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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 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, Mythos is reminding me quite a bit of World of Warcraft mixed with 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.

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 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 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 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!" 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.

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