Online game "Myth of Empires"

Survival games are one of the most popular genres today. As a rule, there we have to provide the hero with food, a warm bed, a roof over his head and medicines, change from rags to normal armor, so that he turned from a poor bum into the ruler of his own settlement or a whole city, protect it from enemies and maybe even save the world. But Myth of Empires takes it even higher: here we have to go from naked and hungry to a man who can rule not just one city or even a state, but the whole empire and civilization. And other players will be competing with us for this - not without reason Myth of Empires is considered to be one of the largest MMOs on the market today. But it was released only three years ago, and during this time it managed to get into a scandal with removal from Steam and triumphantly return. We tell you more about this amazing and unique game.

Myth of Empires is a Chinese game. Not surprisingly, its action is set in Ancient China during the Three Kingdoms era around the II-III century AD, when the locals first encountered other civilizations - and above all, the ancient Greek civilization. We play as a man who had a chance to choose one of the civilizations at this crucial moment and lead his own empire. So there is no full-fledged plot as such - we write our own story.

But first he just needs to survive and pass the very way "from dirt to princes". The game starts traditionally for all modern survivalists. After creating a character (by the way, there is a very advanced editor here) we find ourselves naked and hungry in the middle of a huge and not too friendly world, where wild foxes, bears, wild boars and bandits are all around, and we don't even have weapons at first. At the same time, the character depends on hunger, cold and heat, he can be poisoned and so on.

However, this is still an MMO, not an ultra-hardcore survivalist, so there is no shortage of resources. All we need is diligence and willingness to spend a lot of time collecting grass, stones, clay and twigs, from which we make the first primitive versions of weapons, armor and tools, and then we start chopping trees, mining ore, hunting animals for skins and meat, which can and should be cooked on a fire to feed your character - although you can roast even locusts.

And soon you can move on to building your own "house in the village". Everything is familiar here too - you can create everything for the house, from wooden or stone foundations, windows, roofs and doors to workbenches, stoves and all sorts of decorative items. The peculiarity is that the game beautifully shows how walls and other constructions are quickly created. But if you put them unsuccessfully or just want to change their position, you will not be allowed to do it - you can only destroy the object, but the resources for it will not be returned.

Therefore, it is especially important to choose a good location for your house/base/settlement in advance. It should be taken into account that the world in Myth of Empires consists of different biomes, and it is especially convenient to extract many resources at their intersection. Near the house you can and should place a vegetable garden, a crafting workshop, pens for animals, a blacksmith shop - all this will allow you to supply your character with food and necessary materials for crafting.

In general, the game has a very detailed and convenient crafting system, which includes thousands of blueprints and recipes - from the creation of primitive weapons, fire, storage box and sleeping bag (it is, as it should be, needed for quick movement) to the production of walls, roofs, smelting furnaces and home decor. We can clearly see what materials are needed to create this or that item and can produce the right amount right in the inventory. The main thing is to play and for all active successful actions to get points of blueprints, for which we actually open these blueprints and recipes.

Also, all active actions bring experience, which allows you to pump up your character and all kinds of skills - there are also a huge number of them for all occasions. There are even skills and recipes, with the help of which we are free to lure and saddle almost any wild horse - this is an interesting and extremely useful feature of Myth of Empires. After all, you will be able to explore the huge open world much faster and more efficiently on horseback.

In addition to the usual ones, there are also legendary skills - strength, agility, physique, wisdom and charisma. Strength, for example, is responsible for the possession of melee weapons, shields and heavy equipment, and physique allows you to more effectively extract resources, gives bonuses to hunting and athletics. To pump all this, you need to actively use skills and perform the appropriate actions. The more often we chop trees, shoot from a bow, ride on horseback or beat enemies with an axe, the faster we improve in specialized disciplines. In addition, you can choose skills that will grow faster than others - in the early stages of the game, for example, it is very useful to invest in collecting resources. Local currency (copper coins) and so-called "expert experience points" are spent on this.

