Myth III: The Wolf Age (PC/Mac)

By PETER ELEY

Myth quickly built up a cult following after its release five years ago. Although a real-time strategy game, it broke the format by largely ignoring the need to gather resources, concentrating on combat strategy instead.

And rather than have scores of miniscule, barely recognisable units, it went for highly detailed, bigger characters in smaller numbers and set them in rich, beautifully rendered landscapes.

Myth also ran on both Mac and PC, one of the few games to give Apple fans a bite of the action.

On the debit side, it was an extremely difficult game which needed a patch to make it playable, and the sequel, Myth II: Soulblighter, suffered from a serious bug that saw early releases quickly recalled.

Microsoft took over Bungie, the company behind Myth, last year but didn't take up the rights to the game.

Take Two jumped in and passed development over to Mumbo Jumbo Games, whose team included a hard core of Mac Myth players.

The result is the third instalment, The Wolf Age, although it is a prequel to the other two.

Fans of the first two games won't be disappointed, as Myth III is much the same, with technical enhancements made possible by improved technology.

The graphics are superb and the game is as gorgeously bloody as the other two, only it does seem to spatter more effectively.

Mumbo Jumbo has used a state of the art system which allows real-time lighting, and true 3-D effects which see the landscape's perspective change as you move.

Myth III is set 1000 years before the first two games and centres around the legendary character Connacht the Wolf who saved humanity from the Myrkidia and their minions, the bloodthirsty Trow.

There's more going on this time, and you need to build things and collect items as well as learn spells. Experience points will make your combat skills more deadly and sharpen those spells.

The game features more units, too, although the head-hunting Ghols and shambling but deadly Wights are still there.

There are 25 single-player levels which range across settings as diverse as dungeons, castles, swamps and deserts.

Multiplayer features specialised maps and a series of modes with different objectives, including the intriguing Steal the Bacon.

There's also a map editor, which lets you set up single-player skirmishes.

* Take Two, M15

* peter_eley@nzherald.co.nz