Introduction

Welcome to Let's Play! for Myth 2: The Fallen Levels. This is a total remake of Myth: The Fallen Lords within the Myth 2 engine. I grant that one Johnny Law already played the game (and I highly recommend you watch Johnny Law's LP of it) but this is going to be awesome! And in HD! Look, do you want to blow shit up with dwarves or not?

The Pitch
Didn't you love Myth: TFL? Well, this is even better. The animation is generally way better, and the terrain has non-horrible textures.

The Backstory
"It can't be hopeless."

Two nights ago half a dozen men and I crouched around a campfire, trying to stay warm, and one of them said those words. He'd joined the Legion only three weeks earlier, and started talking to himself after a Ghôl's cleaver removed three fingers from his left hand. He squatted there in the dirt, repeating that sentence. If he was looking for reassurance or sympathy, he came up empty-handed, for no one else said a word.

Tonight I sit by a campfire fifty miles northwest, remembering the way he screamed this morning when four thrall surrounded him, knocked the sword from his good hand, and hacked him to pieces.

I never got his name.

The war in the North is in its seventh year, and I grow tired of writing this record. Force of habit counts for something, but I've written of so many half-hearted assaults, so many retreats - why do I go on? Writing down every detail I could remember - the names of dead men and burning cities and the feeling of heat at our backs as we ran away, again - used to help me sleep at night. Now it's just something to do between fighting and sleeping.

Sometimes the sense of futility is overwhelming. Now that most of this blackened continent belongs to the Fallen Lords and their servants, it's easy to become discouraged. Sometimes I feel that holding on for seven years means nothing, that chronicling this slow death of a world and its people means even less. Our efforts seem to make no difference, and I wonder why I ever thought joining up with the Legion was a good idea. My grandfather always told me I had a bad head. Sometimes he would strike it for emphasis.

In the last month I have dreamt of my grandfather repeatedly, for reasons I do not understand. I loathed him as a child. When I was younger my sisters and I spent summers on his farm, performing the menial labor that any sane adult fobs off on children.

I remember dreading the summer and the bitter old man it brought, lugging his pumpkins a full mile from the field to his slap-dash barn, running in terror from his malnourished animals.

I hated it then, though it seems almost idyllic when compared with this summer. Perhaps that's why I dream of it.

The only relief we had during those summers were the nights when the old man got drunk. He was a sorry drunk; a single bottle rendered him immobile for the evening, and his words ran together like rainwater dripping down the rope that holds a hanged man aloft. Sometimes the liquor ate a hole into the living parts of his mind, and he would forego his usual giggling stupor and tell us stories that had been told to him while he was young: about one named Connacht who delivered the world from darkness.

The way the stories had it, Connacht came out of the east right around the same time that a comet took up residence in the Western skies. At the time the world lived in the long shadow of the Myrkridia - a race of flesh-eaters too horrible to describe to children, or so my grandfather said. I have heard other stories of them since, and it seems that no two people can paint the same picture of what the Myrkridia were or how they were able to keep the land stricken with fear for hundreds of years. I'd dismiss them as a complete fantasy were it not for the conviction - and the fear - in my grandfather's bleary eyes when he spoke of them.

Connacht was the first human in a thousand years to survive a battle with the Myrkridia ...and he didn't just survive, he prevailed. He hunted them down and imprisoned them in an artifact called the Tain, a prison without walls which the smiths of Muirthemne had forged for him. When the Myrkridia disappeared, Connacht ascended to the Emperor's throne and presided over what is now known as the Age of Light. His story fades away at this point. Some say he died, or was assassinated or kidnapped. Others say he left Muirthemne in search of some powerful artifact. Supposedly the immense power of items like the Tain both fascinated and terrified him, and he is known to have sought out objects of similar power - the five Eblis Stones, Tramist's Mirror, the Total Codex.

He destroyed the ones he could, and secreted the rest; in any case, none of them have been seen in centuries.

In fact, all of this is ancient history. But Balor and the rest of the Fallen torched Muirthemne just a few years ago. And I'm reminded with a quick look over our ranks that we are not the brave Connacht's army, but a scruffy rabble in the service of The Nine. I doubt Connacht will swoop in to save us.

Back when I joined up with the Legion there was a mad Journeyman who regaled anyone too tired to move away with his theory about the Edge of All - that line between the land and nothingness out beyond the kingdom of Gower, where Connacht arose. He claimed the world is double-sided and constantly spinning, like a coin tossed in the air, and the living and the dead are held to its surface by sorceries too powerful for humans to master. "...And so the light and the dark hold dominion successively, and the land belongs in turn to men, or to the undead." I grew as tired of his affected vocabulary as I did of his idiotic ideas, but I confess I felt a small twinge of sadness when he died. I never got his name either.

