Myth: The Fallen Lords

The Good
Myth is like God's answer to those who like strategy games, but loathe resource management, as well as frantic paces. It's slow, it's thoughtful, and not only in gameplay: Myth's storytelling is a far cry from the usual video game trappings, being told mostly by an unknown narrator and some sparse lines uttered by your units during battle. Such detachment and sparseness isn't bad, it's wonderful: the story and characters only tell you the essential, without falling into dull verboseness. You will hear of Rabican, of Mazzarin, of Shiver and the Deceiver, and you may get to know more about them later, but what will mostly happen is that they'll remain in the background, escaping the terrors of the I-have-to-explain-everything sickness that affects many writers, specially video game ones.

Gameplay is, too, rather contained, sticking to the essentials. There aren't any flashy numbers on the screen telling you how much damage you did, although there are health bars (it's not that mute). Combat is not a dumb and grindy pillow war as units whack at each other until eternity's end; it might be only a bit so if you're playing it wrong. In a somewhat realistic fashion, melee combatants - who have the most hitpoints - take second place to ranged combat; i.e., they are the ones who defend the main damage dishers, archers and artillery, from being chopped up by any survivors closing in with a sword in hand. Playing Myth is not as hard as it sounds, just remind yourself of a few basic tenets:

I. Archer units must focus on other archer units.

II. Artillery (represented by the wonderful dwarves of Myth, who grumpily say "catch!" as they throw - yes - molotov cocktails) - artillery should, generally, focus on slow melee enemies, although if you do a little dancing you can take on archers too (Myth, by the way, has some kickass physics. You can dodge projectiles and see shrapnel fly most magnificently).

III. Melee units should stick around to defend against other melee units. A few advanced units, who can move faster, can be used to harass enemy archers.

And that's (almost, maybe) pretty much it. Also make use of formations - not all of them are very useful, but it's important to know, for instance, when it's OK to have your guys bunched up and when it's not. If archers aren't set up properly - for another instance - they'll shoot your other guys in the back as eagerly as Ian in Fallout 1.

Speaking of shooting and hacking, aesthetically, this is a very satisfying game. Besides the aforementioned physics engine, sounds are very satisfying - swords will thwack meatily, armor will clang, arrows will pass the ethereal body of the undead, who will whisper mysteriously as they die, and magic has more in common with the heavy terrain-scarring and shrapnel-scattering of the molotovs than with the fizzling and sparkling of High Fantasy spellcraft - and also the visuals are very nice. It's all a bit grim and washed down, but Myth gets away with it due to its lack of melodrama and bad writing. It feels like it should: a long-lasting war with many desolate wastelands and destroyed cities, and you're on the losing end. But there are bits and pieces of humor here and there, making it quite charming despite the piles of limbs you leave behind each mission.

Also, there are 2D animation cutscenes that are short and smart and very original, going against the flow of boring 3D.

The Bad
Well, as it's been said in other reviews, controls are a bit awkward. Nowadays, thanks to the fan community, you can play a port of Myth I's campaign in Myth II's updated engine, which makes things like the camera much more bearable. But of course: originally, it was quite square.

The following two points are perhaps faults to some; I actually like them, but I can see why it would annoy others.

I. The voice acting is very good, but there aren't many voice actors. For instance, the guy who does the archers also does the occasional peasant, and Alric - an important figure - shares his voice with your basic warrior unit. But as they have really cool voices and act well, it's no problem at all. Matter of fact, it has its own charm.

II. For the campaign, you don't get to pick what units you want to use. They're all preset. Indeed, it makes the gameplay actually puzzley, allowing little variation in tactics, but here's where the excellent multiplayer makes up for it. There are skirmish modes with a point system: you are allowed a limited number of points to spend between units. Some units are tougher, so they cost more. Other modes are available, such as Capture the Flag. To this day, there is still an active online community, its duration being a testament to the game's quality.

