Myth: The Fallen Lords

About Myth: The Fallen Lords

Myth: The Fallen Lords (1997) is Bungie's dark fantasy real-time tactics game without bases or resources, where physics-driven arrows and bouncing grenades make friendly fire a constant danger, and whose success brought Bungie to Microsoft's attention.

Myth: The Fallen Lords in Depth

For fifty years, the dark lord Balor and his lieutenants, the Fallen Lords, have been conquering the West, and in the seventeenth year of the war only one major city and a few towns remain in the hands of the Light, led by the Nine, powerful sorcerers known as Avatara, chief among them Alric. Players follow the Legion, an elite unit of the Light, as it tries to turn the tide and defeat Balor.

Unlike real-time strategy games, there is no base building, resource gathering or research; each level begins with the army already assembled, units do not heal, and new ones arrive only as scripted reinforcements. Players select units by clicking, double-clicking, shift-clicking or dragging a box, assign groups to keys, use nine formations and set facing with "gesture clicking", while the camera can be moved, orbited, panned and zoomed freely. A physics engine governs everything: severed heads bounce off units, a dwarf's missed Molotov cocktail can roll back downhill into his own side, and arrows drift with simulated aiming error or hit allies in melee. Each unit records its kills and battles survived, and while single-player uses only the Light, online multiplayer lets players command both Light and Dark.

Making Myth: The Fallen Lords

Bungie, then known mainly as a Mac developer, released The Fallen Lords in North America in November 1997, and Eidos published it in Europe in February 1998. It received universal acclaim, averaging 91 on Metacritic, and was seen as a defining title of the emerging real-time strategy genre; reviewers praised its plot, graphics, level design, online multiplayer and difference from traditional RTS games, while criticising a single-player campaign many found far too hard even on the lowest setting, and awkward unit control. PC Zone praised its interface, camera, 3D physics and shadows but described "an overwhelming frustration" in play. It won Strategy Game of the Year from PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World and Game of the Year from Computer Games Strategy Plus and Macworld. At the time it was Bungie's most successful game, bringing the studio to the attention of PC gamers and Microsoft. Myth II: Soulblighter followed, and fan groups such as Project Magma have kept the series alive online for over a decade.