Might & Magic 6: Mandate Of Heaven Review

[Gokyabgu]

While browsing through the news of our brother site Rpgcodex, I have met with this new review of Might & Magic 6 that written by Varn:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=220

This review is a bit of surprise to me, because after my first playthrough nearly 13 years ago, last month I decided to give this classic another go.

While in my second playthrough I have discovered that how can a RPG become so fun without an overwhelming story, characters, dialogs etc. M&M 6 contains everything that why I have become obsessed with RPGs in the first place. It features an open world that successfully gives the player the feeling that your exploring opportunities are limitless. The lack of level scaling in the game what really gives the player the unique progression feeling. For example, yesterday I decided to enter to the evil dwarf king Snergle's room to kill him and end his reign. But when I opened the door, I immediately get swarmed by dozens of dwarven fighters and lords. My party's overall level was 20 and since there's no where to run, they easily killed me after 5 or 6 turns. I have reloaded and tried it few more times, but no avail. Then I decided to gain few levels and try again later. Two days ago I made a mistake of taking a stroll on Dragonsand. Only to wiped out immediately by a horde of dragons. Now this is not you can feel while playing Oblivion or Sacred 2 (or many other games of todays era). The fear of alienating the newbies and casual players have led the devs to easing their games to a point that recent RPGs are no longer challenging (and fun of course) anymore.

If you're going to play it, definitely try Sergey Rozhenko's mod. This mod adds the game reconfigurable keys and mouse look (a must have feature), and make the game nearly bug-free. This mod is also completely compatible with the gog version of M&M 6.

If only there will be more games like this in the future. Ubisoft can resurrect this series with a fresh new engine, a decent story with some memorible characters. If there's still a market for a game like Heroes M&M, I'm pretty sure there is for a new M&M RPG.

[blatantninja]

I bought the pack of 1-6 from GOG. Looking forward to playing them as I never got the chance growing up.

[sherwinz28]

I whole heartedly agree with you. I love the M&M games. I visit celestial heavens site weekly to see if anyone has made any new mods. There is a surprisingly large mod done that changes M&M6 and also adds another entirely new game once you've finished M&M 6. The second part was very difficult...I never finished it. Here is the link if you're interested.

http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=10

The name of the mod I played through was the Chaos Conspiracy. There also seems to be another mod in the works which remakes the games (6-8?) into "today's" standards...that thread is a sticky at the top. Since it seems none of the big companies are bringing these type's of games back, it is up to the modding community to handle it.

[Gokyabgu]

I whole heartedly agree with you. I love the M&M games. I visit celestial heavens site weekly to see if anyone has made any new mods. There is a surprisingly large mod done that changes M&M6 and also adds another entirely new game once you've finished M&M 6. The second part was very difficult…I never finished it. Here is the link if you're interested.

http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=10

The name of the mod I played through was the Chaos Conspiracy. There also seems to be another mod in the works which remakes the games (6-8?) into "today's" standards…that thread is a sticky at the top. Since it seems none of the big companies are bringing these type's of games back, it is up to the modding community to handle it.

I have heard this Chaos Conspiracy mod several times before. Is this really good? Is it like an expansion to the main game or completely a new scenerio that you have to start at level 1?

[TheMadGamer]

Might & Magic VI and VII were both really great games. They nailed the perfect rate of incremental progression in terms of character progression, gear, and skills. I can still hear myself saying... 'just one more skill point... just one more upgraded weapon... just one more spot to explore'

[JDR13]

I bought the pack of 1-6 from GOG. Looking forward to playing them as I never got the chance growing up.

Similar situation here. I purchased the M&M Platinum Edition (VI-IX) from Amazon a while back. I don't have much of a desire to play anything older than M&M VI at this point.

The problem is time! They're all quite lengthy games, and I don't know if I'll ever actually get around to playing them.

[blatantninja]

I have such a backlog of games, I'm half hoping to get laid off at some point!

[JDR13]

I have such a backlog of games, I'm half hoping to get laid off at some point!

Funny that you mention that, I've been laid off for over a year now.

