Archived Review

Might and Magic 7

Just over a year ago I was deeply immersed in playing Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven. Anyone who attempted to talk to me was likely to get a blank stare, or, if I responded at all, be told "Can't you see I'm saving busy the world?!" Now New World Computing has done it again with the seventh installment in their venerable Might and Magic series, For Blood and Honor. Sticking to the formula that garnered high praise, award nominations, and excellent sales for M & M 6, For Blood and Honor delivers another huge world, more of the same addictive gameplay, and the potential for total zombification of the player after several days without sleep.

Players of M&M 6 might recall rumors about Queen Catherine having left Enroth to attend her father's funeral in Erathia shortly before King Roland's disappearance. In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, we learn that with the king dead, Erathia is experiencing civil war and other upheavals of all sorts as various factions vie for power. In addition a powerful lich is leading armies against Queen Catherine as she tries to restore order to the land. As it turns out, this lich is actually Catherine's father, slain by the enemy and resurrected into undeath. Eventually, good prevails, King Gryphonheart's soul is laid to rest, and the land settles into a fragile peace. Might and Magic 7 picks up the story here. As the game begins, your party has just arrived at Emerald Island to participate in a scavenger hunt, with the deed and lordship of Castle Harmondale as the prize. You are met at the docks by a woman who briefly explains the contest and joins your party as a sort of tour guide, explaining what can be bought at various stores and how things work. While this mini-tutorial is nicely worked into the story, and may be helpful to new players, for veterans of Might and Magic 6, it's really not necessary and quickly becomes annoying. Fortunately, it only takes a couple of mouse-clicks to turn it off. After winning the contest, you're given a ship and set sail for Harmondale, a pleasant village located between Erathia and the elven regions of Avlee and the Tularean forest. Arriving at your new home you discover that being the lords of Harmondale might be more trouble than you bargained for. Not only have goblins taken up residence in your castle, but it turns out that Harmondale is sitting right in the middle of contested territory. And, of course, the citizens of your land have missing relatives that need locating, treasured keepsakes that have gone missing, and all sorts of other tasks that you're just the person to complete.

Though M&M 6 made great advances over the earlier Might and Magic games, M&M 7 looks strikingly similar to its predecessor. Considering it was in at least the initial stages of development before M & M 6 was even released, this is not surprising, yet I was a bit surprised by exactly how similar it is. Of course, there are some differences and new features, but from character creation on through the rest of the game, the basic look of For Blood and Honor is almost identical to that of The Mandate of Heaven.

Character creation works just like it did in M & M 6, and should also be a cinch for any veteran RPGer. Basic statistics for might, intelligence, luck, etc. are assigned to each of your four characters based on race and class, and can then be modified from a pool of bonus points. Each character starts out with four skills appropriate to his class, two of which are preset and two of which you can choose. Character portraits and voices can also be adjusted to your liking. Those who found the digitized photograph character portraits of M&M 6 a bit strange should be pleased to know that M&M 7 uses hand drawn images instead, though the characters still make some rather goofy faces now and then.

While the player characters and NPC population of Enroth were almost totally human, in your travels through Erathia you will visit several areas with significant non-human populations. From the Elven population of Avlee, to the Dwarves of Stone City, there's quite a lot of variety among the citizenry. There's even one area with friendly golems wandering around. So it's only reasonable that M&M 7 has added three new player races to choose from,- Dwarf, Elf, or Goblin- each with its own advantages, disadvantages, and characteristics. Dwarves, for example, tend to be strong and hardy, but a bit slow.

