I have been playing this game since 2002 and still loving it.
If you have played AOE II and are used to the view then this will take a bit of adjusting to as the view is just a bit farther away in AOM than it was in AOE II. However, you have "-" and "+" keys that will adjust the view to your liking, hopefully.
The resources are for the most part kept the same as in AOE2, you have Food, Wood, and Gold, but there is one more, you now have Favor which you must collect as well. Each civilazation gains favor in their own unique way. For the Greeks, they gain favor by having their Villagers (Villies) pray at their Temples. For the Eggyptians, they gain favor by buidling monuments, the more monuments the more favor, also you are limited to being able to build 5-6 momuments only, and each momument is of a different type, you can also build only 1 monument at a time, and the latter monuments give you favor at a faster rate than the earlier monuments. Your Pharoah can also empower you monuments, which will allow you to gain favor at an even faster rate. Finally, Norse gain favor by fighting and by having Norse Heros on the battlefield, these Norse heros are known as Hesers. They are expensive and slow, but they can take a beating and keep on coming, as well as they tend to build much faster than any other normal unit.
Ok there are 3 different civilazations in Age of Mythology: Greek, Eggyptians, and Norse. Each of these civilazations have thier own unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Greek is the standard civilazation and overall the most balanced of the 3. Eggpytians (Eggy) are the best of the 3 at defense, they have the strongest walls, the most powerful towers and the bets counter units. Greek build at a normal build rate, as they are the standard, the have a nice selection of units as well. Eggy build very slow but many of their building cost little or nothing, such as a granary, houses, market, and storeshouses all are 100% free if you play as Eggy. But since thier normal villagers are so slow when it comes ot building and collecting economy (eco), they are given a Pharoah and with the Pharoah they can build faster than any other civilazation in the game, but the pharoah can only be at one place at one time, he is not omni-present. The Norse villagers cannot build, they can only collect resources, and they don't have stationary storehouses that they have to take it to, they have what is called an Ox Cart that moves to wherever they are, this immensely helps thier eco. Norse military units are the only Norse units that can build, and this adds a fantastic ammount of strategy to the game, that means Norse can be, if played well, the quickest civilazation in the entire game, and the most offensive.
For those faithful to the franchise, you are used to upgrading or advancing your entire civilization from one age to another age. The same basic idea is kept in AOM but they've added a twist, you can now choose your path of advancement. This means that upon advancing from Archaic Age (the first age) to Classical Age you can choose which god that you want to advance with out of 2 gods each age. There are 4 ages in total which means you can advance 3 times, Mythic Age being the final stage of advancement. Each god has their own unique God Powers (GPs), a certain new Myth Unit (some gods have multiple MUs per age), and special unit bonuses. The levels of strategy involved in just that, advancing between ages, is already very deep and entire successful strategies can be concocted based soley on the fact of your god path. The God Powers are a new addition to the franchise and I must say an extremely cool addition. These God Powers usually only have 1 effect such as Frost, you can freeze land units and sea units with it, however you cannot freeze arial units using Frost. Frost's total effect is that ability to freeze units, usually freezing an army is the popular chioce. But say you use the Ancestors God Power over land, then for a certain amount of time you are rewarded with a small quick army of Minions that are erected straight up from out of the ground; however, if you chose to use this Ancestors GP over sea in hopes of aiding your naval army, then a sweet and I mean sweet! army of Ghost Ships would surface from the depths of the sea. If you haven't already got the idea, then let me say it now, this game separates itself from the average RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) game in a very good way. The hardest thing for me to get used to when switching from AOE II to AOM was the viewpoint, once you get that everything else should fall into place. Its been nearly 4 years since I played AOE2 also, but the game speed might be a bit faster on AOM, however it has been some time since I played AOE2 so don't quote me on that.
Now lets talk about the units. This is one of my favorite things about this game, aside from the mythological coolness that is seeping out from every corner, this game has a strong focus on military units. And a "fair" focus as well, they use a thing now commonly known as the "Rock-Scissors-Paper Mechanics", this refers to the fighting system. Infantry, the most basic of units, can effectively counter Cavalry, Cavalry can effectively counter Archers, and likewise Archers can effectively counter Infantry. But thats not all, you have 2 more unit types, Myth Units and Heroes. MUs each have different attributes and are good vs different types of units. For example, the Troll is excellent vs Archers and very good vs Infantry, but its not too effective vs Cavalry and its totally ineffective vs Heros. In general, Heros counter MUs.
So then, the commonly asked question is, "What then counters Heros?"
Well a few things counter Heros, lets first describe which hero we are talking about, and yes it does matter which Hero because each has specific strengths and weaknesses just like any other unit, the only difference is that Heros have fewer weaknesses than any other unit type in the game. Norse Heros (Hesers) are slow moving warriors with great attack and good defense, with a ton of health, they can also build very fast. Eggy Heros (Preists) can attcak at range and have a very low attack and a very low defense, but they can heal nearby units and create Oblisks whihc give them a permanent line of site over a large area unitl someone destroys it, and Oblisks are veyr very cheap, 10 gold to be exact. Greek heros are the most sophisticate dof the entire bunch and range form 4 different ones per major god, each has a special attatck that can be used vs normal units and MUs, each Greek Hero has a specific name and usualy incredible defense and and incredible attatck. The reason for this is that Greek only can have 4 Heros on the battlefield at once, while Norse and Eggy can each have as many heros as they want on the battlefield at the same time, because Norse and eggy Heros all have the exact same attributes as the next and in power and skill, they are only good, while Greek Heros are amazing.
Each Myth Unit has a special attack, at least I think every Myth Unit does, there may be a few that don't I'll check on that latter and update it. MU's specials vary from the Minator's Gore Attack that send its foe flying across the screen, and they can be shot over walls and over treelines by this attack, very powerful, to the Enhejar's Moral Boost Shout, which increases the attack of every unit and building that is near them for a short period of time (this includes flying units as well). Another thing is MUs cannot ever, and I mean ever, use thier SPs on Heros; but vs human units the MUs can always use their SPs.
Well I think I pretty much covered everything, after you read this review you will definitely know if this is the game for you, or if you shoudl pass it up. my advice, buy it if you like any RTS game of any sort, because this is the cream of the crop.