The Atlantean culture, as with many RTS games, brings with it the typical military, civilian and scout units, and the gameplay for each is what you’d expect from the genre. Likewise, the original AOM contained specific heroes for each culture, so with Titans’ addition of a new culture, the Atlanteans, you’d expect the expansion to follow protocol and introduce some new heroes and maybe a nifty feat or two. True to form, the game has these enhancements. But the real expansion resides in its new campaign, unlimited heroes, additional god powers and the ultimate warriors, the Titans.

In an almost-first for an expansion pack, one of the best features of Titans is the new campaign, which consists of 12 levels and carries you through the events leading up to the Atlanteans being tricked into freeing the Titans. While the intro commentary is quite corny, it becomes more interesting after the first couple of scenarios and actually sets the stage for the rest of the game, which provides some diverse scenarios that somehow fit together seamlessly. After a few scenarios, the story really pulls you into the role of an Atlantean.

Titans pulls away from the original AOM, though, when it comes to heroes. Where the original AOM cultures contained specific heroes unique to that culture, the Atlanteans surpass those limitations by being able to promote any unit to hero status. Simply select a unit, and you have the option to make that unit a hero.

It’s not exactly a free society, though, because the number of heroes you can promote is directly related to the amount of resources you can gather to pay the associated costs. This investment is clearly worth your while, because promoting workers to heroes improves their gathering performance, which in turn fills your resource coffers, which in turn allows you to increase the hit points and attack points of heroes. In the end, the once-costly investments will greatly improve your effectiveness against the game’s 12 new myth units.

Titans also introduces 12 new god powers, all of which can have a distinct impact on your gameplay strategy. Gaia’s Forest, one of the new powers, builds a never-ending forest in an area you choose, which greatly assists your gathering units by allowing new trees to spring forth after workers have chopped one down. This then helps you increase your resources to promote heroes.

Once you have a phalanx of willing soldiers, though, you’d hate to leave them all dressed up and nowhere to go. So what do you do? Use the new Vortex power. Vortex allows you to transport absolutely every military unit to one spot on the map. This comes in rather useful in battle, because you can place a Vortex near your enemies and transport every military unit to that location.

The question welling up in any strategist’s mind, then, is whether the enemy can make use of a Vortex to retaliate? Fortunately, this particular god power is a one-way tunnel of absolute domination and cannot be turned against you. However, there are plenty other powers that can be turned to serve the enemy. Gaia’s Forest, for instance, only grows where it is planted, without any regard to the side that’s doing the chopping.

Movement isn’t quite as "Vortex easy" when it comes to the game’s true powerhouses, though, and that’s where The Titans gets quite strategic. Those powerhouses, the Titans, truly tower over the rest of the units, and enemies have almost no chance of defeating a Titan without having one of their own. Naturally, you’ll want to move your Titan(s) around the map for complete domination. But therein lies the challenge, because calling Titans forth is strategic in and of itself.

Once a culture reaches the Mythic Age, the Town Center provides research for "Secrets of the Titans." Upon completion of your research, you can place a Titan Gate anywhere on the map and send your workers to finish construction. When the Titan emerges, victory seems all but certain… unless you are isolated by water… and don’t have an underground passage… in that case your Titan is simply a large protector of your kingdom. Somehow the creators forgot to add a means of transporting the most domineering warrior over the waterways. They are apparently too large for ships, but too small to wade through the water. If an enemy is on a separate island and you want to attack it with a Titan, you have to build a Titan gate directly on enemy ground. In the process, your enemy will try to attack, so planning your offensive will involve more than a bit of advance planning.

While it’s a fair assumption that most Titans players will be experienced RTS fans, there may be a few newbies who want to try their hand at the genre. To them, I say: avoid the Easy difficulty. The AI resistance in Easy is almost non-existent, and the only real reason you should use it is if you want to blow through a level to save time. The moderate setting is much more fun, even for the new RTS gamer, while AOM pros will find a sufficient challenge on the Hard and Titan levels.

The soundtrack and general sounds for the game are also nice, and they fit the theme very well without being too distracting. The music lends to a magical era when myths were reality and men were mere mortals. Common environmental sounds of construction and battle are intriguing but nothing to scream about, but it’s great fun to hear a battalion of archers whiz arrows through the air while horseman scream as they’re thrown down by a Myth unit. The sounds certainly maintain your interest, but they’re for the most part typical of the genre.

The graphics are also consistent with the RTS genre, and while not the best, they’re quite nice to look at. Units flow well and are easy to differentiate from one culture to another, but there’s something that keeps the quality a little below what most gamers are accustomed to with the more recent RTS titles, especially where character details are concerned.

Overall, Age of Mythology: The Titans is a good buy for those who already own Age of Mythology, although newcomers might consider the cost of purchasing both the original and the expansion a bit steep. Both experiences are certainly fun, but there may be something of better value if you’re not sure whether this series or genre is right for you.