The development was really hard. I did 90% of all the work alone. I completely agree that Might & Magic: Myth suffers from an imbalance in the types of troops, but by the end of development there was only one desire - at least to release a mod. Thank you for your attention to my project. It was very nice to hear the opinion about what I did!❤️🙌 ~ MAIK
Thanks for your comments, I noticed you'd made a lot of SP campaigns and decided to focus on M&M since it seemed the biggest one, but in retrospect I should've covered Shards of the Ermine as well. Anyway, M&M was clearly a pretty crazy effort, no wonder it took so many years! Funny easter egg in the last mission with the undead btw :D
well if you worked on it I'll say this again, This was my fabvourite game when I was a lad. it was sucha change of pace in RTS and legitimately spooky.
I just found your channel and am very impressed with the quality, detail and research. I was expecting a typical game review focused entirely on the game itself, but the inclusion of historical context, background, developmental analysis and even going so far as to discuss the post-launch period completely blindsided me in a really good way. Looking forward to watching more of your videos.
You really nailed it when you said people aren't nostalgic for Myth the game as much as they are for good level design. The focus on audio/voice acting/music and the heavy influence from The Black Company really make for an enthralling story dripping with atmosphere and charm. That combined with the finely crafted levels and interesting gameplay made Myth so memorable. I long for the days when studios would take such original ideas and just run wild with them like they did in the 90s and early 2000s.
Just played through Myth II again. Currently playing the mod that brings the campaign of myth iii to myth ii. That game, the gritty story and how well the tactic combat is implemented always draws me back, year after year.
The game was the product of Bungie, which is no more. If you want a reforged(tm) version, IP owners can hire undergrads to write the code and outsource the graphics to a 3rd world sweatshop, and they could even fix the character proportions/animations to be more realistic, but...
Microsoft sold Myth and everything not Halo-related as fast as possible without a care in the world. In fact, things worked out better for their public image that way as Myth 3 was a mediocre flop that disappeared into nothing and almost zero people who got an Xbox ever knew Bungie existed as an independent development studio.
Feels good to have won the most prize money consecutively ever off this game throughout it’s multiplayer history. A classic war simulator, there could have been more coverage on the 25 + years of multiplayer history, starting with it’s first “official” tournament ever being won by a female player, but the reviewer has shown great respect to this game with the hours of coverage. It’s annual Mecca Tournament, the Myth World Cup, has only missed one year, 2002; as the community looked for new resources to host communities online for myth. Loving the review, thanks for the attention you’re bringing this game.
Is that where the "Kathy trow" video comes from? I was hoping to use a picture or clip somewhere in that section of the video but couldn't find anything high def enough. 😔
I've been regularly replaying Myth and Myth II ever since I first obtained them upon their original release. They've held up over all those years for two reasons: the gameplay is extremely satisfying when you perform a well-executed maneuver, and the interface is so stripped-down and minimalist compared to all similar games which are totally cluttered with distracting shit. In Myth you can just get lost in the action for hours.
I always found these games much more intuitive than "traditional" RTS titles, such that I barely consider them the same genre. Those games always seemed based on hidden statistics, and memorizing how to do things efficiently. I played through half of Homeworld 2, mentioned earlier in this video, and had no clue what I was doing right or wrong despite progressing. It just seemed to be asking me to keep track of overwhelming nonsense. The physics in Myth creates simple, obvious, and fun strategies based on shapes and formations instead of numbers.
The editing you did in the section where they are discussing the uninstall bug cracked me up. Excellent video series, thank you for the time in making them.
Was this not an error which had cropped up in a few other games before? I also seem to recall that when DOSBox was still pretty new, I was warned to be careful to mount properly, because you could wipe your drive if you did something stupid. Not sure if that was true.
Myth was one of my first PC games. Never got to try the sequel beyond the demo version but either way the animated cutscenes and grim narration of the first game in particular has always stuck with me. I'm glad someone finally covered them in-depth. I will say this: Between this and the other video, you've convinced me to pick up the audiobook version of Black Company. About a third of the way through the first book, really enjoying it.
Having read all the mainline books (not the short stories), my personal recommendation for the Black Company series is to either: Read only the first book and leave it at that. It's arguably the darkest, most unique, and most memorable story, and is the closest to the tone of the original Myth. OR Read the first three books. This pretty much wraps up everything from the first book. There's also "The Silver Spike", which arguably serves as a semi-epilogue/self-contained story of sorts, but it might annoy fans of the first three books due to several characters being killed off. OR Read the first three books and then all the "Books of the South" and "Books of Glittering Stone", which basically relocate the protagonists of the original series to an India/Afghanistan-esque setting with a completely new mythology and lore. You could argue there's a break-off point in the middle of these involving a time jump, but imo they only really work as a whole.
Really would like to say i appreciate the in depth coverage of not just the games development but also the community modding side, as i was never aware that Myth mods were this huge. Which is something i always like as much like with more obscure games its showing tons of work that might have otherwise never been seen and i always appreciate that.
Your vids are absolutely outstanding! I never played this game (though I did play the first) but I still found this to be highly educational and entertaining. I can't wait for Planescape: Torment!
Myth 1 and 2 are still in my heart today and I still play it once in a while. I always tried to bring all my troops through the missions alive which wasnt always possible. Thx for the great review and thx for the support from the modding community. I still pray for a new myth game that hopefully will be as good as myth 1 and 2, fingers crossed.
I forgot to mention it, but the Computer Gaming World reviewer (who was a freelancer) says CGW heavily edited his review to remove many of his criticisms (such as calling it an expansion pack) and make it sound more positive. This wasn't unknown back in the day (Scorpia's negative Baldur's Gate 1 review having a rebuttal added).
