A look at MacSoft’s Myth III: The Wolf Age

Last week MacCentral brought readers news from MumboJumbo Games’ Andrew Meggs that the Mac version of Myth III: The Wolf Age is close to completion. Late yesterday, the Mac version’s publisher, MacSoft dropped us a line with a slew of new screenshots and additional information about the game.

Myth III: The Wolf Age is a squad-level real-time strategy game based on the enormously popular series originally developed by Bungie Software. After Bungie Software was sold to Microsoft Corp., rights to the Myth franchise reverted to Take Two Interactive Software, which until then, held an equity stake in Bungie. Earlier this year, MacSoft’s parent company Infogrames struck a multi-title Mac game publishing deal with Take Two that provided MacSoft with rights to several titles in Take Two’s stable, including Myth III: The Wolf Age.

Development of Myth III: The Wolf Age has gone on unabated at the studios of MumboJumbo Games. In a curious twist of fate, MumboJumbo Games is a member company of United Developers — the same firm that facilitated the rebirth last year of MacSoft rival MacPlay. Myth III: The Wolf Age retains many of the elements that will make it familiar to fans of the first two games, but has been redesigned from the ground up with a brand new 3D engine that brings the game current to the expectation of today’s gamers.

For more on the game itself, here’s some commentary straight from MumboJumbo Games and MacSoft:

Many already know the story of Myth III: The Wolf Age. If not, let me take you on the journey of Connacht the Wolf.

Myth III is a prequel to the two previous games, taking place 1,000 years before the first Myth. The hero of the story is Connacht the Wolf; a hero so great that they named an entire Age after him.

Connacht’s allies are none other than the very Fallen Lords from Myth: The Fallen Lords, when they were still champions of the Light. Myth III explores the daunting past before the Great War and the destructive clashed between the races. Players will be able to recreate and take part in battles that they had previously only heard of in the first two games.

MumboJumbo has taken great care to stay true to the Myth series while enhancing the game play. Features include:

More than 40 unique units each with their own attacks and spells, with over a dozen skeletal animations each

25 single player levels that will challenge every gamer. Conduct sieges, defend the walls, and explore labyrinthine dungeons. Battle in sweltering deserts and vile swamps — under rain, wind and snowfall

Carnage the likes of which mortals have never seen. The bodies of the battle-fallen litter the battlefield — their blood flowing down hillsides and tracked by marching boots.

GameSpy Industries will provide multiplayer support for Myth III. This means that gamers may utilize GameSpy to play online battles against friends on specialized netplay maps. The online portion of the game includes multiplayer modes like Capture the Flag, Territories and Steal the Bacon. In addition, Mythers may team up with friends to play the single-player game cooperatively.

The game sets new standards for 3D real-time strategy games through the use of true 3D characters, procedural foliage, deformable terrain, innovative network games, a powerful roster of units and an engrossing story. Myth III has been heavily optimized for Altivec and Mac OS X, making Mac OS X the premiere platform for playing Myth III.