History VideoGame / AgeOfMythology

* {{Foreshadowing}}: During the opening cutscene, when the temple begins collapsing, it is ''Poseidon's'' trident that breaks from his statue and almost crushes the protagonist.

* Foreshadowing: During the opening cutscene, when the temple begins collapsing, it is Poseidon's trident that breaks from his statue and almost crushes the protagonist.

** The Norse seem based around this strategy. They can make their basic soldier unit from town centers, this tactic can cripple an opponent early in the game by wiping out his villagers. Their buildings are weak so they rely on rush tactics to gain and keep an early advantage in the game. And their infantry are the ones that actually build buildings. So you can rush your troops in, throw down some training centers outside the enemy's base, and have a steady stream of soldiers rushing them. You also gain Faith from Norse fighting, so attacking with a steady stream of sacrificial lambs is a surefire way to get a massive army if fire-giants relatively quick behind. Oh, [[ButWaitTheresMore and if that wasn't great enough]], Loki's decently cheap heroes can randomly summon myth units in battle, which can lead to an early victory just due to luck.

* AltumVideur: It's impressive how they make scientific names for myth units without resorting to CanisLatinicus.

** One example of DidNotDoTheResearchHowever: The Trojans are shown to be worshippers of [[EverybodyHatesHades Hades]], whereas in ''TheIliad'' and related stories they were followers of Apollo.

* GeniusBonus: 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.

** Which pretty much rules out attacking enemy strongholds, which always have at least one building with ranged attack in addition to the 4 towers everyone starts with.

* GlassCannon: Phoenixes can make a short work of anything without ranged attacks with their area-damaging fire breath, but once they're confronted by some archers they won't last long.

Atlanteans (Cannon).

Egyptians - Soldiers\\

* AGodAmI: The {{Big Bad}}'s motivation for releasing the SealedEvilInACan in the first game.

* AnnoyingArrows: Averted with powerful units like Chiron or other Mythical units.
** Hell, averted with archers full stop.

* FactionCalculus: Taking into account the Titans expansion:
** Greeks (Balanced)
** Egyptians, (Subversive) who eventually get access to War Elephants, Mummies, the Son of Osiris and the best siege in the game, which combined are nearly unstoppable. So it's not really very cut and dry.
** Norse (Powerhouse)
** Atlanteans (Cannon)
*** Alternatively, each faction has area of specialty:
**** Greeks - Balanced
**** Egyptians - Soldiers
**** Norse - Myth Units
**** Atlanteans - Heroes

* FinalDeath: Averted. For vital campaign starting Hero Units, you need only to retake the area for them to get reanimated by the gods, no matter how long they've been laying there.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Loki and Gargarensis order to Arkantos' forces to surrender in exchange for a quick death. Cue Ajax impaling the herald with a ballista dart and shouting [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "We surrender! Come a little closer!"]]

* SpeakingSimlish: Averted with the Greeks, Egyptians and Norse. They actually speak [[BilingualBonus their respective languages]]. Played straight with the Atlanteans.

** Also [[spoiler:Arkantos]] at the end of the campaign

* BalefulPolymorph: During a Campaign mission in which you [[Literature/TheOdyssey visit the isle of Circe]], Arkantos and Ajax get turned into pigs. Thankfully, whilst [[RedShirt ordinary soldiers]] turn into ordinary piggies, heroes apparentely become [[BadAss boars]].

** When witnessing the rebirth of Osiris
** After Thor seals the gate to Tartarus right before his nose
** Right before [[spoiler: he gets [[KarmicDeath skewered by the collapsing Poseidon statue's trident]] ]].
* BiggerIsBetter: The really big myth units such as Cyclops, Colossi, Mountain Giants, Scarabs, etc. destroy buildings in a jiffy. And of course, the really really huge Titan [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever can raze entire cities to the ground]] (unless, perhaps, you make him [[DeathOfAThousandCuts face the endless waves of armies the enemy might send against him in the process]]).
* BlobMonster: The Argo creatures from the sequel are clearly described as floating amoebas with tentacles and many eyes. [[OneHitKill That can cry a stream of acidic tears as his special attack.]]

** Also pretty much in line with the actual mythology, as Hades, while not exactly ''good'', was generally a far nicer and more fair guy than most of his fellow gods, while Poseidon was, even among [[JerkassGods total douchebags]], among the absolute worst.

