Mythica: Preview
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-09-16

It's hard to believe that it has been only five months since Microsoft officially announced Mythica as their new mmorpg project. In these few months, and especially since E3, the game has risen to the top of many "most wanted mmorpg" lists. In anticipation of my interview with Matt Wilson, executive producer of the game, I took a closer look at the ideas behind the project: what is Mythica?

There seems to be a lot of talking about bringing single-player elements into mmorpg's. There has always been a discussion about the viability of solo play in this genre, but lately there has been a flood of newly announced projects that focus especially on smaller scale parties. Whether the developers call it social hubs (Tabula Rasa), Private Realms (Mythica) or just private quest areas (Ultima X), it all comes down to bringing small-scale single-player action to the mmorpg genre. From a player's perspective this often means more combat, faster action and easier gameplay. From a publisher's point of view this could also be regarded as an attempt to bring many action-role-players to the mmorpg scene... And getting the large fan base of games like Diablo 2 to pay a monthly subscription fee for their game. On one side there are those who think we should take mmorpg's further: more freedom for players, more politics, more economy, more realism, less focus on combat and more on role-playing. On the other side there are those who think mmorpg's should steer away from the unlimited player freedom, towards a more controlled and smaller environment. Mythica certainly belongs to the latter.

Not unlike other mmorpg's, Mythica is totally embedded in the Norse mythology, hopefully with a more positive outcome than Funcom's cancelled Midgard. In any case, you have died... But no worries! You might not know this, but actually the fun has only just begun once you die, at least according to Microsoft. You've become an immortal spirit, well on the way to achieve godhood in Asgard. You'll have to fight your way through numerous battles against mortals, take part in the conflict between order and chaos and ultimately face the final challenges to become truly godlike. During this journey you'll be assisted by a God of your choice. The choice of your patron God determines your character class, of which there will be eight in total: the berserker, huntress, stormwright, pyromancer, demonologist, trickster, warrior and druid. From there on your character will evolve mainly by advancing in the available skill trees, but also by completing quests and through worship. More information about the different classes can be found over here at the MythicaRealms fansite.

So what's all the fuss about Private Realms, you ask? Private Realms are limited, hand-crafted quest areas separated from the rest of Mythica's world. As the name implies, Private Realms are only accessible for you and your party members, as opposed to the Public Realms which are accessible for everyone on the server. While the contact with the public world remains open through chat and tells, you and your party members should experience the heroism of a single-player RPG quest. This private realm technique obviously has some strong advantages. First of all it allows the developers to create an area specially geared towards a small party and a quest. Hopefully this also means that we'll be getting better level design, hand-crafted with great care. This system also allows a party to fully focus on the quest at hand, from beginning to end. There won't be any wanderers to hold you up, other groups to wipe away your epic quest mob just when you arrive, no grief players to run by and smash your party into the ground before you managed to cry "RUN". At the same time this also means that smaller party groups will be working together as a team during the time of the quest, possibly resulting in better use of tactics and group play. Last but not least, using the Private Realms system also allows the developers to avoid the notorious phenomenon of camping spawn points for hours. All in all I think this system will allow for a more enjoyable and relaxed questing time, bringing the virtues of single-player RPG's to a massive multiplayer world. Since most people will ultimately have worked through the same quests in different instances, it won't improve the consistency of the game world. But then again entering a queue to get a chance of killing a dragon over, and over again isn't very realistic either.

There will be two different types of Private Realms in Mythica: the linear modules and the playscape modules. The Linear modules are more straight-forward tasks, often shorter in duration than their playscape counterparts. Most of them can be finished in about an hour, thus offering a short-term goal for the more casual players. The playscape modules on the other hand will be much more complicated and extensive. It's in these private realms that the true spirit of single-player crpg's should exist, as you'll have multiple goals and options to choose from. Do you want to help out this faction, or would you rather lend your hand to the other one? The choice is entirely up to you. After release, the development team promises to continually add new private realms to the game with their monthly updates.

Since the Private Realms automatically focus the attention on combat with small parties, tactics almost automatically become more important. The first way in which the developers try to add more tactics to warfare is by introducing only a rather small number of classes, each with their own specialties. Of course we've seen this before in Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot and many other class-based mmorpg's, but this time it seems that the hybrid classes are being left out. The fun part however, kicks in when those totally different classes start working together during combat. Or maybe I should say: working separately from each other. The point of the whole system is that every team is made up of a few different classes, where every class has to fulfill their own specific duty in combat. Those classes have been carefully designed to constantly need each other to perform optimally. Take for instance the ability of a huntress to stealth in a region, paint off a certain target so that the pyromancer can assault it with his infernal bolts from a safe distance, using a tracking camera on his own projectiles. Something else that the developers are very proud of in Mythica is the pacing of combat. Taking only a glance at the movement speed and the amount of damage dealt by the party members, Mythica quickly starts looking like a hack'n slash game. The goal of the development team was to create a combat experience that makes you feel like you're really an immortal hero fighting weaker foes. As a result, warfare often takes a grotesquely overpowered feel to it when you manage to send a group of centaurs flying through the air with a single fire bolt. After all, you're well on your way to become a god. On the other hand, if everyone's a hero, no one really is of course.

In your ongoing quest to achieve godhood, there is one more thing you will need to achieve: gathering mortals to worship you. From the moment you become an immortal, the amount of worshippers you have will determine your progress on the way to godhood. In good role-playing tradition, you luckily don't have to be the caring, loving god, if you don't want to. Depending on the choices you make during your quests in the playscape modules, you can either become a feared or beloved god. Your reputation in the world of Mythica will be different from place to place, depending on the outcome and choices you made during quests. That reputation, in turn, will serve as a way to gain the support and faith of mortal factions and will ultimately bring forth worshippers, and with worshippers come the prayers. These prayers could require you to solve a new quest, or give you the energy of a whole village from sacrifices made for you. It's obvious though that gaining support from the mortals will be crucial in Mythica.

Now, on to the more traditional aspects of an mmorpg. According to the developers the public world space of Mythica itself will be huge enough to compete with other mmorpg's. The world consists of a number of planes of existence, including familiar names as Asgard, Vanaheim, Midgard and Muspelheim. Various transporation systems such as walking, swimming and boating, in addition to a mythical system of instantaneous transportation, will be present to cross the planes. Judging from the amount of lore that has been unveiled so far, Mythica will be completely full of Norse mythology, going into the smallest details. A main storyline however, affecting the whole world at once, will be very low-profile as far as we can see for now. Your own personal storyline, your deeds and your progress on the way to become a god, will be far more important. Those looking for a cooperative mmorpg, with little to no PvP (there will be a dueling option), or a blend between single-player action-crpg and Persistent World Games, certainly have more than enough reason to look forward to Mythica. The private realms technology, fast-paced action and challenging quests make for the great potential of this game. Those looking for more innovation, more politics and more freedom, will mainly have to look elsewhere, I'm afraid.