many heroes that you could use and all the upgrades to get in the campaign. The little touch I really liked is you could see the area the next campaign was set in at the edge of the map.

[@jonkeats2274]

I loved Rise of Legends as a kid, sucks that it isn't available on Steam.

[@AtticusKarpenter]

I would like Grant to try this RTS, it is very cool and serves as a kind of Age of Mythology from the Rise of Nations series. A lot of mechanics from the main series look rather strange in Rise of Legends, but still fun. The global mode surprisingly makes sense. Also the leaders of the two main factions are two waifu who want the main character lol

[@Anergyne]

I'm currently replaying Rise of Legends! It's a ton of fun, but boy howdy did it need a few more months of development. It definitely has the same amount of sheer dumb fun with ridiculous over the top nonsense as Age of Mythology, but it really feels unfinished in places, and the mission design isn't nearly as good as AoM's. That's when missions even have a design, most are just 'a skirmish map but you start with the army you built on the campaign map'. Still! Well worth a try, if you can, erh, acquire it. Which is its own challenge.

[@cybruiser57peti]

Just a side note Rise of Legends campaigns can be cheesed by not attacking and defending (or retake it) your territory, you can farm campaing points (like tech and military), then steam roll it with a maxed out army.

[@Peachblink]

I am so glad that you went ahead and spoke about a game that simply deserves so much more respect than it currently gets. Some of the first PC games I remember playing were AoE1 and 2, and my brother did get this game when it was brand new, and still can remember the both of us sitting behind the computer screen, watching all of this new and exciting things to try out. AoE woke up inside of me my undying curiosity towards history, still lasting to this day, and AoM followed up by waking up inside of me my undying curiosity towards mythology and its many different corners. And the gameplay was just so much fun. It took what worked in AoE and just added god powers, hero units outside of the campaign, and all sorts of fun stuff to play with. As a kid I didn't even care it may have been unbalanced or unfair, there were few things as fun as aiming Zeus' Lightning at other units and killing them instantly, or using Thoth's Meteors and (maybe) deleting an enemy base, or even Tyr's Fimbulwinter, giving you the definitive "Screw you" to all enemies. I still own my original copies from back in the day, and I am so glad I own the steam version for convenience, but I am hoping deep down that the remaster brings this game into the spotlight it not only needs, but truly deserves.

[@sirki2885]

yeah when the remaster comes out i will 100% grab it unless they do a W3 refailed situation

[@donutsrgood4491]

​@@sirki2885 I doubt they'll mess it up they did a great job remastering aoe 2 and 3. Adding new civs in updating the graphics but keeping the same gameplay I expect the same for aom

[@HarrDarr]

weird opening statement cuz this RTS is routinely put in top 10 best RTS games of all times lists

[@sirki2885]

@@donutsrgood4491 yeah i made the statementt before reaching the part of who is doing the remaster will prob pick it up on release/shortly after.. looking forward to see if they going to make any fixes/changes to the chinese trash...

[@kingstarscream3807]

@@sirki2885 They really screwed up the remaster of AOE3 so I'm not holding out much hope.

[@WulfieZi]

The Norse ox cart was such a good idea that they're bringing it back as the mule cart in the new DLC this month for Aoe2:DE!

[@nervosadustbolt9642]

Ox cart? That's pretty damn rude. What the Hell is a matter with you being so insensitive?

[@christophersmith8848]

​@@nervosadustbolt9642 what

[@Rockadela_]

@@nervosadustbolt9642yeah what do you mean

[@fop3146]

I just love when people have genuine passion for something and share it for other people to enjoy, good video grant i know you enjoyed and so did we

[@mattyow777]

I LOVED THIS GAME SO MUCH

[@joeloverton4327]

You probably wont see this as this video has been out for a month but I just want to thank you for making this. I has been years since I have played this but it was and possibly still is my favorite game. Your whole style of video reminded me of the joy I had when I was younger playing it and your commentary and editing were phenomenal and hilarious. I have been smiling so hard for the last 3.5 hours to the point I am almost crying so thank you.

