Myth III: The Wolf Age Preview

Click for full size image

When Bungie released Myth: The Fallen Lords, in late 1997, the game was praised for its gorgeous graphics, well-defined storyline, and most importantly, its fresh take on the real-time strategy genre. While it wasn't the first 3D strategy game to hit the market, it was nonetheless quite original in its implementation of a free-roaming 3D camera that let you view the gameworld in all its glory while staying much closer to the action than ever before. The game was also notable for the importance it placed on terrain. Myth: The Fallen Lords featured more varied environments than most strategy games, with maps that included cliffs, bodies of water, lava pools, mud, sand, snow, and more. All these terrain features affected the gameplay and required you to rethink your strategy to adapt to your surroundings, often at a moment's notice, because battles frequently required you to retreat and regroup your forces. Bungie pulled no punches in its quest to create a believable world and went to near-Tolkienesque lengths to create a rich history and a fully realized populace. Every character had a name, and as there was no resource management of any kind, nor barracks that could produce endless drones to send into battle, every single character was important, adding a level of tension not found in ordinary strategy games.

Myth II: Soulblighter was released a year later, and with it Bungie addressed many of the problems people had with the first game. The camera system was refined, the cutscenes were longer and less mysterious, and the difficulty level was lowered significantly (although it still remained very tough). The developers added clearly defined mission objectives and thereby removed the confusion that plagued many of the larger levels in The Fallen Lords. Also new in Myth II were animated 3D models such as windmills and breakable bridges, all of which helped make the gameworld more believable. Multiplayer through Bungie.net was fun, and Bungie stayed committed to supporting its fans by arranging many tournaments and events and fostering a fan community that is still going strong more than three years since the first game's release. The community has produced a wide variety of add-ons for Myth II, including several remarkably detailed ones set during World War II. Bungie itself even produced a free add-on for Myth II. Titled Myth II: Chimera, it was released online for free and was included in Bungie's Total Codex collection, which also included both Myth games and a collection of user-made add-ons.

Click for full size image

Both Myth games were not without their failings, however. Before the version 1.1 patch, Myth: The Fallen Lords was virtually impossible for all but the most skilled players, and even after the update it was extremely difficult. Myth II: Soulblighter was released and quickly recalled when it was discovered that uninstalling the game in Windows could wipe your entire hard drive clean - arguably the worst bug to ship in any game to date, even if the game was recalled as soon as the bug was discovered.

When Microsoft acquired Bungie last June, it bought the company and the exclusive rights to Halo, but Oni and the rights to the Myth franchise were passed on to Take Two Interactive. Take Two subsidiary Gathering of Developers will be publishing Oni later this month, but the future of the Myth franchise seemed uncertain. That is, until just a few weeks ago, when GOD announced Myth III: The Wolf Age.