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Might and Magic 9

Might and Magic 9

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: well its still M&M which is good but no real improvements
Review: MM9 has a lot of the features I felt made the MM series good, the skill and character development, numerous quests, diverse monsters, a few good puzzles and a decent main plot. On the down side the motion is choppy, particularly when a town or area first loads and you wish to turn around. The graphics are nothing to write home about, its about 4 years behind the times in that respect. They took out doing alchemy, which I enjoyed, cuts down on the number of skills and made the inventory items boring to look at. Some of the quests are buggy. You have to be careful to save before completeing a quest because the game does not always register a successful completion and then you may be unable to complete the game. It ok but not great. That said its still leagues better than Pool of Radiance.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Might and Magic 9
Review: The game is buggy, and locks up. 3 DO said on the box that it would run on windows xp, and on their web site said that it wouldn't. I checked later and I couldn't find the note about windows xp, but they hadn't put out a new update. I've played every might and magic game, but this will be my last!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Can be fun, if you can tolerate some shortcomings
Review: THE GOOD: New 3D engine from Lithtech (No One Lives Forever, Aliens vs Predator 2). Buildings and landscape looks good, and monsters look frightening. People and NPC's however, did not impress me much. Jagged edges on the humanoid models with mediocre texturing makes interactions feel like you're talking to a picture. Soundtrack is also pretty good, but a little repetitive.

THE BAD: Long load times, movement and turning is not smooth even with a good video card and may strain the eyes, low resolution. MM9 uses paper dolls to represent your characters, the same graphic no matter how you equip your character. One of the pleasures that I have in playing RPG's is seeing my character all deck'ed out in plate mail, or seeing my character with a huge flaming sword. MM9 only has a sketch of your character depending on your class and gender. You'll never see what your character looks like with a shield, dual swords, etc... Another not-so-good aspect of this game is the lack of monsters. Monsters do not seem to respawn, which means that your exp and money is limited. The interface tries to be like a first person shooter, and takes a bit of getting used to. Personally, I prefer the classic mouse click RPG interface. Also, no potion making.

BUGS: 3DO released patch 1.2 almost immediately after the public release of the game to fix a slew of bugs. There are still major quest bugs that have not been addressed, such as the Thjordgard Training Hall quest and the orb of linking quest. The game feels sloppy, and the broken quests may result in hours and hours of lost playtime.

IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES OVER EARLIER MM: Trainers seem to be more abundant and accessible, so you don't have to travel the world to get trained in a particular skill. For example, both Sturmford and Drangheim have similar trainers. Quests seem to be easier (and very buggy). The world seems to get uglier and uglier - in MM6 and MM7, there were majestic castles, snowcapped villages, bright hot deserts. In MM8, there were lizard villages and dragon characters. Now, in MM9, there are half orcs, the game is often very dark and you seem to need a grandmaster mage to cast a decent light spell. I think the creators just don't want us to see (to cover up the ugliness?). Even at higher level, the light spell (torch) lasts longer and not much brighter.

OVERALL: I would say that this game may be worth checking out. I have to admit, despite its shortcomings, I am having a lot of fun. Definitely a buy if you are a die hard MM fan and this game happens to drop [in price].

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: MM IX: WORST GRAPHICS AND INTERFACE I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED
Review: This game is boring, juvenile, and visually disappointing. I have been playing RPG games since Cinema Ware first came out with 'Defender of the Crown' (OK, most of you readers weren't even born yet)and have watched role-playing games advance through 'Wizardry' to 'Eye of the Beholder' to 'Might and Magic' to 'Daggerfall' (the best ever!) Somewhere after that, RPG games seriously lost it, too much emphasis on shooter/3D technology and inane conversation , and not enough on characters and plot. MMIX is a sad example of both the effects of this change in direction, and 3DO's tendency to cheap-out the production costs.
Role-playing is about the character(s): their personalities and skills, what they eat, wear, guilds or careers, loyalties, where they live,who they're friends with. MMIX's 3D engine results in distorted,leering little trolls for supposedly human characters. Having no 'true' 3D was way better than the poor 3D graphics offered by MMIX.
MMIX combines the worst of simple-minded cross-hatch in the screen shooter, boring run around looking for trainer, and endless conversation with with vapid NPCs that I have encountered in 25 years of gaming. Buy something else.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad
Review: this is a plea. 3DO please stop slaughtering this great seris. please bring in some fans and let them design the game. because these one is horrable.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I remember when I used to like the M&M series...
Review: Unless you are a die-hard fan of Might and Magic, you'll see this title as a slightly buggy, outdated RPG that is outclassed by the other titles released at the same time. As a previous reviewer has stated, the compass on your screen and the directions on the map do not match ("hey, that building to the north is to the east on the map!"). Most of the graphics in this title are also recycled from earlier titles... and this is coming from someone who didn't even play MM8, so you know if I say recycled, its OLD graphics. The character portraits for example... theres 4 of them to start. If you are a human female, get used to that dwarven female portrait.