[@BorgNetzWerk]

Almost another month later, I second your comment like the 95 people before me. I do a PhD on knowledge transfert, and this video is the second one from @GiantGrantGames that made it onto the list to be analysed. It is just so amazing what time he invests into scripting and designing this experience, so from the bottom of my heart and from a samplesize of 729 curated videos: Thank you Grant for your work, and everything you do, did do and will do. Wishing you all the best and keep it up :)

[@daarom3472]

you can still play, there are some online lobby's and people all pretend Chinese civs don't exist which is a good thing!

[@Player_Kolosus]

he might not but we all do see it

[@draegonspawn5361]

500 agreements later. Good stuff.

[@haakonglindtvad5489]

I can tell you they are making a remaster/remake in the aoe 3 de engine called retold !

[@evandonahue141]

Thank you for this video. It’s so nice to see someone else be as passionate about AOM and have such fond Memories as I do. I love seeing this game get appreciated.

[@notmiscares3918]

Age Of Mythology is one of the most important games of my life, I played it for lots and lots of hours as a child, this video was a very nostalgic experience for me

[@Karnatil]

2:32:00 - Scarabs and Behemoths have one rather large difference. Behemoths regenerate. It's not slow, either, it's 2 health per second. So if you can keep them alive (even if only barely) between fights, Behemoths can keep tanking for you, whereas Scarabs you want to throw in to tank for a long time and then explode over the enemy.

[@oom-3262]

plus scarabs have like way harder attack, dont they?

[@khankhomrad8855]

@@oom-3262 Not really. Both have the save attack. Scarabs do have 1/5 more HP than a Behemoth. Pound for pound the Behemoth is a weaker counterpart of the Scarab which can regen (2 hp/s base and if you go Hecate you can double that).

[@Alstar]

Age of Mythology alongside C&C and Heroes 3 were playing huge part in my childhood. For some reason i enjoyed it far more than Age of Empires series. I'm glad to see this entire Video Essay (Director Cut) (Extended Edition) (Unlimited Words Expansion Pack) (Steal the Human Attention DLC) about it.

[@user-yy5di3qg5u]

Yeah, and I also played this games alongside Warcraft 3 and Dawn of War series (I loved RTS back in the day and still do). Heck, I even played Star Wars Empire at War.

[@AJKiesel]

Nice seeing you here. Love your C&C playthroughs!

[@XochiCh]

@@user-yy5di3qg5u Same here, thats basically my childhood, I even became friends with my "almost a brother" / "brother from another mother" best friend because He mentioned Star Wars: EaW during a class in highschool, and I JUST had to talk to him.

[@annoy4nce648]

I can't believe you didn't even mention the most iconic line in the entire game during the prologue cutscene segment. Actually a crime.

[@DoomOfConviction]

I really enjoyed every bit of your video and the enthusiasm you bring up for this beautiful game I loved to play so dearly in my childhood!

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

Also fun fact, this game's editor was so complete you literally had the option to make cutscenes with it. And the programming was just as good as you say, Grant. You could make it do ANYTHING. Buuut I was a dumb kid and all those trees and technical words scared me so I never actually did complete my custom map about the Guardian with it.

[@filipvadas7602]

I thought the same, but then I learned, at least according to fans who actually made maps and scenarios with proper triggers and cutscenes, that the editor is actually *notoriously* difficult to work with without investing dozens of hours into it.

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

@@filipvadas7602 Well, I wouldn't be surprised. The more powerful a program tends to be, the less user friendly it also tends to be.

