Posted November 23, 2013
So I'm playing MM9 for the first time ever. I think that I'm about 1/3rd of the way through the game, but I could be wrong. Here are my impressions of the game so far...
a) The "indoor" environments (cities, dungeons, etc) are very well put together and rather interesting. Cities feel like cities, whereas the MM6-8 towns felt more like rural villages.
b) The 3D allows them to make traps in the environment (floors that give out, etc) that weren't possible with the old Doom-style engine. Many of these are interesting and tricky without being unfair.
c) The outdoor environments are a different story. They're huge and way too empty. There aren't enough enemies in the environment to keep it interesting. This is compounded by the many quests that require you to go back and forth between the same locations, making a long hike between them. Not fun.
d) The story so far is very repetitive in a certain sense. There are six lords ("jarls"). They each want you to do two tasks in order to advance the main plot. They all offer a third quest that is optional. It's not horrible, and even kind of easy to keep track of where you're at, but it feels very formulaic. It reminds you this is a game and makes it hard to get drawn into the world. Come to think of it, MM1 used almost the exact same setup, but I think each Lord in that game gave five quests each (and I'm not sure any of them were strictly required).
e) Combat is ridiculous. It's almost impossible to keep track of who's landing hits in real-time combat. Turn-based combat has an occasional bug that ends up locking the game up, so turn-based is discouraged except when you absolutely need it. In short, this is not a strong suit of the game. It's inoffensive, but not really challenging in any kind of way that requires brainpower.
f) Another problem with combat: you can't really run from most enemies. Most of them are at least as fast as you and they never give up aggro once they see you. The only way to really run from them is to get them stuck on something or enter a different map.
g) The skill ramping on the class promotions is completely nonsensical. Basically, there are three tiers of classes as before, but some classes that can Grandmaster a skill at the third tier can still only use it at normal level in the second tier. The game itself doesn't really document the skill system (either in the manual or in-game). So, you have to use internet resources to figure it out (almost all of which have a typo or mistake somewhere). The entire class/skill system seems like it never got a balancing polish.
h) Another problem: skill-trainers wander around the city. It can make them a pain in the butt to find.
i) Occasionally you run across interesting scripted events between NPC's that play out in real-time (i.e., not in a cinematic). I'm reminded that this was always a strength of the Lithtech engine that the game is based on (cf. No One Lives Forever 1-2, Aliens vs. Predator 2). These are mildly amusing and it makes you wish they had done more of it.
j) Magic is pretty underpowered so far, but I've heard it becomes more useful in the late game (after you get your final class promotions).
k) There are fewer searchable items than in previous MM games. MM6-8 had all kinds of drawers, cabinets, etc that contained items. Occasionally they do in MM9, but they're so infrequent that you sort of get trained to not even try anymore. I've probably missed a few.
l) Some quests have both violent and non-violent solutions. That's pretty cool.
In spite of all the minor annoyances listed above, the game isn't awful. It's just not very good, either. It's not something I'd recommend that anyone spend money on unless you really love the M&M universe and have to see the NWC story to completion.
a) The "indoor" environments (cities, dungeons, etc) are very well put together and rather interesting. Cities feel like cities, whereas the MM6-8 towns felt more like rural villages.
b) The 3D allows them to make traps in the environment (floors that give out, etc) that weren't possible with the old Doom-style engine. Many of these are interesting and tricky without being unfair.
c) The outdoor environments are a different story. They're huge and way too empty. There aren't enough enemies in the environment to keep it interesting. This is compounded by the many quests that require you to go back and forth between the same locations, making a long hike between them. Not fun.
d) The story so far is very repetitive in a certain sense. There are six lords ("jarls"). They each want you to do two tasks in order to advance the main plot. They all offer a third quest that is optional. It's not horrible, and even kind of easy to keep track of where you're at, but it feels very formulaic. It reminds you this is a game and makes it hard to get drawn into the world. Come to think of it, MM1 used almost the exact same setup, but I think each Lord in that game gave five quests each (and I'm not sure any of them were strictly required).
e) Combat is ridiculous. It's almost impossible to keep track of who's landing hits in real-time combat. Turn-based combat has an occasional bug that ends up locking the game up, so turn-based is discouraged except when you absolutely need it. In short, this is not a strong suit of the game. It's inoffensive, but not really challenging in any kind of way that requires brainpower.
f) Another problem with combat: you can't really run from most enemies. Most of them are at least as fast as you and they never give up aggro once they see you. The only way to really run from them is to get them stuck on something or enter a different map.
g) The skill ramping on the class promotions is completely nonsensical. Basically, there are three tiers of classes as before, but some classes that can Grandmaster a skill at the third tier can still only use it at normal level in the second tier. The game itself doesn't really document the skill system (either in the manual or in-game). So, you have to use internet resources to figure it out (almost all of which have a typo or mistake somewhere). The entire class/skill system seems like it never got a balancing polish.
h) Another problem: skill-trainers wander around the city. It can make them a pain in the butt to find.
i) Occasionally you run across interesting scripted events between NPC's that play out in real-time (i.e., not in a cinematic). I'm reminded that this was always a strength of the Lithtech engine that the game is based on (cf. No One Lives Forever 1-2, Aliens vs. Predator 2). These are mildly amusing and it makes you wish they had done more of it.
j) Magic is pretty underpowered so far, but I've heard it becomes more useful in the late game (after you get your final class promotions).
k) There are fewer searchable items than in previous MM games. MM6-8 had all kinds of drawers, cabinets, etc that contained items. Occasionally they do in MM9, but they're so infrequent that you sort of get trained to not even try anymore. I've probably missed a few.
l) Some quests have both violent and non-violent solutions. That's pretty cool.
In spite of all the minor annoyances listed above, the game isn't awful. It's just not very good, either. It's not something I'd recommend that anyone spend money on unless you really love the M&M universe and have to see the NWC story to completion.