: ... 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.
I fully agree - particularly when they're not that
powerful. They're as weak vs artillery as other melee
units (more so given their behaviour at low health) and
there's only one level where they outclass your own melee,
Gate of Storms and even then you only see small groups
of them & have those boring dispersals ready for the
large ones. The next time we see krids we've got mortar
dwarves and Trow, and from then on they're more than
matched by Herons.
: 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.
Your suggestion sounds much better. Imagine that ambient
sound of terrorised screams from far-off, combined with
scenes of carnage every step you took. Mb some fleeting
sights of the monsters as they look at you at the edge
of visual range & then vanish to make you feel hunted.
: 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.
They did the same with Maul. And Bre'Unor never got
explained at all.
: 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.
Well, things were easy to find in TFL too (remembers
Total Codex and Watcher's arm), but otherwise you're
right on the mark. Why couldn't the Deceiver have
stabbed you in the back or something instead of being
perhaps more of a hero than Alric?
The difference between TFL & M2 is that TFL told a
gripping story that raised more tantalising questions
than you could shake a stick at. M2 told a so-so
story that raised next to nothing, but basically
answered all those interesting theories in a very
boring way. Surely M3 has to be better than this?
: (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.
Yes, it seemed that they were more interested in showing
off the wonders that the Myth engine was capable off than
in keeping the 'feel' of things intact. Less is more and
all that.
: 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."
Um, how about "your ghols have to penetrate the heavily
guarded dwarven citadel and exact lasting revenge on the Ephor and his minions" ... j/k! mb.
*cheers*
-Iron
