The gods of Greek mythology have something of a stronghold on the indie game scene, especially compared to other divine beings. Whether it’s the gorgeous and summery vibes of Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island or the genre-defining roguelike goodness that has been both of the Hades games, there seems to be something pulling us back towards these very fallible gods time and again. Completing that collection now is Mythmatch, an incredibly fun, anti-capitalist merge game in which you play as Artemis, daughter of Zeus, who has been training for a role as goddess since birth. Only, getting recognised as one seems to be a lot harder on Olympus than expected.
We catch up with Artemis at the start of the game as she shows off her newest trick: by using her bow and arrow to pull items together, she can merge them into new things. Sounds pretty divine, right? Not so much to Hermes, who seems to hold a lot of sway in the land of the gods. While your brother Apollo, who has mostly been skipping his training in favour of being lazy, is immediately appointed a new godly role, you get sucked into once again proving that you are worthy. To do so, you are sent to the lands of the mortals, more specifically, the small town of Ithaca.
Ithaca is inhabited by only women and children at the moment, as their husbands and fathers are taking their sweet time returning from the Trojan War. It’s here that Artemis starts to realise how the extravagant lives of the gods negatively impact those of the mortals who worship them. While the humans offer up wares that they very much need themselves, the gods do not even care one bit, instead using that belief to create an even more lavish lifestyle for themselves.
And while Artemis still wants to become the Goddess of Hunt, she clearly doesn’t view humans in the same way as her kin. Instead, she starts helping the people of Ithaca by using her merging powers for the betterment of the town. The merging gameplay is fun, as it’s a completely different take on match-3 games: you walk around town collecting items, and when you put 3 of them close to each other, they will evolve into something (usually) better. These new items can then be delivered for the plethora of fetch quests. Mythmatch has going on, and they can be merged once again to evolve even more.
This creates a rich tapestry of keeping up with all of the materials you need to actually get the items needed to continue the story. Luckily, there’s a menu where you can find all of the items that you’ve already discovered, so you don’t need to keep score of everything. Things are made easier as well when the town gets a notice board, allowing you to prioritise certain quests over others. This will lead villagers to give you more of the materials you need for whatever quest you feel is more important at the moment.
Helping the town is what you do during the daytime, but at night, you have the opportunity to fly back to Olympus and gain some favour with four of the gods. They each present a new challenge based on the merging gameplay of the main game, and these minigames can offer quite a bit more difficulty. You can use the belief of your followers to buy upgrades that will help you get a better score, while in turn doing well at these will get you certain effects to aid you during your daytime chores.
Now, to be completely honest, I barely played these minigames. Since they were a bit more difficult than the base game, I struggled with them, not even enjoying the majority of them at all. But also, I felt it suited Artemis’ narrative to want to spend more time with the humans who actually accepted her, rather than with the gods who only belittled her in incredibly sexist ways. And, to be fair, I hardly felt like I was missing out on any special effects. I’m sure my daytime activities could have gone a bit smoother maybe, but I didn’t feel I missed out at all.
Because the actual building of the community in Ithaca is incredibly fun. There’s a devilishly moreish feeling to the game, with everything you do bringing you one step closer to completing something else, and then another quest activates and you want to do that one as well, and so on. It helps that everyone you meet is charming in their own way, and the animation is some of my favourite from the last couple of years. The art style pays tribute to classical Greek mythology while also feeling very modern and refreshing and simply bursts with character.
It’s amazing to see how Mythmatch takes something as simple as merging gameplay and classical mythological tales and updates both into something so vibrant. I’m sure the game will get its bunch of hate for being woke because it’s about women’s struggles while also being about them working together to achieve greater things, but let’s ignore those comments, as giving this game a miss would be a big loss. It was one of my absolute highlights of the past Steam Next Fest, and the full release has only affirmed my feelings for what could be one of my favourite games of the year.