As a fellow st0ryf4g, I really appreciated your analysis of the story of Myth II. I was also a little disappointed with the story/atmosphere of the sequel at the time. I think the general vibe they were going for in terms of story was the "horrors of the past/previous (Dark) cycles (Myrkridia, surviving Fallen Lords etc.) coming back to haunt you" along with a general "unfinished business" theme but it really wasn't fleshed out and grounded very well. As you've pointed out, they also could have made better use of the cyclical nature of the conflict between the Light/Dark and the consequences of disrupting that cycle. I don't know if I entirely agree with you about the Myrkridia however because I kinda liked their return, it was cool to see a "horror from a previous cycle" resurfacing once more and it really fits the theme they were going for but it wasn't enough/couldn't stand on its own. They really should've tied the return of the Myrkridia with Alric breaking the cycle of the comet/the Leveler. Perhaps they could've also made them a bit more imposing visually/mechanics-wise but legends are usually embellished from the real thing and they haven't yet been unleashed from the Tain with the same numbers they've had in the past to engulf the land. I think they should've set the events much later than just 60 years; you can even still use Alric, it had already been established in the first game that sorcerers of such power can lengthen their lifespan without even becoming undead just like the sorcerers/the Taken in Black Company. They could have also fugged with Alric's pristine heroic image a little bit and tied that to him becoming more inhuman with the lengthened lifespan. Perhaps he refuses to relinquish power for some reason, perhaps it has something to do with the broken cycle or the Leveler is trying to claw its way back in but not entirely or manifesting in a different manner? I agree that they didn't use Alric very well... Longer gap between the Great War (along with a deteriorating Alric who didn't please everyone from the former Alliance) would have also made the dissolution of the Light's great alliance more plausible and bolstered the narrative about the sudden return of the Dark or remnants of it from the previous cycles. I agree that they should have put much greater emphasis on blurring the sharp distinction between the Light and the Dark aligned forces **for both sides** and stuck to it for more than a few levels to fit the narrative about the broken cycle & to shake things up a bit in general to spice up the sequel. I'm now eagerly awaiting THE WOLF AGE retrospective review kind sir, to gibs you dat plebbit gold n' sheeid. It has pixelated pre-Undead Shiver b00ba..AWOOOGA
I've watched this from beginning to end three times now. I can say, without a doubt, this is one of the greatest videogame analysis videos I have ever seen. Love your channel. Many great videos. This one is probably my favorite, so far. Enjoyed your "Worlds of Ultima" analysis, among many others on your channel. I look forward to see what games you cover in the future. Hopefully that "Myth III: The Wolf Age" analysis will come soon. Really want to see that one
Fun fact; the problem with Myth II's installer? It was also a problem for several other games, most prominently a little obscure title called... Half-Life. I found this out the hardest of ways, as I originally had my own development project (my current game series TAGAP) installed in the same directly as my games. Un-installing the original CD release of Half-Life with the installation program nuked the entire directory tree. Before this event I wasn't paranoid about backups, so it looked like I was about to loose two months of work. Luckily I did have an 'undelete' program, so as long as I knew the 'first letter of the file name', I could recover most of the source code at least. I did loose almost all the art asset source files from that perioid, though. Two lessons: Always backup your things. And don't be GabeN and learn to count to 3 before you try to program an installer.
Another fun fact: A few years back CCP Games put out an Eve Online expansion that would delete a file Windows requires to boot, if installed to the root directory of the system drive then installed.
@@zanmaru139 Wow, that's wild. I can get that Windows would allow wiping of a non-systems folder like my 'c:\games' in the day, but you'd think Windows would stop wiping of its system files.
1:33 Seeing how you're still not cutting from this shot, I was sure it's going to end in a stray molotov hitting the friendlies, possibly triggering some chain reaction that blows everyone up. On a related note, I was surprised to hear that there were players who considered friendly fire a problem. To me it was always a positive feature, one of the most entertaining things about Myth being all the explosive accidents that can occur. Especially when they're punctuated by a somewhat embarrassed sounding apology, delivered with a strong Scottish accent.
Your vids are a blessing, there just isn't anything else on YT that scratches that itch, just like Myth is for games. It was through Myth I discovered this channel, cause it really annoyed me that the only videos about it are pathetically short, and I thought the series deserves more. So you and Jeoku(though he should read at least the first Black Company book, if he wants to be the Myth loremaster supreme) are the only ones giving it justice.
Almost a three hour review by one of the most entertaining reviewers out there? And about a very interesting game that basically nobody reviews? Wow.. Christmas came very early this year, huh? ;) Cheers, man.
Great video, it's clear you have put a lot of work into it. I'm staying up tonight with my pets as its fireworks night and they need some comfort, having a long ass video to pass the time is great.
I was amazed by the "Baron escape" level, the AI seemed just too good there, but finally I managed to capture him. To this day it is one of my favorite levels ever of out all games. Superb video yet again, thank you for covering one of my favorite games.
Fantastic review. The object permanency was what I found most immersive and memorable regarding Myth. It’s so hard to find games with persistent battlefields these days and Myth will always hold trumps in this regard. Decal and corpse limits utterly ruin immersion. There’s a channel called Random Madness that’s devoted to this issue in modern gaming.
another great vid, mr edders! I am curious how you felt about the story, especially the ending and the twists. While I appreciate that you try not to spoil things, it does leave me curious - since endings are so important to one's holistic experience, and Myth 2 has some interesting plot twists and threads.
@@MrEdders123 Do you, btw, happen to be able to read German? I'm asking because you seem to often have a look at ancient German computer game magazines.
mabe its just me but im a sucker for sprites on 3d deforable terrain like dominions 4 It just feels like the right level of graphics to tell the story and leaves the rest to your imagination
Oh, never played that. Some of the mods I mentioned appear to use perma-deformable terrain. I remember messing around with it myself in the modding tools but I think there was some kind of problem with it in the engine, can't recall exactly what though.
