Introduction

Almost three years ago, Myth: The Fallen Lords hit the shelves. This game became an instant hit by combining a fantasy story line, great graphics and fine real-time tactical combat. The sequel, Myth II: Soulblighter, continues the story and enhances play. Solitaire and on-line players alike reveled in the system. Success brings risks, however. A dreadfully fine line exists between just pushing out the game with cosmetic changes and putting in so many innovations that the faithful lose their comfort level. Myth III: The Wolf Age goes out onto the tight rope without a net. Will we see acrobatic delights or a horrifying fall from great heights?

Installation

Installation is a breeze with the installation wizard. A typical installation takes 500 MB of HD space. Long "bug" lists have appeared on the Internet; hopefully, the upcoming patch will fix the most blatant of these.

Manual

The 63-page manual covers the game well but the player will find nineteen pages of story before getting to the "How to Play" part. The reading is no joy because of the tiny, white-on-glossy-black font. Older players are advised to bring a magnifying glass. A bright spot is the multi-page description of character and creature types. How else would anyone know that a wight is a walking explosive bag of poison pus?

Plot

Myth III is a prequel, returning us to the days of yesteryear when the Fallen Lords were still nice guys and the creator Wyrd still had an impact. The main baddies are Myrkridians, aided by various undead and out-of-work mages. These Forces of Dark have pretty well overrun the world except for the city of Llancarfan, the dwarves of Myrgard and the Highlander-like inhabitants of Gower. From the wilds of Gower comes the virile hero Connacht who teaches the effete city dwellers how monsters are handled. Through battle and collecting the odd artifact, he kills most of the evildoers - leaving just enough to explain the earlier games - and establishes the Forces of Light as the dominant world power. Oh well, if we wanted originality, we would read Larry McMurty.

Interface

The basic "select-click" mode for movement and targeting is still used. Where Myth III starts to innovate is the setting of groups and formations. In addition to holding "ALT + #" to make a group and tapping the same keys to select it, the upper tool bar is used to set and select groups via mouse, where a number specifies one of ten formations. Players used to games where a plain number key selects a group will spend the first few sessions ridding themselves of their habits; in Myth, hitting "1" (without ALT) to go to a certain group will cause a short line to be formed by the currently-selected units wherever the player next clicks on the map. The old system can be fallen back on if old habits persist. Keystrokes as well as menu icons activate special abilities such as healing and magic tossing. The camera view selection can be done either with keystrokes or the mouse. Some players find either way of adjusting the view is frustrating; others enjoy their particular option. Aligning the view with the direction troops are headed can be difficult; what appears to be the top of the trapezoid may well be the bottom of the play map. Both modes of changing the view have a portion of clumsiness.

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