This next review is also an old one of mine this time it encapsulates my feelings on the death of the Might and Magic series. The actual role playing series not the Heroes series, although in my opinion that was dead the minute it came out, sorta. So without further ado, enjoy!
Might and magic, A long running RPG series that I hold close to my heart. Oh sure Dark Messiah of Might and Magic may very well be the tenth installment in the series, but it doesn't actually have the number ten in the title, and seeing as how many different "...of Might and Magic's" there are I'm going to ignore it for this reviews sake.(or will I?)
Before I begin what will no doubt be an exciting tale, full of wonder, fantastic spelling and unbridled brilliance, that will without a second thought reduce your manly(or womanly) frame, to that of a child who weeps tears of joy, your very essence bubbling to the brim with mirth and gaiety, we shall look at the other games in the series.
Might and Magic.
Truly has there never been a game I have played quite like this. Well... To be honest, I wouldn't really know, the games visuals are atrocious and the chipper PC speaker theme music can and will rupture your ear drums, set off nearby car alarms and shatter windows three blocks away. "But Frank, you manly piece of biologically enhanced cyborg meat you," I hear myself think, "It was made a long time ago and such flaws can and should be ignored." Yes I shout at my internal monologue, this is a game that predates even my desire for that touch of nostalgia and as such refuse to comment beyond this statement.
Might and Magic 2.
Slightly better looking than the first game and the music is just as irritating. Once again, No comment.
Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra
No comment.(Gee, what fun we're having!)
Might and Magic 4: Clouds of Xeen
Whew, finally a game I can actually comment on. Its fun and its wacky and it's worth a play. The music whilst not irritating anymore is a little silly, or at least, I thought so. The first time I played this the cut scenes were a tad to fast and Lords Xeens' evil Laughter animation had me in stitches.
Might and Magic 5: Darkside of Xeen
Musics much better. An on the whole different feel to the land of Xeen, but more darker. One of my favorites.
Might and Magic 4 and 5: World of Xeen
That's right, buy both games and they slap together perfectly! You get a third game, once you finish both and you then travel between both games doing various this and that until you get the final ending that I must say I enjoyed reaching.
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven
This game appears to be the most acclaimed in the series, why? I haven't the slightest clue. Its big, I'll give it that. Its hard, really, really hard. But short of massacring the local towns people its difficult to call this game fun.
Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor
Here's a good one. Get a castle and totally rule. That basically the plot outline. Its fun. Its has a moral dilemma in it, sorta. Its challenging but not fucking insanely so like its prequel and you'll want to play it at least twice in your life, if only to see what happens to the good guys and the bad guys. I expect more gray areas from my moral dilemmas these days but it was good to see a game that actually let you affect the overall outcome of the story for once.
Might and Magic 8: The something, something, something
More or less MM7 but with more atmosphere, but its not pretty enough for you to give a flying fuck about that. But the key thing to remember about this once is that it gets real easy real fast. Far too easy. But its passable.
Now I come to the last game. Dum dum dum!
Might and Magic 9
My first impression, and I'm not the only one who thinks it is this, What a piece of shit! Ok now this game was released in 2002, and yet it looks like it was made in 1996. The story is just ground breaking. You be, some...uhh People and you go on a boat ride because.....er your town is populated by two people...aand you decide, at the behest of some old bat in a hut, that you are the chosen ones and you will save world.
The NPC's are ugly, the monsters too easy or too hard, swimming is of no consequence but you can do it anyway. The terrain is crap, the cities are crap, the game is crap! crap! crap! crap! Your skill trainers are a rag tag bunch with feeble old women teaching you the finer points of wearing plate mail. The spells, compared to the spells in the other series are shite. They removed the fly spell! The spell that lets you fly! Why would they commit such an atrocity?! It honestly looks as though the entire team of developers, New World Computing, haven't seen another game, or even left the house since they first began the company.
Although upon reflection I'm not all that surprised at the games quality. If you look at any game released by the publishing company 3DO and you'll notice a rapid decline in the quality of their games as you play through them. Crusader of Might and Magic was terrible. Its overall look was so bad, it look like they made one attempt, went "Yeah, that'll do" and went back to their miserable lives. Legends of Might and Magic is a CTS clone and a bad one at that, Army Men Sarges Heroes reaches a pinnacle in gaming excellence that all you really need to do to win is shoot the enemy at a funny angle and they won't even care. Also, if your observant enough, you can see that all of the Models are just Sarge, re sized and recolored at your convenience. Laziness I say!
Anyway I've gotten off topic, but then what else is there left to say really? You reach a point in MM9 when you cannot proceed any further because some people are supposed to assemble after a week and they don't assemble. I'm sure there's a patch to fix this problem somewhere on the internet. But lets face it. All the patches in the world haven't the power to make this game any more enjoyable than having a live Tesla coil jammed into your arse.
...and they've put Dark Messiah of Might and Magic on Steam! Bah!(I didn't have the net on my computer at the time I wrote this review.)
In short, don't buy it, unless like me, you really, really want too. But even then, you'd be better off just stealing it, to prevent anyone turning in a profit.