I’m pretty sure I only ever played the myth games as demos. I was pretty young and my dad would never buy us games but he always bought pc utility magazine’s and stuff and I’m pretty sure I got it off there I remember renaming the units after friends in my class at school haha
Amazing video! I’ve been waiting for this since I saw the first Myth review and will eagerly be awaiting the third. Good luck on the other stuff you make. I’m glad I stayed around to see the other stuff you’ve made. It’s really weird to think that Halo runs on a heavily modified version of Myth’s engine. It’s also truly surreal how Mac was once a viable platform for pc gaming. Too bad Apple basically killed it by dropping support for lots of third party software and by making IOS devices be extremely resistant to external modifications (hardware/software). From what I hear the newer Macs are actually powerful enough to run a lot of AAA games. There’s just a combination of Apple not supporting it, there not being a dedicated Mac player base, and developers not wanting to develop for said small player base. All three of these things create a feedback loop. It’s also truly surreal how whenever there’s a new form of technology/media the older generations don’t understand they label it as evil. The whole belief about video games causing violence is dumb because simple statistics do not line up with that. It’s really too bad that Myth never took off as a multimedia franchise. It definitely has an interesting premise. It would be great if we got a game that was made by a lot of the old devs and diehard fans that expands upon the universe. Take what already worked and expand upon that while also doing the same for the story. If you were to take a lot of the community made lore and canonize it by feeding it into a competent writer you’d have a really strong foundation. Hopefully these one day get a rerelease or a Nightdive Studios remaster with mod support. That would be able to keep these things alive and introduce them to new people (same goes for that Spellcross game you covered, the Marathon trilogy, and a bunch of older cool forgotten games). Sadly, we most likely won’t get anything like that and if we do get a new entry in the Myth series it will be made by people who don’t understand the ip. It’s really interesting how Bungie’s greatest strength when it comes to storytelling is the presentation. They do a phenomenal job of creating the illusion of depth by giving you just enough to keep you interested, and holding back just enough to make you wanting more. A great example of this would be Halo how there’s a lot of stuff they kept really vague making you think there was this massive universe when there clearly wasn’t. Bungie made each game not knowing they were going to make a sequel and would use the scraps to make the next one (Halo 3 being the extended third act of 2. There is a VERY noticeable drop in quality when it comes to the story. Truth went from this calculated manipulative liar to a raving madman, the Arbiter didn’t really do anything and was just a side character, Miranda Keyes died because she was dumb enough to crash her pelican into the control room without any ODSTs/marines to back her up, and nothing of note really happens narrative wise. 3 is the best campaign, but the worst story of the original trilogy). Halo is probably my favorite franchise, but I’m well aware that it’s heavily flawed and a lot of the mistake Bungie made were carried over by 343 (in addition to numerous bad ideas that 343 had). I look back at a lot of the Bungie games and think there could have been so much more to them. More evidence that Bungie mostly just cared about making cool experiences and didn’t put as much emphasis on the story/lore (it was important but gameplay clearly came first) is the fact that for the developer commentary for CE/2 they’re simultaneously roasting and praising their own games. It’s really too bad the game didn’t delve into the moral ambiguity like what you suggested by having the dark and light forces be intermixed since their old masters are gone and a power vacuum is open that everyone wants to fill. It would have been really cool to use units from both sides as a way to mix things up. 343 was going for something like that in some of their books where after the Covenant fell and humanity was brought to the brink the power vacuum caused all these different groups to arise with different goals, ideologies/worldviews, and are a mashup of the different species. There was also moral ambiguity where ONI was funding various Covenant remnants to cause trouble for humanities old enemies before turning on them mirroring the US Afghan war. You also had a remnant called the Keepers of the One Freedom that was a Brute lead faction who still believed in the Great Journey and would let humans join them. Jul Madama the leader of the Storm Covenant in 4/5 was aware his faith was a farce and found this group of Elites, Jackals, and Grunts who didn’t know the war ended and used them to gain power. They were aware that the Great Journey was a lie but they were trying to attach their faith to something else because the alternative that everything they believed was a lie was just too horrible for them. That’s something I can definitely sympathize with having gone through something similar in losing my faith. Now I don’t know what I believe. You also have the Jackal pirates who attack everyone and the Banished who will let anyone join because they aren’t confined by dogma. Sadly 343 would completely botch this truly amazing setup. It’s interesting just how many parallels can be drawn from Bungie’s old work and Halo even when they’re not the ones currently in control of the different properties. It would have been awesome if we got some expansions told from different perspectives that have variations in the different author’s ideologies, understanding of the world, motivations, and other stuff like that. If done right having stuff like the unreliable narrator and different understandings of the world could really enhance the setting. A great example of this done write would be in the plots/lore for Elder Scrolls Daggerfall and Morrowind where there’s ambiguity around historical events where different sides have stories that overlap aside from minor details that build up. The different groups have a different understanding of the world and how they interact with each other (although it should be noted that Elder Scrolls is a setting where thought/belief can influence reality if enough people believe a certain way. The character of the Aedra and Daedra are influenced by what their worshipers in a certain region believe about them). Unfortunately modern Elder Scrolls is a complete mess when it comes to continuity. Also, the lore community is filled with idiots who twist themselves into knots trying to come up with bad excuses for why what we see in the games doesn’t match up with the various lore books that mention all kinds of cool stuff. If done right community sources lore could work if you have a group of competent people to filter out the bad ideas and make sure it’s consistent. If there was a campaign where it could be assumed the narrator was lying about what’s happening or they don’t understand things and someone else comes along to correct that while leaving some things vague that could really enhance the story. Luckily there’s plenty of mods to do this for us. I definitely NEED to check this game out at some point. Keep up the good work covering these old games!