For the last week the camps have been abuzz with the rumor that The Nine have got their hands on something which can change the course of the war. Most of us are inclined to dismiss this as nonsense, but seven years of bloody battles with the tireless and seemingly infinite armies of the undead will do that. I admit it seems ridiculous. A talisman that will keep us alive, that will somehow give us the strength to outwit and outlast Balor? You'd think The Nine would have used it earlier. It's just a rumor anyway, and I've learned not to put much faith in rumors.

The men of the Legion have heard too many promises that everything will get better any day now. No one wants to hear the words spoken out loud, so I keep mine to myself, and I suspect others nurture hope as well, though they may not speak of it openly.

Would we carry on, fantasizing of a future beyond war, if we hadn't a chance?

If this were so, we wouldn't be able to carry on. Yet here we are.

It can't be hopeless.
(source: Myth at Bungie.org, http://myth.bungie.org/, included in the instruction booklet)

We begin in a much different world than in Myth 2: Soulblighter. The Dark has systematically put the torch to the all of mankind, with only one major city left standing. It is now do or die.

Gameplay
This is a real-time tactical game, similar to a real-time strategy. The difference is, we won't be constructing buildings, managing resources, or building an army. Rather, we'll be issued a small number of men at the start of each mission, given a list of seemingly-impossible tasks, and be placed on the wrong side of a horde of the undead and worse. It ain't gonna be easy.

Let’s Play!
I will update once a week, on Sundays, unless I announce otherwise in the thread. If I get more than 5 episodes saved up, I will post an extra episode on Thursdays, but this may well never happen. Future episodes will be uploaded to YouTube, so that updates are live the minute they post, no worrying about garbled uploads. Please don’t talk about videos that don’t have a post in the thread, but if there are issues with them that I missed, please let me know. If you want a unit named after you, that will be doable, but keep in mind that I have videos queued up, so your name will drop in a few weeks later. If your unit is killed in glorious battle, I’m afraid you’re out of this LP for good, unless of course you notice that you died and ask me put you back in.

Units

The Legion

Alric

“…the seventh wave of Trall stumbled over the slippery, puled and Mazzarin saw The Watcher with them and at last knew the number of his days.”
“Of all the avatara in the Four Ages there is no doubt that Mazzarin was the most powerful and his death the most salient victory of the Dark during the Wind Age.”
Holy run-on sentence, Batman. Why all of the flavor text talks about a long-dead Avatara, and not Alric, I don’t know. Alric here is much different than in Myth 2. There he looked like a European king, but here he looks vaguely Arabian or Persian. He has a lot of health, hits fast and hard, and has a devastating special attack called Dispersal Dream that he can use three times.

Balin

“Iri trekked for three days through Ghol haunted hills, eating as he walked, sleeping between footfalls; he ran for the last 5 hours, traversing the 26 mile wide corpse-filled morass ringing Covenant…”
Best dwarf ever, hands down. While Oleg threw his bombs in high arcs, Balin like to pitch line-drives straight into his enemies’ faces. He also can be invisible, although he only does this trick once. It’s canon that he survives the war, and has at least one son.

ki’Angsi

“…but it was ki’Angsi alone that stood up to the challenge and strung the giant’s bow; the great yew shaft that no two other men could bend.”
Let’s ignore the improper use of a semicolon there. As an archer hero, ki’Angsi shoots further, faster, and I believe with more damage than a normal fir’Bolg. His aim ain’t too shabby either.

Oleg

"We were glad to see Oleg when he finally returned to the grove, but when we saw that his pack was empty we all covered our ears... sizzling bits of Thrall came raining down for what felt like hours."
The flavor text displayed in-game is actually from Myth 2’s dwarf hero. Like any hero unit, Oleg is a much better version of his base unit. He tends to really lob his molotov cocktails high, which can allow him to have two bombs going at the same time.

Truan of the Hundred Battles

“When Alric sent word that a man was needed to pierce the corpse-city of Muirthemne to its dead heart, and obtain from it what might be the only hope for victory, Truan volunteered without hesitation.”
I think it clear from the flavor text that this is the berserk that found The Head in the opening cinematic. Pretty cool that we get to play him!

Turgeis with Burning Steel

“…but Turgeis’ attacks were so swift, and his blade bit so deeply, that his foe barely had time to recover from the first blow before he was slain by the last.”
The other berserk hero, Turgeis is functionally identical to Truan. But he is sporting a spiffy new color of body paint, so he’s got that going for him.