[@isidorhlebarov9173]

This is truly a cinematic masterpiece. You were able to come up and execute something that a very small fraction of the content creators are able to do. Grant, you created a 3 and a half hour project which was worth investing every second into. RTS has been a pretty big part of my life too, so having somebody like you to share this passion with is incredible. You are truly awesome! Thank you for making this video and thank you for opening my eyes to one of the most interesting and unique RTS games out there! Continue doing what you do, I am sure there is a lot more ahead of you. I, and everybody here I am sure, will be with you, always!

[@wayzerz2799]

I watched this video so many times by now I love it so much!!! Like it somehow evokes all of the nostalgia in me, thank you

[@lordsilver87]

One of the best videos i've ever seen, thanks for the passion coated content 😊

[@astaroth2454]

Age of mythology and warcraft 3 were my childhood. This game made me obsessed with mythology, especially the greek one

[@seeinred]

This. I love this game.

[@Eloryan]

Same !

[@WillBill6143]

I'm glad AOM is still getting love. This was the first RTS game I played, and my dad introduced me to it.

[@GardenHuud]

Same. Weirdly enough my dad was a gang banging youngin. Went to school n got n electrical engineering degree and in his words became friends with some awesome "G(r)eeks" who introduced him to AoM and in turn led me to the BEAUTIFUL game of mythology

[@aleksandarjankovic4557]

Same i used to play it when i was 6 or 7 my dad introduced it to me too

[@SuperSaglow]

Same

[@henryherrera9111]

Me too my dad bought me the disc 15 years ago at sams.

[@kl00dx]

W dad

[@andreymantrov2559]

Thanks for showing love for this masterpiece. Your video is awesome and totally made me want to play the game again 🎉

[@VVladan91]

I watched the whole video and the game is still awesome as I remember. The video you made is a great tribute to an incredible game

[@filipvadas7602]

1. I love that Age of Mythology in recent years has basically gotten a second lease on life. What was once an underappreciated gem is now rightfully treated as a classic of the RTS genre and I *love it* 2. Its actually crazy how many things were cut for the sake of time and budget. Ranging from extended lines of dialogue that actually make more sense than what we got and give us more of the characters, to massive ships that show the units that are using them, functional bridges etc. They really had a lot of ideas with this game its just a shame not *everything* could fit into a clear vision due to the hardware of the time. Plus, the small plot holes in the story here and there don't help in how rushed some parts are. (Like how dafuq the Atlanteans got stranded if Ajax and Odysseus were leading them home. Did something separate them? Why did nobody look for them? Were they forbidden by Agammemnon fro doing so, as its implied the other Greek colonies are envious of Atlantis and this was a form of payback. You'd think both Ajax and Odysseus would try harder to at least find Kastor, their friend's SON? Were they presumed dead then? Making the reveal of Kastor attacking everyone more shocking. Small stuff but it adds up the more you think about it and that's JUST the Titans Expansion, and speaking of....) 3. To this day I am still salty at the fact that the Titans Expansion ends on kind of a whimper. I mean, yeah, summoning Gaia to fight Kronos is awesome but you'd expect that with all the buildup to the MAIN VILLAIN of the entire game, that it would feel more *apocalyptic* and maybe stretched out into multiple missions with all the factions in the game coming together to hold off Kronos to summon Gaia in time. 4. The music is iconic. Nuff' said. PS: Fixed some errors

[@bluesbest1]

TBH, they really should've referenced the opening cutscene when Kronos found his keys. You know, how there were legions of myth units and Kronos himself was calling down meteors in an extremely epic cinematic.

[@filipvadas7602]

​@@bluesbest1 would have been a cool callback. Making the opening cinematic feel almost like a prophecy that finally came to life.

[@strahinja95]

Bro that is irrelevant because this is a strategy game and not an rpg. The goal of the campaign was to introduce the civilizations, and the mechanics of the game such as raiding, booming, forward basing, etc. The story was secondary, and honestly it was entertaining

[@filipvadas7602]

​​@@strahinja95 not saying it wasn't entertaining or that it didn't serve its purpose. But plenty of RTSs had excellent storytelling to boot alongside their gameplay and presentation. Hell,Warcraft 3 came out a few months before this game so its completely valid criticism.