Thank you! Your point about Halo reminded me of my opinions on the Halo series, which was that the Covenant were much more frightening in the first game, where you didn't really know much about them, but at the same time I really enjoyed learning more about their culture in the books/Halo 2 etc. I think something similar happened from Myth 1 to Myth 2, except the Dark didn't really get any more interesting.
I loved this game way back! Remember doing the entire campaign on Legendary with no casualties, and being sorta proud about it. Myth TFL was good, but I felt that Soulblighter perfected the formula. And the less said about Myth III the better.
@@MrEdders123 The first one actually introduced me to the wonderful world of Warhammer Fantasy back in the day, but Dark Omen is truly a master piece, one of the best fantasy games in terms of mystery, fear of the unknown and good pacing as the antagonists reveal themselves. I just though it might be a nice sequel to the Myth reviews as it's from the same period and also highly influental.
@@Vattghern_ I remember playing Dark Omen as a kid. I wasn't good at it, but I liked to use cheats to blast entire enemy regiments with cannons and fireballs. Then there was that one magic horn which would demoralize an enemy regiment and cause them to flee, which in the case of undead would make them just plain die.
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, and in the streets we shall fight, and never at a faster pace than a casual saunter.
Unfortunately I missed GB as I thought it was multiplayer only. I found the SP campaign after I'd already recorded the script and it seemed slightly janky, like many other gunpowder/firearms arms that are really aimed at online, so I just grabbed some footage and slipped it in later.
You do a great job investigating these old games. Wish "games journalist's" did even a quarter of the work you do. I'm really getting dissatisfied with the constant shills, hype pieces, and copy/paste articles these places put out anymore. Anyway another awesome video in the bag congrats!
Didn't saw the full video yet ... but did you mention about the Uninstaller ... that could delete with Admin privileges your entire HDD ... if you wanted to uninstall the game ...
This is a very impressive channel, clearly. The care that’s gone into the research and writing is clear, but I really wish there was more personality injected into this. Maybe it’s just me, but listening to a voice drone on about nothing but pure factoids can feel a little emotionless and a little disinteresting after a while, despite my being very interested in this topic! Idk if I can get through the rest of your content though
yeah my videos are pretty boring. You can see me trying to experiment a little bit with jokes and faster cuts and such in the early stuff but I'm not very good at that. I'm happy just making these documentary-style videos to lull people to sleep lol
That game that spawned from "monkey nuts" was a very bad rts. You only control one unit for instance . That alone is very weird, but somehow it spawned many sequels and was very popular
The development was really hard. I did 90% of all the work alone. I completely agree that Might & Magic: Myth suffers from an imbalance in the types of troops, but by the end of development there was only one desire - at least to release a mod. Thank you for your attention to my project. It was very nice to hear the opinion about what I did!❤️🙌
~ MAIK
Thanks for your comments, I noticed you'd made a lot of SP campaigns and decided to focus on M&M since it seemed the biggest one, but in retrospect I should've covered Shards of the Ermine as well. Anyway, M&M was clearly a pretty crazy effort, no wonder it took so many years! Funny easter egg in the last mission with the undead btw :D
well if you worked on it I'll say this again, This was my fabvourite game when I was a lad. it was sucha change of pace in RTS and legitimately spooky.
@@WildFungus He didn't work on Myth 2 but on a Might & Magic-themed mod for it.
Thanks for the hard work I’m enjoying it a lot. 🎉
Nearly three hours about Myth II? I'm in, dude!
This game oozes atmosphere and I love it. The voice acting was superb.
Its always a good day when a literal documentary quality (and length) video about Myth II shows up in my feed. Great work as always Edders.
I was waiting for your coverage on MythII. Thank you so much. It is still one of my most memorable video games of my childhood.
Me too!
Same, the story/story telling was masterful and the gameplay was very challenging. The game is largely forgotten now. It needs to be remastered.
I just found your channel and am very impressed with the quality, detail and research. I was expecting a typical game review focused entirely on the game itself, but the inclusion of historical context, background, developmental analysis and even going so far as to discuss the post-launch period completely blindsided me in a really good way. Looking forward to watching more of your videos.
Thanks!
You really nailed it when you said people aren't nostalgic for Myth the game as much as they are for good level design. The focus on audio/voice acting/music and the heavy influence from The Black Company really make for an enthralling story dripping with atmosphere and charm. That combined with the finely crafted levels and interesting gameplay made Myth so memorable. I long for the days when studios would take such original ideas and just run wild with them like they did in the 90s and early 2000s.
Just played through Myth II again. Currently playing the mod that brings the campaign of myth iii to myth ii.
That game, the gritty story and how well the tactic combat is implemented always draws me back, year after year.
Mate this is really great. I hope you continue to do more videos and get the exposure you deserve.
So many memories playing this as a kid. I still hope that the IP returns some day!
The game was the product of Bungie, which is no more. If you want a reforged(tm) version, IP owners can hire undergrads to write the code and outsource the graphics to a 3rd world sweatshop, and they could even fix the character proportions/animations to be more realistic, but...
at the turning of the age, when a comet is seen in the sky and the leveler has been overthrown.
@@nangld it takes passion to make a soulefull game. and not a empty re-animated husk
Microsoft sold Myth and everything not Halo-related as fast as possible without a care in the world. In fact, things worked out better for their public image that way as Myth 3 was a mediocre flop that disappeared into nothing and almost zero people who got an Xbox ever knew Bungie existed as an independent development studio.
Me too. And with a Marathon game coming…WHO KNOWS!?!
Feels good to have won the most prize money consecutively ever off this game throughout it’s multiplayer history. A classic war simulator, there could have been more coverage on the 25 + years of multiplayer history, starting with it’s first “official” tournament ever being won by a female player, but the reviewer has shown great respect to this game with the hours of coverage. It’s annual Mecca Tournament, the Myth World Cup, has only missed one year, 2002; as the community looked for new resources to host communities online for myth. Loving the review, thanks for the attention you’re bringing this game.
