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This is (in some ways) a review of Myth III. It will cover the following issues: gameplay, storyline, performance and graphics and any others I can think of and will be rated out of 5 Stars.

Gameplay:
Gameplay in Myth 3 is the same as it was in Myth 2 except for a few minor issues. For example, there are no direction arrows for when you want your army facing a certain direction. It still happens, but there are no arrows. Apart from that, gameplay is as great as it was before. 4 1/2 Stars.

Storyline:
The storyline was fairly confusing at various points, the biggest being Mazzarin, Damas, and Mjarin. Mazzarin could have just been a ghost that looked like a Shade, but not under The Watcher's control. That is the only explanation for a poorly-handled character. Damas being a Heron Guard? They're are not immortal, because Nine Skull says "that with a little luck, he might be around to see it.". This suggests that Herons live a long time, but certainly not immortal. Damas might have ripped off his face and heart to get immortal, but maybe also to gain control of the Undead and more powers. The biggest thing that confused me was Mjarin. It is possible that Moagim was the Leveler, and that Mjarin was a traitor. Him tutoring Myrdred explains why The Fallen Lords hate him (Myrdred) and why the Warlocks defend him when SB tries to kill him. And this war between Connacht and Mjarin at the end explains why the Warlocks hate the Cath Bruig. Although, if Mjarin was the Leveler, why didn't he use evil creatures to kill Connacht and instead used Warriors. The Leveler in control of the Cath Bruig makes little sense to me. Although, apart from those issues, Myth 3's story seems to fit into TFL's. 3 1/2 Stars.

Peformance:
Myth 3 runs perfectly on my G5 iMac. I thought it wouldn't, because the manual suggests a G3. And if it does work on Intel Core Duo Macs, then that will be fine for me. 5 Stars.

Graphics:
Myth 3's graphics are great. The 3D monsters are very good. But they do have something different from Myth 2 that I don't like but I can't put my finger on it. Ah well. 4 Stars.

Overall:
Myth 3 is an excellent game with need of a few tweaks and changes, but it's probably too late for that. For me, getting something from Excellent to Near-Perfect is a big step foward. Ovarall, a good game. On average, 4 1/4 Stars.

Don't want to turn this into a story discussion thread, but...

Lugas wrote:Damas being a Heron Guard? They're are not immortal, because Nine Skull says "that with a little luck, he might be around to see it.". This suggests that Herons live a long time, but certainly not immortal.

No it doesn't. They can die in battle (or get eaten by a bear, or run over by a wagon, or whatever), hence it will require him some "luck" to live another thousand years. If they were invincible, the game would be much easier.

Lugas wrote:Although, if Mjarin was the Leveler, why didn't he use evil creatures to kill Connacht and instead used Warriors. The Leveler in control of the Cath Bruig makes little sense to me. Although, apart from those issues, Myth 3's story seems to fit into TFL's. 3 1/2 Stars.

He was currently claiming the Cath Bruig throne, so it makes enough sense that he would have Imperial followers. If he had tried to use thralls and monsters as well, those followers would have abandoned him.

using thralls and soulless has failed twice, as we can see from balor and SB

mjarin knew that before them!

I get your point, but a Heron Guard needing to rip off his face and take out his heart? I don't know...
Also, the Imperial followers might not have been used forever. Mjarin could have replaced them with Thrall once they all died.

From the Journeyman's flavor text ... "Their healing ritual has its roots in the initiation rites of the Heron Guard, but what brings about immortality in a truly exceptional person merely restores the vitality of lesser men."

To me that makes it obvious that Herons/Jmen are immortal. The real issue to me is whether Damas should have been a Heron ... that's a Mumble Jumble invention rather than Bungie's. As you've said, why if he's immortal would he need to disfigure himself to become immortal? Potentially its because he had become evil & thus the heron rituals no longer worked for him, hence he needed an alternative.

To me the Mjarin thing was just a typical hollywood stunt of revealing at the end that the real bad guy was the friendly sidekick you'd never (heh, really) have suspected. Along with the other hollywood staple - a trite romance between two of the leading characters that didn't add to the story - that ending really capped off what was already a tedious & uninspiring plot to me. In fact my enduring memory of it was the incredible number of pointless slogs back & forth through the Dire Marshes.

</rant>

I'd be exaggerating if I said Myth 3 were the worst game ever. But it was a confused puddle, an utter miasma compared to TFL!
I like to think of it as the Battlefield Earth of the Myth story - I pretty much disregard it when writing stories about Myth (unlesss I want a TWA character to die a humiliating death).

Lugas wrote:Gameplay:
Gameplay in Myth 3 is the same as it was in Myth 2 except for a few minor issues. For example, there are no direction arrows for when you want your army facing a certain direction. It still happens, but there are no arrows. Apart from that, gameplay is as great as it was before. 4 1/2 Stars.

