I Just finished playing Might and Magic - all of them....

The role-playing games (I-X) that started it all and the various spin-offs (including Dark Messiah).
mrPassenger
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I Just finished playing Might and Magic - all of them....

Unread postby mrPassenger » 12 Aug 2008, 14:47

I was going to hold of posting this until I had finished Heroes 5, but I find myself playing less games as I get older,
and even though I'm closer to 'catching up' in the Might and Magic universe, it will likely be some time.

So, I just finished playing Might and Magic. All of them. Both the RPG's and Heroes games (except 5), released for PC in chronological order (of story - not release)
By my calculation, I must have started around 1996. So it took me more than a decade. Granted I wasn't playing
them back to back and tried to fit a life in there (except for some periods of Heroes III where I completely forfeited having
a life).
Anyways, I thought it would record my thoughts on the series, maybe others would enjoy reminiscing

First off, I'm an old school RPG fan, played all the wizardry's, ultimas and bards tales, and dozens of others.
Somehow missed out on the gold box AD&D games, but would safely say I'm a seasoned vet of CRPG's.
Didn't really play strategy games, other than blizzards RTS's.
And I think in the end, Might and Magic is my favorite game franchise of them all.
It has great games, longevity, maybe only really disappointed me a handful of times (MM 9 and Crusaders), and I love the connected (even if loosely) history.


MM1
Well, this was a long time ago, and I didn't record my thoughts at the time, which is now over a decade ago, but here is what I remember.
This game was HARD! The early might and magic games did not hand hold you through the game, so I remember it
was tough to find which game areas were of a difficulty comparable to your party.
North? Damn, Dead, East, nope, dead again. South, ahh, maybe that's doable.
The interface was a bit frustrating (inventory management) - but probably on par for games of that era.
It's also one of those games where I didn't even come close to exploring everything, which is unusual for me.
Also, this was the only MM game I think that required any hand mapping. I have a soft spot for the hours spent with graph paper :)
As for the secret of the inner sanctum...a nice twist to be sure!
A really excellent introduction game to the series. I'm guessing however that not too many people these days have the
patience for it.


MM2
I don't know how many people out there have finished this game, but this is easily the game that took me the most hours
to complete out of any game I've played...ever. Perhaps I just never realized there were ways to progress faster.
(Once your find ways to increase your stats it gets a LOT easier)
I recall spending many many trips just doing the starter dungeon in the main town so that my characters wouldn't get slaughtered
the second they encountered anything else. I think the sheer number of hours I spent on this game have really left an impession on me
and I consider it one of the most memorable.


MM3
To me, MM3 is where the series really started to find itself. I loved the previous two as well, but it seems a lot of the elements
of the series really started to show up here, or at least started to get polished here. And I think this is the game where certain elements
that are later common first appeared. (Was this the first appearance of stat boosting barrels?)
I would say also that the games get a lot easier starting with this one. Specifically the starting game. I just seemed to die a lot
in the first two games of the series when starting out. MM3 gives you a few less options as to where to go when you start - and I think
that's a good thing from a balance point of view. While you are learning the game, you aren't being slaughtered.


MM4 & MM5
For whatever reason, I remember little about 4 and 5, and probably get them confused with each other.
I remember enjoying the series, I thought the duel world to be a pretty cool feature. But I barely remember the plot.
I also played Swords of Xeen, which wasn't memorable at all.


MM6
I remember this game getting a lot of hoopla when it came out, I believe it being part of the late 90's RPG revival, when it seemed like
RPG's were dead. And even though I played it years after it came out, I consider the praise it received well deserved. The story was
decent, the difficulty decent, and I liked that it tied into the larger MM story.
I believe MM6 was the first game to offer the 'real-time' combat. I have mixed feelings about this.
I like it because it greatly speeds things up when you are level 50 and come across some level 2 goblins.
However, I find it makes the game too easy as it is a feature easy to exploit in the later game,
especially once you have the ability to fly.


MM7
Hmmm, same engine? Ok. You did it for MM4/5 and that worked out ok. The game is fun, and fits in with the overall MM story.
I think I would confuse elements of this game with 6, just because they were quite similiar in play, and I played them close together.
I do know that I enjoyed it.