Is that where the "Kathy trow" video comes from? I was hoping to use a picture or clip somewhere in that section of the video but couldn't find anything high def enough. 😔
Bomber from iconoclast here. Congrats. Thai?
The first gaming check I ever got was from myth II. 12 bucks, I can’t remember the tournaments. Prob patrol
I've been regularly replaying Myth and Myth II ever since I first obtained them upon their original release. They've held up over all those years for two reasons: the gameplay is extremely satisfying when you perform a well-executed maneuver, and the interface is so stripped-down and minimalist compared to all similar games which are totally cluttered with distracting shit. In Myth you can just get lost in the action for hours.
I always found these games much more intuitive than "traditional" RTS titles, such that I barely consider them the same genre. Those games always seemed based on hidden statistics, and memorizing how to do things efficiently. I played through half of Homeworld 2, mentioned earlier in this video, and had no clue what I was doing right or wrong despite progressing. It just seemed to be asking me to keep track of overwhelming nonsense. The physics in Myth creates simple, obvious, and fun strategies based on shapes and formations instead of numbers.
Quickly becoming one of my favourite youtube channels! Stoked for the new upload!
The editing you did in the section where they are discussing the uninstall bug cracked me up. Excellent video series, thank you for the time in making them.
Thanks :D
Was this not an error which had cropped up in a few other games before? I also seem to recall that when DOSBox was still pretty new, I was warned to be careful to mount properly, because you could wipe your drive if you did something stupid. Not sure if that was true.
Myth was one of my first PC games. Never got to try the sequel beyond the demo version but either way the animated cutscenes and grim narration of the first game in particular has always stuck with me. I'm glad someone finally covered them in-depth.
I will say this: Between this and the other video, you've convinced me to pick up the audiobook version of Black Company. About a third of the way through the first book, really enjoying it.
Having read all the mainline books (not the short stories), my personal recommendation for the Black Company series is to either:
Read only the first book and leave it at that. It's arguably the darkest, most unique, and most memorable story, and is the closest to the tone of the original Myth.
OR
Read the first three books. This pretty much wraps up everything from the first book. There's also "The Silver Spike", which arguably serves as a semi-epilogue/self-contained story of sorts, but it might annoy fans of the first three books due to several characters being killed off.
OR
Read the first three books and then all the "Books of the South" and "Books of Glittering Stone", which basically relocate the protagonists of the original series to an India/Afghanistan-esque setting with a completely new mythology and lore. You could argue there's a break-off point in the middle of these involving a time jump, but imo they only really work as a whole.
Really would like to say i appreciate the in depth coverage of not just the games development but also the community modding side, as i was never aware that Myth mods were this huge.
Which is something i always like as much like with more obscure games its showing tons of work that might have otherwise never been seen and i always appreciate that.
My favourite game series. Glorious experience - and lovely review.
I've been waiting for this review since I first found your MFL review. Great to see it arrive on my feed and good luck with your future reviews!
Your vids are absolutely outstanding! I never played this game (though I did play the first) but I still found this to be highly educational and entertaining. I can't wait for Planescape: Torment!
The best game of all-time. It’s a shame the multiplayer community is holding on by a thread.
This game is new to me. Thanks for sharing it. Looks like something I have to check out
Best of luck. If it's not on GOG you'll have a hard time finding it!
Myth 1 and 2 are still in my heart today and I still play it once in a while. I always tried to bring all my troops through the missions alive which wasnt always possible. Thx for the great review and thx for the support from the modding community. I still pray for a new myth game that hopefully will be as good as myth 1 and 2, fingers crossed.
Thanks! Can't talk about Myth 2 without mods :D
some of those reviews remind me of current day game journalists. i beat that game when i was 8.
I forgot to mention it, but the Computer Gaming World reviewer (who was a freelancer) says CGW heavily edited his review to remove many of his criticisms (such as calling it an expansion pack) and make it sound more positive. This wasn't unknown back in the day (Scorpia's negative Baldur's Gate 1 review having a rebuttal added).
As a fellow st0ryf4g, I really appreciated your analysis of the story of Myth II. I was also a little disappointed with the story/atmosphere of the sequel at the time. I think the general vibe they were going for in terms of story was the "horrors of the past/previous (Dark) cycles (Myrkridia, surviving Fallen Lords etc.) coming back to haunt you" along with a general "unfinished business" theme but it really wasn't fleshed out and grounded very well. As you've pointed out, they also could have made better use of the cyclical nature of the conflict between the Light/Dark and the consequences of disrupting that cycle.
I don't know if I entirely agree with you about the Myrkridia however because I kinda liked their return, it was cool to see a "horror from a previous cycle" resurfacing once more and it really fits the theme they were going for but it wasn't enough/couldn't stand on its own. They really should've tied the return of the Myrkridia with Alric breaking the cycle of the comet/the Leveler. Perhaps they could've also made them a bit more imposing visually/mechanics-wise but legends are usually embellished from the real thing and they haven't yet been unleashed from the Tain with the same numbers they've had in the past to engulf the land.
I think they should've set the events much later than just 60 years; you can even still use Alric, it had already been established in the first game that sorcerers of such power can lengthen their lifespan without even becoming undead just like the sorcerers/the Taken in Black Company. They could have also fugged with Alric's pristine heroic image a little bit and tied that to him becoming more inhuman with the lengthened lifespan. Perhaps he refuses to relinquish power for some reason, perhaps it has something to do with the broken cycle or the Leveler is trying to claw its way back in but not entirely or manifesting in a different manner?
