Age of Mythology/YMMV

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• Cult Classic: Age of Mythology was a success, both commercially and with the critics, no doubt about it. But the fact remains that the game was released all the way back in 2002, and even as of 2011, new maps, mods and campaigns are still regularly being made for it, with no sign of stopping anytime soon. The game likely has its unique gameplay mechanics and graphics (which ages surprisingly well for such an old game) to thank for it. It also had a HD re-release on Steam in 2014.
• Franchise Original Sin: The Tale of the Dragon expansion faced some criticism how unbalanced the Chinese were, but many old fans remarked how the game was never really balanced to begin with (especially after The Titans expansion).
• Game Breaker:
  • Unlocking the Titan gate in the expansion before everyone else turns the rest of the match into a Curb Stomp Battle. The intention was to have the Titan be the backbone of an invasion force (and Titan-against-Titan battles can go either way), but in a game with only two or three players the first Titan unleashed usually wins. What's annoying is that you can't disable this feature in the options menu.
  • Atlanteans on a whole. Let's count, shall we? First off, any one of their units can become a Hero (for a price, although there is a God Power to give you free Heroes that can be used three times). Secondly, their builder unit gathers and builds at three times the normal rate, without needing a drop-off point (allowing you to get more and more resources at a faster rate, and advance in tech quicker). Third, it's possible to get both regenerating heroes and regenerating Myth Units (follow the path of Oranus to do that). Fourth, because they gather and build at three times the normal rate, this ends up with them unleashing the Titan first (it is possible for this to not happen, but there's a very good chance they'll get it first) and thus getting a Curb Stomp Battle as their regenerating Titan almost single-handedly stomps everybody (though it is possible to beat them, if only by throwing absolutely everything you have at it. Greeks get it the worst because they only get four Hero Units) and breaks the other Titan Gates before anybody else gets their Titan. And they get Favor just from existing, where as the others need to do something else first (worship for Greeks, statues for Egyptians, and smacking dudes for Norse). And many if not most of their god powers can be used multiple times, unlike any of the other god powers in the game, although many of them are weaker than normal god powers or are designed for multiple uses.
    • That said, Atlantean citizens cost about as much as two regular villagers and a norse ox cart, and usually start the game with a single one. Also upgrading units to heroes is very expensive, and doesn't always pay off.
    • Combine this with the effect of the Titans, and it's easy to see why at least one person considers the Titan expansion Fanon Discontinuity.
  • Deliberately used for the Lazer Bear, unlocked through the O CANADA cheat. It not only causes huge damage with its laser vision attack, but also travels at such ludicrous speeds that one cannot help but chuckle at it.
• Genius Bonus: If you look closely at the campaign maps, you'd notice that Atlantis and New Atlantis in the expansion are the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Bohol respectively.
• Goddamned Bats: Militia. They're weak human infantry who spawn whenever you destroy a building from a Poseidon player. Naturally, later on in the campaign most of the Greek enemies are Poseidon, and you frequently have to chew through dozens of buildings to win a level.
• Good Bad Bugs: While worshiping Osiris, if you research New Kingdom and use Son of Osiris on the second Pharaoh, the game thinks the Pharaoh died and he will resurrect, which means you can have two pharaohs and the Son of Osiris!
• Mary Sue: Arguably, Arkantos. The original campaign is effectively an elaborate Crossover Fic with Arkantos inserted into the Trojan War (and given the idea for the Trojan Horse) and events in Egyptian and Norse mythologies with Gargarensis' plot interwoven with them. Now read his flavor text. Atlantis' empire was beset by invaders and on the brink of complete collapse until Arkantos showed up and pwned Atlantis' enemies so completely that he starts the campaign with nothing to do. Think maybe the game designers wanted to sell their OC as a legitimate Greek hero and Badass a little too much? Funnily enough, Arkantos is arguably among the weakest heroes to play in the campaign, and certainly has the weakest special power of rallying nearby troops to do a little extra damage for a short time.
• Most Annoying Sound:
  • Taunt 999: "This is... RTS 3!" while sounding like chipmunks singing. Particularly annoying in Multiplayer games, where Trolls will continue to spam it.
  • Also, the priest conversion noise (a.k.a. the "wololo" noise) from earlier installments in the series also returns as one of the taunts, with similar results to the above.
• Narm: The first third of The Titans campaign does not get off to a good start due to the rather questionable vocal performances of the new actors, and even a returning one in the case of Krios. It can be very jarring coming straight from the excellent voice work in the original Fall of the Trident campaign. Luckily Arkantos, Amanra and Ajax appear later to ease some of the pain.
• Narm Charm: The voice acting in all the campaigns wouldn't be out of place in an old sword-and-sandal B-movie, as such many fans find it a treat to listen to.
• The Scrappy: Pangu the Chinese Titan was poorly received by people unfamiliar with Chinese mythology, mostly due to its unpolished design.
• Special Effects Failure: Quite a few of the Tale of the Dragon models are poorly done, especially the myth units. Even the cinematics for the campaign is bare bones and mostly relied on Greek/Atlantis tilesets to replicate Chinese architecture. That said some fans actually LIKE this for this very fact, feeling it makes the expansion feel more like it came from the game's original release.
• That One Boss: Ymir the norse titan from the titans campaign, you have to stop him from destroying the villages on his way to your base, but this is difficult because he can easily kill your soldiers and he sends enemies to attack your base many times throughout the mission which makes it very annoying to split troops to stopping Ymir and defending your base, Folstag can stun him with his breath but even so, Ymir makes the mission quite challenging.