Introduction

Fun With Explosives

If I had a dime for every time a company tried to make quick cash by attempting to clone Westwood's Command and Conquer, or Blizzard's Warcraft 2, I'd be rich enough to take Dennis' Ferrari off his hands. The RTS market out there is very clogged, and fortunately for Westwood and Blizzard, most of the competition out there just doesn't measure up. However, if more people start hearing about Bungie's Myth 2: Soulblighter, then perhaps the big two will have to start worrying about their market share. Bungie scores big points by not attempting in any way to copy the style of their competitors. Rather, they have come up with a formula all their own and just might have one of the year's sleeper hits on their hands, in much the same way the first Myth came out of nowhere to capture some awards.

What's the story?

Myth 2 takes place in a sort of fantasy/medieval world where the main weapons are swords, arrows, and spears, with some primitive explosives (anyone for a good old fashioned Molotov cocktail?) and a bit of magic mixed in. The story behind Myth 2: Soulblighter carries over from its predecessor, Myth: The Fallen Lords. The good king Alric in Myth 1 was able to kill off the dreaded Balor, who led an army of monsters and undead against the forces of Light. However, during the scattering of the Fallen Lords - the generals of Balor's army - the most powerful Fallen Lord Soulblighter, was able to escape (gee, nice convenient setup for the sequel =p ). More than half a century after the first wars ended, Soulblighter has returned with his own army of doom to exact revenge against a country of people who have largely forgotten the old wars or dismissed them as children's myths. You play the role of a commander against the evil Soulblighter and his massive army.

Myth 2 gets lumped in with many others as a Real Time Strategy game, but it could perhaps be better described as a Real Time Tactical game. The reason for that is because you deal with the game in a strictly tactical manner. There's no "magic mineral" or other resource to harvest/manage and no economy, expansion, or troop pumping to worry about. In general, the troops you start out with are all you get, so a huge premium is placed on efficiency and keeping your troops alive. In some single player missions you'll receive reinforcements but on multiplayer missions, what you see is what you get.