It's perfectly possible to finish the game without all that, of course, but it will probably help to navigate through its maps and mission objectives - intentionally often complex, full of hidden effects, but often to the point of becoming confusing -, bugged items - some of them seem downright ineffective - and unconsistant mechanics.
For I must agree with some (though not all) of its common critics: despite quite a lot of great gameplay promises, very appealing aesthetics, plus solid research about its historical (and mythological) background, the end result lied unfortunately far below what it could have been.
1) Gameplay possibilities are often more subtle, fun and satisfying than expected, with many units, special powers and items there. Nothing groundbreaking, but enough to keep you occupied for a couple of runs... Unfortunately, they also often boils down to a combination of war party, items and positioning optimization far less interesting than you'd like it to be. On the long run, a small (but) strong army relying on simple synergies with work better than a larger one, even well organized, and the lack of "Pause" option to give orders - you can pause the game, but can't interact with your units in any way while doing so - actually promotes the use of quite basic (offensive) tactics. This also implies a lot of flawed options : the Patrol option never works well, the Hide function is very rarely useful, formation effects may or may not be applied, there's no way to ask a unit to guard another one, troopt behaviour (though aggressiveness - how often should one attack - and bravery - how often should one retreat - can be set with decent precision - can become a bit erratic when scripts collide with one another, etc. And all this becomes annoying (on top of being deadly) when coupled with that lack of real-time pause, the (frequently) tight quarters in which you'll have to fights, all the while pressured by one of the only (astute or lazy, depending on how you view it) method developers use to keep an RTS player on his toes : timers. Places to be on time, people to defend, ephemeral effects from which you'll want to benefit, etc. On top of that lands the weird decision to limit a player's interaction time with each mission to a few dozen seconds (15 to 30) once that mission's last objective is over. Which will then often force people to rush desperately in order to collect items or explore parts around them instead of savouring their victory... Don't get the wrong idea : the game's filled with small little details which completely avoid the boredom (or freedom) of classic map strategies, just ordering your neat little optimized army and pushing (or retreating) at your own discretion, conquering everything little by little. Well, here, you often won't have that luxury, but this comes at a hefty cost : even while the (in game) narrator gives you his introduction to the map, you'll be struggling to select your troops, assign your keybinds and formations, etc. There's (not always of course, but) sometimes litteraly no second to spare if you want to complete every possible objective without losing men. And that's playing on "Normal" mode. There are two others above that if for those who enjoy challenges...
2) Aesthetical quality varies a lot... and I'm not specifically talking about the graphics, which one may or may not enjoy. I'm quite fond of isometric 3D game which include lots of neat animated details (such as this one), but voxel-based titles were indeed already quite dated by the time this one came out. More importantly, sound effects, voices and musics aren't very consistent : lots of them can be (very) enjoyable and one has to mention the huge number of small musical cues or parts used to underline a special character's appearance, event or script's effects during missions. Richard Brand's compositions are completely worth it ! But they often don't delve deep into the (antic) themes they're supposed to express. I wouldn't call them "bland" - well, the ending is rather bland, though that's another issue -, but understand why some people thought so... No, the real gripe concerns numerous (small) oversights: mistakes about some special characters' names for example, swapped with another or sometimes simply forgotten. You'll see from time to time the same character, whose model is similar to a common villager, losing his name in the process. This problem carries on in the narrative department : though the game's scenario contains numerous small sub-plots, almost none of their elements are (visually) tied up in the game : a supposedly important object you've been talked about is sometimes unindiscernible from common objects... or simply doesn't appear at all (and is implicitely treated as if you've found it during the mission's course). Similarly, the audio cues don't follow the developers' own rules : the common effect used to inform the player about completed objectives actually doesn't always do that, leaving one even more puzzled as to why he has (or hasn't) obtained the maximum amount of experience per map.
3) The said greek background wasn't enough put to use: characters, dialogs and themes often feel far too modern, full of regards to western pop culture references, corny jokes or character interpretations, with special attention for harpies (half women half bird fantastic creatures) called "chicks" in a dialog, Poseidon appearing as a high school bully with self-confidence issues - though one has to salute his dedicated voice actor for bringing the (funny) best out of his dialogs - or numerous (modern) fictional characters who often play no part at all in the story, invented for the sake of an easy joke (a lad called "Wuss"ley for example, trying to anger you with non-stop annoying comments. Apart from that, the game's quite obviously inspired (and in a good way !) by the old Clash of the Titans movie. This helps to accept his insistance on epic aspects common in Hollywood dramas, but deprives the scenario from exploring its more tragic potential - unavoidable and constantly hinted at, with so many greek myths tackled throughout the missions. In the end, the result fails to deliver, like some kind of common soap opera, generic Netflix show or action game about bravery like you've probably red, seen or played through so many times.
So why should one still try to finish it in the end ? Well, I played through it... twice... and that's because it actually still manages to produce a good (old) experience which you'll probably enjoy - provided that you're warned in advance about its shortcomings:
- I strongly advise you to save not only in between missions (Mission 1, 2, 3, etc.), but also during them... several times (Mission A, B, C, etc.), for the game may crash at random. Not during the gameplay itself - this is extremely rare -, but when one tries to load a mission. This is erratic, probably tied to some versions of Windows rather than others, but, unfortunately, includes the game's normal process once a mission ends (!) and it proceeds to the next one. So you may very well be clicking like a mad man during the 20 seconds you're still allowed to interact with the map after completing its primary objective, just to meet a nasty crash at the count of "0"...
- Try to understand every mission's mechanics, regarding its primary, but also its secondary objectives. The manual explicitely warns the player : not all of them are explicitely told, you'll have to explore or test on your own, but most of them are heavily hinted through the mission's theme, NPC conversations or special items found here and there. Earning the (300 points) maximum experience gain helps a lot as missions go on. If you didn't get 300, you surely missed something...
- Similarly, try to organize yourself in order to obtain as many items or gold bars - through breaking boxes, chests, barrels, but also killing minions - before tackling or finishing the last mission objective. That will simplify not only the aforementioned rush, at the end of each mission, but also help you to upgrade your war party on a regular basis.
- Saving God Points - preserved from one mission to another (up to an upgradable maximum amount) - and keeping unneeded items - such as Ambrosia, only truly useful during late game missions, when a hero's massive health bar can't be replinished easily with more common healing items - can go a long way. Of course, this depends on your hero choices and usual strategies and some (low cost) Appeals (or powers) can be used a bit more often with success...
- A specialized army containing only 3 types of units will (usually) have enough money for full upgrades by the end of the game. Anymore unit types than that - you're limited to 6 types if you want to (also) keep your 4 heroes - and you'll have to factor in your long term strategy lower (or less improved) end game characteristics. Not that it really matters in lower difficulty modes (Easy and Normal), since your heroes can end up doing most of the work by themselves if you've nurtured them well, but it clearly gives way to several distinct ways to end the game - and hopefully reach a high score kept in its Hall of Fame ! That's what convinced me to immediately start a second run after the first one ^^...
I would have prefered to rate it 4/5 - read the manual ! Its sole introduction is worth that score... -, will only rate it a solid 3/5 instead (because of its numerous small flaws, despite a strong core of ideas), but will probably remember it as a personal favorite. It did sincerely aim at achieving quite a unique result... Too bad its mechanics lacked a bit of polish.
Have fun !
Post edited November 10, 2023 by Zaephir-Moth
