Myth III: The Wolf Age

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: October 30, 2001
• Genre: Strategy
• Style: 3D Real-Time Strategy

Game Description

Myth III: The Wolf Age was developed to maintain the balance and interface of 1997's original 3D RTS game, enhancing and improving individual aspects of presentation and play but retaining the overall structure of earlier titles. While perspective choices and basic control schemes should be familiar and comfortable to veterans of the series, graphical enhancements and more fully interactive environments add depth and flavor to the now classic gameplay established in Myth: The Fallen Lords and it's first sequel. All units and terrain features are now rendered in true 3D and weather-affected environments are deformable.

The single-player campaign follows a story set 1,000 years before the original game, in which the great human hero Connacht first delivers his people from the deadly influence of the Myrkridia and Trow races. Multiplayer games are also supported, as several popular modes from Myth II: Soulblighter return here, along with a few new ones. Take 2 Interactive acquired the rights to the Myth series from the originators at Bungie Software. Myth III is the first release from developers Mumbo Jumbo and is published by the Take 2 subsidiary Gathering Of Developers.

Review: Overall

With its lack of innovation, Myth III: The Wolf Age feels more like a giant standalone expansion pack than a new game. It does, however, offer an engrossing storyline that takes place a thousand years before the events in Myth: The Fallen Lords in addition to more of the solid tactical gameplay that made the previous games in the series so enjoyable.

Instead of 2D sprites on 3D terrain, Myth III: The Wolf Age features full 3D, with detailed, fluidly animated character models, some of which even have variants for added variety. For example, the basic infantryman has two models, one armed with a sword and one with an axe. Other graphical flourishes include real-time lighting, wind, and changing terrain. Compared to other genre titles released at the same time, Myth III's graphics are quite impressive and reflect the most significant improvement in the game.

Gameplay remains essentially unchanged from previous releases in the series. In most missions, you're limited to the soldiers you have at the beginning, and there are no towns to manage or resources to gather. To compensate for the absence of an economic management aspect, Myth III gives you much finer control over your troops. In addition to the genre-standard unit grouping, guard, and waypoint options, you can set ten different formations and utilize advanced tactical maneuvers like scatter and retreat.

Taking advantage of a large variety of terrain and weather factors in tactical planning is a must. High ground makes archers more effective, but strong winds blow their arrows off target. Rain and snow diminish your line of sight, while reducing the effectiveness of any fire-based attacks. The game makes a good concession to reality-based combat considerations.

The AI in The Wolf Age is smarter than that found in many RTS games, and is capable of using terrain to its advantage and even luring you into ambushes. Most of the time, you'll be severely outnumbered, which requires careful attack planning and offers a deep level of tactical decision-making not found in many RTS games. Some interesting puzzle-style missions provide good contrast to the pure tactical missions as well.

A few relatively minor problems include unclear specifics as to mission objectives, though usually killing everything that moves will take care of it. At times, though, you aimlessly wander until you accidentally trigger the victory conditions. Path finding is fairly poor, especially when sending a group of units to attack enemies behind an obstacle, as only a few soldiers will actually get there before becoming stuck and standing idly by like idiots.

The game's camera system is unnecessarily cumbersome; tweaking control settings and extensive practice is required to attain a comfort level. The dark and muddy colors of the tactical map make it blend with the similarly hued terrain textures, making it nearly invisible and navigation difficult. Search and destroy missions can also be frustrating since recognizing unexplored parts of the map can be difficult.

Myth III: The Wolf Age is an intense and enjoyable test of tactical skills that will please fans of previous Myth games as well as armchair strategists. Conversely, RTS players who prefer building armies rather than taking advantage of what's on hand will feel constrained by the game's approach.

Review: Enjoyment

Myth III offers a level of tactical depth unparalleled by other games in the genre, and is an intense and enjoyable exercise in small unit tactics.

Review: Graphics

3D graphics are remarkably good, with detailed character models and a number of visual effects like real time lighting and wind.

Review: Sound

Sound effects and voice clips effectively enhance the realism of battle. A number of appealing but moody Celtic songs fit the game's theme perfectly.

Review: Replay Value

The replay value is limited due to the linearity. Enemy placement is pre-scripted, but you can try completing the same mission using a number of different approaches.

Review: Documentation

The manual is fairly extensive, but the tiny font is tough to read and includes a large number of spelling and grammatical errors.

Production Credits