In addition to the new races, For Blood and Honor also adds three new character classes. The Monk is a martial artist who excels at unarmed combat, staff fighting, and evading enemy attacks- basically any of the skills that involve little or no armor, and precise control of his body. He can also learn a few of the lower-level body, mind, and spirit spells later in the game. The Ranger is a sort of jack-of-all-trades, competent with a variety of weapons and armor, but especially handy with the axe. He can also learn all of the miscellaneous skills to some degree, and cast spells from all schools except light and dark. (The manual's skill chart shows that the Ranger begins the game with Basic ability in all the magical schools he can learn. However, this appears to be a typo. In actuality, he begins the game with no magical skills and cannot gain them until after his first promotion, to Hunter). Finally, the thief is good at...well...thieving. With a limited choice of weapons, and access to only the most basic spells, the thief is nonetheless a handy addition to any party. With the highest Disarm Traps skill of any class, and the Stealing ability for extra loot, he's certainly a nice companion for those not overly worried about the niceties of laws and ethics. The Knight, Druid, Sorcerer and other classes familiar from M&M 6 make a return as well, bringing the total number of choices to nine.

New skills such as Stealing, Identify Monster, and Unarmed combat have been added to complement the new classes. The new Alchemy skill means that while any character can make a basic single-ingredient potion, only the Druid can make the black potions that permanently raise statistics or provide other ultra-powerful advantages. (Potion formulae no longer have to be determined through trial-and-error, since recipes are now available at Alchemist shops- though the prices can be fairly hefty). For characters with a high Perception skill, hidden doors and buttons will now glow red. Skill advancement works slightly differently than it did in The Mandate of Heaven. While a M&M 6 character could advance to Master level in any skill he knew, advancement is now limited by class. A third level of skill proficiency, Grand Master, has also been added to the game. As an example, the Sorcerer can learn both the Dagger and Staff combat skills, achieving only Expert proficiency with the dagger, but Mastery of the staff. Of course, the real power of a Sorcerer is in his spells- this class can receive a Grand Master rating in all his magical school skills. The skills interface has also been tweaked just a little to show what level of expertise a character can achieve, what sort of proficiency he'll be eligible for with his next promotion, and how many bonus points from magical items are added to the skill. While the spell listing is fairly similar to that of M&M 6, the new proficiency system does slightly change the manner in which spells are learned.

Class promotions work in the same basic way as they did in Might and Magic 6, with one slight difference. The final promotion is now based on whether you have chosen good or evil in the game's branching storyline. Rather than a Knight simply being promoted to Cavalier and then Champion after completion of the appropriate quests, an evil Knight will instead receive the rank of Black Knight after his second promotion. While in most cases the skill sets remain the same for both good and evil characters, there are a few exceptions. Only evil characters may learn Dark magic, while only good characters may learn spells of the Light school, for example. Though, taken individually, these are all fairly minor changes, as a whole they certainly serve to make the classes much more unique and interesting, which I felt really enhanced the game. Now a Sorcerer really is the magical powerhouse, and pretty much useless at hand-to-hand fighting, even more so than in M&M 6. And there are certain traps that are likely to always get you unless you have that trusty thief along. Having a Cleric that really has the restrictions and advantages a Cleric can certainly add to the role-playing aspect of the game. Your Cleric can't suddenly have an identity crisis and decide to act like a Sorcerer instead- though seeing Conor the Cleric in drag as Caitlin the Sorceress might have been fun.

Unfortunately, all this specialization has a definite downside. Since you can only have four characters in a party, you can't possibly have the very best class for every skill. This is, of course, fine up to a point. What fun would it be if there was no challenge, no moments of wondering "Is this trap going to blow up in my face?" Having to make tough choices and compromises I don't mind. But the problem is that certain skills are almost essential to completing the game. There are at least a few potentially important spots reachable only with the Fly or Jump spells. When you need to travel great distances, doing so without Fly, Town Portal, or Lloyd's Beacon can be rather time-consuming and frustrating. Sure, you can buy scrolls, but they aren't always available when you need them. I don't recall seeing a Jump scroll during my entire game. Trapped chests need disarming quite frequently, and even if you decide to forgo the gold and treasure in some of them (and who wants to do that?!), certain quest items have to be taken from chests. So, this tends to limit some of the role-playing freedom of the game, making character creation, especially, a nightmarish numbers game.

