Reviewed by
Kaiser Von Brinkman
Review Date: 1.25.99
Publisher:
Bungie
MSRP: $49.95
Intro
Do you remember the Old Milwaukee beer commercial where the guys are out camping,
sitting around a fire and drinking beer? One guy says "You know, it just doesn't
get any better than this." Then suddenly... along comes the Swedish Bikini
Team parachuting in on the camp site. Things DID get better.
Well that was my first impression of Myth: The Fallen Lords from Bungie. "It
just doesn't get any better than this." Then suddenly... along comes
Myth II: Soulblighter. And much like the campers besieged by scantily clad
young lovelies, things DID get better for Mac gamers.
The Story
One thing the guys over Bungie have mastered is the seemingly lost art of story
telling, as fans of the Marathon series can attest to. As the events of Myth II:
Soulblighter unfold, narration, animated cut scenes and plot twists masterfully
help draw the player deeper into the game.
Myth II: Soulblighter takes place 60 years after what is now being referred
to as "The Great War" of Myth: The Fallen Lords. Having defeated
Balor and his Fallen Lords, peace and prosperity rule the kingdom, under the reign
of (now) King Alric, the last Avatara from Myth: The Fallen Lords. The once
might Legion now spends most of its days scaring off hooligans. Then suddenly...
There have been reported disturbances on the outer borders of the kingdom: Bodies
being dug up and hauled away; people disappearing from villages in droves in the
middle of the night; and simple villagers being attacked by more Ghasts than in Michael
Jackson's Thriller video. This is where you come in.
The Light
You lead a hearty band of troops (formally known as the Legion) through the lands
of Myth II: Soulblighter. At your command you have a well-balanced variety
of troops, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and special abilities.
There's the stalwart Warrior, complete with 
armor, sword and shield. Bowmen,
who can soften up the enemy from long range or barbecue them in a blazing inferno
with their fire arrows. Claymore wielding Berserks who paint their faces & bodies
and wear kilts like Scottish Highlanders, exchanging the safety of armor for the
advantage of speed. Then there's my personal favorite, the Molotov throwing Dwarves
(affectionately called "Dorfs" by Bungie.net players), who reduce your
enemies—and sometimes your own troops—into bloody piles of hot dog filler. Dwarves
also come in the longer-distance, Mortar Unit variety as well. And finally, there's
the fur-coat-wearin', shovel-wieldin', root-diggin' Journeyman, who swings a mean
spade and can heal your troops with his special roots when they get injured.
Of course, these aren't the only troops you have, but they are the core of your army.
Other, more powerful units become available later on in the game, but I don't want
to give away too many surprises in Myth II: Soulblighter.
The Dark
What war game would be complete without a set of bad guys for your good guys
to take on? When it comes to bad guys, Myth II: Soulblighter comes up with
a plethora of enemies to challenge your troops.
There's the spear-chucking Soulless, disembodied floating spirits who send poison-tipped
javelins sailing in your direction. The slow-moving, axe-wielding Thrall, whose undead
bodies take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. Because they're the walking dead, Thrall
can travel through the deepest of waters and hide in them indefinitely -— not breathing
has its advantages. Speedy, cleaver-bearing Ghôls, with forearms that would
make Popeye envious, attack in packs and can reduce your Bowmen or Dwarves into piles
of worm food. Alternately Ghôls like to throw debris from the battlefield at
your troops from a safer distance, doing minor damage.
The lumbering Wight, a foul, gas-bloated, puss-filled corpse, sneaks up on your
troops and then sinking a dagger into it's stitched up corpse packs quite the wallop,
with an earth-rippling explosion just slightly smaller than the A-Bomb. Those fortunate
enough to survive the concussion of the explosion are almost certainly paralyzed
by the Wight's decayed entrails. The Fetch's lightning bolt attack can decimate your
units in a shockingly short amount of time, leaving the battle field riddled with
charred chunks of what used to be your army.