Thing is, you tend to not do as much gaming as you think you would in that situation. At least that's how it's been for me. The first month or so I gamed like mad, but it trailed off pretty quickly after that. I have tons of time for gaming now if I wanted it, but I find myself doing other things instead. Going to the gym more, reading, etc…

[dteowner]

I have such a backlog of games, I'm half hoping to get laid off at some point!Trust me, it doesn't pan out well. You end up feeling guilty for not spending every waking minute turning over another rock on the job search, and the games just aren't as much fun. Even if you've got "f you" money to live on, you get the guilt for chewing that nest egg up.

[blatantninja]

Well, I've been down the road before! I finished my MBA in Dec of '00. I had been working full time while I went. Well, the new job I was promised dried up with the dot com implosion and the job I had went away in April. I spent the next 13 months unemployed (with a little side income, but not much), and then another 3 vastly under employed.

I will say that the first three months were some of the most enjoyable of my life! I was so burnt out after 4 years of working 70+ hr weeks plus night school. I was also ignorant of how bad the job market was getting, so I wasn't concerned. I had bought BG2 when it first came out but didn't have time to play it. Played through it (with ToB and twice with BG1) 3 times! Plus went back and played IWD again! Also played a lot of Civ. Exercised for 2 hours a day (we had a great jogging/bike path right where I lived and an Olympic sized pool at the country club in our complex). It was really nice for a while!



It wasn't until the end of the summer I was beginning to realize how bad it was! Didn't have much in savings to begin with.

The good news is that if I did get canned now, I have a lot of other skills that I could use to at least keep cash flow even once I cut down expenses. And I have a lot more savings now, so I likely would take a while to plow through it all.

Though sadly, given that my wife and I bought a condo last year, adopted a dog and she's (the wife, not the dog!) now 3 months pregnant, I'm thinking I really should try to stay employed!

[Gokyabgu]

Similar situation here. I purchased the M&M Platinum Edition (VI-IX) from Amazon a while back. I don't have much of a desire to play anything older than M&M VI at this point.

The problem is time! They're all quite lengthy games, and I don't know if I'll ever actually get around to playing them.

The length of the game should not be a problem for you. When I return home from work, I am spending some time on the game. It relaxes my mind and since it doesn't overwhelm the player with extensive story telling and dialogs you can always close the game and return to it three or four days later. There's no 'now where was I' feeling. :)

Also, as for the ones who want to play M&M 6 I recommend this site:

http://www.mightandmagicwalkthrough.com/mightandmagic6/

You can find all the hints there and there's a detailed map with all the dungeons and such. It's pretty handy when you stuck in a dungeon or want to find a teacher.

[JDR13]

My problem is that I try to play all the good games from several different genres, which really isn't feasible. I split my time between RPGs, first-person shooters, RTS games, and several survival-horror series.

In the end, I have to choose carefully because I don't have time to play them all.

[Thrasher]

I'm in the same boat, and I wonder if I'll ever catch up? I knew I shouldn't have bought FO3. :p

[Arkadia7]

This has made me interested in this game, it was one I overlooked back then.

[dteowner]

Great, great game. Lacks a little of the character development depth that was introduced in MM7, but makes up for it with some massively huge (but still interesting and fun) dungeons to explore.

[Maylander]

Excellent game. Like Gokyabgu, I strongly recommend using the mod of Sergey Rozhenko, commonly known as Grayface.

[Relayer]

Same here: bought 1 - 6 on GoG and aside from an hour or so with MM3 (or was it 4?) Haven't played them much. Lack of time and especially newer games calling my attention lately (Red Dead Redemption, ME 2 and SMT: Strange Journey).

But I really liked what I did play so just a matter of finding time and hopefully I won't find it through a lay-off, heh.

[DoctorNarrative]

I bought the pack of 1-6 from GOG. Looking forward to playing them as I never got the chance growing up.

Same here... first PC RPG I played was Fallout in 1997. I was a NES and SNES kid and played some JRPGs like Final Fantasy before that, but when I switched to PC gaming around '94 I didn't mess with RPGs right away.

Anyway I got the GOG pack and started playing World of Xeen but it quickly smacked me in the face with how old it was. It's hard playing games from before you started with the genre, in my experience. I love adventure games but if I try and play any from before '93 or so I just get frustrated by the old mechanics. Same with World of Xeen.

I'll try them again someday though.