Berserk

"A berserk at the Stair of Grief, having been told that the hosts of the Soulless were so many that their spears would hide the sun, is said to have replied 'Then we shall fight them in the shade.'"
"Though Egil and his men bristled with javelins their charge did not falter, and they fell upon the Hollow Men with such ferocity that even the Thrall seemed to be frozen with horror."
Berserks hit harder and faster than Warriors and run faster than any of your units. They also have very few hit points and can be overwhelmed pretty quick. If you’re using melee right- mopping up what your ranged didn’t completely kill- they’re your best friend.

Dwarf

“The early Dwarven eddas always speak of heroes 'having gone north into the mountains to slay Ghols', but most repeated is the tale of Dvalin son of Alfrigg, third ephor of Stoneheim ..."
"Hours after the fall of Myrgard, the dwarves defending Stoneheim collapsed the barbican, entombing ten thousand of their number behind as many tons of shattered rock."
Ranged unit that throws powerful bombs and can also carry and drop satchel charges. They don’t care one bit if they blow up friend or foe, so controlling them is our top priority.

fir’Bolg

“Long enemies of the civilized nations, the truce which brought the fir'Bolg and their famed bowmen into the Light was forged by ou'Kahn the Great King and Caliban during the Sword Age.”
" ... though the Ghols were afraid to kill him after his capture at Myrgard they dislocated his arms at the shoulder with a chisel to prevent him from ever drawing a bow again."
Oh hooray, it’s these guys! The tall, bearded dwarf-looking fellows are fir’Bolg, and they are absolutely rubbish as archers. Still, they’re all we have.

Journeyman

"Not a palm's breadth free of wounds on his body, Five Motion Bloody Jaguar knelt to kiss the earth and drawing strength from her rose to charge the thickest gathering of the enemy."
"Returning to the ruin Muirthemne had become in their absence, the deathless Heron Guards each tore nine gold tiles from the palace wall, every one the weight of a grown man..."
That first flavor text is a little rich- these guys do not charge the enemy. They shuffle slowly about and mess around with a shovel, when they could be going hog-wild with dual swords. Oh well, maybe next time...

Warrior

“After the armies of The Province were finally broken at Covenant, the survivors scattered among the free cities of the North, taking their arms with them.”
"Maeldun's only words on returning exhausted to Tyr from a long campaign in the East to find half the city burning after a raid by pirates from Leix were 'Show me the way to Leix.'"
Let us take a moment to nominate that second flavor text as the greatest hardass quote of all time. These are your basic infantry unit. They have a good amount of health and have a sword and shield. The shield is actually functional- sometimes, a warrior will block an incoming hit and take no damage.

The Dark

Balor

"Second Era tradition tells of a hero rising in the East, who loosened the bloodless grip of the wicked things which had dominated his land for time beyond memory ... "
"On the day Muirthemne was razed, the sun rose to reveal an army that seemed to stretch across the horizon, and at its center stood Balor with his standard silhouetted against the morning sun."
Once known as Connacht, hero of the Wind Age, Balor is possessed by the malevolent spirit/demon called The Leveler, who in turn is bent on destroying all life. It’s interesting that they included two different flavor texts for him, considering you only see him in one level.

Soulblighter

"... some believe that he is Damas, one of Connacht's lieutenants who, while campaigning in the east, learned how to indefinitely prolong his life with human sacrifices and ritual self-mutilation."
"... but he has disappeared into the 'Untamed Lands' before, often for years at a time; always returning with something more unspeakably evil or singularly malignant than the time before."
One of the Fallen Lords. He’s not really a powerful sorcerer per se. Rather, he has magically-enhanced health, strength, and speed, as well as the ability to turn into a murder of crows- a super-soldier.

Cave Spider

“After scoffing at the ease at which he killed one, Hrungnir was told "what they lack in strength, they make up for in number…”
"... we were standing knee deep in a lake made up of the corpses of spiders the size of very large dogs when 12 Moon remarked, 'Wyrd preserve us, these are all males!'"
Never been a fan of spiders, and I’m even less a fan of giant ones. Interestingly enough, these are actually flagged as Light units in Myth: The Fallen Lords. Perhaps this is just a bug.

Fetch

"We know not whether Fetches wear the skins of men out of necessity or whim, but we do know they are not from our world and their arrogance is without equal among the minions of the Fallen."
"When first glimpsed, I thought it a devil; when it spoke, it spoke with the voice of an angel, but its true nature was masked by the louse infested skin it wore."
Both flavor texts make these gals sound awful, just awful. They’re priestesses summoned from another world by Balor. They shoot bolts of lightning that do a great deal of damage and hop around clustered units. These are effectively the Dark’s dwarves.