[@strahinja95]

@@filipvadas7602 i agree, and i think that warcraft 3 is the best game ever made along with WoW. I would guess that Esemble studios was not as big as Blizzard to polish the game to that degree. Lack of $. And also, Blizzard was the highest quality you could get back in the day

[@maxttk97]

Agamemnon not having a weapon and was instead punching people was always very funny 😂

[@peloi111]

What a nice review, you played it greatly and the commentary was excellent, thank you for the trip!

[@ARStudios2000]

You are absolutely correct in how anyone who has played this game still lovingly remembers it, I was one of those kids. My sister got Age of Mythology one day from a random DVD and CD store somewhere back in 2007, and I saw her playing and was immediately drawn into the world. The units, the animations, the visuals, the language, everything was so well done and mesmerizing. I admittedly was a terrible RTS player back then during my kid and teen days, and I don't know how I'd fare today but even if I don't talk about the game for many many years at a time, I will always remember this game.

[@zarfen]

I LOVED Age of Mythology, It's such a shame it didn't get more recognition. My (nostalgic) memory of the campaign is that it was really fun too for an RTS.

[@filipvadas7602]

Well, if its any consolation, this video and the views its getting is proof that this hidden gem has a strong cult following

[@armelior4610]

Grant makes a 3+ hours video on Age of mythology ? Must be a let's play of some of the campaigns map, right ? NO, it's actually really a retrospective in the style of Mandalore (the humor and especially the whole "crocodiles with lasers" meltdown). This is such a great video, I hope he does more of this style on other games. -I knew this game didn't sell as well as its older brother AoE2, but I didn't realise a Stronghold title, of all things, sold twice as much, such a shame. Best RTS of its time until I got warcraft 3 not that much later (which is like making a great movie that releases the same year as The godfather). -The campaign had a pretty cool story overall but so much cutscene incompetence on display it was eye-rolling - every other map the heroes would let the bad guy run away or "Chiron, you know, you could have stayed on the good side of the rockslide" moments. -I remember the buildings being pretty, but the atlantean ones at the mythic age look like something from 2015 ! Fun fact about the ingame codex : when Ajax is transformed into a boar, if you look at the unit info it says something along the lines of : this form may be better suited to his personnality ^^

[@nileprimewastaken]

JUSTICE FOR PETSOBEK

[@richardbruner2674]

Thank you for this video. You beamed me back to my childhood! This game was part of it and it was and it is beautiful. You did a phenomenal job with this video. It was funny, sweet and nostalgic. I hope you are proud of the 3.4 million views. Much love and I hope you will make a "no unit dying" challenge for the campaign :*

[@user-vi3sq3mz4s]

oh my god....HUGE thank you,mate,for this fantastic video about one of the best game from my childhood! take a few days,to see it all

[@williamcoppins6005]

This is awesome! It is a massive shame that YT doesn't encourage or properly incentivise creators to make this kind of content, cause this is a great video - thanks for taking the time to put this together! AoM was a huge part of my childhood, laid the foundation for a lifelong love of RTS - its a pity we don't tend to see in-game choices for tech trees like this anymore

[@arwahsapi]

It's sad people nowadays no longer show love for RTS as more casual hack and slash MMORPG's are prominent these days

[@ajsreptiles6170]

601k views. I think the incentive is there

[@denholmspurr7211]

3 and half hours on AOM and you don’t even mention the incredible editor this game had!

[@eliparker7151]

I spent many an hour building massive armies and having them clash together in that editor. It was like action figures for me. I would try to build balanced and usable maps for real games, but would end up giving myself huge advantages in resources or position just because it was fun to completely demolish my opponents.

[@davidderricott3968]

I never figured out how to upgrade units in the editor. There’s a button for it, but it’s always shaded out or something and I’ve never figured out how to activate it.

