Let's talk about Might and Magic, shall we?

[jivex5k]

I remember when I was young, maybe I was 12 or 13 at the time so this was about 16 years ago.

I remember seeing my older cousin, who was into computer games, playing might and magic.

I don't know what version it was, or if it was Heroes or not....honestly the whole Heroes and non Heroes might and magic line confuses me.

It looked awesome! All the monsters and tactical battles...man it was cool. I want to capture this feeling again.

Anyways, what I'm getting at is have you guys played these games. I noticed a new one was out, but everyone seems to praise Heroes 3 as the best version.

 

And what's the difference between the Heroes and Non-Heroes M&M?

[Enoch]

The basic Might & Magic series was essentially a Wizardry knock-off that started in the mid-'80s. You create a party of characters in pseudo-D&D rules, wander the countryside via grid-based movement in first-person perspective, fight enemies in turn-based combat, etc. (From the 6th game onward, the game changed the grid-based movement to free-movement in a 3D landscape, and added a toggle between real-time and turn-based combat.)

 

The Heroes series started much later and is more of a strategy game, with top-down gameworld exploration, base management, etc.

[jivex5k]

Ahhhh ok...

He was definitely playing Heroes then.

I've been looking at gameplay, Heroes 3 does seem pretty damn cool.

Heroes VI has annoying music lol.

[Hurlshort]

Well the Heroes of Might and Magic series has been continued nicely, so you can pick those up. King's Bounty is a fantastic game in the same vein too.

[Pshaw]

Heroes of Might and Magic 2/3 were most likely what you were playing. The series has gone a bit downhill, at least to me, in some of the newer versions. However I think that latest game started getting it right again. I'm pretty sure steam has it fairly cheap by now, or at least I hope it does, so if you're looking for that sort of game it's a good place to start. If you're ok with older games I'd also highly recommend Age of Wonders II, preferably with the expansion Shadow Magic and the fan patch.

[Nordicus]

To say something about the regular Might&Magic series, I only played MM6 and at far too young an age to really appreciate or understand it, despite having played it for hours, and the starting town is downright embedded into my cornea.

 

I didn't even know what 1d6 meant, for goodness' sake!

[alanschu]

The M&M series is available on GOG. I picked it up specifically for Nostalgia and M&M 3.

[Humanoid]

Heroes of Might and Magic initially shared nothing except the name with its "parent" title, the original settings for each were apparently intended to be fully independent of each other - Might and Magic was a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid from the beginning, and HoMM was straight high fantasy. It wasn't until MM6, after a long break from the series, changed its setting to match that of HoMM2 that the series were unified, and even then that was done kind of sloppily - so much so that rather than tidy it up, they decided to blow up the world and start afresh. They had planned to introduce the sci-fi element into the Heroes series in the first HoMM3 expansion (Armageddon's Blade) with a new "Forge" faction, but faced a fan backlash so massive that they backed down and substituted a last minute ho-hum alternative instead.

 

There are also other spinoffs such as Crusaders of, Legends of, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, but I've never played any of them.

[Keyrock]

Well the Heroes of Might and Magic series has been continued nicely, so you can pick those up. King's Bounty is a fantastic game in the same vein too.

I second the recommendation of King's Bounty as a good game similar to HoMM.

 

There are also other spinoffs such as Crusaders of' date=' Legends of, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, but I've never played any of them.[/quote']

I've played Crusaders of Might & Magic and it is TERRIBLE. It's an action game that has to be one of the most linear games ever made with terrible combat (it boils down to mash one button over and over and...), story (it will bore you to tears), and enemies (terrible AI, practically no variety). It's just terrible everything.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Keyrock

[Enoch]

To say something about the regular Might&Magic series, I only played MM6 and at far too young an age to really appreciate or understand it, despite having played it for hours, and the starting town is downright embedded into my cornea.

 

That's exactly my experience... with Might & Magic I.