The same principle is used to pump crafts, which play a big role - the more we spend time in the forge or workshop, go fishing or even catch silkworms, the more effective we become in this profession.

Yes, and weapons the faster we pump, the more often we wave this particular sword or shoot from a bow. By the way, it is the equipment and weapons that determine the specialization of the character in Myth of Empires. After all, there is no division into classes in the game. But if you use a bow more often or, on the contrary, a bunch of sword and shield, you gradually become a skillful archer or swordsman, respectively.

All of the above except for some details have been familiar to everyone for a long time. And in some places so much that the authors were even accused of stealing code from one very famous survival game. This was the reason for complaints and legal action, because of which the game was removed from the Steam store shortly after its release in early access. Many thought that the authors would not recover from the blow, but earlier this year it became known that the developers won the lawsuit, after which Myth of Empires returned to Steam and quickly gained popularity.

This is largely due to the fact that the survival mechanics and the ability to build your own house in the village gameplay is not limited here. The authors rely on the scale, so you can build entire cities, lead your own province, prefecture, and eventually even your own empire.

You can, of course, try to do it all alone - we are free to hire mercenaries, feed, equip and arm them, give them different assignments, expand the network of your settlements, use the mechanics of caravans to transport goods from one settlement to another and so on. But it is much more efficient to do all this and go for world domination in a guild - Myth of Empires is designed for collective play and unification of players.

The whole world is divided into regions, prefectures, counties and provinces, which can be controlled by a guild or an alliance - it is profitable because the territories receive taxes and other bonuses. And with this the cross-over mechanics works - the whole regional map is divided between multiple PvP and PvE servers, and players are free to move from one to another at any time.

Naturally, sooner or later (and sooner is more likely) another group of users will try to claim their rights and take back the province. Therefore, the game regularly hosts large-scale battles, where some people build fortresses and defend themselves, and others storm them, using, among other things, siege weapons, which can even be placed on elephants and rhinos. And in such battles, it is important to make good use of the terrain - for example, siege weapons are much more difficult or even impossible to move on water.

These guild and alliance battles come in several forms - a battle for a fortress, for a district or for a prefecture. Each has its own peculiarities and different rewards. For example, battles for the prefecture can involve 20 people on each side fighting for an outpost and a base, as well as periodically trying to control a neutral flag point.

All successes in battles for the territory bring points of honor, which can be invested in pumping the level of nobility of the player - so he goes from a commoner to a prince, which gives various nice bonuses. You can also get ranks in guilds.

Myth of Empires game is very beautiful and picturesque, and the world, as we have already said, is huge - realistic cycles of day and night, various landscapes, rich ecology and different cultures are realized here. And words about huge are not an exaggeration. To get on foot from one end of the map to the other you will need at least 2 hours of real time. And besides, the world is divided between many servers.

However, it often caused optimization and performance issues. In addition, Myth of Empires doesn't have, shall we say, the most comfortable combat system. It relies on realism and partly resembles such games as Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Mount&Blade and For Honor - here you can strike from different sides. However, the process of striking itself is not very convenient and obvious.

All this may cause some inconvenience, but the authors regularly improve the optimization with patches. And as for the combat system, Myth of Empires is not only focused on action, there is a lot of different possibilities, including in peaceful life. For example, the guild system is organized in such a way that almost 70% of all activity and success depends on the work of craftsmen and those who are responsible for the economy and supply.

So in general, the above problems do not prevent you from enjoying the game. The same can be said about donation - it is there, but unobtrusive, mostly currency and "cosmetics" are purchased for money.

Myth of Empires is a unique game in many ways. It is both a detailed survival simulator with an advanced system of crafting and upgrading and a simulator of creating your own empire. The game has passed a difficult way of development and formation, but now it is fully available, which allows it to actively develop - regular updates are released, events and new civilizations are added (recently, for example, the Persian one appeared). So if you are inclined to experiment and don't mind building a corner of Ancient Greece or Persia in Ancient China, you should definitely try Myth of Empires.

Zarium. September 2024