MythForce wears its inspirations on its sleeves with a deep love and nostalgia for relics of a bygone TV period. The likes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe or GI Joe as soon as reigned supreme on Saturday mornings however as of late, as their major demographic has aged and turn into the creators, the style is within the midst of a renaissance. He-Man and She-ra are each on Netflix, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem is crossing field workplace milestones, and Transformers by no means actually left. And now MythForce is right here. Not like the others, MythForce is not counting on a longtime franchise, however is slightly paying tribute to the work that impressed it. Sadly, the completed product does not fairly handle to seize the essence of its inspiration, except for a number of examples. It additionally feels unfinished in a number of respects, presents repetitive environments and enemies, and lacks the construct depth {that a} roguelike ought to ship.
Upon launching MythForce and being handled to a reasonably nice cartoon cutscene, gamers are dumped right into a hub world, or extra precisely, a hub display. With little to no route, gamers will finally uncover that the handful of buildings earlier than them are distributors providing a wide range of upgrades. There is not any world setup or correct tutorials – nothing to level the way in which or ease gamers in, except for some textual content explanations that may solely be accessed by clicking a small query mark icon as soon as inside every store.
From the hub, one in every of 4 characters is chosen, and buddies will be invited to hitch for as much as four-player co-op. Gamers can choose from ranges they’ve unlocked, or select quickplay. There is not any clarification of how quickplay works precisely, however gamers will uncover that it provides them to any ongoing stage with random on-line contributors. The principle story development, if it may be referred to as that, performs out over a collection of 9 ranges, reduce into 3 chapters. Chapters every include three procedurally generated ranges, the third culminating in a showdown with a dastardly cartoon villain. Heroes will discover equipment and buffs that persist solely to the extent’s finish, together with cash and different sources which might be saved and go towards long-term development.
When gamers embark on the primary stage of a chapter, one other animated sequence performs. They’re campy, janky, and completely good. These transient vignettes, together with the sport’s spot-on theme track, are delightfully-realized tributes to the superior 80s cartoons that breathed life into MythForce. These components actually make the sport really feel like what it was meant to be. Sadly, it does not final. Nowhere else does MythForce look or sound like a corny cartoon. Certain, characters are cel-shaded, giving them that animated look, however the world round them is a very completely different artwork fashion, making all of it really feel disconnected. The environments usually really feel empty, flat, and unsurprising.
The degrees include round 15 flooring every. Most are fight encounters, with the occasional store or protected space plagued by chests. Outlets promote buffs and equipment in trade for gold; nevertheless, long-term development in MythForce additionally depends on gold, so gamers must resolve between quick and delayed advantages. The fight encounters are all the identical, excluding boss fights. Three waves of enemies have to be defeated, after which the trail ahead opens.
There’s merely not sufficient variation right here. At across the midway mark, and at a stage’s conclusion, completely different occasions happen, however all of the motion in between feels very repetitive. In truth, repetition is the sport’s greatest fault. With solely a small handful of flooring layouts, gamers will see them again and again. There’s one lure, and it is in each stage, nearly each flooring: a gargoyle head spewing elemental harm. A sure fashion of breakable pot is usually a sneaky enemy, however it’s all the time the very same fashion of pot. Stunning the primary couple of occasions, however that is it. No, this is not a Groundhog Day time loop, it is simply one other an identical sq. room.
The motion is all in first individual. Ranged fight feels higher than melee, the place the distances and hit containers are just a little wonky. Gamers would possibly ensure they dodged a sword or escaped the impression zone of a spell, solely to endure the harm anyway. Combating at a distance is a smoother expertise, particularly if enjoying with mouse and keyboard. Utilizing a bow or slinging spells is enjoyable and headshots all the time really feel good. Two characters can equip spell books, and the three choices – ice, lightning, or hearth – all have an extra impact that helps combine issues up.
MythForce, for its half, does provide an excellent number of perks and enchantments, and the choice varies relying on the chosen character and weapons. The equipment are a distinct story, with solely a handful of choices that gamers will see repeatedly. At decrease tiers, many of those equipment provide negligible bonuses, so it is actually right down to the perks and weapon enchantments to supply significant selection.
Gamers will accumulate glyphs and gold, each obligatory for everlasting development. Glyphs are shared between characters, however frustratingly, gold isn’t. The reasoning right here is not completely clear, and it solely leads to lengthening the useful resource grind. The hub distributors will be upgraded to 4 tiers by providing up glyphs the place increased tiers imply the next stage of upgrades bought. Sadly, most of this is not very impactful. The quantity of gold and glyphs wanted to purchase upgrades will end in quite a lot of grinding for little impact, particularly if gamers are aiming for the upper tiers. Nearly utterly ignoring the opposite distributors, it’s totally potential to dump all the pieces into weapon upgrades and easily depend on brute drive to make it by way of the sport.
From begin to end, MythForce is a reasonably quick affair. Gamers can unlock more durable difficulties that yield extra rewards, however these do not appear to supply something actually new, simply harder enemies. However for the reason that ranges are so repetitive, merely upping the problem isn’t sufficient to encourage a number of runs.
A few of the issues in MythForce might be forgiven if the core loop stayed recent and enjoyable, however, sadly, it does not. And with companies like Recreation Move providing up a number of strong roguelikes, it is robust to justify the $29.99 price ticket. But, the core concept of an 80s cartoon homage is quite a lot of enjoyable, and a pair components of the sport succeed brilliantly. A challenge like this might solely have been birthed out of ardour, so hopefully MythForce has its day within the solar. The developer has said it plans to assist the sport going ahead, and additional content material has been hinted at. However in its present state, there’s simply not sufficient to advocate MythForce, each by way of amount and high quality.
MythForce
Impressed by beloved Saturday morning cartoons, MythForce unites swords & sorcery with gripping 1st-person fight in a brand new roguelike journey.
MythForce is obtainable now on PC, PS5, Change, an Xbox Collection X/S. Recreation Rant was offered a PC code for this assessment.
