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Chimera, Myth, and Myth II

Posted By: Wasp (dhcp-v3-144.ubishops.ca)
Date: 12/3/1999 at 4:40 p.m.

[excerpted from thread below, I thought it would be best to start a new thread since most of this is on Myth and Myth II, not Chimera]

:: I totally agree with you on how it wasn't good because
: there was barely any link to Myth. In fact, I must say
: that the whole story thing went against the whole
: point of Myth. There was no real greater evil, just a
: single demon, and it didn't even threaten the entire
: world! It was a good story in itself, but it just
: wasn't myth.

I don't have Chimera, and have only played Myth II at a friend's, but I must say that I felt that Myth II itself was "against the whole point of Myth". Where is the epic feel of Myth:TFL in Myth II? Where is the drama, the feel of the hopeless battle, the plot that grips you from start to finish? I mean come on, the end of Myth II was pathetically cliche. Oh no, the evil boss is about to blow up the world! We must stop him! I felt it was unworthy of the Myth name.

Why don't I like Myth II? Here are some reasons:

-Too many living units. Myth:TFL had Thrall, Soulless, Wights, Myrmidons and Shades as your Undead rivals, Ghols and Trow as your living foes, and Fetch weren't quite clear. Myth II gets rid of the Myrmidons and establishes that Fetch are of all things "priestesses from another dimension" (sounds like a B-film title). Now we have no Myrmidons, and have a host of new living enemies: the Bre'Unor, the Mauls, Warlocks and the Myrkridia... and that isn't counting the Brigands, (whose entire concept as a unit is just plain bizarre in the first place--how believable is it that someone who has bad leadership RUNS slower for crying out loud, and that this justifies making a new unit?) and Dark Bowmen or whatever they're called... ooh, they're Bowmen but they're... Dark!
Only one new undead unit, the Ghasts, was introduced, and they are only used once anyway if I recall correctly. I don't count the Ghosts, which were laughable if anything. No more horror of the undead, now that the bulk of enemy units are living.

-Myth II ruined the Myrkridia. In Myth:TFL the Myrkridia were an ancient, mysterious, extremely evil and dangerous race that your nightmares had nightmares about. There is an ominous tale in the Codex about a man who would resurrect the Myrkridia. Then come Myth II and what do you get? NO plot behind the Summoner at all, he's just some guy that has decided to summon the Myrkridia back. The Myrkridia themselves are nasty, I suppose, but don't live up to their legend whatsoever.

-Myth II ruined magic. In Myth:TFL magic was rare, exceedingly prized and most of the time you only heard about it. In Myth II you have magical suits of armour; Warlocks who fling fire left, right, and centre; and Alric and The Deceiver in a bunch of levels. You even pop back into the Tain for crying out loud... and don't get me _started_ on Bamlung the magical sword. You are also whisked through World Knots more times than I can count.

-Myth II ruined the Fallen Lords. Shiver comes back? You get to use the Deceiver, who turns out to be some wierd balding guy? Give me a break. I'm surprised there weren't cameo appearances by The Watcher and Balor.

-Myth II ruined the Heron Guard. Don't get me wrong, they're nice units but dressed up like that with their twin swords and especially their armour, they don't look at all like they should be to fit in with the Myth setting. I didn't like Berserks that much but at least they were technologically parallel. And what's with the hordes of Heron Guards that crop up? The maximum number of Journeymen you'd ever have was 3, and that was only in one level. After the big re-declaration of the Empire, you get to use 20 Heron Guards at a time. Where are all these people coming from? And please, don't tell me that all someone had to do all this time was find some crown and proclaim himself emperor, and they would have come out of exile just like that? In Myth:TFL the very existence of humanity was threatened and they still shuffled around with their shovels. Why are they all of a sudden worthy of becoming Guards again? Don't tell me it was that one level where the Trow and Mortar Dwarves (oh, and some Heron Guards too) stop some baddies from getting inside Muirthemne. Nice achievement but hardly worthy of casting off a legacy of shame.

-Speaking of technology there is also the issue of Dwarven Mortars and Ghol cannons, which seem to have become remarkably sophisticated and compact given that they have had a sixty year period, maximum, to be developed in. As for the Poachers, yes, that was a cute level wasn't it but it just ruined things even more. Secret levels, fine and dandy. Poachers with blunderbusses? Give me a break.

-Myth II's plot was extremely sad compared to Myth:TFL. Is there anything you DON'T do in Myth II? Let's see, you have the Myrkridia resurrected on you, meet both of the living Fallen Lords and one of the dead ones, fly halfway around the world seemingly at leisure, re-found the Cath Bruig Empire, re-found the Heron Guard, face destruction of the entire world, which only becomes a plot issue in the last mission or maybe the second-last one (COME ON!) ... did I miss anything? Oh yes, I nearly forgot that you ally with the Trow, earning their respect with of all things a game of Territories (boy, that sure proves your valour!)

As I said before, where has the feel of Myth gone? Myth:TFL had you with a rabble of the last troops humanity has to throw at the overwhelming enemy. It has you actually believing for a while that you're winning against the Fallen, until a catastrophic string of disasters--the volcano erupting, getting annihilated at Seven Gates, loss of Alric's army, and then the final blow, the civil war--forces you to embark on a desperate mission into the heart of the enemy's territory, knowing full well that meanwhile your homeland is getting plundered by the undead. I had a cold chill run down my spine when I read the mission briefing in Myth:TFL that begins... "I am not a coward [...] yet I was relieved to not be among those chosen to die." Then came the part about sacrificing the remaining twenty-two hundred men of the legion, which made the chill come back. Alric's desperate cries of "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" while using the Eblis Stone still echo in my mind, and strike me as by far the best and the least cliched use of such words that I have ever seen, heard, or read.

Myth II, on the other hand, has none of this feel at all. Instead of doing things like helping the defence of Madrigal or eerily revisiting the sacked capital of the West like in Myth:TFL, you get to ramble around whining about Cruniac this and Cruniac that for half the game, and then all of a sudden you go and meet Alric, go through half the map, find the Deceiver, befriend the Trow, pop into Muirthemne, play through Shiver's death and are present for the final defeat of Soulblighter. When Shiver died the first time it was far more exciting and compelling than when she came back and was killed the second time, not least because you weren't THERE the first time.

If Bungie ever makes a Myth III, I heartily hope that it will be in the style of Myth:TFL. Enough with the legions of the living. It was the legions of the dead that made Myth such a hit. Enough with magic-saturated levels, this isn't Warcraft! Getting to use Alric in Myth:TFL was one of the great excitements of the mission Pools of Iron. You get to control Alric once, get two magical bows which you get to use in only one mission each. The only other uses of magic you get to see are Shades blowing you to pieces (much more terrifying than the fireballs of warlocks), Fetch flinging lightening, the Tain and the escape from it, and the World Knots, which are quite tastefully used in Myth:TFL unlike in Myth II. That kept the mystery in magic, unlike Myth II.

What would I like to see if a Myth III were ever made? Let's have a return to the dark feel of Myth:TFL. Yes, I know it would be hard to do and Myth III could never match Myth:TFL, but they could at least try. More undead, fewer living units, a return of the mystique in magic, no more hicks with blunderbusses even in bonus levels, and a plot that didn't try to DO everything.

Thanks for tolerating my long-windedness (or not, I'm sure I'll get more than a few disagreeing replies here...)

Wasp.

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