Mythos: From a Player's Perspective

Mythos - A veteran MMO player's view

Drawing on many diverse aspects of the different games on the market, Mythos provides a fun alternative to the standard "level grind" commonly found in most MMOs out there. It's fun, absorbing and has a fairly easy learning curve where game mechanics are concerned. The game uses the "personal instance" method from Guild Wars, where a player has a map to a specific area that is theirs alone and there are travel "hubs" that are social areas. In these hubs, players can set up groups and interact with NPCs, gain quests and use a bank system.

Leaving the hubs will take the player to instanced areas. These areas have a small "zone" that leads to the specific dungeon and each dungeon is detailed on the character map so there is no "wandering around lost", which happens so frequently in other games. Arriving at the dungeon "zone", you will find a merchant and a guide next to the zone in location so you can sell off any loot you may have and purchase mana and health potions, recall charms (used in the dungeon, they are a temporary "gate" so you can leave, sell and return to the same place in the dungeon) and some magic items.

Character creation
There are four races available to players currently; Humans, Satyrs, Cyclops and Gremlins. All four races have three different classes open to them - the pyromancer, a fire based spell casting class; the gadgeteer, a ranged combatant specializing in 'widgets' and guns of all sorts; and a Bloodletter, a melee class with the ability to summon minions from corpses of their fallen foes to serve them in combat.

Classes
Each class has three talent trees in which to specialize. Much like Diablo and World of Warcraft, where character specialization can make or break a playstyle, you must choose your talents carefully. Players gain 2 skill points per level to apply to their talent trees. In addition, each level, a player is given 5 stat points to distribute. These stat points are used to increase the Primary Characteristics, which are Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Wisdom.

Character Stats
Strength directly affects overall damage and is a measure of physical might; Dexterity affects hit ability and dodge ability; Vitality is a measure of the players hit points and Wisdom, which impacts the overall mana pool available to the player.

 

To further augment the player in the course of their characters leveling, which is currently capped at level 50, players are also given achievements for different things done during the course of adventuring. Everything from killing x number of insects or undead to breaking open a specified amount of crates or boxes will grant the character additional enhancements. Each character has 5 slots total for their achievements which can be mixed and matched at any time with no penalty or cost to switch.

 

Talent Trees
Each player class also has three talent trees to further refine and define their character. For example, I played a Pyromancer to get a feel for the spell casting class. The Pyromancer has the following trees they can put points in: Coalsmasher, Cinderblade and Flamecaster. Each is tailored to a specific style of combat and putting points in haphazardly can cause quite an issue as you gain levels. Fortunately, you can spend coin to "unlearn" your talents and start over but this can get expensive.

Crafting
One of the favorite things to do in MMOs is craft. This game is no different. To start crafting doesn't cost anything and can be achieved after completing the starter quest and travelling to the first major city (or "hub"). Once there, you simply talk to the guild master of the crafter's guild and are given a quest chain for the guild. In addition, recipes are purchasable, as are most materials from vendors right near the crafting station in the cities. Unlike other MMOs, crafting can be done anywhere in game and does not require an anvil, forge, loom or other crafting implement. You can even take a few moments in a dungeon after clearing it and use some of the dropped items to craft.

One nice feature of crafting, which is very similar to Guild Wars, is the ability to break down dropped loot into base crafting components. Most non magical items are broken down into crude scraps and the like, whereas magical items break down into, obviously, more valuable or more rare crafting materials.

Check us out next week for our final piece on Mythos, the new free to play MMO being launched by Flagship Studios!

By: Brian "Wordean" Kincaid, Senior Content Manager
Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, ZAM Network

Comments

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mythos
# May 27 2008 at 5:36 PM Rating: Decent
I have been waiting for this game for awhile now. Looks like it will be fun. I thought the open beta was april 2008 but we are almost through may now =(. Does anyone know when open beta will start i know they cut the alot of different countrys out so i thought the open beta was gonna start but nope. Plus it kinda bugs me there isnt alot of info out there on this game like maybe a FAQ page on there web site or some state of the business monthly. I would just like some info if anyone knows a good site let me know =)

Nyt =)
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