But can't you just ignore all that and pick a party you like, you ask? Well, maybe. Having played M&M 6 I did have some idea what would make a good, balanced party, and selected accordingly, (though I think my choices would have been similar even if I didn't have that prior experience). As for skills, I looked at the racial statistics and glanced at the skills table, but mainly just picked the things that I thought would be useful. Imagine my surprise when I later realized that my trap-disarming Archer could not achieve even Expert proficiency in Disarm Traps until after being promoted to Master Archer, which requires an especially dangerous quest. And she was the best of the bunch, so there wasn't even an opportunity to start building up a different character's skill. At one point I purchased the Dodging skill for my Knight, because it was available to him and seemed like it might be useful. Only later did I learn that this skill only works when a character is wearing no armor. Hmm. Magical plate armor or the occasional dodge? I think the answer is obvious. So, maybe I should have read those skill descriptions a little more carefully, but who wants to spend an hour weighing and balancing skills instead of getting into the game? However, if you simply pick the characters that appeal to you, you're likely to run into the same sort of problems I did- either getting stuck with a character who can't do what you need them to do, or having to start building up that skill on a different character in the middle of the game. While I can't say it's impossible, because I haven't tried it, I'd imagine that trying to get through the game with a party of, say, only Monks, would be pretty darn difficult. So if you have your heart set on role-playing a group of pilgrims or an adventuring brotherhood of paladins, you might be in trouble.

Like that of M&M 6, For Blood and Honor's storyline is fairly simplistic, and can, at times, be downright confusing. More than once I received information about a quest, problem, or character, and had no idea what was being referred to. However, for the most part, the story accomplishes its purpose quite well, and really shines on occasion. As I mentioned briefly earlier, M&M 7 has a branching storyline, which I found to be one of the most effective parts of the game. Though you start out as a neutral party with no particular alliances or loyalties, living in contested lands eventually forces you to start making decisions. Regents from the two areas wishing to claim Harmondale arrive at your castle with invitations to visit their rulers. This starts off a whole chain of events with you right in the center of them. After visiting these areas, you must decide whether you wish to support a particular claim or "play both sides." As you travel from kingdom to kingdom gathering information, messengers occasionally appear with scrolls bearing the latest news. During my game, at the same time that I was attempting to deal with all this, an old decision came back to haunt me, causing additional difficulties, which made for quite a lot of excitement and suspense. Eventually, this storyline builds up to the big decision- good or evil. In addition to causing a nifty color change to your interface (see screenshots), this decision effects how the rest of the game will play out. Some NPCs may react to you differently, your quests will be different, and, of course, you future promotions will be set. As an especially nice touch, some of the quests for both good and evil are the same, but from the opposite perspective. For example, one good quest has you rescuing a kidnapped woman from a villain's tower and bringing her home. The evil counterpart to this quest involves helping with the kidnapping.

As mentioned, the basic interface and gameplay of Might and Magic 7 are remarkably similar to that of M&M 6. However, these too have been modified just slightly. The active spells display is a tiny bit different, with light-up icons for the active spells. The auto-notes book now records the location of Master and Grand Master skill trainers, which is extremely helpful, though I would have like to see Expert teachers included as well, for those times a character needs to go back and get their Expert training after a promotion. There is also a nice history book that gives general background about Erathia and its conflicts, which is updated with your important deeds by a historian you meet in the course of a quest. Probably my favorite new feature is the card game ArcoMage. Part of a quest, this Magic: The Gathering-type game can be played at any tavern in the land, with each one having its own win conditions and prize. It's amazingly addictive, and I continued to play periodically even after I'd finished that particular quest, just for fun or when I needed a break from adventuring. If the Might and Magic 7 message boards are any indication, I'm not the only one who thinks NWC could have a winner with a stand-alone release.