** Alternatively, each faction has area of specialty:
*** Greeks - Balanced
*** Egyptians - Soldiers
*** Norse - Myth Units
*** Atlanteans - Heroes
* {{Fanservice}}: Is it necessary for the drawing of most of females within the game to have large breasts? Or the goddesses to be {{Stripperiffic}}? They're not entirely alone either - Apollo's image pictures him pretty much naked until a few centimeters above his crotch, and Anubis has a quite well defined chest...
** At one point in the Norse campaign Amanra, the Egyptian girl, complains of the cold due to her [[http://hakojo.deviantart.com/art/Amanra-139860879?q=sort:time+favby:Hakkari&qo=30 outfit]]. This is never mentioned again, however.

* FinishHim: When Arkantos's army defeat "Gargarensis"'s in the Norselands, the heroes manage to capture "Gargarensis" (take note of the quotation marks; he's actually [[spoiler:Kemesyt, but transfigured into the form of Gargarensis via Loki's trickery magic]]. In the end, Ajax even resorts to asking Arkantos whether or not [[spoiler:to put him in a cage somewhere in Atlantis]], rather than [[spoiler:cutting off his head]]. Arkantos refuses, saying [[spoiler:he has done too much against the Atlanteans, and orders to kill him]]. Ajax [[spoiler:chops off his head with a ''large axe'', with no remorse]];

* GiantSpider: Leto's Divine Power summons some spider's eggs which hatch in full grown ground spiders. They'll catch and drag a single enemy soldier underground, and then disappear.

** Favor is a resource you acquire through worship. Greek gods are worshiped in temples, Egyptian gods are worshiped by constructing monuments, Norse gods are worshiped with hack-and-slash, Atlantian gods by controlling town centers.

* HookHand: Kamos. To be specific, a simple hook isn't badass enough for a minotaur pirate, so he use a whole khopesh blade.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Loki and Gargarensis order to Arkantos' forces to surrender in exchange for a quick death. Cue Ajax impaling the herald with a ballista dart and shouting "We surrender! Come a little closer!"

** The Norse Hersir units are shown by names, which are randomly generated from a pool of first names and last name parts. It is possible, through editing some text files, to add some more variety in Hersir names. Some examples include "Hamal Refreshingbeveragemaker", "Hrolf Eggpuncher", and "Egill Griffonminer".

* OneManArmy: Titans can dispatch average armies of human soldiers with ease.

* PublicDomainArtifact: The Relics system is taken from Age of Empires, but in this case each relic is a unique object that gives you a different benefit. They range from "the Nose of the Sphinx" and "Trojan Gate Hinge" to the more whimsical "Boots of Kick Everything". In the middle you have artifacts that who's

* SpeakingSimlish: Units speak in foreign languages. Interestingly, with the exception of Atlantean, they are actually speaking their respective languages.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: All the human units from the Norse faction.

** Two Egyptian myth units, Anubites and a bird-warrior thing, also dual-wield their weapons.

The plot of the original game follows Arkantos, an Atlantean Admiral who battled monsters in his time but is [[GettingTooOldForThis getting old]], and since no one's really attacking Atlantis, he doesn't have much to do. However, after Atlantis is attacked, he goes off to help Agamemnon finish the Trojan War to curry favor with Poseidon. However, after taking Troy and sailing to Greece for repairs, they stumble on a plot by Gargarensis, a cyclops demigod who is trying to help Poseidon release [[SealedEvilInACan Kronos]] from [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Tartarus]]. Naturally, Arkantos needs to stop him, and to do that, he journeys from Atlantis, to Greece, through the Underworld, to Egypt, up to Scandanavia, then back to Atlantis.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Loki and Gargarensis order to Arkantos' forces to surrender in exchange for a quick death. Clue to Ajax impaling a soldier next to Loki with a ballista dart and shouting "[[BadassBoast: We surrender! Come and get us!"]].

* WordSaladTitle: The titles of the pieces in the soundtrack are silly at best, but a few are non-sensical and irrelevant at most.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Loki and Gargarensis order to Arkantos' forces to surrender in exchange for a quick death. Clue to [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Ajax impaling a soldier next to Loki with a ballista dart]] and shouting "[[BadassBoast: We surrender! Come and get us!"]].

* OneManArmy: Subverted by the Titans in multiplayer. Getting them to kill of your enemy's units is asking for them to fall to DeathOfAThousandCuts. Getting them to attack your enemy's buildings will end ''much'' better for you.
** Still, a Titan can dispatch an average army of human soldiers with ease.

** Well, [[spoiler: the original Chiron gave up his immortality, so I guess he did it too.]]

* {{Facepalm}}: Arkantos indulges occasionally, usually during [[DumbMuscle Ajax's]] more spectacular CompletelyMissingThePoint moments.

* AnnoyingArrows

** Right before [[spoiler: he gets skewered by the collapsing Poseidon statue's trident]].