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Rifle
glinting in the sunlight, Silek is ready for action.
Coming to Terms with
Being a Badass
As
I ventured into the church, I encountered standard fare in the way of
enemies. Skeletons charged me eagerly. I saw some kind of undead
something with seemingly oversized heads. When I shot them, their heads
would snap back, and they'd take a second to right their heads and get
moving again. Finally, I encountered the shambling zombies that sold me
on the shotgun. See, my shotgun has a buck shot effect. I can hit more
than one enemy on the same shot (I assume the damage is fractional, but
I have not tested or asked). As I held down the shift key to hold my
position and fired multiple shots at the zombies shuffling toward me, I
got almost giddy. There's nothing like blasting away at a group of
zombies with a shotgun! Just ask
href="http://coyote.blogs.tentonhammer.com/?p=371">Coyote.
So,
I'll skip to the boss. I faced a ghostly-looking reaper-like giant
monster that summoned zombies, shot lightning, and hit me with some
dark gaseous bolts of what I assumed was pure evil. This was the first
place I felt pressed on the default difficulty. I had to do the normal
circle kite (I ran in a circle drinking a healing potion when I needed
to and did damage when I got enough space) to kill it. Turning in my
quest netted me an item and enough XP to level up.
Skills, Trees, and
Achievements
Just like Diablo,
I had 5 skill points to spend when I dinged level 2. I could put them
in strength (physical damage), dexterity (armor and attack bonus),
vitality (hit points), and wisdom (mana). So far, dexterity is the stat
of choice for my Gadgeteer. With higher dexterity, I can equip better
guns and clothing. In the realm of a skill tree,
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos is reminding
me quite a bit of World
of Warcraft mixed with
style="font-style: italic;">Titan Quest.
Each class has three skill tabs (mine are Marksman, Grenadier, and
Tinker). Some skills are unlocked right away. Others require me to
spend generic points in the skill tabs (e.g. 3 points in the tabs
unlocks access to Black Powder and Rally under the Marksman tab). Some
require both points in
the tabs and in a prerequisite skill (e.g. Noxious Shrapnel requires at
lest one point in Noxious Grenade and 7 points in the Grenadier tab).
Putting more points into the same skill makes it more effective. So
far, 3 points in the tabs unlocks the second tier of skills for all
tabs. That is, I do not have to spend three points in Marksman and
three points in Grenadier. I just place the points into the tabs, and
it unlocks all of them as I go.
The
early buzz in-game and on the beta forums is that many skills still
require balance or do not work as intended. This doesn't alarm me for a
game in beta as I have played many finished games with the same
problem. The important thing to know is that the development team is
working on it. For Silek, I stayed on the Marksman tab and purchased
some points in the Tinker skill, which allows me to fire faster. I also
spent a couple of points on Rapid Refire, which allows me to shoot so
long as I hold down the button for a mana cost. I finished my first
gaming session after 3.5 hours at level 7. Rapid Refire is my named
killer so far, and I use regular attack for most common enemies.
Another way to power up my character came in the form of Achievements.
Like in The Lord of the
Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar,
players unlock Achievements by completing certain tasks. For instance,
my work in the abbey earned me an Achievement that adds +3 to vitality.
When I kill my first 1,000 monsters, I'll unlock another one. Killing
1,000 undead type monsters will unlock yet another. But I can't use all
of my Achievements at once. I have to equip them and swap them out as I
see fit. This will put some strategy into things as I progress I
suspect.
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The principle threat
in Zone one comes in the form of the Hollow, seen here sneaking up on
Silek.
Monster AI
As I noted before, Flagship wants me to be comfortable but not bored in
Mythos.
This philosophy seems to apply to the artificial intelligence (AI) of
monsters, too. Just as with the fallen in
style="font-style: italic;">Diablo, the
snatchers in Mythos
are a skittish bunch of imps that prefer to attack en masse. Once I
killed one, the survivors scattered. Then I saw my first snatcher
shaman, and I knew instantly that he would resurrect the regular
snatchers until I killed him. All of this was comfortable--copied
straight from Diablo II.
The
first enigma for me was the lazarus bug. This thing did not seem
interested in attacking me at all. I made a mental note to report it on
the beta forums. "Surely the AI on this creature is broken," I
knowingly told my wife. Then I saw one revive a monster of a different
type I had just slain. Oh, duh! Lazarus
bug. Right. Got it. This was something different to me.
Another
slight difference in AI I noted came when I encountered my first Hollow
rogues. These are archers who try to pick you to bits in rooms while
you fight off hordes of aggressive melee enemies. In
style="font-style: italic;"> Diablo II,
archers would chase you down, always staying just at the edge of your
screen. That often meant I needed to deal with archers first. In
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos,
the archers tend to hold their ground better. They seemed determined to
defend a position. Thus, I had to reverse my strategy and lure the
aggressive monster back to a clear area to kill first and then return
to pick off the archers one at a time.
Perhaps the most shocking
monster AI trick for me came from a monster that threw a glob of
something at me. I assumed it was magic, but it landed at my feet and
two spiders popped out and attacked me! He summoned minions to get me,
but I said to my wife, "That #^&@% just threw spiders at me!"
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos succeeded at
giving me something very new in a familiar setting.
Parting Thoughts
My first 3.5 hours of Mythos
were smooth and bug-free. I'm pretty excited so far (in case you missed
that from the previous 1900 words). I will bring you another Beta
Journal soon with some information on the multiplayer aspects of the
game. I'll tell you what it's like to party, form guilds, and more.
Also be on the lookout for some videos and screens.
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=24888">Is
Mythos on
your radar yet? Why or why not? Discuss it in our forums!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Mythos Game Page.
