Nowhere is the convergence of silicon and celluloid more evident than on the blood-spattered battlefield of Bungie's newest game, Myth: The Fallen Lords. Myth manages to infuse real-time strategy gaming with the visual dynamism of an epic war film. Of course, while you're flying across the beautifully rendered 3-D landscape, rotating your multimetric viewpoint camera through the rain for that perfect shot, your army is hacked to pieces. You don't have to work in an abattoir to appreciate the sword-and-sorcery combat, but it helps if red is your favorite color.
This is not to say that Myth is a game of mindless violence; it requires thoughtful, considered violence – at least if you plan to win. Where Quake and Doom offer the participatory carnage of a holiday in Algeria, Myth caters to voyeurs. From above the fray, you send your Berserkers to clear a ridge of enemy archers or order the undead legions to rush those annoying, Molotov-throwing dwarves. Vanquishing the enemy requires not reflexes, but patience and planning.
By combining a realistic physics model, 3-D topography, cinematic view control, and integrated multiplayer networking via bungie.net, Bungie has created more of a world than a game. Bungie.net coordinates two-player and team mêlées across the Internet even as it ties the simulated auto-da-fé into a social chat room context. Mayhem and community may seem strange bedfellows, but pixelated bloodsport, unlike the real thing, leaves no stain on the psyche.
Myth is sufficiently edgy to woo hardcore gamers and – atypically for a strategy game – simple enough to ensure that it will be wildly popular. Beyond being intensely fun, its visual verisimilitude suggests that the separation between fantasy and reality may soon be nothing more than myth.
*Myth: The Fallen Lords: US$49. Bungie Software: +1 (312) 563 6200, on the Web at www.bungie.com/myth/. *
This article originally appeared in the February issue of Wired magazine.
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