MM8
Same engine again? Now that's just getting ridiculous.
While this game was decent in its own, it loses points for reusing the engine, and not really tying into the MM mythos.
Also, it was a fair bit easier than the others. It was nice to have some interesting class choices to be sure, although
perhaps Dragon is unnecessary (though fun)


MM9
Yikes. MM9 is the freshest in my mind being the most recently played of the RPG's.
You can't begin to talk about this game without first making note of the numerous bugs.
I can play a buggy game and still enjoy it (Daggerfall anyone?). I didn't mind too much that about 1 out of
every 10 times I entered a new area everything froze and I had to reboot my computer. I mean it sucks, but
I can still get by if the game is intriguing enough.
But worse than the occasional crash or missing inventory items, are those bugs that can permanently screw up
a promotion, or even your ability to proceed in the game. These were so worrisome, that I basically was referring
back to walkthroughs after every game session to make sure I didn't permanently break something. Also, the world seemed a
lot smaller, less freedom when trying to go from A to B.

What a disappointment. I felt the potential of the game, but it just never achieved it. I've got the feeling
that one day the programmers were told 'we ship in 2 weeks' and they were stuck doing there best to fix things, but
wound up leaving features out.

Not to be a complete downer, I will talk about things I did like.
The new class/promotion system I thought was pretty cool. I remember being disappointed for the first part of
the game because 2 of my characters had the same paper doll. Then as one became a healer, the other
a scholar there paper doll pics were upgraded. Nice feature.

I will say also, that towards the end of the game, the game began to feel more like a might and magic.
However, it would have been nice to have a stronger tie into the MM mythos. Those little sci fi elements that always
show up in the end game.


Heroes of MM1
Hmmmm, Been a while since I touched this one. Simpler, yet fun. I don't recall having too much
trouble with the scenarios/campaign - except the final map if I recall was quite a challenge.


Heroes of MM2 + expansions
A great game, I think the series found its feet here, and I enjoyed it. It seemed adequately challenging from what I remember
with a solid expansion. I liked the multiple choice paths as well.



Heroes of MM 3
Holy addiction Batman. This series cost me WAY too many hours of my life. I remember my brother having an intervention
once saying I should lay off it for a bit.
I think it took a while before I became good at this series. My initial play style was way too conservative,
leaving me to not venture out until I felt I was maxed out - but meanwhile so was my opponent and they would often take
castles behind me and I would be playing catch up. Later as I improved I found that an aggressive style can make the
maps go by a LOT faster.
Also, I would get completely stuck on a scenario sometimes, leave the game for months, and even a year at one point. Then I'd come back, and 'discover'
a new spell (ie. mass slow) and realize how more strategic those are then my typical direct damage spell routines.


Heroes Chronicles
By the time I got to chronicles, my Homm III skills were better and I zipped through these pretty fast.
Although clearly a cash cow, I really enjoyed the story aspect of these. They seemed a little on the easy side as well, but
that was perhaps intentional. But the story just kept me playing.


Heroes of MM 4
This was the hardest heroes game to get into for me. On first playing, I found it to be a large departure from Heroes 3.
(More so than 3 was from 2) In fact my first campaign I got completely stuck on the second map because I had not spent time
building up more than 1 hero, and they couldn't defeat this one stack. And as many of you probably learned, heroes are KEY to this game.
Anyways, despite a few scenarios that gave me some trouble - I loved many things about this game. An excellent and intriguing skill/class system,
decent art.
Once into it I enjoyed it quite a lot. Biggest downside, as many have said, it just becomes too easy once your heroes are pumped up.
I also really liked how the skill/magic system forced you to employ significantly differant tactics depending on your hero type.
From heroes 3, I had become accustomed to using the same group of favorite spells regardless of campaign or hero. Heroes 4 is great in that you have to
try out new spells and tactics to be successful(ie. Nature campaign - get used to summoning).

Also, Heroes 4 gets some extra points for the story telling. I know some people just skip through the text interludes, but I find that
they greatly increased my enjoyment of the game, and helped me get invested in the characters.
I think the biggest problem is that the game is generally easy, perhaps as suggested by some due to poor AI. In fact in general, it always seemed
that the first scenario in each campaign was the tough one, and after that they were cake walks.
Also, very nice to see Tarnum back for a scenario.

