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| | Publisher: MacSoft  Genre: Strategy & War | | | Min OS X: Any Version CPU: G3 @ 400 MHz RAM: 200 MB Hard Disk: 348 MB 4x CD-ROM Graphics: 640x480 @ 16-bit |
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I’ve always wanted to be a berserker, hirsute enough to make a polar bear jealous, the kind of person that would bathe only when the blood of my enemies had built to an inconveniently thick carapace and nothing short of gallons of testosterone flowed through my veins. Owning “Braveheart” on DVD tends to do this to you. Even if this never happened and I became a grad student instead, MacSoft’s Myth III: The Wolf Age is a great substitute. Bungie is gone from the Myth scene and things have changed considerably. Myth III: The Wolf Age, was ported to the Mac by Mumbo Jumbo, licensed from Take 2 Interactive and published by MacSoft. In addition to the Myth property itself changing hands, multiplayer play is being taken care of by a different party. Bungie has turned off its Myth 2 servers (even if you wanted to play the “I’ll Dance on Your Spider Web” map for the billionth time) and handed the responsibility over to the GameSpy network in lieu of the dated bungie.net. History Unlike the previous two Myth games, Myth III doesn’t focus on the present, but on the past. The story travels a thousand years back in time to discuss the origins of characters familiar to fans of Myth 1 and Myth II. While it was generally understood that the forces of evil rose up against humanity in the original Myth and returned in Myth II, there was never really intentional background as to who the berserkers, Myrkridia or what the Fallen Lords were before the conflicts began. Myth III fills in the blanks and does it nicely.As the game opens, a Journeyman archaeologist is exploring the ruins of the city of Muirthemne, one of Myth’s ancient capitals that fell centuries ago. During his studies, he discovers a temple devoted to the legendary hero known as Connacht the Wolf, the first warrior to rise up against the Myrkridia and the one to lead the advance against a dark sorcerer known as Moagim. Thrall Beauty Pageant It was the graphics that first caught my attention when Myth 1 came out. Blood flowed from arrow hits, bits of Thrall exploded everywhere after being detonated by Molotov cocktails hurled by angry dwarves, light gleamed off tarnished armor and Ghols threw severed heads at their enemies. With each new Myth game, the graphical capabilities got exponentially better.Myth III is no different in this context. The graphics have improved as the technology allowed for more and more pixels to be pushed across the screen with what are now standard graphics cards. Like the previous Myth games, Myth III uses a rotating camera system that allows for the user to rotate the camera to a new perspective as well as zoom in and out as needed. This works well and with amazingly few hang-ups (minus running into the edge of the map, where the camera runs out of room to rotate), players always being able to find a better perspective from which to analyze the battle. The graphics have been upgraded once again, and although it’s not as huge a jump as it was between Myth I and Myth II, Myth III’s graphics more than stand on their own. Zoom in on the action and there’s a world to detail waiting to be discovered. From creases in armor, dirt on uniforms, rippling muscles on charging Ghols and the scarred body of a wight shambling towards its targets, Mumbo Jumbo has done its homework. Graphics support is above par with excellent support for both nVidia’s and ATI’s cards, including specific rendering options for ATI’s rendering schemes.
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