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WhenMythwas first announced and we were presented with those screenshots filled with carnage, most of us went "cool" and smacked our lips in anticipation. With every new taste from the hype machine the expectation for of gamers grew. But as time marched on and more and more proclaimedMythas being "The Next Big Thing" I was concerned whether I would be disappointed if it wasn't the be all and end all of real-time wargaming (an affliction currently making the**Starcraft**rounds in my mind). I am quite pleased to say thatMyth has met every one of my expectations and surpassed it. It is one of the few instances in recent memory where reality has matched hype.
The squeamish need not apply
Any review must start with the graphics. Awesome. Phenomenal. Breath-taking. Stunning.Mythgoes beyond the cliché "visual treat". I am a big fan of realism and like the idea of being able to tell where a battle has taken place by the pools of blood that have formed on the ground (shades of Mel Boy's Braveheart) and this game does not disappoint. Most game developers have tended to shy away from showing the brutality of hand to hand combat. NotBungie. Carnage is everywhere, a very refreshing change from the sanitized battlefields of previous games.Myth , in many ways, reminds me of the first time I saw Apocalypse Now. Up until then war movies were very unrealistic, with wounded soldiers just grasping their sides and falling down. No blood. No arms getting blown off. I believe thatMythwill become a watershed of realism much in the way that Apocalypse Now became. I think that hand to hand combat games will have a hard time following these footsteps. It's just so damn cool to watch the blood flow during and after a battle. A warning to those who do not share my love of gore: if you are squeamish then this is not the game for you. While there is a "no blood" option, as of the latest patch it has not been implemented yet (and I don't think it should be - part of the extreme coolness ofMythcomes from watching bodies and limbs flying in every direction, though maybe that's just me).
The graphics on my puny P133 (the bare minimum thatBungierecommends) are awesome. I loaded the game on a friend's P200 with a 3dfx card and there was some improvement, but not enough for me to justify buying a new computer. Kudos forBungiefor making the game accessible to those of us who have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the computer update shop every year or so.Mythcomes out of the box as a hybrid PC/Mac CD-Rom. Though I own a PC and generally feel sorry for Mac users who will not march behind the WinJackboots of The Company (and therefore miss out on so much cool stuff), I am quite pleased thatBungieincluded native support for both.Mythalso gets a big-thumbs up for its user-friendly configuration program. The fact that a gamer can program his or her own keyboard shortcuts is a great deal (particularly for those of us who are left-handed).
Mythuses a true 3d engine and terrain does affect gameplay. Obviously being on high ground is going to give you an advantage over your valley-stuck victim. The terrain is varied, from night-time town fighting to the desert to snow-capped passes.Mythalso features a dynamic weather/environment model (water ripples, snow covers tracks, rain snuffs out fire, etc) that is advanced enough that powerful explosions leave blackened craters. In a nice touch dynamic shadowing is used so every object has a shadow or a reflection in the water. The perspective is user-defined using a 3d camera that can pan, zoom and orbit to the gamer's content.
ComparingMythtoCommand & ConquerorWarcraft or any of its clones would be a mistake. There is no building or resource management inMyth- it is a pure tactical game. The story itself is your basic good guys vs. bad guys with a heavy dose of Tolkein tossed in. You have a mission. You do it. The mission is tough but you are up to the task. In the movie A Bridge Too Far there is a scene where a General asks for a volunteer: "we need somebody brave enough to do it. We need somebody smart enough to do it. And we need somebody stupid enough to do it". InMyth, you are that dumb volunteer: you know you will be facing a force ten or twenty times your size, but hey, somebody's got to do it.
There is a good mix of scenarios included in the box product, and unlike a lot of games whose scenarios which follow a linear path (easy to hard or vice-versa),Bungiehas decided to mix and match as they go along, a much more tension-building realistic approach. The scenarios flow a lot better when you have a hard mission followed by an easier one which leads to a challenging fire fight. As an aside, it would have been nice to be able to pick and choose which units go on which missions, but this is a small quibble.
In between each scenario is a well-done cut-scene, admirably narrated by Geoffrey Charlton-Perrin who adds the right mix of desperation, gloom and misplaced optimism. What I found irritating were the animated cut-scenes that pop up every so often. They don't really add to the story or to the mood of the game, so why didBungie include them? They are eye candy where eye candy is not needed. There are five difficulty settings included (timid, simple, normal, heroic and the aptly names legendary). As with all games the harder the setting the more enemies you have to kill, the harder they are to die, the less cover you have and the less good units you will possess.
