What are the might and magic series like?

De_Priester · Post by **De_Priester** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 12:26 am

Hey there,

I have never played Might and Magic and I am very curious what the games are like? Can anyone give me a description and tell me what game it comes close to?

Twista · Post by **Twista** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 2:08 am

well i have played might and magic from 6 to 9 and i can tell you that it's a great game ... at least 6 , 7 and 8 because i was dissapointed by 9 .... the game is based in the world of heroes of might and magic ... the games are quite old and the graphic might be dissapointing if you really look into it ... the game appealed to me because of it's storyline and gameplay ... 6 7 and 8 have almost the same engine that does not give very much details ... you have a fps look but you have a party of up to 4 ( 5 in 8 ) characters ... you chose their class ( fighter , mage , cleric etc) their atributes ( str dex int etc ) what skills the character can use ( fighters can master most weapons but cannot cast spells ) ... the game is great but i can not tell you to what other game it is simmilar ... i havent seen a game that feels like M&M ( not the very best of games but good if you like the heroes of might and magic world )

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:32 pm

I've played MM1-7.

They all have in common that they are turn-based. Part 1-5 have turnbased combat while you have the option to switch between real-time and turnbased mode in part 6 and 7.
All have in common that there's a vast world to explore.
In all games you start with very weak characters and become more and more powerful while doing quests.

I especially like the first person view which gives you a far more adventurerer-like feeling than the standard top down strategy view games like Baldur's Gate or Diablo use.
I also like the possibility to play turn-based, no hectic clicking as fast as possible, you have time enough to choose the spells or other actions you want to use.

I've yet to find a crpg which is as enjoyable as might and magic 3-7 were for me. (And I played many.)

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:58 pm

Twista wrote:well i have played might and magic from 6 to 9 and i can tell you that it's a great game ... at least 6 , 7 and 8 because i was dissapointed by 9 .... the game is based in the world of heroes of might and magic ... the games are quite old and the graphic might be dissapointing if you really look into it ... the game appealed to me because of it's storyline and gameplay ... 6 7 and 8 have almost the same engine that does not give very much details ... you have a fps look but you have a party of up to 4 ( 5 in 8 ) characters ... you chose their class ( fighter , mage , cleric etc) their atributes ( str dex int etc ) what skills the character can use ( fighters can master most weapons but cannot cast spells ) ... the game is great but i can not tell you to what other game it is simmilar ... i havent seen a game that feels like M&M ( not the very best of games but good if you like the heroes of might and magic world )

Pretty good description Twista, except you put the cart before the horse. Heroes was a spin-off of Might & Magic, not the other way around.

I've played M&M from 2 through to 9, and when they came out they were the bees knees IMO, obviously they look to be somewhat dated now, and I couldn't recommend 1 through 5 anymore, but 6-8 still provide good gameplay IMO. OK the graphics aren't what we've become used to, but personally I think too much emphasis has been put on prettiness at the expence of gameplay in recent years, Oblivion is a prime example. It looks nicer than Morrowind, but has much poorer gameplay IMO. So if you like party based RPG's and want some hours of simple fun, they're worth a try. Not too sure about M&M 9 though, it was an OK game, but another victim of style over content, and forced onto the market before it was finished.

Seltzer · Post by **Seltzer** » Sun May 13, 2007 3:06 am

I've played Heroes 2 and 3 to death.

I played MM7 a fair bit but gave up when I lost the CD image. Also, I had problems with aging too quickly in the game and losing stat points because of it. If anyone can offer a solution to this problem, I'm all ears.

I bought MM8, but haven't played it much.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Sun May 13, 2007 5:55 am

I didn't have problems with aging in MM7. Just take care of your time.
Resting takes only 8 hours, so if you only rest when it is neccessary this shouldn't take too much time.
Don't take long overland travels without a reason, you can hire NPCs which reduce your travelling time.
An explorer reduces all travel times by 1 day while others can reduce overland travel by up to three days for example.
It's also very useful to build a grandmaster in water magic because spells like town portal and bacon can reduce travel time to zero.

