Might & Magic X: Legacy Reviews
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Reviews have started coming out for Ubisoft and Limbic Entertainment's Might & Magic X: Legacy, sporting mixed scores and impressions for the old-school grid-based dungeon crawler.
Eurogamer, 7/10.
Might & Magic 10: Legacy feels like a pleasant throwback to dungeon crawls of decades past, but its limited scope and combat-heavy focus might put off those pining for the freedom afforded by the more recent Elder Scrolls games, or the wordy character interaction of a Dragon Age. Nonetheless, for those keen on poring over stats and comparing colour-coded loot, it serves as a modern introduction to those games' precursors, delivers a heady blast of nostalgia, and preserves a little slice of history.
PC Gamer, 73/100.
What gives Legacy its old school charm though is that as much as it's weighed down by an obviously low budget and the mechanical sacrifices of jumping back a decade, there's a love for its style underpinning the action. The result isn't likely to do much for anyone raised on a diet of The Elder Scrolls, and even at its best is a nostalgia trip rather than call for revolution. Even so, for old-school RPG fans as sad as its creators seem to be that nobody makes games like this any more, it's a solid way to relive the good old days.
Strategy Informer, 6.5/10.
Performance on my perfectly decent mid-range PC was frequently poor, even with toned-down graphics settings and plenty of tinkering. This isn't an extraordinarily good-looking game at the best of times, so it was even more troubling when frame rates starting crawling at seemingly random times. Was it enough to ruin my time with the game? No, but it certainly detracted from the experience. Which is a shame, and a mark against the game's long-running Early Access programme, which was meant to filter out these sorts of issues.
These caveats are not minor ones, and it's important that people don't rush into buying the game from blind nostalgia without some idea of its not inconsiderable technical deficiencies. However, I still enjoyed my time with the game, no matter how gleefully it tried to stop me doing so. This is a genre that, Legends of Grimrock aside, you just don't see nowadays, and it's undeniably good to see it making something of a comeback. Exploring ogre caves, elemental temples and naga towers with my intrepid band of badly optimised warriors still somehow managed to be fun, despite the chugging performance and irritation of grid-based overland movement. If you can look past these blemishes there's plenty of fun to be had with Might and Magic X, but it could have done with a lot more polish.
GameReactor EU, 6/10.
For those of us who grew up with Might & Magic there is a certain nostalgic charm to revisiting the old landmarks, but that charm quickly wears off. Much of what made the old games special is missing and it doesn't take long before we become painfully aware of the strings and mechanics that hold the game together.
GamesBeat, 65/100.
Might & Magic X: Legacy certainly did remind me of fun times I had in the past with earlier entries in the series. I even had fun for several hours. But once the nostalgia wore off, it served as a stark indication that many of these design choices should have been left in the past with its predecessors. What good is a fully 3D world when you can't touch or interact with hardly anything? What sense does it make that you can't run away from an encounter in which you're clearly outmatched (or even move once you're in melee rage, for that matter)?
These glaring issues, combined with a general lack of polish, make for an experience that just doesn't live up to my fond memories of Might & Magic. In the case of video games, we have numerous good reasons that they aren't made the same way as we did 20-plus years ago. Sometimes nostalgia just isn't enough to conquer outdated or bad design.
IncGamers, 7/10.
It's the sort of game I can easily damn with faint praise, really, but the upshot is this: I really quite like Might & Magic X. It's a throwback to the big old RPGs of yore the games which weren't afraid to smash your face in if you wandered into a high-level area ill-prepared, and required you to take notes of NPC locations and quest hints (which is something that is genuinely important here). But it's a throwback which offers a bit more help, an intuitive interface, and some graphics that generally look rather lovely. If Might & Magic X sounds at all appealing, or if you went (Oh, I remember doing that twenty years ago) at any point in this review, then I imagine you'll really quite like it too.
GameInformer, 8.25/10.
Might & Magic X: Legacy lives up to the quality of its long-lost predecessors. Despite streamlining and accessibility upgrades, it's not a game for everyone. Turn-based grid walks are a rarity today and the title may feel a bit bizarre to those that never had a chance to experience 90's era Might & Magic fare, but for those that have always wanted a legitimate heir to the classic series, Might & Magic X: Legacy provides.
LazyGamer, 7.5/10.
Might and Magic X: Legacy is an uncompromisingly old school trip into forgotten territories. It's a risky move, but it's one that should attract plenty of gamers who want less new school action and a more cerebral roll of the dice in their RPGs.