Also among the newer Dark enemies are the porcine Mauls, whose clubs can split skulls
in a single blow, and the Stygian Knights, animated suits of armor, invulnerable
to arrows & fire, but who shatter in a puff of green smoke from a well lobbed
Dwarf's Molotov.
As foretold in the Total Codex, there is another powerful enemy, an ancient race
of flesh-eaters, whose evil was unmatched by even the armies of the Fallen Lords.
These fast moving nightmare creatures are known as the Myrkridia. They're extremely
fast, extremely fierce, and extremely ugly. And worst of all, they've been brought
back to the world by Soulblighter.
[Since they come into the story fairly early, and everybody who played Myth: The
Fallen Lords had anticipated it, this is one of the secrets I felt could safely disclose
without compromising any of the other surprises. And believe me, there are some HUGE
surprises!]
Game Play
Myth II: Soulblighter is not your typical Real Time 
Strategy
game (RTS for short). In fact, it's not a strategy game at all. It's a tactical game.
Unlike most RTS's, there's no annoying wood chopping, gold mining or oil refining.
No farms or lumber mills to build. No stockpiling resources, pumping out 500 Catapults
and attacking the enemy en masse in a final battle. If you want to be a bureaucrat,
apply for your local planning commission. If you want to be a war general, play Myth
II: Soulblighter.
You get a set amount of units, and on occasion some reinforcements. That means you
need to learn how to use them well to overcome the staggering multitude of Dark armies
you'll face. Tactics are a thinking person's game.
What sets Myth II: Soulblighter apart from the rest of the field is that it
is a true 3D environment, complete with it's own physics model. Unlike Warcraft
or Command & Conquer, it is not a flat-surface, top down view. To gain
the best advantage, Myth II: Soulblighter gives you a "God's Eye"
camera view, which allows you to orbit and rotate 360°, panning back and forth,
zooming in and out to view the battlefield from all different perspectives. While
this takes some getting used to, good camera control is essential to effectively
planning and executing a battle plan.
Almost as important as camera control is mastering the use of formations to march
your troops into battle. Charging fully ahead into a fray often can make you take
the brunt of the damage as your enemies surround you and kill your troops on the
outside, while others are bottled up in the middle. Use the Vanguard formation to
guard your flanks and protect your weaker missile ranks. Put your Bowmen in a Long
Line formation to concentrate missile fire, and have your Warriors behind them in
a Loose Line formation so your Bowmen can quickly retreat when the enemy gets too
close for comfort. Have your Dwarves lay satchel charges in front of the advancing
enemy, then lure them over the charges and toss in a Molotov to scatter portions
of Thrall arms, legs and trunks around the battle field. Use the enemy's bad position
to attack them from their flank with your Bowmen, then when they turn to pursue,
attack them from their newly exposed flank with Berserks.
Additionally, a 3D environment and physics model makes you take into consideration
terrain and elevation. Missile units can shoot farther from on top of hills, some
units move slower than others going up steep slopes, and Dwarves' Molotovs can roll
back downhill, exploding on the Dwarves instead of their intended targets. Some forms
of terrain, such as sand and rock, won't catch fire. Molotovs are 
less
likely to explode when they hit on snowy ground or grass, and are more likely to
explode on rocks. You can track your enemies (or alternately they can track you)
on sand or in snow.
Just for another healthy dose of reality, you have to deal with the weather. Strong
winds can misguide your arrows, heavy rain or snow can douse your Molotovs, causing
them not to explode. And no real battle would be complete without a slight amount
of "friendly" fire. Just as your Berserks charge in to slaughter a group
of Mauls, your Bowmen sink a few arrows in their backs, to wit a Berserk shouts "Damn
yer eyes!" in a Scottish brogue. Or your Warriors engage a group of Thrall and
your Dwarf yells "Make way for the Dwarf" and tosses in a Molotov cocktail
which ends up blasting just as many Warriors as Thrall. A Warrior yells out "Hold
your fire!" and the Dwarf sheepishly responds "Sorry, my fault..."
