The Inside Scoop on Gaming

New World Computing has released some of the best FRPG's for the computer, ever. Might & Magic VI is not one of them.

From a technological viewpoint there is little new and interesting the Might & Magic VI has to offer. Its 3-D environment is unaccelerated by any of the 3-D standards. Had the developers added this graphics enhancement, the game would have been much easier to look at.

The graphics in the game, while on first pass are decent and the sheer amount of stuff in the game is impressive. However, get used to repeditive graphics. All NPC's look the same and while there are a great many monsters, they fall into only a few different graphic representation. Basically the graphics are not lush, they are very basic when you get down to it.

The quests for the most past are pretty good and offer a somewhat non-linear way of winning the game. However towards the end of the game, get used to seeing the same type of quest over and over again. Basically its go into a dungeon, get the tar beaten out of you, get an item, return it, repeat as 4-5 times.

The game has an automapper and auto-annotater as well. So quests and other info is a click away. The bad news is it doesn't save enough information and you will probably have to take hand written notes anyways (or download a quest chart).

Character creation I thought was decent because your characters started out pretty well and made it tough to create a lame-duck character out of the gate. Although I thought this was great, I also think the characters creation system did not lend great depth to characters.

The real time combat in the game is a double edged sword. I thought it was sort of a hassle unless you were picking off weak monsters in melee combat, or sniping from a distance. I do not think this was an innovation of any sort and basically was onyl usefull because the designers packed tons of monsters and encounters in the lands. Had they cut those down, real time would not have been useful. As well you could not move your characters around in combat, either they were all in melee or they not. No putting your archer or wizard in the back. Of course almost all classes of characters had some good combat skills so this was no a huge detriment.

If the plot looks familiar in Might & Magic VI, you ar enot hallucinating. Might & Magic III: Isles of Terra, has a very similar plot. And unlike Might & Magic VI, this really was a cutting edge game. But probably a great many gamers today never played that game, when 486/33's were godly computers.

It is easy to herald any half-way decent computer based FRPG as an all time classic these days. Frankly there is not much competition.

Might & Magic VI is not a game I hated, but rather was dissappointed with. It could have been so much better.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Might & Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven
Author: New World Computing Category: Computer Role Playing Game Company/Publisher: 3DO Company / New World Computing Cost: 39.95 Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Wes Johnson on 10/13/98. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction	New World Computing has released some of the best FRPG's for the computer, ever. Might & Magic VI is not one of them. From a technological viewpoint there is little new and interesting the Might & Magic VI has to offer. Its 3-D environment is unaccelerated by any of the 3-D standards. Had the developers added this graphics enhancement, the game would have been much easier to look at. The graphics in the game, while on first pass are decent and the sheer amount of stuff in the game is impressive. However, get used to repeditive graphics. All NPC's look the same and while there are a great many monsters, they fall into only a few different graphic representation. Basically the graphics are not lush, they are very basic when you get down to it. The quests for the most past are pretty good and offer a somewhat non-linear way of winning the game. However towards the end of the game, get used to seeing the same type of quest over and over again. Basically its go into a dungeon, get the tar beaten out of you, get an item, return it, repeat as 4-5 times. The game has an automapper and auto-annotater as well. So quests and other info is a click away. The bad news is it doesn't save enough information and you will probably have to take hand written notes anyways (or download a quest chart). Character creation I thought was decent because your characters started out pretty well and made it tough to create a lame-duck character out of the gate. Although I thought this was great, I also think the characters creation system did not lend great depth to characters. The real time combat in the game is a double edged sword. I thought it was sort of a hassle unless you were picking off weak monsters in melee combat, or sniping from a distance. I do not think this was an innovation of any sort and basically was onyl usefull because the designers packed tons of monsters and encounters in the lands. Had they cut those down, real time would not have been useful. As well you could not move your characters around in combat, either they were all in melee or they not. No putting your archer or wizard in the back. Of course almost all classes of characters had some good combat skills so this was no a huge detriment. If the plot looks familiar in Might & Magic VI, you ar enot hallucinating. Might & Magic III: Isles of Terra, has a very similar plot. And unlike Might & Magic VI, this really was a cutting edge game. But probably a great many gamers today never played that game, when 486/33's were godly computers. It is easy to herald any half-way decent computer based FRPG as an all time classic these days. Frankly there is not much competition. Might & Magic VI is not a game I hated, but rather was dissappointed with. It could have been so much better. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Might & Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven