Staff Writer Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland gets his hands dirty in this Diablo-esque free-to-play hack 'n' slash MMO.

Combat, however, did seem very polished. My Pyromancer lit up all the enemies that ran at me and, as I stepped into dungeons, boy were there a lot! The dungeons also seemed to be random. Around level 7 or so I entered one dungeon and was immediately swarmed by beetles that appeared to have fire resistance and a taste for satyr flesh. I died within several seconds, right at the foot of the dungeon. Death seemed to hold no penalty as I revived outside the dungeon portal and could immediately zone in... which I did, and was promptly killed again. And again. And again. Finally I gave up, went off to do more quests, and came back in a couple of levels to find the dungeon had changed to a much more forgiving layout without the super-beetles waiting for me right at the door.

As mentioned I chose the Flamecaster tree, which is primarily long-range. This meant that I would draw some enemies toward me, launch a fireball, run backwards a few steps, launch another fire ball, and ran back again, repeating until the enemies fell over. Without any healing skills, I relied on the relatively cheap potions from NPC vendors to heal myself (potion timers were around 10 seconds, which was amazingly useful). I ended up killing three named enemies for quests in this fashion. The last enemy was a vampire with several stages consisting of different abilities. I kited him around a room for 10 minutes whittling away at his HP until I finally won. And it figures; he dropped nothing useful.

Gear that is dropped is usually marked “unidentified,” but can be appraised using an "Identify Charm" bought from vendors. Stats can vary wildly. I had some equipment with spell damage, some with base stats, others with movement speed and others that improved certain spells. There was a ton of selection, which I really appreciated. And unused equipment could be broken down into components for crafting (assuming I figured out how to make crafting work for me) or sold to vendors (as most of it was bound to my character).

Overall, Mythos is a very interesting take on the traditional MMO genre. The action is much quicker-paced than other games such as World of Warcraft or Rift, and frequently involved dealing with dozens of weak enemies at a time or in a row. The random dungeons may appeal to some explorers, although they can also seem repetitive.

It is worth noting that the graphics weren't bad at all – the style of animation was very cartoony, but bright and displayed in two different viewpoints: either action or MMO classic views. The point systems for skills, crafting and attributes allow for creating your own unique character, making for a good bit of individuality.

The quest dialogue needs a good translator to clean it up, the help options need clarity or a search bar, and crafting needs to properly display errors; but hopefully these issues will be fixed while in beta. What Mythos does bring to the table is a hack 'n' slash game that combines traditional dungeon-diving with the experience of an online community, and it definitely stands out as a notable difference in the MMO landscape. I'm looking forward to seeing how Frogster's release plays once it's live!

The open beta for Mythos Europe kicks off on April 12. The game officially launches on April 28, but players will be able to purchase a retail box version for £9.99 that grants them a two-day head start on April 26.