Some classes are downright difficult to evolve into; like the Lich for example. You can become a Gladiator within the first couple days of playing, but don't expect to become a Lich until the game is 95% over.

Now... if you ARE a die-hard fan of the Might and Magic series, get ready for a dissapointment! The rich jokes and hidden quests and items are completely missing from this title. Worse: the sci-fi theme at the end of MM1 to MM7, my personal all-time favorite, is MISSING from MM9. Why? I was told pressure from their publishers to remove it. Just not "fantasy" enough. Sigh.

Oh... and did I mention the dated graphics?

If you want a time filler and have already played everything else, then buy this game when it goes on sale for [money]. Until then, I suggest you save your money. This is a sad finale to the M&M series.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I remember when I used to like the M&M series...
Review: Unless you are a die-hard fan of Might and Magic, you'll see this title as a slightly buggy, outdated RPG that is outclassed by the other titles released at the same time. As a previous reviewer has stated, the compass on your screen and the directions on the map do not match ("hey, that building to the north is to the east on the map!"). Most of the graphics in this title are also recycled from earlier titles... and this is coming from someone who didn't even play MM8, so you know if I say recycled, its OLD graphics. The character portraits for example... theres 4 of them to start. If you are a human female, get used to that dwarven female portrait.

Some classes are downright difficult to evolve into; like the Lich for example. You can become a Gladiator within the first couple days of playing, but don't expect to become a Lich until the game is 95% over.

Now... if you ARE a die-hard fan of the Might and Magic series, get ready for a dissapointment! The rich jokes and hidden quests and items are completely missing from this title. Worse: the sci-fi theme at the end of MM1 to MM7, my personal all-time favorite, is MISSING from MM9. Why? I was told pressure from their publishers to remove it. Just not "fantasy" enough. Sigh.

Oh... and did I mention the dated graphics?

If you want a time filler and have already played everything else, then buy this game when it goes on sale for [money]. Until then, I suggest you save your money. This is a sad finale to the M&M series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What an Amazing Game!
Review: Unlike most people on this site I think that MM9 is the best RPG I have ever played. The reason I think there are a lot of bad reviews is because it is very different from the other versions of Might and Magic and the long time players of might and magic are too lazy to get use to the new game. I admit, at first I didn't like this game very much, but then after a month a played it again and kept playing until I beat it. The graphics are not the best, but they're not bad. What makes the game great though is the quests. They are so fun to do, much funner than other RPGs (i.e. Morrowind). So, in conclusion, I would strongly recommend this game to anyone with enough patience to really get into this game.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: THIS IS THE DEATH OF MIGHT AND MAGIC!!
Review: Why Jon Van Caneghem would put his name to this is anybody's guess. The graphics were created by 3rd graders... I'm not kidding! What can you say about a game that even screws up the fonts? How about the black ocean with clipping errors... The characters are just plain ugly. It is obivious that the graphics, level design, and that incredible opening cinematic couldn't have been created by any real game company. I was struck dumb by how incredibly BAD this product is. Even the install program glitches. The ONLY thing New World Computing did right on this game was the box cover. Very nice box cover.

Now for the other reviews on this site that gave this title a 5 star rating: they were certainly planted hoping some fools would like the box cover and remember the quality of gameplay in years past and buy this title... my advice, wait for more real reviews before you waste your money. What a [bad] effort!


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