[@charlesl3847]

@@davidderricott3968 you can change the age level somewhere, and they will have all tech for that era done

[@bornforburning777]

Nottud's editor superpack. Great stuff. You could achieve absolutely wild things in this editor. Idk if anyone remembers Oscar's Adventurers? Gorgeous level design.

[@zonetropper]

@@davidderricott3968 Aoe3's custom editor actually incorporated an upgrade function where it would give all the units in the editor maximum upgrades but Aom's didn't had such a thing. You had to use the trigger "set tech status" and playtest the scenario for that :)

[@lekobold1]

thank you for the video, this was my favourite game of my adolescence. I had forgotten how big an impact it had on me. thanks for rekindling some ancient but beloved memories, and for a very enjoyable 3.5 hours!

[@Anyaaaaaa]

Thank you so much for this video. I can feel your passion about this game. I miss my childhood so much !

[@aguardsman9862]

My god... Age of Mythology. This game was such a wonderful part of my childhood. Maybe some day I can recover the disk I had. Its so nice to see this game get the recognition it deserves and its nice to see so many people have had similar experiences!

[@yarro1965]

It's on Steam!

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@yarro1965 It is, but at this point it's probably best to just wait for the Retold version to come out. The team behind that has done great work on the other three definitive upgrades of the Age franchise, so Retold should be pretty good.

[@tonythetiger1222]

​@@debesys6306 I loved it too played it a lot back in the day

[@ThisIsABadIdeaSrsly]

The fact that Arkantos and Arthas shared the same voice actor in the spanish version of these games made my childhood 10x better. AoM and WC3, two of my fav games of old days.

[@plushtrbl6831]

This is one of my favorite videos ever, I have no words to describe why though I’m just drawn to it 😂 I’ve watched it 5 times awake and probably 20+ to fall asleep. Thank you! I

[@witch_doctorRO]

Dude You unlocked some memories I never knew I had, I forgot all about this game, is my one and only RTS I ever played

[@khankhomrad8855]

There is quite a bit of cut dialogue that was supposed to play in the cutscenes. Most of what was cut was giving more contextual information on what was happening or why. For example, when you first meet Amanra there is quite a bit of cut dialogue explaining what is going on in Egypt and why she is after the parts of Osiris and her rivalry with Kemsyt.

[@miguelmalvina5200]

they also cut the 20 minute sex cutscene between Amanra and Arkantos too

[@LegoSkeleton]

28:25 The reason the cyclops have goat legs in this game is probably the same reason the medusas have bows: Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans. Guy had a lot of influence on early fantasy games.

[@Whiskers4169]

Wait “medusas” ? There are multiple of her now Alright who is gonna tell Perseus about this

[@itsmesnacks]

@@Whiskers4169 a lot of myth units in this game fall under the "a kind of one" trope, so you can have multiple minotaurs, nemean lions, hydras etc

[@Whiskers4169]

@@itsmesnacks yes I am avare it was a mythology joke about how Perseus will have to cut so many more heads off

[@Haduuna_Wrur]

​@@Whiskers4169 Im late but, this was even true in greek myth to my knowledge. Hence, gorgons...

[@Whiskers4169]

@@Haduuna_Wrur I know but they are not Medusa they are gorgons

[@ravenwinter6984]

I thoroughly enjoyed your video, from start to finish! Even though I am not an RTS fan, my older brother always has been, and from my earliest memories I recall him playing Warcraft 1 and 2, command and conquer, starcraft, and some more obscure titles that elude me at the moment. I could never get into them, despite trying, but they have a warm and special place in my heart because of the how much my brother loved them, and the time we spent together with me watching him play. :) This video really gave me that feeling again, and I think your insight is brilliant on what makes a good game, and how future games can really benefit from ones like Age of Mythology. Thank you for the video!

[@michaeltech7506]

Watched two of your videos and they both said watch this video. So here it is. I loved Age of Mythology.

