After 10 years, I was able to acquire a copy of Myth 3 and play it. Took me a couple months to get through it, but such is life.
This late in the game (so to speak), I see things quite a bit differently than I would have in 2002. Especially with the advances in technology, which render (no pun intended) many of Myth 3's "breakthroughs" quite moot, leaving it to sink-or-swim on playability, alone.
And in that, it fails miserably.
It certainly has a lot of very nice touches, like the absolutely exquisite lighting, some interesting use of textures, a fair storyline (when placed in context with the rest of the Bungie/Myth universe), and a handful of really cool/immersive maps.
But overall, I think this incarnation of Myth is a dead fish. From the stale gameplay, to the wild departures from TFL/Myth 2 gaming mechanics/physics, to the horrifically bad sound design (really, it's tragic), to the poorly conceived explosions/paralysis...and the list goes on.
Back to the sound design: One of Bungie's major strengths was superior sound design. From Marathon to Myth, the choices were nothing short of world class. And, sound design is very, very important, much more than a lot of people realize.
Myth 3's sound design is shockingly bad, from the amateur in-game stuff ("Game On," etc.) to explosions lacking depth and realism, to "Sound Effects CD" ambients, to the gratuitous use of echo and reverb (as if that's a good thing), to the mind-numbingly awful Dwarf voice-overs (and others)...so very bad.
Overall, it's easy to see why Myth 3 never went anywhere, and why there are so few 3rd-party maps available. A shame, because the template for a cool gaming experience is definitely there.
After a little research, I see that Myth 3 was troubled from the day it was released. Apparently it wasn't even *finished* upon public distribution, which would certainly account for its deep flaws. Not sure how all that happened, but it really hurt the product.
And, life goes on...
