I’m old. And that means I grew up watching cartoons that sound and look exactly like Mythforce. I haven’t really seen another video game attempt that same aesthetic, and Mythforce nails it. Hands down. I think the only thing it’s missing is a muscular shirtless dude and probably more big cats or something. But despite being tonally spot on, it’s a bad game.
Mythforce is a first person roguelite action game with an emphasis on cooperative gameplay. Team up in groups of four to take on rooms full of exploding plants, skeletons, living mushrooms and more as you kick ass to a pseudo 80’s soundtrack. You can choose between some pretty basic hero archetypes like a rogue, hunter, mage and a paladin-like knight. I mean, it’s based on the classics, so you have to use the classics, right? Each of the four classes has their own weapons, set of skills, etc. It all just sounds so fantastic on paper. But it falls apart once you start to play.
There are so many things that went wrong with Mythforce it might seem like this review is unfair. Hell, I even read some of the Steam user reviews and thought to myself, “this looks great. Really! How bad could it be?” After all, games like Warhammer 40,000: Darktide sit with a mixed review score, even though the combat in that game feels fantastic. Mythforce, however, did not have the same care put into its combat systems. They’re not bad, and I’ve certainly played worse–but that’s never a great endorsement. Nothing feels impactful, even when there’s an amazing amount of effects on the screen.
Honestly, if the only problem was with the combat, I could still recommend Mythforce. But I have issues with the enemies, the levels, and even the gameplay loop itself.
The enemies in Mythforce, though designed to fit into the 80’s cartoon aesthetic, are mostly terrible. The enemy AI seems very dumb, with enemies charging at you. Thankfully there are some ranged enemies that stay back and change up the pacing a bit.
The levels themselves are also horrible. Its just room after room of stone and plants. Most of the time the layout of the room doesn’t even matter, because enemies will coming streaming at you, to their death, one after the other.
Another issue I have with Mythforce is its very gameplay loop. Thematically it makes no sense to put these heroes into a “die and repeat” type loop. I didn’t grow up watching my heroes fail week after week. I was watching their nemesis make an ass out of themselves as they threw themselves at the stalwart heroes on the screen. Any wound they suffered (if at all) was temporary, and hardly a setback. If anything, playing as a villain in a Saturday morning cartoon would feel way more
appropriate.
What I’m saying is: Mythforce looks great, sounds great, but is very bad. It’s not Early Access, so I can only hope that its developers make some substantial changes to bring it up to its potential. Either that, or someone should totally rip off this art style and do the concept justice. Mythforce just ain’t it.
Mythforce is available now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, Xbox One X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4/5.
Steam keys were provided to us for this review.
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