I agree that they didn't use Alric very well... Longer gap between the Great War (along with a deteriorating Alric who didn't please everyone from the former Alliance) would have also made the dissolution of the Light's great alliance more plausible and bolstered the narrative about the sudden return of the Dark or remnants of it from the previous cycles. I agree that they should have put much greater emphasis on blurring the sharp distinction between the Light and the Dark aligned forces **for both sides** and stuck to it for more than a few levels to fit the narrative about the broken cycle & to shake things up a bit in general to spice up the sequel.
I'm now eagerly awaiting THE WOLF AGE retrospective review kind sir, to gibs you dat plebbit gold n' sheeid. It has pixelated pre-Undead Shiver b00ba..AWOOOGA
Love how thorough your videos are! Great work!
The opening music has a bit of a halo vibe, I sometimes forget that bungie existed before 2001
Another fantastic video. You sir, have great taste in games!
I've watched this from beginning to end three times now. I can say, without a doubt, this is one of the greatest videogame analysis videos I have ever seen. Love your channel. Many great videos. This one is probably my favorite, so far. Enjoyed your "Worlds of Ultima" analysis, among many others on your channel. I look forward to see what games you cover in the future.
Hopefully that "Myth III: The Wolf Age" analysis will come soon. Really want to see that one
Thank you! A Myth III video should arrive somtime before the end of this year.
A absolutely fantastic game. The sound and cutscenes were great and the narrator hit it on the head.
It's always a treat to see a new upload from you. Thank you for all your hard work!
Always welcome!
Nice review ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤I’m hashing it out now on win xp 2.33ghz 2gb ram Fun factor
10/10. Music and voice are awesome 😎
You have such a thoughtful and balanced take in your videos. I'm really grateful to have found your channel! Thank you
Fun fact; the problem with Myth II's installer? It was also a problem for several other games, most prominently a little obscure title called... Half-Life.
I found this out the hardest of ways, as I originally had my own development project (my current game series TAGAP) installed in the same directly as my games. Un-installing the original CD release of Half-Life with the installation program nuked the entire directory tree. Before this event I wasn't paranoid about backups, so it looked like I was about to loose two months of work. Luckily I did have an 'undelete' program, so as long as I knew the 'first letter of the file name', I could recover most of the source code at least. I did loose almost all the art asset source files from that perioid, though.
Two lessons: Always backup your things. And don't be GabeN and learn to count to 3 before you try to program an installer.
Another fun fact: A few years back CCP Games put out an Eve Online expansion that would delete a file Windows requires to boot, if installed to the root directory of the system drive then installed.
@@zanmaru139 Wow, that's wild. I can get that Windows would allow wiping of a non-systems folder like my 'c:\games' in the day, but you'd think Windows would stop wiping of its system files.
These are so fucking high quality and in-depth, I love your vids man.
1:33 Seeing how you're still not cutting from this shot, I was sure it's going to end in a stray molotov hitting the friendlies, possibly triggering some chain reaction that blows everyone up.
On a related note, I was surprised to hear that there were players who considered friendly fire a problem. To me it was always a positive feature, one of the most entertaining things about Myth being all the explosive accidents that can occur. Especially when they're punctuated by a somewhat embarrassed sounding apology, delivered with a strong Scottish accent.
Nah it's a meta-reference to the last shot of the M1 review that went on too long :P
"Whoops"
So cool! I was amazed that new mods are being released even in 2022!
I remember constantly seeing that Myth 2 boxart it in magazines as a kid.
Mr Edder is back for another video YAY!
...chickens! attack!
really great retrospective, thank you for making this
Again, great job on these! I'm sending this to all my pals that used to play these lol. Can't wait for The Wolf Age! Some underrated lore in that one.
I want to play now!
I have the game on for my old Mac, somewhere.
Would like to try it with my current PC though.
Nice long docu-review!
Love it. I always am hungry to hear more lore about the creatures
Your vids are a blessing, there just isn't anything else on YT that scratches that itch, just like Myth is for games. It was through Myth I discovered this channel, cause it really annoyed me that the only videos about it are pathetically short, and I thought the series deserves more. So you and Jeoku(though he should read at least the first Black Company book, if he wants to be the Myth loremaster supreme) are the only ones giving it justice.
Jeoku actually did an interview with a Myth 3 developer recently, I'll definitely be checking that out for my Myth III video.
Almost a three hour review by one of the most entertaining reviewers out there? And about a very interesting game that basically nobody reviews?
Wow.. Christmas came very early this year, huh? ;)
Cheers, man.
2:41:45 I did not expect this game to contain Francis E Dec posting
@@cyberninjazero5659 The awesomeness of "The golden age of gaming" strikes yet again.
I'm looking forward to your Myth 3 video! I do hope you still make it.
I will!
Interesting taste in video games my friend. I hope you will keep doing your art.
Great video, it's clear you have put a lot of work into it. I'm staying up tonight with my pets as its fireworks night and they need some comfort, having a long ass video to pass the time is great.
I was amazed by the "Baron escape" level, the AI seemed just too good there, but finally I managed to capture him. To this day it is one of my favorite levels ever of out all games.
Superb video yet again, thank you for covering one of my favorite games.
I hated at at the time hehe
@@MrEdders123 Made me feel dumb, not going to lie.
Fantastic review. The object permanency was what I found most immersive and memorable regarding Myth. It’s so hard to find games with persistent battlefields these days and Myth will always hold trumps in this regard. Decal and corpse limits utterly ruin immersion. There’s a channel called Random Madness that’s devoted to this issue in modern gaming.
another great vid, mr edders!
I am curious how you felt about the story, especially the ending and the twists. While I appreciate that you try not to spoil things, it does leave me curious - since endings are so important to one's holistic experience, and Myth 2 has some interesting plot twists and threads.
