Anyone played Mythos? I am looking at the manual and it looks like Diablo 2. In term of items mechanic, battle, all the way to "hireling" that can tag along with you. I probably won't get to play today, so, I'd like to hear others' impression on this game.

you mean the ultra cool Unreal Mod Mythos?

I've been playing Mythos beta. I'll copy below some highlights of what I wrote to the developers as my impressions:

For those who don't know about Mythos, read my posts in the following thread:
http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=5186

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Good points:
What you changed/improved from Diablo II are 1) graphics obviously, they are beautiful, 2) town system where players can interact, can form a group more dynamically, and can feel that there really is a single coherent world although actual gameplay outside town is instance-based, 3) crafting (not yet implemented in beta but it's coming), 4) teleport players to various instances as long as they have maps hence no hassle of traveling (like GuildWars I suppose), 5) quick and easy looting, 6) a new skill system and the concept of race. These are good points.

The art style is more anime-ish than Diablo II and it seems the team is aiming for capturing the Asian market as well as Western. This observation is also supported by your plan to adopt an item-fee system (which is common among Asian gamers) instead of monthly fee. I think this is a good direction for obtaining a larger install base.

Criticisms/Suggestions
Overall, however, this game isn't cutting, at least at this stage. To put it succinctly, Mythos is "too much Diablo" and lacks new innovative game mechanics to compete in the game market of 2007/2008. Here're some points:

1) The conventional 3skilltrees-per-class structure isn't bad but is old. Although each specific skill seems marginally interesting, the whole skill structure is neither new nor very exciting. For players, it feels like another copy of Diablo II/WoW. You need to add something radically new for skill mechanics to attract players. Something innovative just like you did with "Synergy" in D2.

2) The lack of PvP mechanics. It's coming in future, I suppose.

3) The interface is sub-par by today's standard. It's inherited various not-so-friendly interface designs from Diablo II. E.g. Mobs' HP and your HP bars are located apart on screen making your eyes run across display. Chat windows and other parts are not resizable/movable/customizable. No combat scrolling texts making users less aware of their damage, which isn't fun because you want to know how much DPS you got. The lack of combat scrolling texts also means there's no description of damage from mobs. It's just sub-par. Make the interface open and let users freely develop and add interface addons for further customization, OR you need to add a lot of features to make the interface compatible with other top-notch RPGs today.

4) A majority of the game details is just a copy of Diablo II -- heavy use of potion, hp/mp generation mechanics, item identification, portal, inventory management. It just doesn't offer innovation. Take potions. Just like Diablo, having virtually no cooldown on potions makes the whole game too much dependent on potions. It's still about "drink pots them while clicking mobs, then you're alright". You need to provide new values and interesting twists to each of these mechanics.

5) Still a lot of lag in city. Better but still.

6) If you look beyond cosmetic facade, instances/quests are more or less all the same, they look the same, play like the same, objectives are essentially the same. Pretty linear, static, and repetitive. Outdoor/indoor environment, objectives (which aren't interesting thus nobody really cares), instance structures, and everything else lack variations. After doing 10 instances, players will feel bored.

7) No good storyline. No good characters. Develop legend, heroes, rumors, invasions, wars, revenge, love, god, tricksters, masterminds.

8) There is NO incentive to play the game other than ITEMS. Item-driven gameplay itself is not bad, but the problem is it's currently the only incentive for playing the game.

9) More fundamentally, there's no incentive to become stronger. Why do players want to work hard to become stronger? Give them some reasons to keep playing E.g. recognition, competition, story development, new contents exclusive to elite players, special pets, trophies, etc.

10) Let players inspect other players equipment.

11) The lack of incentives for players to interact besides forming a group. No centralized trading system like auction house. No crafting system to induce players to coordinate. The interaction among players is not fully meshed well into the game mechanics. In the city, they are just running around minding their own business when they're not doing LFG. You need to structure various incentives to communicate other than LFG.

12) Fighting is too simplistic. It's just clicking and ... right clicking. Not enough complexity in fighting. Currently there really is no need for strategy or precise team coordination. There's no need for complex strategy to defeat bosses. It's just too simplistic.

Fast paced is good, but this overwhelming simplicity makes every boss/mob fights all the same and takes away excitement. With the current overly simplistic clicking system, there's really no need to form a guild and to communicate with other players for devising strategy to defeat difficult instances. Thus, this is related with the issue of communication.

Make bosses and certain mobs require good preparations outside the instance (e.g. require certain resistance items) and reasonably complex strategy that require good pulling, positioning, flexibility, quick adaptation, certain builds of skill tree, a good level of coordination among party members. Clicking mindlessly is just not enough for a lot of us.

13) Let characters jump. Simple jumping adds tons of fun value.

14) Let users show off skills/attacks even in city. This interaction enhances the players in-town experience in various ways. I'm too tired to type it here. Please refer to WoW.

it basically is Diablo 2.5.  It's by the original developers at Blizzard North (Diablo, Diablo II).  They're using the game as a stress test for their online component for Hellgate: London.