Around 45,000 players are fighting for supremacy in the Land of Smiles on Steam. We fought along for 40 hours and found out: The survival MMO is a prime example of a good Early Access – and is shaking up the genre tremendously.
The wheels creak loudly under the heavy weight of our battering ram as we trudge after it and straight ahead through thick fog. In front of us only the outlines of the enemy fortress are visible, but soon – according to our scouts – we would encounter an almost unmanned protective wall.
At the thought of having lost our loyal allies to these enemies last night, we still bare our teeth in rage – they will probably have celebrated their victory for all too long.
To our left, the siege tower disappears almost entirely in the mist, with it twenty mounted units and as many more foot soldiers. Only the commands of our general or the occasional groan of one of our slaves in front of us now point the way towards the enemy. Suddenly the fog lifts and it begins to rain: war cries! The fortress is fully manned!
With their ominous-looking war masks, the enemy archers are enthroned next to catapults and for a moment remind us of Chinese terracotta warriors. Then the hail of arrows descends on us. There is confusion for a moment, but we have disciplined warriors and an experienced general. Afterwards, we continue our march – with a smile on our lips: Today is a good day to die.
After about 40 hours of play, our tester, like 45,000 other players, has fallen for the medieval sandbox and is convinced: Myth of Empires has not only made an impressive Early Access start. The survival MMO also has the best prerequisites to really shake up the genre.
The Time of the Three Kingdoms
Myth of Empires takes us to the Chinese antiquity of the third century – i.e. to the “Time of the Three Kingdoms” immediately before the tripartition of China: The still minor emperor has degenerated into a puppet of power-hungry politicians and throughout the country secret societies such as the “Yellow Turbans”, who also appear in the game as their own NPC faction, are calling for revolts.
Myth of Empires takes us to the Chinese antiquity of the third century – i.e. to the “Time of the Three Kingdoms” immediately before the tripartition of China.
Handily, the weakened central government equips paramilitary forces with far-reaching military and civilian rights – which quells the uprisings but leaves behind semi-autonomous regional powers far superior to the central imperial government.
But before we can engage in diplomatic and military skirmishes with our own faction and forge powerful alliances to face NPCs or other players in heroic battles with our allies, we first find ourselves naked and unsuspecting at one of seven spawn points on Myth of Empires’ 64 square kilometre map.
In the beginning was the grind
“If one is not patient in small things, one brings about the failure of great undertakings”, Confucius already knew. The old philosopher must have known the Chinese developer studio Angela Game quite well – or somehow vice versa.
There is no other explanation for the fact that everything we want to build in the game has to be painstakingly put together. It can take several hours to unlock the relevant recipes and to craft a roofed shelter with workbenches, a bed and a fireplace.
Fortunately, the quest system always holds the carrot in front of our noses, so that even after the thousandth tuft of grass, we can still enjoy completed missions and thus experience points, money or other items.
Once we have weapons, armour, tools and enough food, we can explore the varied world of Myth of Empires. We have to: to make even better armour and weapons, we need copper, which we can only find in the mountains or at the mines. Flora and fauna differ greatly in the more than eight different biomes, which is why we have to reckon with more aggressive contemporaries such as wolves or bears in the mountains at any time.
Our first encounter with them ends in disaster and we find ourselves naked and without any items in the respawn menu. Fortunately, we have placed a bed near us – in addition to seven spawn points, these serve as further selectable locations for resurrection.
In our next attempt, we therefore take a small diversions and meet a group of vagabonds sitting by the fire, whom we can hire with money, meat or other items. The fact that their services are not exactly cheap is easy to get over, as we are only allowed to take one additional companion with us at the beginning anyway and give him orders – but you have to know that first.
The game menu and other teething troubles
Because Myth of Empires explains little, typical of the genre. Sure, the quests guide you through the initial phase of the game, so you don’t have to be completely in the dark. But if, after opening the inventory at the latest, you are tempted to explore the other menus that are hidden behind the buttons above, you will be overwhelmed by the wealth of information:
- Thus, although we increase our skills while performing the activity, we can activate associated perks under “Talent & Skill” once we reach a certain skill level.
- The “Experience Points” to be awarded also allow us to increase certain skills faster.
- In the “Achievements” menu, on the other hand, we can see our permanent buffs under Overview, which we get when, for example, we farm a certain number of vegetables, kill enemies or simply reach a higher level.
- Under “Tactic” we can use our scrolls found in dungeons to get unique effects (with advantages and disadvantages).
- The “Event” menu, on the other hand, exists twice, but with completely different uses.
- And as if that wasn’t enough, there are once again a whole range of perks to unlock in our guild, which are then valid for all members of the group.
Does it actually get any more complicated than that, Angela Game? Especially when the only reason to use the English menu is the German translation, which is unplayable in places, this menu almost feels like teasing.
In addition to all the criticism, it should also be noted that Myth of Empires was only released in Early Access a few weeks ago and the developers have already announced their intention to revise the menus.
Also worth mentioning are some glitches and occasional system crashes, most of which can be avoided by simply starting Steam as administrator. Considering the development time of only two years and the already enormous playable scope, it is nevertheless a remarkably smooth Early Access.
