MythForce Review | TheXboxHub
Back in the 1980s, before the advent of CGI and video games that delivered the most complete of fantasy worlds, we had our imagination take us to faraway worlds. It was mostly pushed through books and Saturday morning children’s TV cartoons. We had hit shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Thundercats or Dungeons & Dragons, each capable of transporting us to places of high fantasy, brilliant characters, and tons of fighting.
MythForce embraces the spirit of those early cartoon shows. Not only does it provide a new story with great characters and brilliant cutscene visuals, but you can also play this adventure with online friends.
The world, design, and story of MythForce are inspired by the retro TV shows mentioned. This is clearly evident in the opening cutscene as the world is introduced to us. It’s a brilliantly made hand-drawn ten minute sequence that focuses on the MythForce team: Victoria the Knight, Rico the cheeky rogue, Maggie the mage and Hawkins the handsome hunter.
They are exciting characters and a flashy beginning promises a lot. And MythForce kind of delivers on those promises – but perhaps not in the way you may think, because the rest of the game’s story is dictated by you. We get more information about the characters as we play, as well as the world itself, which is always entertaining
The gameplay itself allows MythForce to work as a dungeon crawler, with a procedurally generated level design and a roguelike game structure. You play alone, or with friends or strangers online, moving from level to level killing all the monsters in that area so you can move on to the next. After a decent amount of that, you get to a huge boss battle and then you can move on to the next act. But like all games in this genre, if you die you have to start again – ensuring you become stronger and wiser.
Being alone in the world of MythForce is fine and dandy, but I think this is more of a blast with friends or, as I had online, strangers. It makes the progression more fun and is easy, especially if you die because online colleagues can bring you back to life; something which you obviously can’t do on your own.
When you start MythForce you get to choose which of the four characters you wish to utilise. The Knight is good with a sword, and comes with some special abilities like a shield throw. The hunter plays as an archer, running a super special Super Arrow show whilst the mage can summon a familiar to help the fight. The rogue? Yeah, teleportation.
As you progress through the levels you collect loot and money to be used at a shop halfway through each act to get more items. The items do the usual stuff, giving access to special boots or amour. Other times you might have a weapon buff or a health potion; the most precious things. At the end of each level, you can also choose an enhancement – some good, some not so much. For instance, you may wish to take more damage dealing from your weapon, but will lose hitpoints at the same time. It’s here where a bit of party communication may well come in, allowing you to be quite strategic with your choices.
Visually, MythForce works an amazing, super impressive opening – but from there, at times it feels a little disappointing. But the dungeon crawling delivers a brilliant colour palette and some great creature design that echoes the creative high-end hand-drawn style. Occasionally it can get a bit messy, what with lag from the servers and chaos with four players, but generally it holds up well.
The sound design is complete with a great score too, exciting in the combat and with good effects. And there’s no doubt in the world that the actors do a brilliant job of portraying the period MythForce pays homage to.
After a brilliantly exciting and nostalgic start, MythForce can never quite live up to that opening. However, it’s a good fun roguelike experience that works well in short bursts, even better when playing through with a bunch of mates.
The question is, how are you going to tackle the mega team that is Mythforce?
