After the fiasco that was (or is) Hellgate London, I was not exactly eager to try another RPG from Flagship Studios, but since I had nothing else to do, I decided to give it a try. The closed beta status of the game meant it wasn`t exactly easy to get an account to play, but I managed to do so, just in time... Most games go from a closed beta status to an open beta status and then alpha and so on, but Mythos unfortunately is an exception. Why? Read on to find out.

I think it`s safe to say that Flagship Studios didn`t exactly hit the jackpot with its Hellgate London, even with the monthly fee or the lifetime subscribers. The numerous problems that plagued the game from Day 1 have not been resolved entirely, not even with the huge number of patches that seemed to appear on a weekly basis. Of course there are those problems that can`t be corrected with patched, such as concept and design problems, where Hellgate London had serious issues, but I had hopes that a future second part would be better. Unfortunately, I don`t think we`ll be seeing a Hellgate London 2 and neither will you be getting the chance to play Mythos anytime soon. This is a real shame since Mythos had real potential.

If you`re not up to date with the latest corporate news, let me fill you in. Flagship Studios has closed its doors and all staff has been fired. There was a lot of controversy surrounding this, and the motives are unclear and it is still uncertain what happened to the IP`s corresponding to Hellgate and Mythos, and whether they`re still owned by Flagship Studios or HanbitSoft. Different statements were released and while most of them were contradictory, the end result is the same. No more Flagship Studios, and the fate of Hellgate London and Mythos remains unknown.

Usually these mergers, takeovers, and other corporate news don`t affect the end user (gamer) all too much, but in this case, Mythos was taken from us with no word on when, or if, it`ll be back. I was really disappointed as I was already seeing myself spending my weekends in the company of my gadgeteer. Alas, my (already lvl 15) gadgeteer will never be heard of again and his heroic deeds will remain unknown to the general public.

Even though Mythos was in its beta stage, everything seemed to work just like it should, a major progress from over a year ago when the game was full of bugs and was almost unplayable. Some might call it a Diablo clone, at first sight, and I must admit I was left with that impression as well, but as you delve deeper and deeper into the dungeons, the differences between the two games will start becoming more obvious. Where Diablo II had no customization options when selecting your character, Mythos offered a more complex selection process. Gender selection was possible, as well as the option of selecting from one of the three races available (minor differences set them apart) and finally, the character class. Only a few character classes were available, namely The BloodLetter, The Gadgeteer and the Pyromancer, aka The Fighter, The Archer and The Mage.

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Three (very different) skill trees were available for each character class, allowing you to choose exactly the direction in which you want your character to evolve. My little Razorel (although "little" would have soon become "Legendary", if I had more time) chose the Gadgeteer profession and decided to go the way of the guns, ditching the "Engineer" and "Grenadier" trees for a more direct approach. Not many mobs could stand his volley of death (as I was calling it) that consisted of 7 poisoned bullets that would ricochet twice.

My two alternate character choices, "Razorica" (or "Razorela", wasn`t exactly sure yet), the female Pyromancer Cyclops, and the human Bloodletter "Flaviu" didn`t even reach the character creation process... and I had such high hopes for them. Flaviu would have moved mountains :(.

Skill points and character points were received at level up, like in any RPG, and the number of skill points seemed to be quite high, which only pleased me. What`s the point of having an enormous skill tree if you only have enough points to get the "key" skills. Let me have all of them!

The action was fast and furious with mobs dying quickly and mana slowly regenerating. The graphical effects of the spells reminded me a lot of Diablo and its colorful spells. The leveling up process was quick as well, especially if you could find someone to team up with. The large number of items dropped made my eyes shine, especially when finding unique or rare items, and I`ve always loved their naming process and its weird combinations. Character equipment slots were more numerous than in Diablo and this made things more complicated, but also more fun. The jewels from Diablo find a place here as well, with their different quality levels, and they can be inserted into weapons and armor with free sockets.

A new tree introduced by Mythos was the "Craft" tree, where you could assign skill points that allowed you to create whatever item you needed, if you had the correct ingredients. These were dropped by almost every mob, and of course there were vendors that could help you with their stock.

The map was a little different from what we were used to, meaning that instead of traveling the map to find different locations, you would find small map scrolls on your journey that pointed the way to different locations. There are elite locations as well as regular ones, and if you don`t mind the increased difficulty of the elite versions, be sure to take advantage of the increased drop rate and better items to be found there.

Conclusion:

I can only say that "Mythos" had far more potential than Hellgate London and should have been the project that received more attention from Flagship Studios. I`m really wondering why they didn`t turn things around and make Mythos have a monthly fee while making Hellgate London free. I`m sure it would have been more successful then. Considering the fact that there was much more in store for us and a community was beginning to form, I hope that Mythos won`t be abandoned forever.