The Bottom Line
Pretty grand. Very different from, say, Starcraft - more tactics, less resource management, better story. Slower, carefully paced. Feels more like a tough war than some power fantasy. Visceral combat: high explosives and nuclear spells which must be handled carefully, lest they blow you up too. Original setting, despite its Glenn Cook-y inspirations; its Dark Fantasy is temperate in an adult fashion, far away from the melodramas and excesses of other grim-n-gritty media. Give it not one but many shots - rejoice in the wonder of being an angry dwarf with a molotov cocktail, and rejoice as your throw bounces off a tree and reduces you to tiny airborne bits.

The Good
Myth is a new spin on real-time fantasy tactical games. Your army fights the undead on the hills, valleys, and plains of the land, and have archers, knights, bombers, vikings, and other troops in your army. There are 20 missions of varying difficulty, some with twists to perform, like "laying a landmine trap" with bombs placed on the ground, or keeping a knight around home base to look for undead warriors sneaking up from behind.

So what's the spin? The spin is that all this happens on a 3D landscape. You can rotate the map and zoom in and out, in realtime, during the battle.

There are nicely animated cutscenes (animated, not rendered for a change). There is also a good online tutorial on learning the controls of the game.

Finally, the ability to record games, both standalone and networked, leads to some really satisfying replays, as you can adjust the distance and rotation of the landscape during the replay. (Networked game recordings even include the text messages sent from one player to the other.)

The Bad
There are, I'm sad to say, numerous problems with Myth:

Myth was designed by a company that cut its teeth on the Macintosh. As such, Myth was designed with a single-button mouse in mind, and that leads to some annoying control issues. Band selection vs. single selection, the absence of the industry-standard "right-click menu" for actions, and other annoying problems really detract from the game. (Disclaimer: The sequel, Myth II, solves some of the control issues.)

You can't save your game in the middle of a battle. Since some battles require 10 minutes of preperation and can last 15-25 minutes each, this can get really frustrating when you make a stupid mistake and have to go through the entire 10-minute preperation again.

While each mission has an objective listed at the beginning of the game, it is not always clear what needs to be done. Or, more specifically, when you fail a mission, it's not clear why! Again, very frustrating on longer missions.

Finally, the first two or three missions are the only "easy" ones. After that, the games gets uber-freaky difficult to play.

The Bottom Line
Since the sequel corrects many of the problems in Myth, I'd go for the sequel.

The Good
Wow, what an awesome way to tell a story. I never imagined that a real-time strategy game could be so involving or have so much depth. Myth is a real-time strategy game where you control fantasy troops against an overwhelming undead army.

Among the unit types available are archers, dwarven grenadiers, armored warriors, and unarmored berserkers. You'll fight against hordes of undead zombies, skeletons, and worse. The Myth engine takes terrain into effect so archers positioned in the hills have a significant advantage. Also weather affects battles as well. Wind interferes with arrows and rain douses fire attacks.

Myth is not forgiving when it comes to strategy. Formations are very important as are basic tactics such as drawing out the enemy and leading them into an ambush. A tutorial will help you get started but I recommend replaying the early levels until you have a feel for the game. Be warned, it starts off hard and only gets harder. Some levels are near impossible. Luckily Myth has several different difficulty levels.

Graphically Myth looks good. You have control over the 3D camera and you can zoom in and out. Characters looked pretty good (and died graphically), but terrain could have looked better. Myth sounds even better. Dwarves complain about being ordered about and the undead moan. Ambient sounds and weapons sound great too.

Mission briefings are delivered by one of the finest voice acting efforts I've heard. And the look of the mission briefings showing personal journals and movements on the map are terrific.

Finally, to some extent, it pays to keep your forces alive. As they make more kills and survive more missions the warriors become more proficient, archers hit more often, swordfighters do more damage, etc.

The Bad
While it pays to keep your forces alive from mission to mission, in some missions you start with raw recruits so there isn't a feeling of completing the game with the original troops and you end up losing highly experienced warriors.

I mentioned that this game was hard and it really is. Some levels seemed to be more puzzle oriented than combat. This wouldn't be terrible, but it's nice to have several options in beating a level.

Finally, the camera scheme and controls are a little hard to get used to. I had trouble selecting individual units and long-range pathfinding was poor.

The Bottom Line
This is a really great game for people who like real-time strategy without resource management. You are given enough troops to complete a mission and it's up to you to use them to their fullest potential. Myth can be both exceedingly difficult and exceedingly rewarding.