[Editor's Note: The following item contains portions appropriate for several different areas of the Reports; in the interest of not modifying the original author's work too much, we've simply placed it under Demo.]

Ok, DLed Myth 3 MP demo today as soon as I heard it was out. Installed on my flatmate's PeeCee (didn't ask permission, couldn't wait that long) and launched. It sure looks pretty, very fancy interface with stylish screen transitions etc.

As a Myth veteran (I've been playing since Nov '97) I decided to launch myself straight into the action, and logged onto Gamespy. I had to create a new account of course, but that was done in less than a minute and was all ingame - no more logging onto the b.net website.

Once connected I found the first server with a decent ping and joined. I played several games today and here are my impressions. BTW I was using an Athlon 700 with a Kyro 2 card and tons of memory.

VISUALS
It's beautiful! This is one of the best looking games I have ever played. The water looks fantastic and the unit animations are smooth and realistic. You're player icon, now a 64x64 image, is displayed on your units as well as any flags you hold, and lends a wonderfully personal feel to your units. Warriors now carry axes as well as swords (it appears to be decided randomly, like lefthand/righthand).

WARLOCKS
If you felt the locks in M2 were too powerful, you're gonna hate M3. Their fire-wall spell has bene replaced by a smaller fire-ball which can be fired relatively rapidly and is somewhat effective agaisnt individual units. This is now the primary attack, the explosive fireball is the secondary attack. Mana now recharges at a much faster rate, making these guys absolutely deadly. However they are still vulnerable to archers and multiple attacks from different directions.

IRON TROW
They look great and do a lot of damage, but they are vulnerable to lightning (maybe its all that metal). In think they'll fit in nicely. Unlike regular Trow, they can attack more than one unit at once. By swinging their hammer at a group of units, it can take out a bunch of them with a single stroke. But it has a slow rate of attack and is much less effective agaisnt individual units.

SOUND
The sound in the demo really sucks! There's hardly any ambient noise, and its all very weak compared to myth 2 and there are few samples for each effect. I couldn't hear arrows thunking into armour or swords clashing, it was all quite pathetic. There's no music at all. I'm hoping they may have left some tags out to keep the demo small, but what I'm really hoping is that some hexer is going to hack M3 to use M2 sounds :)

MULTIPLAY
Gamespy's service seems as good as b.net, it was stable and fast and the in-game browser was simple enough.

PERFORMANCE
After turning on all visual features I actually noticed slow-downs during gameplay, this is one beefy game!

So all in all, I think it bodes well for the full game, BUT...

There's no tutorial in this demo, and no solo maps. Newbies are being thrown right into games agaisnt vets like myself and are getting wasted because they haven't even worked out how to control their camera yet. The Lock's most devestating attack is used by pressing 'T', but there's no documentation to explain this. Newbies are not going to enjoy this gaming experience, because there will be no sense of acheivement and its all too overwhelming. If MJ wants to make any money out of this game, they should release a new demo with Tute and Solo levels ASAP otherwise prospective new-buyers are jsut going to turn away in disgust.