Beta Impressions: Mythos
After completing the introductory quest with my three characters and collecting my reward, I was offered a follow-up quest to travel to a nearby village which would become the hub for all of my subsequent adventures. At said village, I was able to, in no particular order and no particular continuity:
Of the activities mentioned above, some of them require a little explanation. Potions in Mythos don’t heal you instantly for their entire value. Rather, they act as heals over time, and they have a cooldown. I’m guessing this is to prevent combat against boss monsters from becoming Red-and-Blue-Octoberfest all over again, as they were in Diablo. Bandages act in a similar way, except they heal for less every tick, but the overall effect lasts longer.
Crafting in Mythos is an interesting proposition. It has its own experience bar, which fills up as you create items. Materials for crafting can be obtained as drops from monsters, as loot from chests, mining nodes, bushes, etc, or by destroying loot items, with better loot turning into better crafting materials. There are even a series of crafting quests, which is always welcome in my book. The crafting process also features the possibility to gamble a little with the creation of items, having some leeway to try to increase the item’s base stats, number of slots, etc, at the risk of increasing the chances of failing the combine. It is a gamble, however, a failed attempt consumes all materials and leaves the crafter with zero to show for their efforts. While this might sound like heresy in the current generation of MMO’s, I’m sure there are many people out there who grew up on old Everquest crafting who remember when this was the agonising norm. Like the skill trees for each class, crafting is divided into three specialisations, each of which cotains a number of categories ranging from swords to axes to guns to shields to various types of armour.
Another addition to Mythos which some may be glad to see is the possibility of retraining one’s skills. This means players are able to unspend all skill points invested in the skill trees to try different combinations and radically change their game experience. With the amount of customisation possible, even within the parameters of each class, this will probably become an oft-used money sink.
The other major innovation in Mythos is the map system. I mentioned earlier that the zones in Mythos are instanced. They are also not shown on the world map until the player finds either a quest that sends them to that zone - at which point the zone appears on their map, along with a route to reach it - or they find a map, which can be used to the same effect. Maps can be bought from the Cartographer vendor in town, or obtained from monsters as loot drops. While I didn’t see any evidence to prove it, part of me suspects that rare maps that grant access to seldom-travelled areas with rare and desirable loot will be an intrinsic part of the game at higher levels. The system also seems like it would make adding in new zones after release a cinch, given that said new zones wouldn’t have to be physically sewn into the world. A simple addition to the world map and an accompanying map is all it would take.
There are a few other things that I have seen hinted at in the tips on the loading screens – loading times are very good, by the way, barely a few seconds most of the time. I haven’t had the chance to recruit a hireling yet, or experience the PvP parts of the game. Part of me suspects that these will be implemented in a similar way to how the Diablo games did them. Call it a hunch.
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