[@Kantorath]

My dad got AoM after we both really enjoyed Starcraft 1, and it introduced me to the greek, egyptian, and norse mythologies and did a good job of getting across key elements of all three. It got me to dig into those myths and legends (most notably the greek ones) and is responsible for an entire phase of childhood enjoyment for me. It was a fantastic game and I greatly appreciate it for bringing such old stories to a new generation of kids that might have otherwise never have heard of them until they were older and unlikely to be as interested. Great video!

[@bluesbest1]

Yup, this was the game that got me hooked on mythology. Sure, I watched Hercules along with everyone else, but it wasn't until I read Hades' in-game wiki article that I really started getting into it and loving Hades as a concept. And that in-game wiki really helped me understand the concept of the Underworld so much better.

[@danscga2487]

same, the incredible amount of love the game had for the Ancient Times where Gods walked the earth, great game i cant wait for the remastered.

[@thepastmaster5643]

I got the game simply for the Egyptian mythology bit. I loved it as a child, still do, but there as no entertainment media available with it. Everything was all Greek, Greek, Greek. Yes, yes, cool, done to death, NEXT!

[@MatthewSmith-qd6du]

i honestly have to thank youtubes recommendations and algorithms for this video. this was a fantastic video about one the games that defined my childhood, Age of Mythology and age of empires were some of the best and most entertaining RTS's. such a great video to reminisce about what made age of mythology such a great game, of course i should mention the random map which you only slightly talked about but had endless variety and possible fun, cheers

[@zonetropper]

Yeah like most aoe games, the random map script is a very fun gameplay quirk in the franchise. It's interesting that in aoe2 and aoe1 the players know by muscle memory how close each resource will spawn to your base or to adjacent resources, Aom's random map script is a little more advanced because of the calculation of settlement distance, relics, more varied wild animal spawns, the sentry towers...

[@Xdgvy]

A Love letter to a wonderful game. I'm glad you took the time for this.

[@MattoRm10]

Thanks for making this video of my favorite game of all time :D

[@NakamuraRTS]

Thank you very much for making such a detailed documentary of my favorite RTS game! Can't wait to see you cover Retold. Few comments: • It did a lot better than people think. By 2006, it had sold over 1 million copies in the US + UK alone - it's fairly safe to estimate up to 2 million sales globally. And then the Extended Edition sold north of 2 million copies. It's no flop by any means. • Multiplayer and competitive 1v1 do exist, and the shiny myth units and god powers are generally speaking not creating a hellish balance landscape - they can be significant power spikes though. Most myth units are rather expensive, hard to get by, with heroes handling them rather well. God Powers are quite counterable too. Earthquake for example won't wipe out a base that is fortified enough - simply place some extra barracks and upgrade Masons - it will hit a damage cap. • I would love to see exploration of reusable god powers that cost resources in an Age of Mythology 2. Right along with utilizing an AoE 4-like landmark system where you can visibly dedicate yourself to the gods, instead of just clicking an upgrade image. This would be fantastic for multiplayer, adding significant hype moments, and opening up sneaky strategic possibilities of hiding what god you went. It would be sin to not explore options for these! • The Tale of the Dragon DLC's development was a complete mess - it was technically Forgotten Empires doing the heavy lifting, with Skybox being the support studio - I was working on the Chinese civ as a designer, and on rebalancing the classic civs at the time. This kickstarted my game dev career, but on the flipside was an awful experience. We were denied any and all resources, so that a simultaneously developed Age of Empires 2 DLC (The African Kingdoms) could be made into a quality product - which it did. I think there was a ton of potential in the Chinese faction, but cutting corners at every opportunity, and the low production quality and poor narrative of the campaign wasted all said potential. I have a video on my channel called "Is Age of Mythology: Definitive Edition Happening?" where I discuss this, and other problems of the game in detail. I do not blame you for not covering it in this video. Feel free to reach out if you are interested in learning more.