Compare the versions of the dorf riot map on all three games and you'll see there's a huge difference, Myth III being the most different of the three. Also its much slower and the arc which arcs shoot in (sorry about the pun) is different...fire arrows are almost totally different too. I kinda like the M3 fire arrows in some awys tho.

Storyline:
The storyline was fairly confusing at various points, the biggest being Mazzarin, Damas, and Mjarin. Mazzarin could have just been a ghost that looked like a Shade, but not under The Watcher's control. That is the only explanation for a poorly-handled character. Damas being a Heron Guard? They're are not immortal, because Nine Skull says "that with a little luck, he might be around to see it.". This suggests that Herons live a long time, but certainly not immortal. Damas might have ripped off his face and heart to get immortal, but maybe also to gain control of the Undead and more powers. The biggest thing that confused me was Mjarin. It is possible that Moagim was the Leveler, and that Mjarin was a traitor. Him tutoring Myrdred explains why The Fallen Lords hate him (Myrdred) and why the Warlocks defend him when SB tries to kill him. And this war between Connacht and Mjarin at the end explains why the Warlocks hate the Cath Bruig. Although, if Mjarin was the Leveler, why didn't he use evil creatures to kill Connacht and instead used Warriors. The Leveler in control of the Cath Bruig makes little sense to me. Although, apart from those issues, Myth 3's story seems to fit into TFL's. 3 1/2 Stars.

Its got errors and mistakes and while in most ways its logical its just not that good. It removes all mystery from the game.

Graphics:
Myth 3's graphics are great. The 3D monsters are very good. But they do have something different from Myth 2 that I don't like but I can't put my finger on it. Ah well. 4 Stars.

They're 2001 graphics with minor updates. I don't mind a game with bad graphics, but they really aren't too hot.

Overall:
Myth 3 is an excellent game with need of a few tweaks and changes, but it's probably too late for that. For me, getting something from Excellent to Near-Perfect is a big step foward. Ovarall, a good game. On average, 4 1/4 Stars.

They've given it a lot of tweaks and changes to get it where they did already (v1, v1.0.1, v1.0.2, v1.1, v1.1.1, v1.1.2, v1.2, v1.3, v1.3.1) - I tihnk that's a few. I'd give Myth III as it is now 2 stars. Maybe 2.5.

It was just a really slow game. People looked like they were really bored and didn't want to be there. In TFL and SB they walked with purpose, now they wander away from the enemy.

And it's just crap! Eh!
-TGP-

I think the failing in Myth 3 graphics, while they're super beautiful with sexiness on top, is that they have no apparent eye for contrast, some maps are REALLY bright, others very grey looking. And monsters aren't quite as easy to distinguish as in Myth 2, which is an artistic thing, but probably could have been perfected if they'd had more time.

I also did not like the heroes levels, the variety of heroes was real poor, they're just four melee units with Myrdred having dispersal dreams to use (which are normally a bad idea) and Damas healing.

haravikk wrote:I think the failing in Myth 3 graphics, while they're super beautiful with sexiness on top, is that they have no apparent eye for contrast, some maps are REALLY bright, others very grey looking. And monsters aren't quite as easy to distinguish as in Myth 2, which is an artistic thing, but probably could have been perfected if they'd had more time.

Its like a black and white film compared to 1960s disco when you compare Myth II to TFL.

I also did not like the heroes levels, the variety of heroes was real poor, they're just four melee units with Myrdred having dispersal dreams to use (which are normally a bad idea) and Damas healing.

Ravanna has that spinny ability thing that just hurts her own team

If you could micro them well it'd be cool but they're better off just being left to fight. The game literally gained nothing at all from them and would be just as good without.

Lugas wrote:Gameplay:
Gameplay in Myth 3 is the same as it was in Myth 2 except for a few minor issues. For example, there are no direction arrows for when you want your army facing a certain direction. It still happens, but there are no arrows. Apart from that, gameplay is as great as it was before. 4 1/2 Stars.

What the heck? The gameplay is drastically different to anyone who's a decent player. I won't bother going into detail unless you choose to challenge this. But it really is a lot different from basic trading and how you play certain situations blah blah blah.

wight puss is almost non-existent in TWA.


units have bad response time.

The response time's not an issue since its its all much slower

The Elfoid wrote:Its like a black and white film compared to 1960s disco when you compare Myth II to TFL.

At the risk of being pedantic or seeming like a fact freak, let me start by saying I know your reference above is due to lack of experience, but I can assure you that there was no such thing as "1960's disco". Disco was probably around for a few years in small pockets here and there before it reached national/worldwide recognition but it didn't really become a inter/national phenom until 1977 with John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever.

And no, I am not a fan of Disco.

ref: History of Disco 1, 2, 3, and wikipedia's article on the origins of disco.

I am amazed you felt the need to look something up like that considering its a topic you are 'not a fan' of. Also there were clubs, disco is just slang for nightclub here mostly ;O