Recently I caught up with Petroglyph games and I was granted access to the BETA of Mytheon. Mytheon is the hugely anticipated game from Petroglyph coming this year. With so many online games out there, why Mytheon you might ask? Well there are many good reasons it turns out.
Mytheon is an online game, but what makes it unique is the “Power stone” system that Petroglyph have introduced into the PC world. These stones give you powers and the ability to access beings/creatures to help you during fights, healings powers, defensive towers and much much more. These stones are the buildings blocks of what is set to become not only a huge hit, but one of the most addictive games in years. With the launch of the BETA, TGL gained access to the game and the character creation mode where you can choose the type of character you wish to play as. So as with many RPG games you can choose power abilities over magic and vice versa. The “Warcaster” class is an fighting based class, allowing for strong, heavy attacks. The Elementalist class is basically a magic class: they cast powerful and often victory-swaying magicical spells. Finally we have the “Eidolon” class. These guys can be seen as the perfect medium between magic and sheer power. Personally I tend to choose the happy medium so I started my journey as an Eidolon.
When I started the BETA I was treated to some truely wonderful graphics. The opening area/hub is essentially a town, but it is enriched with an almost exhastive history – much like the beloved Elder Scrolls games. With a town mythology about “Jason” fighting the mighty Kraken (during the fight the Kraken tossed Jason’s boat (Argo) into the city before been subdued) is something really magical, romantic and very interesting to behold. Simple additions to the story like this elevate it above and beyond the traditional vision of online games: a simple yet interesting story helps bring a kind of reverance, magic and respect to a virtual world. Aside from this the world (and what I have seen) is beautiful. Thankfully Petroglyph haven’t shied away from colours and the world glows with a really natural feeling to it.
The gameplay plays similar to many PC games with the player needing to right-click to designate the point to move to, casting spells and turning the camera is done very easily with minimal clicking and scrolling needed. This is one of the attractions to Mytheon Gold – it allows anyone to access it and enjoy it. Although the game has real depth, this accessability will attract many “non-PC” gamers. The combat evolves quickly, allowing you to cast multiple stones at once and string together vicious attacks. All of these elements combined can add devastating hitpoints to the enemies and see you take control of key areas that might contain gold, mana fountains and/or other items. Along the way you will encounter shop keepers and merchants willing to sell you armour, weapons, magic and other items to help you but not without the parting of gold so fighting for money is key to upgrading and survival against some of the biggers creatures found.
