14 DAY TRIAL // Until recently, Petroglyph, which has some veterans of the now gone Westwood Studio, had only been developing strategy titles. Star Wars: Empire at War and its Forces of Corruption expansion were fun even though the tactical battles lacked depth and the overall strategic layer was somewhat repetitive. Universe at War: Earth Assault was a nice concept, with the hulking robots of the Hierarchy being very well designed, but the game failed to attract a significant following.
Now, the developer is focusing its resources on creating a massive multiplayer online game, called Mytheon, that will use the Greek mythology as a base to build an engaging experience which, as Petroglyph puts it, “uniquely combines the best elements of action, strategy and RPG gameplay with a heavy emphasis on collectability and combat”. True Games, which is controlled by India based UTV Software Communications, will handle publishing duties.
The idea is that the MMO will be free to play to all those who are interested in it and register an account. The only source of income for the developer and the publisher will be microtransactions. Each of the character classes that the game features will be able to specialize in using one type of power stone, which is a magical device used to get more troops and spells. The power stones themselves will have to be purchased by every player in order to boost their power.
The game is set to also feature Player versus Player combat and group raiding. It seems that alongside Greek motifs, the game will also use inspiration from the Egyptian and Norse pantheons, kinda like Age of Mythology did when it offered you a choice of sides. No release date has been announced by Petroglyph, but the safe bet is sometime towards the end of 2009.