Where to begin? I guess I should first remind you that I am a colossal style="font-style: italic;">Diablo fan. href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=239">I've
been telling you that for years now. Just as recently as last
Tuesday, I spent 3-4 hours scouring the Internet, looking for the
rumors of a Diablo III.
I watched fake (but entertaining) trailers on YouTube. I went to a site
dedicated to the game and read through the forums. I perused Blizzard
press releases. I ended my day discouraged. With over 8 years gone by
since the release of Diablo
II, and nearly 7 years since its expansion, style="font-style: italic;">Lord of Destruction,
we fans have been waiting a long time. And with Blizzard soaking up
money from World of
Warcraft the way a sponge absorbs water, and with style="font-style: italic;">Starcraft II in
full development on the horizon, the prospects of that style="font-style: italic;">Diablo III title
seemed bleaker than ever.

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style="font-style: italic;">Mythos has a fair
amount of blood. Expect a rating of M for Mature.

How I heard of style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mythos

I
happened to mention my burning love for Blizzard's tale of demons and
the struggle between heaven and hell on another gaming forum, and a
member there told me I should go check out a game called style="font-style: italic;">Mythos. I'd never
heard of it but quickly found it through the magic of the Internet.
From the
Ten Ton Wiki, I learned that style="font-style: italic;">Mythos is a
free-to-play MMORPG in development by Flagship Studios, the makers of style="font-style: italic;">Hellgate: London.
It can be considered a mixture of World
of Warcraft, Diablo,
and Guild Wars.
Like Guild Wars,
players can meet and interact with other players in the town areas.
They can group with other players to traverse epic dungeons (like style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft),
and the stat allocation is reminiscent of the style="font-style: italic;">Diablo games. Next
I watched the
preview video here at Ten Ton Hammer. I needed to get my
hands on this.



So, I went to the Mythos
website and poked around. Not a lot to see right now. The game is in a
closed beta without NDA (non-disclosure agreement). In other words, you
need an invitation to get in, but you can talk about what you see there
once you're on the inside. The main thing to remember is that the game
is in beta, and that design elements are subject to change. I
did
a little research and ended up in touch with Taylor Balbi, the Mythos
Community Manager. Taylor was glad to hear from a style="font-style: italic;">Diablo nut, and he
was kind enough to invite me to the beta so I could help test the game.



Installation and
Character Creation

I
downloaded the beta client (one file in .msi format) last Wednesday. It
was roughly 325MB. Installation was smooth for me. It took about 5
minutes to install and patch. Then I created my first character, a
human Gadgeteer named Silek. My other racial choices were satyr and
gremlin. The other classes were Bloodletter and Pyromancer. Flagship
has intentionally chosen races and classes that vary just slightly from
the norm. They want the game to be familiar to style="font-style: italic;">Diablo II
veterans like myself but different enough so that the game has its own
identity. At this point, character customization at creation offers a
few choices of skin tone, hair style and color, faces, and accessories.
On my human, accessories seemed to add nothing, but I may find out it
makes a big difference in the look of a gremlin or satyr. No matter, I
wanted action--not a pretty doll! I saw an option to make my character
hardcore, but I knew that meant permanence at death and left that
option unchecked. The other option I saw was a check box for Elite. I
later learned on the beta forums that it would ramp up the difficulty
of the monsters, reduce the cash I make on vendoring items, and remove
the option to respec my character (reallocate skill points).

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Vanity cam makes for
some great stills, but players need to realize that this is the primary
perspective for the action.

First Impression:
Graphics and UI

I
landed in a small little town and immediately saw global chat running.
People were discussing builds, quests, and strategies for bosses. I saw
a few people trying to trade one rare for another, too. The environment
around me was much more vibrant than the land of Sanctuary in style="font-style: italic;">Diablo
games. The grass was a cheerful green, and the sun lit up the hamlet. I
saw a few shadows created by trees or buildings. My perspective was the
standard 3/4 view, but I could check out my character with the "Vanity
Cam" by pressing the V key. This was a frontal view of my character,
like at the character creation screen, but it's not the mode for the
action. The UI looked a lot like that from the games that inspired style="font-style: italic;">Mythos;
a belt with slots corresponding to my 1 through = keys was centered on
the bottom. I could see a visual representation of my health and mana
to the left of the belt, and a miniature options panel sat to the right
of the belt. The mini-map was on the bottom right of the screen.



My
first quest came from a non-player character (NPC) right beside me. He
asked me to go into the abbey and destroy whatever was causing the dead
to walk again and drink blood in macabre rituals. It's not unlike the
first quest players get in Tristram in the original style="font-style: italic;">Diablo.
When I went into the dungeon, I really paid attention to my character
for the first time. I have to say that Silek looked pretty badass. He
wore a brown duster and a full-brim hat. The shotgun at his side
gleaned in the light. Now, normally I get pretty pissy about the
introduction of firearms into my fantasy settings, but I wanted to try
out the class and give it a chance. I'm so glad I did.



Keep
reading. Next up, I cover skills, Achievements, and monster AI.