Combat in M&M 7 is real-time, with an option to switch to turn-based by hitting the space bar- a very helpful feature if you need time to think. A movement phase has been added to turn-based mode allowing you to move a short distance without having to constantly switch back to real time when you wish to adjust position. Since For Blood and Honor takes place in Erathia, the same land as Heroes of Might and Magic 3, and NWC has been progressively strengthening the ties between the two series', all the creatures in M&M 7 have been redone and are now consistent with the Heroes 3. Creature AI appears to be fairly non-existent. While occasionally a group of creatures will appear to cooperate, or will use spells effectively, generally they seem just smart enough to try to kill you, and to run if they are getting low on hit points. Stupid creatures or no, some battles can be exceedingly difficult. Certain creatures can take a good five minutes of real time to kill, which gets frustrating when you're in a dungeon with dozens of them. After dying for the twentieth time, some of the battles really start to feel more like work than fun. Usually some sleep or a few games of ArcoMage will have you refreshed and anxious to get back to the fray, but be warned, this is a pretty combat-intensive game. Also, respawn rates for many areas are shorter than in M&M 6, which means even more combat, but also a chance to gain more experience and treasure. (Respawn rates for treasure lying around on the ground are also quite fast, especially at the beginning of the game- in fact, there were a couple of times I could have sworn it was raining gold and medicinal herbs).

There seems to be a bit more variation in terrain than in M&M 6, and certain areas have a very distinct look to them. The city of Pierpont, for example, is built on stilts. In the Bracada desert, most buildings are located atop cliffs and ridges, making it necessary to use teleporters to get around. Another area is completely underground and has rivers of lava running through it. A couple of areas at the end of the game are especially unique and interesting, and I wish I could tell you more, but I'm afraid I really can't go into detail without giving spoilers. The major castles may now be fully explored, though doing so is likely to get the guards upset unless you are invisible. Boarding a ship now requires going onto the deck. Fruit trees now provide actual apples instead of placing food directly into your food total. (I found it handy to carry a couple around as an emergency supply in case you run out of food unexpectedly). Trees also change color depending on the season, though it never seems to rain or snow. Most all of the weapons, armor, and other items have gotten a makeover, and generally look nicer. All-in-all there seems to be a bit more detail and variety to the scenery, terrain, and items, though the indoor dungeons aren't nearly as individual as they were in M&M 6.

Despite the addition of 3D accelerator support, the basic quality of the graphics in For Blood and Honor seems pretty similar to that of M&M 6, though running in 3D does provide some nice atmosphere, with attractive lighting effects and other goodies. Creatures are still pre-rendered sprites, so the 3D acceleration does little to improve them, and, in fact, tends to make them look a tad blurry. The general scenery draws nicely, though trees and other objects do tend to "dance" slightly when you are walking past them. The creatures tend to look a bit sharper in software accelerated mode, but there is also some minor artifacting and pixelation noticeable in walls, mountains, and other large objects. Either way, I couldn't get the creatures to look nearly as nice as those in the screenshots on the box, no matter how much I fiddled with the controls. (I suspect those "screenshots" may actually be either from an earlier build of the game or artist's conceptions, since one of them features minotaurs that look nothing like those in the actual game).

Sound in M&M 7 is generally of good quality, though the creature and other sounds vary in their effectiveness. At times, the sound effects really work well to add atmosphere. At one point, I was wandering down a dim hallway, listening to the grunt of behemoths echoing through the corridors, when suddenly a trap went off with a loud metallic clunk, sending me about two feet straight up off my chair. And this happened several more times, even though I knew the silly thing was there! Other sounds are fine, but not especially impressive, while a few are downright annoying. The fanfare sound that indicates changing from real-time to turn-based combat gets rather old, as does your characters' endless repetition of the same phrases. The music, however, is absolutely great, and one of the best game scores I have ever heard. While a couple of pieces get a bit irritating, for the most part, the music is pleasant, not overly distracting, and appropriate. While I usually turn game music off within about two minutes of starting play, I actually let M&M 7's score play for the entire two weeks I spent with the game.

