- May 15, 2021
- 1,601
- 3,643
After more than a year, the final chapter of Mythos: Book One is out!
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Recommending Story-first games
- Thread starter jufot
- Start date
Even though the ride is over I'm still calling you jufot nelson
- Nov 20, 2018
- 281
- 358
So I finished Mythos, after last having played it back when it was only 3 episodes.
I... can't quite say it met my expectations. The writing is the same as it has been, but the whole story sort of gave me this "promo issue for a series" thing, sort of like a comic book where there's just a lot of hits, winks and nudges towards larger things in universe, but not much *actually* happens plot wise and none of the characters have any meaningful development (that I noticed). Episodes 1-2 are setup, episode 3-4 is just bumbling about with a twist that uproots the entire plot and 5 is 90% fake endings.
And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me for 2 reasons - it was a colossal waste of time (but that's really up to dev on what they spend it on) and more importantly, I didn't see *any* indication of the guilt of the actual culprit, to the point I skipped almost 1/3 of the ending thinking it was another fake one. It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride. Adding the dart toss option felt somewhat like lampshading the quality of writing where none of the options there really made sense.
So, it works as a setup for a better story in the world, but I do wish book 2 gets some *actual* plot and character conflict and development that isn't off-screen.
I... can't quite say it met my expectations. The writing is the same as it has been, but the whole story sort of gave me this "promo issue for a series" thing, sort of like a comic book where there's just a lot of hits, winks and nudges towards larger things in universe, but not much *actually* happens plot wise and none of the characters have any meaningful development (that I noticed). Episodes 1-2 are setup, episode 3-4 is just bumbling about with a twist that uproots the entire plot and 5 is 90% fake endings.
And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me for 2 reasons - it was a colossal waste of time (but that's really up to dev on what they spend it on) and more importantly, I didn't see *any* indication of the guilt of the actual culprit, to the point I skipped almost 1/3 of the ending thinking it was another fake one. It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride. Adding the dart toss option felt somewhat like lampshading the quality of writing where none of the options there really made sense.
So, it works as a setup for a better story in the world, but I do wish book 2 gets some *actual* plot and character conflict and development that isn't off-screen.
- Nov 24, 2018
- 1,078
- 5,322
I haven't played Mythos, so I don't have a horse in this race. But this line makes me think of Agatha Christie, who was infamous for writing Mysteries that you couldn't solve because she gave her detective critical information that you didn't get.
Tlaero
- Nov 20, 2018
- 281
- 358
Yeah I totally see what you're saying, but in this case it wasn't even that characters had some kind of information that the player didn't have, it was more like they just made a wild guess and it just happened to be correct. Or rather, you're presented with more than 10 options and eventually you whittle it down to the correct one.
A lot of the details that the game gives you end up being nothing but fluff exposition and there's nothing that I noticed that can be considered as a conclusive *hint* in favour of villain being who they are. (Overall worldbuilding is great though. It's a game that's worth checking out imo)
I would be completely fine with having a guess at the villain and finding out I was wrong, but it was more like nobody had any motive or reason that wasn't extremely far fetched or equally unlikely.
Also I don't think it's quite fair to compare books and interactive fiction in that regard. A very infamous example of egregious misdirect that comes to my mind when dealing with mystery in interactive fiction is "Heavy Rain", a "Saw" like kindapping story where you literally control the serial killer and can see his thoughts yet somehow they appear completely normal to you just to avoid spoiling the plot sooner.
- Feb 11, 2018
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While I am a lot more positive than you are when it comes to ther earlier episodes (I still believe Mythos stands out as a quality product), i was also disappointed with the endings. Throwing in a bunch of fake endings made it feel like it wasn't real. "Didn't like this ending? Try that one!" It's breaking the fourth wall in a way that removes my emotional connection to the characters in the story.
Going Agatha Christie on us, with a solution that we couldn't have known as readers, was no issue to me, though. I'm fine with Mr Poirot explaining the murder to me, as long as the journey up to that point has been enjoyable.