Download Myth III: The Wolf Age (Windows)

In the world of fantasy role-playing games, the villain rarely dies. Oh sure, some of them meet a terrible and untimely death at the hands of mighty warriors, crotchety old mages, and cunning elves. Like Darth Vadar at the end of Episode VI, their smoldering corpses rot away in the darkening sky. But guess what? All you have to do is uncover some ancient scroll, chant a few well-chosen incantations, or enter an alternate universe and, whammo zammo, the dark lord lives.

In Myth III: The Wolf Age, not only does the plot center on a reborn villain, but -- get this -- the good guys are actually the bad guys from later games. In fact, Myth III is a prequel to Myth and Myth II: The Fallen Lords. Yup, those dastardly Myrkridians were cooking up ancient evil some two thousand years before the first game, raising the elk-horned nemesis Moagim from the dead just in time to plot their brutal slaughter against Llancarfan and its surrounding villages. Will your heroes Connacht the Wolf, his imperial guard sidekick Damas, the ravenous warrior Ravanna, and the rest of your clansmen somehow emerge victorious? Only time -- and the outcome of some brutal and bloody battles -- will tell.

Back from the Dead

Studying the yarns of Gower is like reading an epic fantasy novel from Raymond Feist, but understanding the well-reported transfer of this series is even more complicated. Originally developed by Bungie, Myth was one of the first 3D real-time strategy games, although the units under your control were actually just 2D animated sprites. When Microsoft moved Bungie out to Redmond to finish its Xbox-only title Halo, the series was optioned by Take Two Interactive and Mumbo Jumbo, a GodGames subsidary. Now everything in Myth III is fully 3D, which means you can zoom in for a nice look at high polygon characters, bridges, towers, and other deformable objects.

This is the best game of the series, which is saying a lot considering the accolades lavished on its forebears. The upgraded graphics help, but the real treat is how the story weaves into the gameplay. Crossing a bridge into a horde of monstrous Trows takes on a new meaning because you might lose one of your favorite heroes, someone who might be integral to saving Gower and its inhabitants. Few strategy games offer this kind of character interaction. Early on, when Connacht and Damas are fighting side by side, you can almost hear the pages of a dust-covered fantasy novel turning.

New units also help advance the story. Hunting down one Myrkridian Pack-Mage feels like an interactive novel. Where is he hiding? Who are all these walking zombies, and what are they trying to protect? In that level, you'll learn more about why the Myrkridians are invading your peaceful land. When you finally slaughter him, there's a sense of accomplishment -- and an incredible desire to keep pushing onward to thwart their plans.

Only occasionally does Myth III feel like an exercise in level clearing. Some maps reminded me of Diablo II where there was obviously one bad guy, and all the less powerful minions were there just to make your life miserable. This was rare. Fighting against the exploding Wights, horrific Spider Cultists, and axe-wielding Trow Priests takes on an epic feel. In one level, with my units down to only about six Heron Guards, a final rush against some massive spiders ended the level just before being crushed by yet another wave of Stygian Knights. Bloody, limb-scattering missions were common.

One thing about this series is that it has always been extremely challenging, even on the easiest difficulty setting. Myth III won't leave you quite as infuriated, mostly because there seems to be one escape path on most levels. Avoidance is often more important than outright attack. Still, since this is more of a tactical combat game than anything, you might find yourself repeating levels from scratch just to fail in a completely different way, which can be a real pain -- or a real draw, depending on your personality.

As in earlier Myth games, camera control is awkward at first. The manual recommends a keyboard-mouse combination for movement and unit control, but in my experience, the mouse is more useful for both. A new unit grouping system is handy. You can create sets of units, helpful in the heat of battle for saving your heroes or favorite characters. Even more helpful is an anti-aliasing setting for high-end computers and richer graphics that makes unit selection much easier. Gone are the muddy backgrounds of earlier games where everything sort of blended together. Being able to select individual units and direct their attack made the gameplay much more enjoyable.

Myth III is an auditory sensation on par with some theatrical releases. There's the clank of swords, the screams of undead warriors, a flowing but not invasive soundtrack, and some spoken-word dialogue that sounds both eerie and enchanting. A prologue introduces the game even as GodGames and Mumbo Jumbo logos appear right after you start the game, reeling you right into its netherworld from the get-go.

There's only a few complaints. Multiplayer is woefully lacking, pretty much just a direct port of the existing online server using updated 3D graphics. Longtime fans will be disappointed to see the same skirmish modes such as Last Man on the Hill, plus some random and annoying bugs. The new melee units do help make online combat more exciting, since players must actually attack each other face-to-face rather than waiting to ambush the unsuspecting dupe with arrows and demolitions. You'll see bloodier, longer battles than in previous games.

Some saved games take an astronomically long time to load. This is strange considering that restarting a level is almost instantaneous. When the loads took forever, it hampered the gameplay and caused me to lose interest quickly in the overall objectives. Speaking of which, there are some levels where it isn't clear what the objective are. You can sometimes scroll back in the dialogue, but an objective menu would help a great deal. Also, menus lack any sort of pop-up tips, so newbies might struggle to understand the interface. A fairly detailed manual helps, although a hotkey cheat-sheet would have been even more useful.

Cutscenes are laughably bad. Although they help advance the story in some ways, seeing one of your favorite warriors rendered with canoe-panel hands, close-mouthed as he speaks his dialogue, and standing perfectly still without so much as a blink or head movement just made the whole experience more like a game and less like an epic story. Interesting that they also made the scrolling prologues to each mission that much more impressive.

Conclusion

Mostly, Myth III: The Wolf Age is a hugely addictive game with a twisting, intense storyline that would make J.R.R. Tolkien proud. New units, awesome sounds, and a finely crafted mission structure make this one of the best games of the year. Fantasy gamers who can forgive some of the brainless bloodbaths will get so hooked, they may never want to go back to resource-gathering strategy games ever again.

Review By GamesDomain