With no building or resource management, the finite number of troops in each mission becomes a key focus. You just can't go off without a plan or send your troops off to die confident that you can build more reinforcements. There are none. The computer AI is very decent in setting traps, ambushes and trying to flank you. It will also retreat when faced with certain defeat. Unlike games such as***Age of Empires*, your units will try to engage enemy units that get close enough and will even attempt to surround them in battle. Even the dreaded friendly fire issues that plaguedAoEare tempered by the panache that surroundsMyth. Like the dumb as posts catapult units inAoE, dwarves inMythoccasionally launch their molotov cocktails and take out friendly troops. But they apologize for doing so. What I do like about the AI in terms of this issue is that units will move to avoid hitting their own troops if they can - I watched as my archers moved to get into better position and avoid hitting my warriors and was quite amazed.
My only quibble with the AI is the non-implementation of fatigue and injury factors. An unit with almost zero health will still fight and move as fast and as a strong as a perfectly healthy unit. Surely there might have been some way to penalize injured units in the solo gameplay (though I would want an option to turn off this penalty in m/p as it would distract from the carnage of a good melee battle). Unlike theClose Combatgames that deal in a large part with the psychological aspects of warfare, there is no morale to deal with inMyth. However, this is not a problem for me because if you are in the midst of an ongoing war where the only options are kill or be killed, morale is really not a factor.
There is no background music during the scenarios to speak of, so we won't. Not a big problem for me, as I often found the inclusion of a soundtrack mildly irritating unless it has a period flavor to it. And music would just distract from the cool battlefield sounds anyway.
Flaws? We don't need no stinkin' flaws
Well, the manual is sparse but adequate. It gives you the bare minimum of what you need to play the game and not much else (a full half of the manual is dedicated to multiplayer). FortunatelyMythis an easy game to learn (though it is hard to master), and with no true strategic elements the learning curve is fairly flat. The only truly difficult thing withMythwas the gesture clicking, but this element was reasonably solved with the 1.1b2 patch (this review used the 1.1b5 patch). Before the patch gesture clicking was a case of annoyance and frustration. I would have preferred an easier method or ordering my troops to turn around (such as inGettysburgwhere you could turn your units with a simple click), but after a little bit of practice and the inclusion of the patch gesture clicking becomes second nature.
If this game were a solo-only product it would rate a Silver Medal. There are only 25 single-player scenarios and you can only play the Light forces. There is no random map generator or scenario builder. It's a shame that companies are producing products without taking into consideration the fact that a large percentage of gamers do not play games online (according to a recentComputer Gaming Worldpoll only 23% of the casual gamer and only 40% of the core gamer play games online). As a solo product I would hope thatBungiebrings out an add-on that gives the solo gamer a few more scenarios (or even a dark campaign), and a random map generator/scenario builder.
That being said, as a multiplayer productMythshines. Yes it is a cliché to say that a game shines in multiplayer (what game does not shine in multiplayer?), but it is the ease of playing a m/p game that elevatesMythinto kick-ass territory.Bungie.netis a great value for gamers. It's not a games server per se, but rather an extended meet and greet forum (the person who hosts a game becomes the game's server during the game). I have a 33.3 modem and found no problem with hosting games. You could play with a 28.8 modem, but obviously the better your modem is the less the lag.Bungie.netis free, has a nice, easy interface and lots of rooms to meet and greet your next victim, er, opponent. The server is stable (although I have experienced a few problems, mostly revolving around the dreaded "host disconnects") and best of all, there is a good variety of maps and types of network games.
Mythis as meat and potatoes a game for m/p as you will get. No resource management, no building a barracks or other assorted buildings. Pick your troops and go kill. That's it. With games lasting 10 minutes or so, m/pMythis a blast. One of the more popular games is King of the Hill. Basically you and your enemies start in different corners of the map and move to the center. The last army to have control of the flag wins. To say that carnage ensues is an understatement. A veritable bloodbath occurs. Some other options include the ability to have team vs. team play, allowing veteran units that survived your previous net game to carry over, unit trading (ability to create your own army), and the use of a strategy chalkboard in team situations. At the end of each m/p game there is a nice summary screen and you are given the ability to save the film of the carnage for future study or bragging rights.Mythalso has m/p support for up to 16 over TCP/IP or AppleTalk and the usual modem and direct serial support.
Reality exceeds hype
Mythis a graphical tour du force. It takes your average tactical wargame and adds great graphics, a true 3d engine, a good story and tons and tons of panache (the Scottish beserkers, the apologetic dwarves, the wights that leaves craters when they explode, the shadows in the water, etc). Graphically there is nothing out there that will prepare you for a melee bloodbath inMyth. The game may make some squeamish, but to those of us who love realism (and to be honest gore in general) the game is a godsend. The carnage of this game establishes a watershed for tactical hand to hand combat gaming. The solo-only gameplay is limited with no random map generator or scenario builder, but if you have a modem then log ontoBungie.netand prepare for some extreme and righteous bloodshed. Given all the hype that preceded the game it would have been easy to be disappointed, butMythis one of the few instances in recent memory where reality has matched and exceeded the hype.
Review By GamesDomain
