A Cohesive Whole

Myth is also littered with little design touches that add a certain luster to the solid foundation of the core design. Whereas missions in other RTS games exist as separate, self-contained play-spaces, in Myth the missions become a part of the whole due to the use of veteran units. These units, if they survive a given battle, will be available for players to use on the next level, and their skills will be noticeably stronger than the greenhorn units. This makes players treat those units with special care, expending the greenhorns on more dangerous explorations. Another nice touch is the ability of the units to leave footprints in the terrain, which adds an interesting element to tracking down enemies on snow-covered levels. The variety of missions available provides a much more diverse set of goals than many other RTS games, causing players to modify their gameplay style drastically from level to level.

Myth s developers paid a lot of attention to detail, which helped to create a deep gameplay experience.

Of course, Myth is not without its problems, even if one can accept the challenging controls and staggeringly difficult levels. Clicking around the overhead map sometimes causes the camera to rotate in ways players do not expect, possibly throwing off their orientation in the world and completely breaking their immersion. The overhead map is actually translucent and drawn over the play-field, which can sometimes cause players to click in it by accident . The desire to see more of the play-field at once is a valid one, even if it is a limitation of the technology. Nevertheless, these are truly minor flaws in an overwhelmingly impressive design. Myth represents how a great game can grow out of the marriage of technology and gameplay. This is not a shotgun wedding , however, but instead one where the bride and groom have carefully thought out how they can happily live together, enhancing each other s strengths, thus creating something new and exciting in the process.