Is it wrong to enjoy raining blood and body parts on the heads of your
enemies? Of course, in order to do so you have to land one or two
cocktails (or more...nothing wrong with excessive explosions) in their
midst and hope the fuse doesn't fail. Then you'll be rewarded with a
handful of muffled booms, cries of dismay, and several completely
unlucky soldiers bursting at the seams and sending their flesh and
entrails spinning high into the air, bouncing down off their comrades'
heads, and staining the ground. And to accompany all the wanton
carnage, you have your dwarven explosives expert cackling to himself as
he watches the enemies ripped into pieces by his handiwork. Then tosses
another one down the hill for an even more graphic display as the rest
of the already weakened soldiers fly apart and the body parts
previously scattered are thrown clear by the second blast.
Height is a key advantage, especially with dwarves. Why are dwarves
mentioned so much? Well, because they're the most useful character and
result in the most glorious carnage. On one snow level your forces are
placed at the top of a gentle rise that leads down to a wide open
plain. You could stay there and fight a fair fight against the enemies,
or you could run down a narrow valley to one side, put your dwarves
around and up at the top of the valley, line your archers near the end,
and cluster your soldiers right by the last walled part of the valley.
The subsequent mess (and it is a mess) is both glorious and satisfying,
as wave after wave of enemies cram themselves into the valley and are
rewarded with dwarven molotov cocktails and the chance to paint the
oh-so-white snow red. By the time the assault has stopped (a few lucky
ones might actually manage to make it to your soldiers in time to be
massacred lovingly by hand) the snowy valley is red with blood and
black with explosions, and weapons and pieces of armor are lying
everywhere with only a few body parts remaining...the series of
explosions have done nothing but disintigrate them. Tips of the higher
cliff along one side will have red streaks from the occasional flying
arm that struck it and rolled down. And your dwarves will be even more
psychotic than before, with dozens more messy kills under their belt.
The combat is unparalleled in a real-time strategy game, as Bungie's
I-ain't-dealing-with-no-stinking-base-and-resources attitude carries
over in full force. You get a handful of units at the start of the
quest, and other than a few rare occasions where you find more, that's
all you get. Don't get them all killed. And definitely don't let them
run down an embankment towards your foes only to have your dwarf lob a
cocktail in their midst. Your men won't like that very much, even if
your dwarf will.
It provides a challenge without being mind-numbingly hard, and is
infinitely more strategic than something like Starcraft, where the
easiest way to get things accomplished is to amass a huge force and
just send them all in at once. If you try that in Myth, it may work,
but that next battle in the level will be even harder seeing as you
stupidly sacrificed some of your soldiers on a frontal assault.
The graphics were good, even with all the units rendered as 2D sprites.
The sound fit well, from the narrator to unit cries and laughter, and
music. It improved on the first game's unit management, especially with
regards to formations and pointing your troops in a certain direction.
Outdoor levels received buildings and interactive pieces, and indoor
levels were added (though they're arguably not as good as the wide-open
outdoor levels). There really isn't much one could complain about Myth
II, unless you're one of the folks who isn't completely happy unless
you have a group of resource gathering units milling around and a base
to micromanage. Micromanaging units is so much more fun, and causing
complete bloody mayhem while doing so is even more fun.