And last but not least, the player needs to learn to develop veteran units, which
attack faster and more accurately, and can recover from attacks more quickly due
to their experience. There may be times when you need to sacrifice a unit or two
to slow down an advancing enemy. Make sure they aren't your experienced players.
Ease of Game Play
Unlike Myth: The Fallen Lords, Myth II: Soulblighter has a much easier
learning curve for the newbie. For Myth veterans, much will be familiar with the
interface, but new players should take care to use the tutorial to familiarize themselves
with the floating camera and formations. There are some "improvements"
to the interface if you care to call them that, like a control bar at the bottom,
which will let you pick formations with your mouse.
One of Bungie's goals was to make the game so you could play entirely with the mouse,
and at this they have succeeded. But for Myth vets, this may mean unlearning some
of your old techniques if you stay with the factory defaults. Fortunately, Bungie
gives you the option of customizing controls for your own comfort, and you can set
the game to take advantage of the new options or revert to the playing style you
used with Myth: The Fallen Lords.
The first few levels are very easy. I completed 
Beyond the first few levels however, Myth II: Soulblighter does become a lot
more difficult. There may be times when you are in a no-win situation, and you must
make decisions on who to sacrifice or what unit types you will damage to make it
easier for your other troops to succeed. Only experience will help you to recognize
these and in some instances avoid them.
All in all, the single player game should take a person a week or two at a few hours
a night of playing (between 20-40 hours) give or take a few, depending on the level
of difficulty and the amount of experience the player has. Since I'm a Myth II:
Soulblighter addict, I completed the game over a weekend of hard-core playing.
Multi-Player
If you enjoyed the engrossing single player game, you'll love the multi-player option!
Bungie provides free multi-player support in the form of Bungie.net. There, players
can get together to massacre each other one-on-one in a game of Last Man on the Hill,
or else they can team up to bring total destruction to their enemies in a game of
Body Count.
There are a multitude of options, and Bungie.net supports up to 16 players per game,
and allows teams and alliances in each game. There is also an interface which allows
you to chat, look at other player's stats by game, and set preferences to show you
which games offer the features you like. You can even create a "buddies list"
to keep track of up to 8 other players you enjoy battling with or against. As Bungie
states on Bungie.net: "Kill your enemies. Kill your friends' enemies. Kill your
friends."
Bottom Line
It might have been tempting for Bungie to guild the lily and make radical changes
to Myth II: Soulblighter, but they didn't. Bungie instead has taken a masterpiece
in Myth: The Fallen Lords and improved it in Myth II: Soulblighter.
They kept what worked, and improved things which gamers requested. Not only have
things like pathfinding and facing of units been improved, friendly fire has been
extremely reduced, and Bungie has added a few new units without unbalancing game
play.
The story line keeps you involved, yearning for more, and with the inclusion of Fear
and Loathing, Bungie's Myth II: Soulblighter editing utilities, you can rest
assured that there will be many more quality multi-player maps and free single
player expansion modules.
And finally, few companies are willing to develop and release such an awesome game
for the Mac as Myth II: Soulblighter at the same time as the Wintel version.
Of course, Bungie started out on the Mac, gaining success with Pathways into Darkness
and the Marathon series. They deserve your support. Go out and buy this game!
Pros:
Improved pathfinding, and facing of units, reduced friendly fire. Newer units,
expanded narration and plot twists keep the single player game interesting. Finer
mesh and addition of working models, such as windmills and drawbridges make maps
incredibly realistic.Ability to save game films rocks!
Cons:
Some sprites, primarily the Dwarves, don't appear to be as sharp as they used
to. Cut scenes are a bit more drab, and not as nice as in Myth: The Fallen Lords,
IMHO. The exclusion of my favorite multi-player map: For Carnage Apply Within.
Score: 9.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Mac System Requirements:
System 7.5 or greater
100 MHz PowerPC 601 Processor
(120 MHz 604 recommended)
32 MB RAM
16-bit (thousands) color at 640 x 480
4x CD ROM
28.8 KBps Modem, TCP/IP or AppleTalk (For Multi-Player)
3Dfx GLIDE & RAVE supported