Heroes of MM4 - Gathering Storm
Hmmm, story was kind of weak, though I liked the idea of taking your heroes all into a final campaign.
The get the artifact quests that were potentially interesting turned out to be - kill the hero in the town who is apparently holding the artifact. Boring.
Again like Heroes 4, first scenarios usually difficult, and follow up ones in a campaign were mop ups. There were a few exceptions to this - but again
not overly difficult thanks to poor AI.

Heroes of MM4 - Winds of War
Not bad, I feel like the series is dragging by this point. I struggled with the Might campaign, but got through the other ones pretty quickly.
I liked the idea of all these armies converging on one point for a massive free for all. I chose order on the final map, and chose a really bad strategy (trying to take out
might early - and failed). Once I had explored the map more, it became obvious that my strategy should have been different - as there are some good defensive
positions.




Crusaders of Might and Magic
Worst game ever? Well, no - but it's in the running. Seriously how I played this game through I have no idea.
Really trying to find something nice to say about it. Ummm, it didn't give me cancer. How's that?

Legend of Might and Magic
Sadly - I never could get this to work without it freezing - I'll try this on an old computer one day.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
I put off playing this game for a long time due to reviews - which weren't very positive it seemed. When I finally got around to it
I really enjoyed it. Found it hard at first before I realized how powerful and important the kick is. After that I found the difficulty
to be challenging - but not overly - I focused on magic. The game isn't exactly closely tied to the M&M universe, and the plot
is pretty cliche -but I enjoyed it nevertheless.


And that's about it - I checked out Heroes 5 last night for the first time. So far my only comment is I really wish the mouths
would move on the models when they talk!! Hope some of you enjoyed the walk down memory lane. I'd be interested in any comments or questions.

-mrP

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Kareeah Indaga
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Unread postby Kareeah Indaga » 13 Aug 2008, 01:08

Good to hear you enjoyed most of it. :-D

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PhoenixReborn
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Unread postby PhoenixReborn » 13 Aug 2008, 01:14

Great post from an old-time gamer! Loved it. :hail:

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jeff4815
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Unread postby jeff4815 » 13 Aug 2008, 03:00

You're lucky to have been able to play all of them. I still want to be able to play the old ones from start to finish.
And there was much rejoicing...
"You want a piece of me?!"
Ithilgore trying to Identify a Dragon: "Haven't seen one before..."

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darknessfood
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Unread postby darknessfood » 13 Aug 2008, 03:18

The IX part was kinda dissapointing me. How can you not like that one 8| , and the masterpiece crusaders of M&M, also a classic game. Well actualy, i got that one on the PSX and olmost finished it, but couldn't figure out how to kill necros (or whatever)....

Ow, and all above was sarcasm ;), except for the PSX part ;| ...
You can either agree with me, or be wrong...

Paviel
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Unread postby Paviel » 14 Aug 2008, 05:20

So far my only comment is I really wish the mouths
would move on the models when they talk!!
To be fair, the mouths didn't move in MM9 either.

I'm also fairly sure that they didn't move in Herores 3 or MM7, although maybe the voices in those particular cinematics were narrations rather than dialog...

Actually, MM7 is kind of weird. As I remember it, Archibald's and Gavin's mouths do move when they talk in the intro, but Queen Catherine's and King Eldritch's mouths do not move during the negotiation scene.

Definitely my biggest complaint about the Might and Magic and Heroes series...es... in general.

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Talin_Trollbane
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Unread postby Talin_Trollbane » 24 Aug 2008, 21:29

if i didnt know i could have sworn you are a clone of me. we even think the same on MM9 :D
Ultima, Elder Scrolls and Might and Magic Veteran.

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koval321
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Unread postby koval321 » 28 Aug 2008, 13:22

Impressive, i finish 4-8 but many times, which in my opinion was best parts. And not in right order, because my first was MM6. Friend borrow me this game, at begining i even dont understand how play it, but in some ways it reminds me Ishar which i was big fan, so i tryed it and after some time become M&M maniac. In my opinion MM6 was best one. As i known MM7 was build on exacly the same engine and even contain some MM6 remains inside files. MM8 give some new feelings, and MM9 goes totally different (wrong) way so maybe it could be not so bad to stay in the same old good engine forever. Heroes and other action RPGs was interesting to me only because title, but dont play them too long.

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MadMax
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Unread postby MadMax » 11 Sep 2008, 06:59

may i buy any of your might and magics?


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