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General discussion (archive)What is the best Might and Magic game?(23 posts)(23 posts)
(23 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 20, 2012
So I just beat Legend of Grimrock and thought it was amazing. I was introduced into a new genre that I had never delved into before. Now I am wondering if I should buy one of the Might and Magic games. Never played any of them before so I was hoping some outside opinions could help lead me in the right direction.

Edit: Its looking like I might get the Might and Magic 6 pack or now that it has been brought to my attention the Lands of Lore pack. Thanks for every bodies input its helping me choose =]
Post edited April 20, 2012 by bladejc
Posted April 20, 2012
Might & Magic 7 is the best one in my opinion, though some think 6 is better.

In M&M7 you own your very own castle, that you also get opportunity to improve. No other in-game housing has ever been as cool :)
Posted April 20, 2012
Wish I could get into any of them.
Posted April 20, 2012
Might & Magic 4-5 (World of Xeen), is in my opinion the best M&M game. I found combat to be a chore in M&M 6 & 7, but in 4-5, it was well quite fun, at least once you get a few spells and such to play with.
Posted April 20, 2012
From what I heard the combined M&M 4 and 5 might be the best ones. Keep in mind that unless I'm misinformed about how the combat works in Legend of Grimrock, the M&M games are a little different in that they're turn-based (at least the earlier ones) and/or with free movement instead of tile-based (the later ones, from M&M 6 onward).

Closer to Grimrock are probably Stonekeep and Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos here on GOG (I heartily recommend the latter). If tile-based is not a requirement, you could also check out Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis. Unless you prefer to play a whole party, that is.
Post edited April 20, 2012 by Leroux
Posted April 20, 2012
4+5.
Might and Magic 1-6 complete pack is probably the best* original content value offer on the site (Baldur's Gate 2 might be better if you include third-party mods).

Be warned though, M&M games in general are not big on the technical aspects of dungeon-crawling.

*Note that I'm trying very hard to be objective here: my personal preferences are HoMM 2 for best game, Arcanum for best RPG, and Trine for the fuzzy wuzzy feeling.
Posted April 20, 2012
The Might and Magic series is in a bit of disparity. Might and Magic 1 and 2 are their own storyline, 3 - 5 is yet another.

Heroes of Might and Magic establishes a new canon entirely, starting with the first, leading to the second which is then followed by Might and Magic 6, HOMM 3, M&M7 and finally M&M 8. I'd say that these, together, are the best Might and Magic games.

They are only really sequels in terms of the timeline. HOMM1 deals with Lord Ironfist's consolidation of power, HOMM2 puts Roland on the throne (or Archibald if you want to play as him, but Roland is king in M&M6 making him canon). M&M 6 deals with the Devils, who arrive during the reign of King Roland, leading to HOMM3 in which the kingdom is in tatters after dealing with the Devils, leading to M&M7 with takes place in the now restored kingdom.

M&M 8 is detached in that it doesn't really continue the Erathia saga as such, although Roland does appear. It is only the chronological sequel to M&M 7. Admittedly, M&M 7 and 8 are the only ones I've actually finished and I love both.

M&M 9, HOMMs 4, 5 and 6 are all piss. They are in an entirely different universe after Ubisoft steal the franchise from its creator. They are sacrilege.

So if you're interested in the story at all, for the complete experience you'll want:
HOMM1 -> HOMM2 (as Roland) -> M&M 6 -> HOMM3 -> M&M 7 -> M&M 8

But if you're just looking to play whatever is the best then I'd say it's too hard to pick a "best". They're all very good. HOMMs 2 and 3 are wonderful and so are M&Ms 6, 7 and 8. I haven't played much of 1-5 but they're nice and old school adventures you might want to try.
Posted April 20, 2012
HoMM III :P
Posted April 20, 2012
You'll get a million answers, for sure. :D

I think that by a long long long shot, Might and Magic 2 is the best. I'm not a huge fan of the PC version. I liked that Commodore 64 and Sega versions better, but the PC is good enough.

I was never able to get into the others very well until 6. I played 6 and 8 and in my very humble opinion, 8 was better in almost every way. I enjoyed the basic concept of 6 more, but the gameplay and stories of 8 were better to me.

All of that said, the Might and Magic games are very different from Grimrock. Many of the M&M games look like Grimrock on screenshots b/c their movement moves like Grimrock. But the battles are completely different.

I think Stonekeep and Lands of Lore are closer to Grimrock. Warriors of the Eternal Sun is a great on on Sega Genesis, too.

-----

Also, I read Joe's post above. The games are all linked in some ways. The game world of Might and Magic exists with a bunch of planets and planet-like space-faring flat sheets of earth. A lot of characters end up mixing around in the games. For example, Corak is in Might and Magic 1 on a planet-like plane. Then in M&M 2, he shows up as a ghost on another plane. Also in M&M 2 is the story of the creation of their world via a war between the elementals. Those elemental lords show up in Might and Magic 8.

