For some reason these gates are scattered all over the world, leading Arkantos (and various friends he makes along the way, including Ajax and Chiron) on a journey through Greece, Egypt, and Scandinavia, trying to fight their way through each region’s mythology. This enemy force is trying to uncover entrances to the Underworld so that they can find the adamantine gates of Tartaros, which they then try to break through with a giant battering ram. In the first campaign you play as Arkantos, an Atlantean (here they worship Olympian gods rather than Titans) admiral who goes from fighting alongside the Greeks in the Trojan War to discovering a conspiracy to free the Titans. However, rather than discussing broad connections like this, I’m going to focus on the story the game presents through two different campaigns (made up of a series of missions, each of which advances the plot when you win) about an attempt to free the Titans and overthrow the Olympians.Ī Greek army (including siege towers, hoplites, a few minotaurs, and some hydras) attacks enemy fortifications. The way these mechanics are implemented plays with and disregards myth in interesting ways: for example, myth units are summoned with a resource called “favor” from your temples, so that here the monsters of myth are seen as being gifts to human civilization from the gods (and consequently fighting alongside human soldiers) instead of the strange product of divine/monstrous mating and a subsequent threat to human civilization. the Kraken, then this is the game for you. So basically if you’ve ever wanted to see who would win in absurd mythical face-offs like Heracles vs.

The myth portion comes from the fact that it incorporates mythology into the game-play in different ways: you choose which gods from your culture’s pantheon to worship, and depending on your choices get access to different “god powers” (such as striking down an enemy unit with one of Zeus’ lightning bolts), mythical upgrades (like stronger weapons from Ares), mythical heroes (like Ajax and Odysseus) and specific “myth units” (like centaurs). The strategy portion of the game requires you to manage resources, build buildings, and control armies to beat your enemies.

The modern adaptation I’ll be using is the videogame Age of Mythology, a strategy game (that stole a fair chunk of my childhood) in which you try to destroy your opponents as one of four civilizations inspired by a combination of history and mythology: Norse, Egyptians, Greeks (worshipping the Olympian gods), and Atlanteans (worshipping the Titans).

Age of mythology titan gate