Myth of Empires Playtest Impressions – Great Potential

Myth of Empires is an open-world sandbox survival crafting game developed by Angela Game and published by Imperium Interactive Entertainment and has been in Early Access since November 2021. The game has had a rocky development cycle but that is behind them, and we are fast approaching the v1.0 release On February 21. I was able to play in a playtest the past week and while there are some moments of brilliance, I feel there’s still a lot of work to be done on the game to make it a smooth launch.

The game is set in a massive, procedurally generated world with a variety of biomes, from lush forests and snow-capped mountains to arid deserts and treacherous swamps. Players can customise the look of their characters in creation and then are set out into the world with relative freedom to do whatever they feel like. There’s a heavy PvE and building component but there is also kingdom warfare you can choose to participate in.

The playtest had a lot of Asian language references in the game, despite choosing English as the language in the menu. I had to close the game and reload, and then most things were translated to English. Once in-game, I noticed the immense sense of scale within the game. Looking around saw sweeping grass plains, trees over yonder, a few castles that belonged to player kingdoms, a river, and mountains in the distance.

I started following the new player quest prompts which were sometimes explained well, while other times they required me to go into UI elements to look for something, like a skill proficiency it wanted me to train in, but the next steps weren’t immediately obvious. I watched a couple of other recordings of these first experiences, and they too missed the small blinking icons, which are obvious now that I’ve said it, but it could use a bit more of a visual prompt together with more focused text explanations.

Those initial teething issues aside, I was next into gathering and crafting which is standard for these sandbox survival games. See rocks and sticks on the floor, pick them up, gather enough to craft an axe and pickaxe, then start to gain more basic resources by chopping trees and mining rocks. The core gameplay loop of Myth of Empires is to gather resources, craft items, build structures, and survive. You need to gather food and water to stay alive, and you’ll need to build shelters to protect yourself from the elements and from other players.

After crafting weapons and armour, the next step was to kill a rabbit for meat. I ran around for ages and couldn’t find any rabbits, but I did see two foxes near each other. By this time, I was level 8 and the foxes were level 6 and 8. I thought, I’ve got this, so pulled out my spear and started attacking the first one. I had to be accurate with my swings, and you can alter the direction of your swings depending on the angle of your attack using the mouse. You can do left and right sweeps, direct frontal stabs, or swings from up high.

I thought I was doing well until the screen turned went red which meant I was knocked down. This gives your teammates a chance to revive you, but as I was playing along the fox finished me off and I died. I was given the option of respawning on the spot after a short countdown timer. This is due to my novice status and assume this wouldn’t be an option as I gained higher levels and more experience in the game. After looting all my gear that I had dropped, I set off looking for the foxes.

They had run off, but their health was still down from the fight, so I was able to run over and finished them off. Chopping the corpses with axes netted bones, meat and hides and these unlocked more crafting recipes. What started to intrigue me next was the intricate crafting system in Myth of Empires. While crafting weapons and armour was straight forward, when it came to cooking it got more complex, in a good way.

I struggled a little again understanding the UI prompts where I was trying to put raw food ‘into the campfire section with the wood but nothing was happening. Eventually I used my eyes and saw the recipes were right in front of me in the main UI section. Clicking the recipe used the ingredients in my pack. Once I had that figured out, I looked further into the crafting recipes and the crafting skill trees and there was a heap of potential there.

There is a lot of freedom in Myth of Empires, and you can play the game in a variety of ways. You can focus on PvE, building your own empire and surviving in the wilderness. Or you can focus on PvP, raiding other players and stealing their resources. There is also a lot of potential for roleplaying in Myth of Empires, as you can create your own character and backstory. You can also tame animals, which can provide you with food, transportation, and protection.

I barely scratched the surface of this game in the few hours I spent in this final playtest. Myth of Empires is definitely a promising game with a lot of potential, though the language options need to be checked and polished. While the general gameplay was mostly a smooth experience, there were some stutters and jankiness at times and I did crash once during the playtest. I worry whether the state of the game is enough for a full release, but I’m hoping the playtest is an older build of the game – time will tell. If you are looking for a deep and complex survival crafting game with a lot of freedom, then Myth of Empires is definitely worth checking out.

Myth of Empires Key Features:

• Brave an unforgiving world full of bandits, wild animals, and hostile players. Stave off hunger with meat collected through hunting and collect resources from the world to build a fortress.
• Engage enemies in intense, bloody combat. Control the direction of your strikes to maximize their impact and damage.
• Craft dozens of different kinds of weapons and armor to help you in battle. Make swords, spears, halberds, axes, throwing weapons, crossbows, bows, shields, and more!
• Construct massive siege weapons such as ballistas, catapults, trebuchets, and siege ladders to wreak havoc on enemy fortresses!
• Traverse a massive open world by land, air, and sea. Tame mountable horses and elephants, soar through the skies on gliders and kites, or sail stream and sea alike upon your own crafted boats.
• Two maps: Zhongzhou, the game’s original map; and Version 1.0’s new Dongzhou Island map, an expansive new world featuring islets, volcanoes, seas, and ships, as well as new boss content. The Dongzhou map is a free addition to the game.
• A robust guild system allows players to form factions with their friends and form alliances with other guilds, all in the name of conquering the world!
• Multiple ways to play the game, including hosted and solo modes, private servers, and official servers. Both PVE and PVP servers are available.
• Modding support and a robust modding tool give players even more power over the world of Myth of Empires.

These playtest impressions utilised keys provided by Reverb Communications and Myth of Empires is currently in early access on Steam with v1.0 launching on February 21.

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