Although they are tied together, the ties are fairly loose. So each game can be played on its own, but playing them all adds little bits of flavor that you may otherwise miss.
Post edited April 20, 2012 by Tallima
Posted October 13, 2012
Might ad Magic World of Xeen (4+5) by far. Played through both disc versions when initially released separately and was blown away by the extra stuff they gave you when combining both games. Then the full voiced-over WoX CD-ROM was released, and quess what? I bought it and played through all over again!

For those of you who did not finish the games, you missed out on probably some of the cleverest and most innovative story telling in RPG. **** SPOILER **** Both worlds are mirrors of each other, joining both games allow you to travel between them, and at the end of the final WoX quest, available only if you installed both games originally, well the world ... nah, i'm not telling. I had the original two world maps glued back-to-back, great memories.

Still have WoX installed under DosBox, I launch WoX it once in a while for nostalgia sake.

Might and Magic 6, 7, and 8 look better and play differently. Never finished any of them but they were fun although tracking quests was nasty. Avoid 9 at all cost, it will only give you the wrong impression of M&M.

NooB warning!!! The Heroes series games are NOT RPG games but strategy games, like Age of Magic.

The original poster mentionned Grimrock. If you are looking for it's source, find Dungeon Master I and II (good luck finding them). Very similar are Eye of the Beholder I II III, Lands of Lore (as many versions as you can find), and Stonekeep (GOG yea!).

Take your time, have fun with M&M!!!
Posted October 13, 2012
I'd for go for the 6-pack. That way you get a span of the series: the really early stuff, the 3-5 2D stuff, and the first 3D one. I've only played World of Xeen much so far, but I'm really enjoying it so far.
Posted October 13, 2012
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TheJoe: M&M 9, HOMMs 4, 5 and 6 are all piss. They are in an entirely different universe after Ubisoft steal the franchise from its creator. They are sacrilege.
1) M&M IX and HoMM IV are part of the original setting.
2) 3DO went bankrupt after publishing M&M IX. If someone (in this case, Ubisoft) hadn't bought the rights, there would have been no more M&M at all
3) Heroes V isn't that bad. And Clash of Heroes, despite bearing no resemblance to any existing M&M game whatsoever, is fantastic. Dark Messiah's pretty good too, although again it's more in the vein of Ultima Underworld/Arx Fatalis than the old M&M series.
Posted October 13, 2012
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ithilien827: Might & Magic 7 is the best one in my opinion, though some think 6 is better.
Damn, I feel I have forgotten so much about MM6-8. I should probably replay them...

I recall I enjoyed them all, but for a bit different reasons. I think MM6 was the biggest and baddest of the three IIRC, but it bugged me how it didn't have a quest log like the latter games had (IIRC?), and it felt a bit fake how the world consisted of square areas. Or something.
Posted October 13, 2012
I'll go ahead and say III. It may be some kind of heresy, but 6+, where they radically changed the game play, just never gelled with me the way 3 did. "But if you prefer that kind of game-play, isn't World of Xeen better?" Well ... maybe in some kind of objective, Platonic sense, but when I played it, the combined-world aspect ended up being kind of awkward; I somehow got stuck in what would have been Clouds of Xeen, so I switched worlds, made a lot of progress in what would have been Darkside, and then when I finally got unstuck in Clouds, the balance was completely blown, and it ended up being a huge anticlimax. So in actual practice, III ended up working better for me.

...I just realized that the OP is almost half a year old, and it is therefore a little later to be making this suggestion.
Post edited October 13, 2012 by BadDecissions
Posted October 13, 2012
Having just completed World of Xeen and now played all the M&M games except 8, I think I'll rank them in this order:

1. MM2, MM6 and MM7.
Can't really decide between 6 and 7. Both have excellent skill systems and character development. 6 has better dungeons and is more epic, while 7 has Acromage, item upgrades and slightly better combat.
MM2 has the best (as in most tactical) combat of all the M&M games, and with hirelings you can have 8 characters. The only real downsides is that you can't save everywhere, and fixed encounter are reset after exiting the area they are in.
I think MM6 and 7 do everything (except maybe the art style) better than MM3-5. Their only weakness is the combat, but at least you again can face hordes of enemies, and not the pitiful groups of enemies of MM3-5.

2. MM1
More primitive than MM2, but still has a much better combat system than MM3-5.

3. MM3

4. World of Xeen.

5. MM5

6. MM4

7. MM9

IMO MM3-5 really suffers from the vastly simplified and easier combat compared to MM1 and 2, and there is very little tactics left. About the only combat spells I ever used was Mass Distortion and Implosion, and the occasional Fireball, Lighting Bolt, Holy Word and Dancing Sword.
Also, I missed hirelings in MM4-5. With such an insane amount of loot it would be nice to have more characters to share with.

So I guess I'm one of the few who think both MM1-2 and MM6-7 are better than the "holy trinity" of MM3-5.
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General discussion (archive)What is the best Might and Magic game?(23 posts)(23 posts)
(23 posts)