A game for all
A total of 25 skill trees, more than 100 perks and several hundred achievements ensure that we can become anything from an archer to a knight to a besieger, farmer, miner or blacksmith. The system of building our own kingdom on PvE servers or subjugating entire empires as an aspiring warlord in PvP also plays surprisingly well.
Because up to level 20 (about ten to 15 hours of play), the “Novice Protection” takes effect anyway. Thanks to this, we can always resurrect ourselves where we have just died and don’t have to rush to our items from the nearest spawn point within 30 minutes before they disappear.
In addition, we have to live with the restriction of only being able to stay on PvE servers until level 16. Only after that can we move from the “Neutral Camp” to one of four PvP servers per region for free, but taking items with us costs extra.
As long as we are on PvE servers, other players cannot do any damage to us or our possessions (including all items after our death).
The situation is different with the “Decay Rate”: This stipulates that we have to rebuild our two territory banners within 48 hours. Otherwise our buildings will take two percent damage every hour.
If you don’t want to do this and just want to enjoy the game alone or with friends at the weekend, you can set up your own or a dedicated server using the PrivateServerTool that comes with the game and set the decay rate to zero in addition to a variety of other settings. You can then build to your heart’s content without any time pressure.
Motivating in the long run
We encounter up to seven NPC factions in both PvE and PvP. We can even maintain real trade relations with some of them. However, attacks on their units worsen our relations. When the bar changes from green to red, the NPCs also pay us occasional visits. Depending on how much we have fallen out with them, their attacks increase in intensity.
We were not able to find out whether siege weapons such as triboks or catapults will be used later in the game, but we wouldn’t be surprised to find a siege tower leaning against our fortress walls in the single player.
nourishing our maximum skill level in Neutral Camp
While it is also the duty of the stone builders to protect their buildings from enemy attacks, they can place triboks and catapults directly on them as part of the “Stone Wall” available from level 43 and also man them with trained warriors (recruited NPC crossbowmen and archers).
If at some point the attacks become too violent for you, you can ride your individually bred horse to one of the camps to calm your spirits for a small fee.
These camps are also lucrative for capturing generals with a higher level (recognisable by their golden symbol). With a colourful assortment of torture instruments, we convert them until they fight at our side from then on, take care of the surprisingly complex agriculture or even slave away in our mine to bring the goods back to the base afterwards.
Organised major guilds on EU servers
Due to the large number of inter-organised Chinese guilds, many NA and EU servers are currently blocked by them, which not only severely affects communication between each other in public chat, but also leads to griefing after relocation on the PvP servers. The developers are aware of the problem and have set up new servers (more have been announced), on which only players with new accounts are allowed to move. We therefore advise newcomers to settle on these servers marked “New”. However, it is still unclear how the developers intend to deal with guilds that have grown too large in the future.
Guilds in PvP
On PvP servers, on the other hand, it is advisable to try your luck in one of the countless (also German-speaking) guilds. Here, sieges of other players or raids of opposing camps are the order of the day – and make voice chats in Discord indispensable.
A wide range of equipment and weapons ensures sufficient variety in the later stages of the game.
But if you don’t let this deter you, you will be rewarded with a wealth of possibilities that are probably a rarity even in this genre:
- Gilds that form alliances and own entire clusters (called regions or prefectures) that control border crossings and charge tolls.
- Hostile alliances that attack these border crossings from other regions in order to expand their empire even further.
- Misfavourable guilds within our own region who dislike our success and therefore we have to defend our magistrate’s seat every 14 days.
- Or alliances that break up because the allies didn’t show up or just took too long from the bordering region to help us defend.
- And then there’s all the mind games of neighbouring guilds when they suddenly find themselves outside our walls in the middle of the night because the saving “Protection Timer” doesn’t kick in for another hour.
What’s next?
The developers have been keeping Myth of Empires a secret since the alpha, so you won’t find a roadmap. According to Angela Game, the game is currently 70 percent finished. In addition to changes to the menu, the customisability of the appearance of our NPCs, new building, armour and weapon skins, musical instruments that can be used in the game, further possibilities for using our animals on the battlefield as well as modding tools are planned so far.
In addition, the development team is very dedicated and regularly delivers a variety of fixes and additional updates during server shutdowns (about five times a week between midnight and one o’clock).
We keep our fingers crossed that in the future we will also be able to ride across the map on our tamed elephants like Hannibal and that our heroic battles will be sung about afterwards by more or less talented bards.
Preliminary Score Box
Myth of Empires was the first MMO of its kind for me. But despite, or perhaps because of, its enormous scope, at no point did I feel that its grind bothered me: just one more stone to close the gap in my wall; or ten pieces of copper to advance one level further and thus unlock new recipes for crafting.
The fact that taming horses can take up an hour or two of my time, but allows me to breed a horse that suits my needs, feels absolutely credible and adds immensely to the immersion of the game.
But if the eternal grinding or the complexity of farming should become too much for me, I always have the option of handing over these tasks to one of my recruited NPCs and exploring the huge world of Myth of Empires.
The building of houses, the versatility of biomes and the direct combat system remind me of Valheim with pleasure. If the developers also manage to add music and lighting effects to the atmosphere, Myth of Empires will finally become my current favourite game.