I dunno if it really had any twists after mission 13ish 😶
such a gem. Playing it every now and then. Also the campain is fun with friends coop
One hyperbolic timechamber video this was. GG.
2:41:45 Oh hey a Francis E Dec reference!
Loved the series, Myth was unique and very different from any other game at the time.
I had all 3.
Well met! Top 10 games of all time here.
Fantastic content.
Superb video as always!
You are way undersubscribed. I rly hope you get what you deserve. Thanks for your work!
That sounds ominous haha
Not sure how I found you but no regrets you put solid work
I adore your vids, mate! They are excellently done!
Thanks ;)
@@MrEdders123 Do you, btw, happen to be able to read German? I'm asking because you seem to often have a look at ancient German computer game magazines.
I was pretty excited to see a new video in my feed
mabe its just me but im a sucker for sprites on 3d deforable terrain like dominions 4 It just feels like the right level of graphics to tell the story and leaves the rest to your imagination
Oh, never played that. Some of the mods I mentioned appear to use perma-deformable terrain. I remember messing around with it myself in the modding tools but I think there was some kind of problem with it in the engine, can't recall exactly what though.
Makes me think of Syndicate Wars. Also Re:Loaded, a game mostly forgotten about.
I’m pretty sure I only ever played the myth games as demos. I was pretty young and my dad would never buy us games but he always bought pc utility magazine’s and stuff and I’m pretty sure I got it off there
I remember renaming the units after friends in my class at school haha
Yeah I first played the Myth demo, then saw it in a small computer shop and begged my parents to buy it.
Amazing video! I’ve been waiting for this since I saw the first Myth review and will eagerly be awaiting the third. Good luck on the other stuff you make. I’m glad I stayed around to see the other stuff you’ve made.
It’s really weird to think that Halo runs on a heavily modified version of Myth’s engine. It’s also truly surreal how Mac was once a viable platform for pc gaming. Too bad Apple basically killed it by dropping support for lots of third party software and by making IOS devices be extremely resistant to external modifications (hardware/software). From what I hear the newer Macs are actually powerful enough to run a lot of AAA games. There’s just a combination of Apple not supporting it, there not being a dedicated Mac player base, and developers not wanting to develop for said small player base. All three of these things create a feedback loop. It’s also truly surreal how whenever there’s a new form of technology/media the older generations don’t understand they label it as evil. The whole belief about video games causing violence is dumb because simple statistics do not line up with that.
It’s really too bad that Myth never took off as a multimedia franchise. It definitely has an interesting premise. It would be great if we got a game that was made by a lot of the old devs and diehard fans that expands upon the universe. Take what already worked and expand upon that while also doing the same for the story. If you were to take a lot of the community made lore and canonize it by feeding it into a competent writer you’d have a really strong foundation. Hopefully these one day get a rerelease or a Nightdive Studios remaster with mod support. That would be able to keep these things alive and introduce them to new people (same goes for that Spellcross game you covered, the Marathon trilogy, and a bunch of older cool forgotten games). Sadly, we most likely won’t get anything like that and if we do get a new entry in the Myth series it will be made by people who don’t understand the ip.
It’s really interesting how Bungie’s greatest strength when it comes to storytelling is the presentation. They do a phenomenal job of creating the illusion of depth by giving you just enough to keep you interested, and holding back just enough to make you wanting more. A great example of this would be Halo how there’s a lot of stuff they kept really vague making you think there was this massive universe when there clearly wasn’t. Bungie made each game not knowing they were going to make a sequel and would use the scraps to make the next one (Halo 3 being the extended third act of 2. There is a VERY noticeable drop in quality when it comes to the story. Truth went from this calculated manipulative liar to a raving madman, the Arbiter didn’t really do anything and was just a side character, Miranda Keyes died because she was dumb enough to crash her pelican into the control room without any ODSTs/marines to back her up, and nothing of note really happens narrative wise. 3 is the best campaign, but the worst story of the original trilogy). Halo is probably my favorite franchise, but I’m well aware that it’s heavily flawed and a lot of the mistake Bungie made were carried over by 343 (in addition to numerous bad ideas that 343 had). I look back at a lot of the Bungie games and think there could have been so much more to them. More evidence that Bungie mostly just cared about making cool experiences and didn’t put as much emphasis on the story/lore (it was important but gameplay clearly came first) is the fact that for the developer commentary for CE/2 they’re simultaneously roasting and praising their own games.
It’s really too bad the game didn’t delve into the moral ambiguity like what you suggested by having the dark and light forces be intermixed since their old masters are gone and a power vacuum is open that everyone wants to fill. It would have been really cool to use units from both sides as a way to mix things up. 343 was going for something like that in some of their books where after the Covenant fell and humanity was brought to the brink the power vacuum caused all these different groups to arise with different goals, ideologies/worldviews, and are a mashup of the different species. There was also moral ambiguity where ONI was funding various Covenant remnants to cause trouble for humanities old enemies before turning on them mirroring the US Afghan war. You also had a remnant called the Keepers of the One Freedom that was a Brute lead faction who still believed in the Great Journey and would let humans join them. Jul Madama the leader of the Storm Covenant in 4/5 was aware his faith was a farce and found this group of Elites, Jackals, and Grunts who didn’t know the war ended and used them to gain power. They were aware that the Great Journey was a lie but they were trying to attach their faith to something else because the alternative that everything they believed was a lie was just too horrible for them. That’s something I can definitely sympathize with having gone through something similar in losing my faith. Now I don’t know what I believe. You also have the Jackal pirates who attack everyone and the Banished who will let anyone join because they aren’t confined by dogma. Sadly 343 would completely botch this truly amazing setup. It’s interesting just how many parallels can be drawn from Bungie’s old work and Halo even when they’re not the ones currently in control of the different properties.
