LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Myth Problem: Too Scary!

Sir:

I'm having a big problem getting Myth to run properly on my 7600/133. The game starts up fine, but once I start playing it becomes incredibly scary. For the first couple of levels this is a problem, but not a huge one. The townsfolk in these levels cheer me up and scariness is tolerable. If I avoid zooming in on any of the bad guys, and cover my eyes during most of the intro movies, I am still able to play.
But on levels like the one where you have to fight all those wight in the abandoned village Myth becomes terrifying. It's so bad that I need to make sure I've used the washroom before each game. I was just barely able to get through this level.
I am now on Bagrada, and cannot go any further due to extreme scariness. I made the mistake of watching the intro movie, and nearly had a heart attack at its depiction of that big giant thing, (the Trow I think??). It took me three days to get through most of Bagrada, playing nearly 24 hours a day (I couldn't sleep anyway, obviously). An hour ago I got attacked by the Trow for the first time. If I hadn't had my ventilator at hand I think I would be dead right now. When the Trow appeared Myth became intolerably scary. My hands locked up and I lost control of all bodily functions. I could not even look at the screen while the Trow was on it. I had to unplug the computer to escape, since I couldn't find the power key from under the table.
This sucks! I have tried everything, I've set the brightness in the game AND on my monitor to their highest level. I've renamed all my units to the happiest, most reassuring names I could think of. I have an entire army of berserkers named Rosie Odonell, and my dwarves are named Happy and Dopey. The game is still excessivley scary.
My friend has a Pentium 166 and he says there is almost no scariness when he plays. He even has less RAM than me! Could anyone offer suggestions as to how I can make the game less scary, I am thinking of returning it. I certainly hope Bungie fixes this problem in the update.

-- Joseph Hornkorner

(This originally appeared on the alt.games.myth newsgroup on December 4th, 1997.)