Graphics and Sound

Myth set standards for graphics when it came out. Myth III's terrain is varied, moody and almost biomorphic. The characters move realistically over hills and roads while scattering in broken ground. This combination of movement and ground is more than cosmetic. Terrain is extremely useful in combat, allowing for ambushes or a small body of troops to hold a pass. The battle animations are vivid and believable. The gore and carnage may be too much for some but adds verisimilitude to the dank aura of the times. Myth III's main advances to the series' graphics engine are the terrain textures (increased from 8-bit to 16-bit) and the figure and object models (which are now 3D instead of 2D). The details of the zoomed images leave little to be desired. On the other hand, the cut-scenes resemble bad cartoons; mouths don't move during speech and heads jerk like marionettes. Fortunately, the "ESC" key spares the player the extended misery of these scenes.

For some, the mini-map can be a graphical irritation. So as to make it less obtrusive on the playing field, it is transparent. While a nice thought, when used with colors that blend in with the landscape, this solution actually makes it almost invisible. With many of the Myth III maps, the colors blend so much that players may often try to click on the map to change their view, but miss the mini-map and move a party on the present view instead. Search-and-destroy missions were made unnecessarily difficult by this since it's hard to tell how much of the field has been covered.

Sound is mediocre. The characters repeat the usual inane "rah rah" slogans and combat is filled with clanks and grunts with the occasional scream. The music is louder than the sound effects with no way of controlling the volume of one relative to the other. The quality of the sounds should match the graphics but, alas, no.

Game Mechanics

The essence of this game is combat formations. The ten formations cover long lines, compact boxes and several different curves. These formations and other orders are chosen from a tool bar at the bottom of the screen. Once formed, groups move at differing speeds per type to wherever the player clicked. Progress can be followed on the camouflaged mini-map with friendlies as green dots, enemies as red and neutrals as blue. A yellow trapezoid indicates the player's field of view on the mini-map. Units and groups can be faced with short strokes of the mouse. However, the relationship of what units can see versus what the player sees is unclear. Discarded equipment and magical items can be picked up if the wee things can be seen. Units' health status is shown by a vertical translucent bar which goes from green to yellow to red as damage mounts. The game can be paused to take a breather but, unlike the earlier games in the series, nothing can be done during pauses.

Previous

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

Next