It would have been awesome if we got some expansions told from different perspectives that have variations in the different author’s ideologies, understanding of the world, motivations, and other stuff like that. If done right having stuff like the unreliable narrator and different understandings of the world could really enhance the setting. A great example of this done write would be in the plots/lore for Elder Scrolls Daggerfall and Morrowind where there’s ambiguity around historical events where different sides have stories that overlap aside from minor details that build up. The different groups have a different understanding of the world and how they interact with each other (although it should be noted that Elder Scrolls is a setting where thought/belief can influence reality if enough people believe a certain way. The character of the Aedra and Daedra are influenced by what their worshipers in a certain region believe about them). Unfortunately modern Elder Scrolls is a complete mess when it comes to continuity. Also, the lore community is filled with idiots who twist themselves into knots trying to come up with bad excuses for why what we see in the games doesn’t match up with the various lore books that mention all kinds of cool stuff. If done right community sources lore could work if you have a group of competent people to filter out the bad ideas and make sure it’s consistent. If there was a campaign where it could be assumed the narrator was lying about what’s happening or they don’t understand things and someone else comes along to correct that while leaving some things vague that could really enhance the story. Luckily there’s plenty of mods to do this for us.
I definitely NEED to check this game out at some point. Keep up the good work covering these old games!
Thank you! Your point about Halo reminded me of my opinions on the Halo series, which was that the Covenant were much more frightening in the first game, where you didn't really know much about them, but at the same time I really enjoyed learning more about their culture in the books/Halo 2 etc. I think something similar happened from Myth 1 to Myth 2, except the Dark didn't really get any more interesting.
Based on this video - I am subscribed!!! Well done!
Myth I and II are my favorite games of all-time
This video is cozy as fuck
I'd also love to see you do a video on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain!
Possibly, though its gotten quite a lot of coverage in the context of the much better known later games so I dunno. I like vampires, so maybe 😁
This. This is why I subscribed all those months ago.
I loved this game way back! Remember doing the entire campaign on Legendary with no casualties, and being sorta proud about it. Myth TFL was good, but I felt that Soulblighter perfected the formula. And the less said about Myth III the better.
Myth III had an uphill battle
You must do Warhammer Dark Omen next, possibly with Shadow of the Horned Rat, like a combo 😁
maybe shadow of the horned rat one day, probably not dark omen as it's too similar (and hard lol)
@@MrEdders123 The first one actually introduced me to the wonderful world of Warhammer Fantasy back in the day, but Dark Omen is truly a master piece, one of the best fantasy games in terms of mystery, fear of the unknown and good pacing as the antagonists reveal themselves. I just though it might be a nice sequel to the Myth reviews as it's from the same period and also highly influental.
@@Vattghern_ I remember playing Dark Omen as a kid. I wasn't good at it, but I liked to use cheats to blast entire enemy regiments with cannons and fireballs.
Then there was that one magic horn which would demoralize an enemy regiment and cause them to flee, which in the case of undead would make them just plain die.
Impressive material! Great quality and load of insight I'd never get to know. Bravo!
loved section 5.2 the stroy telling was amazing i loved it ^^
Superb video. That's all I gotta say. 👏👏👏
Ta
the story, writing and music still move me
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, and in the streets we shall fight, and never at a faster pace than a casual saunter.
The music of Legend of Gorash is great! 02:28:29
They badly need to re-release these on steam and gog.
Brutally difficult game but with a huge amount of charm and atmos.
Great! I was waiting for this
Some info about mods, especially Chimera, is great.
Or the one that send us to Vietnam.
Almost as wild and Heroes of Might&Magic + Myth crossover...
Unfortunately I missed GB as I thought it was multiplayer only. I found the SP campaign after I'd already recorded the script and it seemed slightly janky, like many other gunpowder/firearms arms that are really aimed at online, so I just grabbed some footage and slipped it in later.
Hey Turok! 🫵🤓
Good video, thank you
Thank you too :D
Somebody please remaster 1&2!!
You do a great job investigating these old games. Wish "games journalist's" did even a quarter of the work you do. I'm really getting dissatisfied with the constant shills, hype pieces, and copy/paste articles these places put out anymore. Anyway another awesome video in the bag congrats!
Haha trust me, games journalism back then had plenty of controversies too :D
This game was at its best in Multi-player. 6 player games of King of the Hill or Last man on the Hill were amazing.
I’d love to see you cover Arcanum one day
I always dream of this on Switch
I think you and your videos are very interesting, even my mother likes your videos.
Thanks 😁
Love your vids keep it up!
If 67% is the worst criticism a game can receive it's probably a good game.
Either a decent game, or a good game but with a niche appeal.
Didn't saw the full video yet ... but did you mention about the Uninstaller ... that could delete with Admin privileges your entire HDD ... if you wanted to uninstall the game ...
yup you did at 30:00 ... haha
Get home from work, turn on the ps5 to do some Destiny grind and well i'll be. A 3hr video on an older Bungie title. I'm in, lets do this.
2:49h. Is this the director's cut edition? Anyway, gonna b gud.
Loved this game
This is a very impressive channel, clearly. The care that’s gone into the research and writing is clear, but I really wish there was more personality injected into this. Maybe it’s just me, but listening to a voice drone on about nothing but pure factoids can feel a little emotionless and a little disinteresting after a while, despite my being very interested in this topic! Idk if I can get through the rest of your content though
yeah my videos are pretty boring. You can see me trying to experiment a little bit with jokes and faster cuts and such in the early stuff but I'm not very good at that. I'm happy just making these documentary-style videos to lull people to sleep lol
good stuff amigo!
That game that spawned from "monkey nuts" was a very bad rts. You only control one unit for instance . That alone is very weird, but somehow it spawned many sequels and was very popular
😶🌫
The reaction to Bungie getting bought by Microsoft just goes to show online discourse hasn't changed much (if at all).