[@benedict6962]

I think something as simple as Wonders regenerating or respeccing god powers would get a lot of work done. You could design them so that you could choose to save them for the biggest effect at late ages, or use them immediately to rush for a victory or a Wonder construction for a second shot.

[@NakamuraRTS]

@@benedict6962 Only an extremely low percentage of games make it to the wonder stage. I've been casting tournaments for years, and it's been at most a handful times for that. This is not the way if you want people to experience the dopamine rush of multi-use god powers.

[@zonetropper]

@@benedict6962 Empire earth addresses that problem. Completely agree with Nakamura that AoAK took a lot of the studio's development time from Tales of the Dork but i would mostly associate of a issue on Microsoft crunching them for 2 things in the same year and obviously FE could just have denied development and work on AoAK first till finalization phase and begin on Tales of the Dork. What actually happened was Rushing Tales of the Dork with no beta testing, no paid scenario designers or paid late*, quickly recorded voice lines with no emotion behind them and the entirety of the asset creation process of reusing and butchering existing units, models or textures. At least FE recouped their Development costs by releasing another HD dlc which everybody and their mother had no problem buying on release even when it introduced the lumberjack issue. That being said, i still think there are awesome people in FE that did give EE life support in the complete neglect microsoft gave and tools for those modding the game.

[@rishoh]

I hope you do more retrospectives like this, It was pretty informative and pretty fun. I think I have this game on my GOG account so I might try it for myself sometime.

[@Andrastos]

i watched this after your 4-hour warcraft 3 video and I love both of them ❤ I also would love to see more of them. I love passion-projects.

[@fabiosoares4450]

This video made me realise how some people are destined to make great work out of their passion.

[@The_whales]

Grant himself also did use his own passion and made this 3 hr long video and smashed his previous record of most views

[@siegdarklyon1900]

The nostalgia that blasts you like a freakin tsunami when the main menu music hits you full volume when you relaunch the game after a few years is just so spot on.

[@JoshKurien]

the way the video ended... with that music :' ) soo accurate

[@qwerty989898989898]

loved this game growing up and I love you Grant for bringing it back to me

[@sorcerross140]

This is still my favorite video grant has made. I love the breakdown of mechanics

[@knst9514]

Something not mentioned but which got me really excited when I first played Age of Mythology is that the Trojan Siege takes exactly 6 missions. Just as much as every campaign in AoE 2 had in total. So I thought back then in the sixth mission that this would be it and was already a bit disappointed that there was only one campaign visible in the start menu. But then after the mission a cutscene shows some unknown cyclops citing poems, talking about everything going according to plan and excavating some crypt. This was the moment I knew that this campaign only just started...

[@zonetropper]

Well there is technically 7 scenarios in total with 3 being just for cinematic reasons. But it's 4 playable ones.

[@BLKCLVR]

I'm no expert at RTS games, but this one in particular was such a huge part of my personal gaming history. I'm so glad my dad was a weird gamer in the early 00s. I've never watched your channel before, but thank you for a love letter to a game that was so significant to me. :)

[@MarioMario-nj6kz]

I’m looking at this game cause I was looking for a game like Black and white 2 is it anything like it

[@alaw4581]

My Dad was a PC gamer in the 2000s and I think I was playing this I was about 4 years old (: It got me really into mythology and stuff and it played a huge part in my childhood

[@nabDoesYoutube]

this is how i got into gaming

[@SapphirosCZ]

Why weird?

[@mrwalter1049]

I'm no expert either, but I still find the time to play through the campaign every few years. I was very obsessed with it as a kid when I managed to get the demo and play it. Eventually I got the actual game and it's still sitting on my shelf even though the disk no longer works properly.

[@Patowo]

Thank you for this video, it was my childhood, when the music in the last seconds started playing, i almost cried form the memories

[@Breadboi-xp4tn]

What a video worth my time way more than most movies!! Brought back some really great childhood memories!!