FYI: This review covers both Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter since the best way actually to play the original is through The Fallen Levels mod for Soulblighter. It’s a godsend for those who want to skip all the usual hurdles of playing a 25-year-old game. Get your hands on Myth II (it’s 2023, I’m sure you’ll manage somehow), patch it up for modern computers with the excellent Project Magma patch, and install the Fallen Levels; a perfect recreation of the first game’s campaign, complete with cutscenes and mission briefings, made through Soulblighter’s map maker.
Aaaaanywaaaaay. Myth is amazing. Or as my friends used to call it; “Myst? Yeah, I’ve played it. Really boring though. Oh, MYTH. Hmm. Nope, never heard of it.” If Marathon is (or until recently; was) obscure, Myth seems virtually unknown. Like Marathon, probably because it was a bigger deal on Mac than Windows PC.
Basically, Myth plays like an RTS game for people who don't like RTS games. It’s been described as a Real-Time Tactical game instead, which I guess sums up the gameplay pretty well. I'm sure Myth didn't invent the genre or anything, but at least I hadn't played anything quite like it upon its release. Myth opts out of resource harvesting and base construction, and instead puts focus on troop formation and management. It drops you a predetermined number of units at the start of every mission and leaves you to your own devices.
This makes every mission feel fresh and unique. Even though the objectives aren’t all that varied - you’ll run across maybe 3-4 mission types - the predetermined troop deployment forces you to rethink your tactics and approach to match your team.
Physics, terrain, elevation, and weather bring a certain element of unpredictability to the game, which in turn underscores the importance of troop placement. Like, chucking a Molotov at a group of monsters engaged with your infantry is a really bad idea, since it will turn everything in its blast zone to red mush.
It also requires a lot of on-the-spot thinking and rearrangement of units, depending on what kind of threat turns up around the next bend. Slow-mowing thralls are easily picked apart by your bomb dwarfs and mopped up by broadsword-wielding berserkers. Lightning bolt-shooting Fetch-sorcerors, on the other hand, are better left for your archers to tag before they get too close and turn your team into smoldering charcoal.
So, a steep learning curve with at least three "oops"-moments is an obligatory rite of passage for any desktop commander (okay, maybe five). But man is it fun when you get the hang of it. Or when corralling a large group of enemies into a bottleneck, just to set off a bomb trap and listen to the chunky sound effects of blood and guts raining down.
But the ace up Myth's sleeve is its presentation. Sure, it looks like a semi-3D game from 1997 because, well, it is. I don't particularly mind as I find the graphics charming, and Project Magma-patch goes a long way to spruce up textures and beef up the resolution. [SIDENOTE: I remember booting up Myth III, not developed by Bungie and in full early-aughts 3D, for the first time a distinctly feeling "thanks. I hate it"].
The sound design is great, the music even better (if you've ever dudududu'ed while escaping with Master Chief from an exploding space station, you have Myth to thank as it was Martin O'Donell's first Bungie game) and the mission briefings are excellent. No, really. This comes up a lot when talking about Myth, and how Bungie both manages to flesh out the world through them and make you invested in its ultimate fate. The grizzled narrator reading excerpts from a warrior's diary really sells what would be a pretty standard high-fantasy story in less capable hands. Grim-dark might be overstating it, but certainly bleak with just the right amount of self-seriousness. It’s sets the tone perfectly.
I wish I had the time to play through Myth more often. Now it’s more like once every 5-6 years. But every time I remember why I keep coming back to a game that most of the world has moved past. Here’s hoping that the next time Bungie has a big announcement it’s Myth-related. And not some god-awful PvP games-as-a-service shooter.
Aaaaanywaaaaay. Myth is amazing. Or as my friends used to call it; “Myst? Yeah, I’ve played it. Really boring though. Oh, MYTH. Hmm. Nope, never heard of it.” If Marathon is (or until recently; was) obscure, Myth seems virtually unknown. Like Marathon, probably because it was a bigger deal on Mac than Windows PC.
Basically, Myth plays like an RTS game for people who don't like RTS games. It’s been described as a Real-Time Tactical game instead, which I guess sums up the gameplay pretty well. I'm sure Myth didn't invent the genre or anything, but at least I hadn't played anything quite like it upon its release. Myth opts out of resource harvesting and base construction, and instead puts focus on troop formation and management. It drops you a predetermined number of units at the start of every mission and leaves you to your own devices.
This makes every mission feel fresh and unique. Even though the objectives aren’t all that varied - you’ll run across maybe 3-4 mission types - the predetermined troop deployment forces you to rethink your tactics and approach to match your team.
Physics, terrain, elevation, and weather bring a certain element of unpredictability to the game, which in turn underscores the importance of troop placement. Like, chucking a Molotov at a group of monsters engaged with your infantry is a really bad idea, since it will turn everything in its blast zone to red mush.
It also requires a lot of on-the-spot thinking and rearrangement of units, depending on what kind of threat turns up around the next bend. Slow-mowing thralls are easily picked apart by your bomb dwarfs and mopped up by broadsword-wielding berserkers. Lightning bolt-shooting Fetch-sorcerors, on the other hand, are better left for your archers to tag before they get too close and turn your team into smoldering charcoal.
So, a steep learning curve with at least three "oops"-moments is an obligatory rite of passage for any desktop commander (okay, maybe five). But man is it fun when you get the hang of it. Or when corralling a large group of enemies into a bottleneck, just to set off a bomb trap and listen to the chunky sound effects of blood and guts raining down.
But the ace up Myth's sleeve is its presentation. Sure, it looks like a semi-3D game from 1997 because, well, it is. I don't particularly mind as I find the graphics charming, and Project Magma-patch goes a long way to spruce up textures and beef up the resolution. [SIDENOTE: I remember booting up Myth III, not developed by Bungie and in full early-aughts 3D, for the first time a distinctly feeling "thanks. I hate it"].
The sound design is great, the music even better (if you've ever dudududu'ed while escaping with Master Chief from an exploding space station, you have Myth to thank as it was Martin O'Donell's first Bungie game) and the mission briefings are excellent. No, really. This comes up a lot when talking about Myth, and how Bungie both manages to flesh out the world through them and make you invested in its ultimate fate. The grizzled narrator reading excerpts from a warrior's diary really sells what would be a pretty standard high-fantasy story in less capable hands. Grim-dark might be overstating it, but certainly bleak with just the right amount of self-seriousness. It’s sets the tone perfectly.
I wish I had the time to play through Myth more often. Now it’s more like once every 5-6 years. But every time I remember why I keep coming back to a game that most of the world has moved past. Here’s hoping that the next time Bungie has a big announcement it’s Myth-related. And not some god-awful PvP games-as-a-service shooter.