I'd like to point out that I recently obtained Dark Messiah and enjoyed it thoroughly, although it tends to get far too easy later on. But is it a sequel? More importantly is it good enough to resurrect the series? I'd say no.
Might and magic, A long running RPG series that I hold close to my heart. Oh sure Dark Messiah of Might and Magic may very well be the tenth installment in the series, but it doesn't actually have the number ten in the title, and seeing as how many different "...of Might and Magic's" there are I'm going to ignore it for this reviews sake.(or will I?)
Before I begin what will no doubt be an exciting tale, full of wonder, fantastic spelling and unbridled brilliance, that will without a second thought reduce your manly(or womanly) frame, to that of a child who weeps tears of joy, your very essence bubbling to the brim with mirth and gaiety, we shall look at the other games in the series.
Might and Magic.
Truly has there never been a game I have played quite like this. Well... To be honest, I wouldn't really know, the games visuals are atrocious and the chipper PC speaker theme music can and will rupture your ear drums, set off nearby car alarms and shatter windows three blocks away. "But Frank, you manly piece of biologically enhanced cyborg meat you," I hear myself think, "It was made a long time ago and such flaws can and should be ignored." Yes I shout at my internal monologue, this is a game that predates even my desire for that touch of nostalgia and as such refuse to comment beyond this statement.
Might and Magic 2.
Slightly better looking than the first game and the music is just as irritating. Once again, No comment.
Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra
No comment.(Gee, what fun we're having!)
Might and Magic 4: Clouds of Xeen
Whew, finally a game I can actually comment on. Its fun and its wacky and it's worth a play. The music whilst not irritating anymore is a little silly, or at least, I thought so. The first time I played this the cut scenes were a tad to fast and Lords Xeens' evil Laughter animation had me in stitches.
Might and Magic 5: Darkside of Xeen
Musics much better. An on the whole different feel to the land of Xeen, but more darker. One of my favorites.
Might and Magic 4 and 5: World of Xeen
That's right, buy both games and they slap together perfectly! You get a third game, once you finish both and you then travel between both games doing various this and that until you get the final ending that I must say I enjoyed reaching.
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven
This game appears to be the most acclaimed in the series, why? I haven't the slightest clue. Its big, I'll give it that. Its hard, really, really hard. But short of massacring the local towns people its difficult to call this game fun.
Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor
Here's a good one. Get a castle and totally rule. That basically the plot outline. Its fun. Its has a moral dilemma in it, sorta. Its challenging but not fucking insanely so like its prequel and you'll want to play it at least twice in your life, if only to see what happens to the good guys and the bad guys. I expect more gray areas from my moral dilemmas these days but it was good to see a game that actually let you affect the overall outcome of the story for once.
Might and Magic 8: The something, something, something
More or less MM7 but with more atmosphere, but its not pretty enough for you to give a flying fuck about that. But the key thing to remember about this once is that it gets real easy real fast. Far too easy. But its passable.
Now I come to the last game. Dum dum dum!
Might and Magic 9
My first impression, and I'm not the only one who thinks it is this, What a piece of shit! Ok now this game was released in 2002, and yet it looks like it was made in 1996. The story is just ground breaking. You be, some...uhh People and you go on a boat ride because.....er your town is populated by two people...aand you decide, at the behest of some old bat in a hut, that you are the chosen ones and you will save world.
The NPC's are ugly, the monsters too easy or too hard, swimming is of no consequence but you can do it anyway. The terrain is crap, the cities are crap, the game is crap! crap! crap! crap! Your skill trainers are a rag tag bunch with feeble old women teaching you the finer points of wearing plate mail. The spells, compared to the spells in the other series are shite. They removed the fly spell! The spell that lets you fly! Why would they commit such an atrocity?! It honestly looks as though the entire team of developers, New World Computing, haven't seen another game, or even left the house since they first began the company.
Although upon reflection I'm not all that surprised at the games quality. If you look at any game released by the publishing company 3DO and you'll notice a rapid decline in the quality of their games as you play through them. Crusader of Might and Magic was terrible. Its overall look was so bad, it look like they made one attempt, went "Yeah, that'll do" and went back to their miserable lives. Legends of Might and Magic is a CTS clone and a bad one at that, Army Men Sarges Heroes reaches a pinnacle in gaming excellence that all you really need to do to win is shoot the enemy at a funny angle and they won't even care. Also, if your observant enough, you can see that all of the Models are just Sarge, re sized and recolored at your convenience. Laziness I say!
Anyway I've gotten off topic, but then what else is there left to say really? You reach a point in MM9 when you cannot proceed any further because some people are supposed to assemble after a week and they don't assemble. I'm sure there's a patch to fix this problem somewhere on the internet. But lets face it. All the patches in the world haven't the power to make this game any more enjoyable than having a live Tesla coil jammed into your arse.
...and they've put Dark Messiah of Might and Magic on Steam! Bah!(I didn't have the net on my computer at the time I wrote this review.)
In short, don't buy it, unless like me, you really, really want too. But even then, you'd be better off just stealing it, to prevent anyone turning in a profit.
I'd like to point out that I recently obtained Dark Messiah and enjoyed it thoroughly, although it tends to get far too easy later on. But is it a sequel? More importantly is it good enough to resurrect the series? I'd say no.