But even if your party gets reduced stats because of aging this shouldn't be a problem, you should have boosted up your stats enough during the game that it doesn't matter too much. While early on 2 stat points make a +1 difference you need extra 25 after reaching 50 for the same effect. The difference between 50 and 75 isn't bigger than the difference between 13 and 15.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun May 13, 2007 7:19 am

Seltzer wrote:I played MM7 a fair bit but gave up when I lost the CD image. Also, I had problems with aging too quickly in the game and losing stat points because of it. If anyone can offer a solution to this problem, I'm all ears.

Black Potion of Rejuvenation. Your Sorc can make them after grandmastering in alchemy. And surely, if you "lost" the CD image, it's just a matter of reinstalling the title.

The M&M series can be divided neatly in two. Games 1-5 were completely turn-based. If you didn't move or take any other action, time stopped. Games 6-9 were real/turn hybrids. Time passed in "real" gametime, unless you hit ENTER, causing it to move to turn-based. You'd want to do the latter whenever there was combat oni the horizon, because you were usually attacked by more than one (and occasionally, many) monsters. When taking a turn, each of your party members had its own shot at attacking with melee or ranged weapons, or using spells or scrolls. They could not move separately, being effectively all in one spot. Order and frequency of attack in turn-based mode were affected by such matters as weapon speed, a character's speed attribute, and what spells (if any) were active.

Game difficulty decreased from M&M I through until IV and V (which can be played separately, or fit together--more or less--as a single title). Again, M&M VI was noticeably more difficult (and boring) than VII and VIII.

M&M 9 was very different from the rest. It was the only one in the series not made by the New World Computing team. Trip Hawkins, CEO of 3DO, purchased NWC in exchange from a sum of money and a degree of development autonomy. Hawkins forced M&M8 out early because he wanted the revenues for his ailing company (3DO was not doing well by that time), and when it wasn't the cash cow he was counting on, he took away the development of M&M9 and gave it to a team of developers that had never released anything, before. I suspect he figured that would save money, but he was wrong, and M&M9 was panned for getting wrong so much of what M&M had previously gotten right.

Not that the M&M series lacked for problems of its own. The same game elements were getting tired from being shuffled and reused in successive titles, and innovation was very slow. The engine looked old, which made some image-obsessed DOOM-playing reviewers cry. And combat AI was limited to some enemies moving away if they lost a ton of hitpoints. There was no finesse, in other words. They attacked, and that's all.

But the answer should have been focus groups with players, to find new ideas for development. Still, that was never Hawkins' method of management. After all, he was one of the people who previously ran Electronic Arts. The idea was to buy a company doing well with high expectations, fire all their staff when those expectations weren't met, and use the assets as needed by cheap inside labor to make further cash cows--like the current Ultima Online, the only piece left alive of what was once Oriign Systems.

There's still a lot of fun to be had with the M&M series. I'd recommend M&M III, their first big hit, and M&M VII and VIII, which avoid some of the worst failings of the later titles (repetitive dungeons, endless chains of high damage monsters towards the end).

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Sun May 13, 2007 12:56 pm

I'd recommend the Swords of Xeen game before playing MM3 thru MM5. SoX is the most forgettable, mostly due to being a fan-developed game and it's plagued with some bugs and poor design.

I believe the older M&M games were the better ones than the modern versions that ran in Windows. Time is important in MM3, with specific dates being only available for certain areas. Worlds of Xeen(combo of Clouds and Darkside of Xeen) is the most epic and longest of the older M&M games that I've played, but it has the most memorable monster opponent and one of the best RPG endings of all time in my opinion. MM3 thru MM5 are still playing thru the DosBox program, but I'd highly recommend that you obtain the CVS version of DosBox for improved sound at: DOSBox Daum Cafe

Of the Windows M&M games, I've played and enjoyed MM8 the most. Fable is correct when he says that MM6 is boring. The game is far too long with drawn-out quests and needed character development to survive. That explains why I finished it once or twice.

P.S. - MM6 does have the best music track of MM6 thru MM9 in my opinion.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Thu May 17, 2007 10:07 am

Post deleted. This thread is for opinions of the game and for giving other members information on what the games are like. Any questions related to problems that you are experiencing in your current game, or assistance needed, should be in a thread of their own (after searching the database first in order to check that such a thread does not already exist).

Thank you.