Ghol

"The Ghols have forever been at war with the dwarves around Myrgard and Stoneheim, and the rape of the dwarves' ancestral home there has been the Ghol's rabid dream for centuries."
"The Ghols worship enormous pieces of unworked stone, moved in antiquity to the open meadows far below their mountain dwellings. They alone remember the names of the dark gods."
These creatures aren’t undead, but they’re still a monumental pain in the rear. The move faster than pretty much all of your units, and they’re sneaker attackers. They rarely take your forces head on, but prefer to shadow and flank you when you least expect it.

Myrmidon

“Desirous of power and immortality, the warrior race of the Myrmidons left their northern kin to join Balor and the Fallen Lords, and so they became known as The Kithless.”
“While still flesh and blood, the Myrmidons were most vain about their long hair and body paint, spending the eve of battle before a mirror rather than in a bedroll.”
Honestly, that second one sounds like slander. These are the Dark’s Berserks; they hit faster and harder than Thrall, but go down faster as well.

Shades

"A house gutted by fire, a well poisoned with carrion, what had been sheep in the morning spread like a thick jam against the long wall of the barn..."
"... and it was said of Sciron that his hatred for the living was so intense, his shadow would go out and kill while he slept and not return until next he awoke."
They can’t cross water, but that’s about their only weakness. Shades are reanimated avatara, and as such have a lot of health, hit hard, and can use Dispersal Dream on your forces.

Soulless

"A berserk at the Stair of Grief, having been told that the hosts of the Soulless were so many that their spears would hide the sun, is said to have replied 'Then we shall fight them in the shade.'"
“Called 'Hollow Men' in the West, the Soulless are most feared for the sticky venom with which they anoint their javelins before battle, for wounds contaminated by the toxin never heal…”
The Dark’s ranged unit. In a fun twist, they’re generally better shots than our fir’Bolg, but luckily, the Soulless don’t seem to believe in focus fire.

Spider Queen

"... I called for a light to be brought forward and just as soon regretted my order, and I wept with fear as its hideous bulk became more distinct."
Remember when I said I don’t like spiders? I especially don’t like large, fast-skittering black ones.

Thrall

"Though Egil and his men bristled with javelins their charge did not falter, and they fell upon the Hollow Men with such ferocity that even the Thrall seemed to be frozen with horror."
" ... the seventh wave of Thrall stumbled and climbed over the slippery, piled dead and Mazzarin saw The Watcher with them and at last knew the number of his days."
The Dark’s standard melee unit. They’re slow, and aren’t particularly threatening. The best way to deal with them is to allow the ranged units to whittle them down while you retreat as necessary.

Trow

"' ... or we will fell your people like a pine forest.' One Ghol asked why he had singled out pines. 'Once cut, pines never regrow.' spoke the Trow emissary, to which the Ghols had no answer save silence."
"Initially we thought the barn we were hiding in had been magicked away, but then we saw the unmistakable silhouette of a Trow becoming more and more distinct through the settling dust..."
As the quotes imply, Trow are not to be messed with. You need to take them one at a time, with everything you got.

Wight

“…though the dwarves before Myrgard were unshaken by the eights opposite them, each knew the slow, bleeding death-fever which awaited those who survived the battle.”
“…but they were not driven to attack by malice, what goaded them forward was the pain-clouded thought of release from an anguish so singular that it wracked their bodies even in unlife.”
Slow moving units that explode with terrific force as soon as they are near your units. Those that survive are paralyzed for awhile. There’s no Light analog to these guys. Wights are hard to deal with, as only fir’Bolg are really effective against them. The main risk with them is not seeing them first or not paying attention as one waddles up to your units form beyond, then blows everybody up.

Other

The Mayor

“History has proven a thousand times that no man has ever gained from a bargain with The Dark, yet cowards and fools continue to try, and The Fallen never turn them away.”
I didn’t file The Mayor of Otter Ferry in with The Dark because I don’t believe him to have been truly evil. Like the flavor text says, he was both a coward and a fool, and while those types’ actions usually lead to evil, they are not IN evil, if you see what I mean.

Villager

“The humble farmers who feed the West, suffering the worst in every conflict, conscripted before age fifteen to fill the ranks of the army.”
"... and then Pelleas arose and asked of the Council of Lords, 'And if the Darkness strives further north, then what shall become of the peasantry?' And the Council answered, 'They shall die, just as we.'"
The Council or Lords was actually wiped out prior to the beginning of where we come in. The Nine take over and see the war through to the end.

The Let's Play Archive

Myth II: The Fallen Levels

by Sevron

Introduction

Table of Contents

Units