: Thanks for the welcome back!
: You put your finger on it exactly. When you played Myth,
: you had never heard of Alric or Soulblighter or The
: Deceiver, so they all sounded delightfully mysterious.
: In Myth II Alric was a hero, Soulblighter and Shiver
: were Fallen Lords (and we had already killed one of
: them) and there wasn't a real driving evil of Leveller
: proportions. Personally, I'd play Myth XII if it still
: maintained half of the story value that Myth had.
I wholeheartedly agree. I might also add my two biggest personal gripes:
(1) Myth II took everything hinted at in Myth:TFL that left you tingling with anticipation, and ruined it. I still have the line "a man not yet born who would resurrect the Myrkridia and visit on the world horrors without equal in history or myth" firmly planted in my brain. What did Myth II do? They decided "hmm, let's introduce the Myrkridia again. Yeah, that might be cool." Horrifying things are better when they are nameless and shapeless. When you just throw them into the game (e.g. the Myrkridia), they have little to no effect. What Myth II should have done was foreshadow meeting the Myrks better. Seeing the guards get torn apart by Myrks would be nothing compared to a level in which you keep slowly advancing to find more and more gruesome scenes of carnage, before you finally are ambushed by a horde of Myrkridia... instead *bang* they just threw them in with no real foreshadowing. Ask yourself: would Myth II have been significantly changed if the Myrkridia were absent? The answer is 'no.' Why? Because they contributed nothing of importance to the plot. They were just thrown in almost as an afterthought.
The Heron Guards were also ruined this way. It seems as though Alric decides one day "hmm, maybe I'll just declare myself ruler of the greatest empire that ever existed." When the Journeymen became Heron Guards again after a couple of missions and the barest amount of plot explanation or buildup, I felt cheated.
The Fallen Lords were another source of disappointment. Why did Soulblighter have to bring back Shiver when there were at least two Lords unaccounted for in Myth:TFL? Why is the Deceiver so eager to help the Light? Why is the Deceiver so easy to find? Once again, it's as though Alric just decides one day "hmm. I wonder if the Deceiver is still around. Maybe he'd help me fight Soulblighter," and voila... a few levels later, you have one of the Fallen Lords on your side. So much for mystery, suspense and shock/horror value.
(2) Magic. I absolutely loved the way magic was treated in Myth:TFL. Magic wasn't "spells," it was "dreams." Every use of magic was an "ooh, ahh" event. When Alric blew up all those Myrmidons in Out of the Barrier, it was a real treat. When Alric hacked apart hundreds of Myrkridia in Myth II with his magic lightning sword, I was completely nonplussed. Why? Because while Myth:TFL had magic in extremely short supply (The Nine, Shades and the Fallen Lords are the only ones who can cast spells; there are two artifact bows, the Eblis Stone, the Tain, World Knots and teleportation spells, but that's about it), Myth II was gushing with it. Warlocks in endless supply. Anyone in Myth II can chuck a fireball around. On top of what existed in Myth:TFL we add a magic sword; a magic crown; the Deceiver's magic; an unexplained artifact for your warlock hero; Shiver flinging spells left and right; giant magical suits of armour (where'd they come from?); plenty of World Knot hopping and of course, Alric and the Shades to throw around magic. Magic is no longer mysterious and rare. It crops up often enough in Myth II, and in mundane enough forms, that its mystery and attraction is ruined.
Myth II is still fun to play. But what I'd give for another 'desperate battle' type game. Instead of "Monday, August 12th. Our wizards have conjured up a magical bridge across a river; we have to go across it and steal a magical power crystal from The Watcher, who has been resurrected. He will be guarded by a band of Oghres, who have also been resurrected. Once we have the crystal, we hope to convince The Watcher to join our side," how about "Monday, August 12th. After seven days of fighting, we had to pull back from Covenant as the city was set upon by the tireless undead. The screams of townspeople fleeing the axes of the Thrall, and the crackle of the flames that engulfed the city will forever be seared into my mind. Cu Roi is desperately trying to reassemble our battered and demoralized forces ten miles down the road at Shoal. Meanwhile I am among a small detachment of men left to guard the highway, hopefully to delay pursuit by the enemy for a few hours."