 

3-5 was really the high point of the series, in my book. MM6 & 7 had some neat elements, but the balance was awful, and a lot of the rule systems were rather broken. The "Fly" spell was both the best and worst thing about those games-- gamebreakingly powerful, in that it allowed you to essentially dodge attacks while in turn-based mode, but at the same time, sailing about the landscape dropping meteor showers on your enemies was easily the most fun thing to do in the game.

 

As a whole, the series wasn't actually all that good. I've bought them from GOG as alan did, and beyond the nostalgia kick, playing them now is quite tedious. The games featured huge amounts of combat grind, and the combat experience was composed primarily of "press A to attack." The writing was wholly forgettable, and most objectives could be completed by following the general rule of compulsively exploring everywhere. The middle games (primarily the 3rd one) did feature some good riddle content, though.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Enoch

[Keyrock]

3-5 was really the high point of the series, in my book. MM6 & 7 had some neat elements, but the balance was awful, and a lot of the rule systems were rather broken. The "Fly" spell was both the best and worst thing about those games-- gamebreakingly powerful, in that it allowed you to essentially dodge attacks while in turn-based mode, but at the same time, sailing about the landscape dropping meteor showers on your enemies was easily the most fun thing to do in the game.

 

As a whole, the series wasn't actually all that good. I've bought them from GOG as alan did, and beyond the nostalgia kick, playing them now is quite tedious. The games featured huge amounts of combat grind, and the combat experience was composed primarily of "press A to attack." The writing was wholly forgettable, and most objectives could be completed by following the general rule of compulsively exploring everywhere. The middle games (primarily the 3rd one) did feature some good riddle content, though.

World of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen were my favorite games in the series, I think those were IV and V. They were 2 separate games that sort of formed one giant game. I really enjoyed M&M VII because of the aforementioned bombing enemies from the sky, which was indeed insanely fun, and the weird sci-fi elements. I do agree that it was tedious and the writing was boring, though.

[Humanoid]

The fourth and fifth titles were Clouds of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen respectively, representing two sides of XEEN - which like all the early MM worlds, was actually a spaceship of some sort. World of Xeen is what you could get if you owned both aforementioned games, you could merge them into one installation to create one giant game.

[Keyrock]

The fourth and fifth titles were Clouds of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen respectively, representing two sides of XEEN - which like all the early MM worlds, was actually a spaceship of some sort. World of Xeen is what you could get if you owned both aforementioned games, you could merge them into one installation to create one giant game.

Thanks for the correction, it's been many years.

[Hurlshort]

M&M3 was my first real RPG. It was love at first sight.

[Nordicus]

There are also other spinoffs such as Crusaders of, Legends of, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, but I've never played any of them.

Let's not forget Warriors of Might & Magic!

 

No wait, actually let us do just that. When I bought that game, I expected Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, but I got a game with crap story, dialog and voice-acting, with even worse combat, level design and puzzles than Soul Reaver has during its worst moments

[Volourn]

M&M is a good solid series. Not the ebst ever but solid.

[AGX-17]

Heroes III was the best (and effectively final,) installment of the series, and one of the greatest games of all time. Heroes IV does not exist (I refuse to acknowledge it.) Heroes V and VI are just shoddy imitations with better graphics. For the record, I have not played VI because V was so bad.

 

 

There are also other spinoffs such as Crusaders of, Legends of, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, but I've never played any of them.

 

Dark Messiah was made by the developers of Dishonored (Arkane,) and all of their games (even Dishonored,) are basically the same game design getting less clunky and unintuitive with each iteration. Arx Fatalis was a mess, the basic principles are the same in DM and Dishonored (it's easy to kill and be killed in direct combat, key configuration is awkward and cumbersome, blocking is extremely important, etc.)

 

Dark Messiah also had a big focus on environmental kills, something Dishonored does as well. Except they were all performed with a kick move (which was also poorly mapped,) and consisted primarily of kicking enemies into spiked walls, or off of ledges (there were also dropping stuff on enemies' heads type kills.)

Edited November 19, 2012 by AGX-17

[Drowsy Emperor]

M&M is a good solid series. Not the ebst ever but solid.

 

It came second only to NWN in the RPG mediocrity contest.