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Myth III: The Wolf Age
By Mike Vande Ven Jr.
http://homepage.mac.com/giantmike/
03/15/03
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Manufacturer: MacSoft
Suggested Price: $49.95
Demo: MacGameFiles download
Requirements
MacOS 9.0 or MacOS X 10.1
400 MHz G3 processor (600 MHz recommended)
128 MB RAM
348 MB HD space (500 MB required for optimum performance)
OpenGL video card with 8 MB of video memory (16 MB or more will greatly increase performance)
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Myth III continues the tradition of the Myth series with extensive strategy oriented play, good looking graphics, and great game play.
Installation:
Installation is very simple. Run the installer, and pick if you want the full or minimal install. Doing the full install took less than 5 minutes on my machine.
Usage:
Myth III is set 1000 years before the original Myth, a time when the Myrkridia ruled, and a great warrior named Connacht the Wolf rose up against their power. This sets up a great storyline, that makes the game very interesting. Through pre, in, and post-level stories, you are able to get a real feel for what is going on in the ancient lands. Myth story lines have always been great, this is no exception.
To help progress the story, the developers have created some quality 3D animation movies (akin to those seen in Diablo 2). These movies not only help you see the story unfold, but they are also very entertaining. It's not all movies and stories though. To complete the single player campaign, you'll have to battle through 25 levels, playing out the story as if you are really there. It's this interaction combined with the movies and editorials that makes the story line of this game so fulfilling.
To tell a great story, the developers have dumped the 2D units on the 3D terrain for a full 3D environment. It's no wonder that the overall graphics for the game are very good. Everything from units and their movements, to the landscape the buildings, to the weapons used are high quality. In fact, grass will sway in the wind, each unit will have their own lifelike shadow, and arrows will stick into buildings if accidentally shot there. Attention to detail like that is what makes a game have great graphics.
But the best thing about these graphics is how you can view them from nearly any angle you want. The Myth series has a great tradition of rotating, orbiting, moving, and zooming cameras. Myth III is no different. You can change the camera angle to fit how you like to play: zooming out to reveal more terrain, panning around to look for oncoming enemies, rotating to see around the next corner, or zooming in all the way on a single unit. The Myth series has set the bar for how strategy game camera angles should be manipulated.
Of course, you could have the best graphics in the world, but have no way of getting to them if the interface sucks. Luckily, the developers spent a good amount of time on the Myth III interface. I love it how the theme is carried out through the game, and how the screen fades/waves in and out. One of the coolest interfaces around.
It's not only the graphics and interface that are cool, but the game sounds are simply sweet. The background music sets the mood perfectly, and the ambient sounds help to immerse you in the game. Better yet, the units have their own unique responses when being commanded. These humorous, and informative quips include the dwarf's complaining, the warrior's loyalty, and the archer's readiness. The sounds of this game really help meld the whole mid-evil theme together.
Of course, all of these cool graphics and sounds make for a pretty resource intensive game. On a machine that meets or beats all of the system requirements, I have to turn down many of the graphics quality options so as to keep a decent framerate. Most of all, make sure you have a fast video card, or your playing won't be as enjoyable as it could be.
Finally, we get to the multiplayer. Myth and Myth II had huge multiplayer followings (when Bungie.net was still around). You could always find someone playing a game, and the competitiveness was always high. When Bungie sold out to Microsoft, this spelled the beginning of the end to the Myth online community. To make up for this loss, Myth III has employed the resources of GameSpy. While a good network, there just aren't too many players on at one time, making finding or starting a game difficult.
Luckily, a group of people who call themselves Myth Developers have teamed up with the PlayMyth.net network to try and bring the community feeling back to Myth III and Myth II. If you want to play this game online, I suggest you download the PlayMyth pluggin, as it is the best way to find dozens of games at a time. Without the work of these people, the Myth community of old would have been long dead; these guys deserve a giant pat on the back.
Problems:
I didn't encounter any stability problems while playing Myth III.
Conclusion:
This game has the makings of a great sequel. If only the multiplayer aspect would be up to that of the Bungie.net days, this would be an excellent game. As it stands, it's still a very good strategy game.
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Pros: | Cons: |
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Great looking graphics
Unique interface
Good storyline/background movies
Heavily strategy oriented
Cool characters/abilities
Myth based cameras are unparalleled
Myth Developers and PlayMyth.net brought back multiplayer from the dead
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Highly resource intensive
Built in GameSpy network has few followers
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Rating: 8 out of 10 Mac Faces.
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