Might and Magic 7 ran quite smoothly on my system and load times between areas were mercifully short, though they seemed to get slightly longer after several hours of play. (Fortunately there several different attractive load screens to look at while you're waiting). Though I didn't encounter any bugs such as broken quests, missing items, or things of that nature, I did experience a handful of lockups and crashes. These all occurred after many, many hours of gameplay, and often seemed to happen when I attempted to play ArcoMage. Also, if I alt-tabbed out of the game, the screen would flash like a strobe light when I returned, forcing me to quit and restart to get it back to normal. This made getting screenshots a rather time-consuming process. (See what kind of trouble I go to for you, dear readers?)

There are a few other problems which, while perhaps not technically "bugs", are certainly irritating. During outdoor battles, targeting a creature near a tree is almost impossible, since no matter how carefully you maneuver the mouse, the game insists you are targeting the tree. This is especially troublesome if you are casting certain spells or using certain wands. I don't know how many times I fried my entire party with a fireball by targeting a monster that magically turned into a tree at the last minute. NPCs wandering around towns tend to stop right in front of you whenever you draw near, so that you can chat with them without having to chase them down- which sounds reasonable enough. However, if you aren't interested in conversation, you're forced to back up and go around them, which is simply a minor annoyance- hardly worth mentioning- until you visit some of the cities in the game. In one town, a misstep can plunge you into molten lava, while in another you can fall to your death from a great height. In the dwarven Stone City the hallways are extremely narrow, so running into an NPC or two, while not fatal, often means you simply can't move at all. Hitting the Y key will cause you to yell loudly (and rather rudely) at the offending NPC to get out of the way, which sometimes works fine, but in some cases isn't terribly effective. In Stone city, for example, there were several occasions where I had a pair of NPCs next to me, and yelling simply caused them to rearrange themselves slightly. By the time I had yelled at them enough times to actually get past, they had performed an entire dwarven ballet. The auto-notes for trainer locations are occasionally a bit inaccurate, telling you that a trainer is located in the city of Steadwick, for example, when he is actually a good distance outside the city. In at least one case, a trainer notation gave the wrong area completely.

The game comes with a very informative manual, which is a vast improvement over that of M&M 6. There are easy-to-read charts for skill advancement, racial characteristics, and starting stats, as well as basic information on how the game works, and a spell list. A quick start/commands card, and a role-player's guide are also included, though the role-player's guide seems a little silly to me. Finally, there is the map. It took me several hours to realize that the strange poster covered with ads for 3DO and New World Computing games was actually the map. I had tossed it aside soon after opening the box, assuming it was just a poster or something, but later, when I found myself needing a map I discovered that was indeed what it was. It's a nice colorful map, but is likely to come apart from repeated folding, unlike the cloth map that came with M&M 6.

While there are plenty of other neat little features, or minor problems I could mention, to do so would require another couple of pages, at least. Keep in mind, this is a huge game. All-in-all, Might and Magic 7: is (how many times can I say this in one review?) a great deal like M&M 6. It has many of the same disadvantages: so-so graphics, a tendency to emphasize hack-and-slash over truly engrossing storyline, some ridiculously lengthy and difficult battles, and a few important quests that are amazingly hard to complete for no good reason. (There are a few items and locations that are very difficult to locate, even though they are not actually really hidden. I actually had to call the hint line a couple of times to find things that turned out to be "hidden in plain sight." Nope, it's not just me. Check out the Might and Magic 7 message board sometime. Hardly anybody can find all those darn golem parts).

But along with these few disadvantages, Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor shares all the good points of its predecessor, along with a few brand new cool features of its own. Certainly not many RPGs I've seen lately can compete with the sheer size of this baby, or the number of quests and things to do. New lands to explore, new monsters to slay, new character classes, new skills, new items- what more can an adventurer ask for? Sure, there may not be quite as many shiny new features as some sequels have, but who cares? Might and Magic 7 is fun. Besides, how often do you get the chance to hang out in your very own castle? Hey, everybody has to have a dream.