Developer:New World Computing Publisher: 3DO
Reviewed by You Can Call Me RAY on 8/8/01

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First Impressions:

In both their Heroes strategy series and their venerable RPG cycle, New World Computing specializes in no-nonsense game play. M&MVI is a textbook example of that virtue. There's nothing earth-shattering about it. It has none of the silky brilliance of the BioWare/Black Isle cycle of third-person games; it has none of the innovative genre-busting features of System Shock 2 or Deus Ex. However, with its emphasis on core meat-and-potatoes role-playing game play, M&MVI scores big.

Graphics:

Graphically, the game is pleasant, but nothing to write home about. The format allows freedom of movement through fully-rendered, no-nonsense environments. Though not a visual feast, the creatures and environments have a great deal of variety. There are also very pleasing random weather effects, which add a welcome bit of variety and atmosphere. The interface is efficient and effective. The automap feature works well, and the game does a good job of keeping track of all sorts of important information that you gather along the way, such as quest reminders, potion recipes, important NPC merchants, etc.

Sound/Music:

The music is workmanlike; it's effective but not revolutionary. Ambient sound is, again, competent but not inspired. The best sound element is the superb range and variety of creature noises.

Gameplay:

The game begins with an action-packed movie that depicts a battle between your party and an assortment of evil dragons and spellcasters. After the dust settles, you're given the chance to choose between building a party or fast-tracking with a game-generated party.

Suzanne

You get to create four characters, and you have six classes to choose from: Sorcerer, Archer, Knight, Paladin, Cleric, or Druid. Naturally, each class comes with its own set of bonuses and weaknesses. A tantalizing addition to the base character classes is the potential each has to be promoted twice (Knight to Cavalier, then Champion; Paladin to Crusader, then Hero; Cleric to High Priest and Arch-Priest, and so on). These promotions are independent of your characters leveling up through experience points, and each advanced class comes with special abilities.

You're also given flexibility in choosing the gender and face of your heroes. Unfortunately, you can't import your own portraits. In the spirit of pan-gender unity, I made all of my heroes boys but gave all but one of them girl names.

The interface through this process is simple and intuitive. The only big piece of information the game withholds from you is how useless non-magic users are in this game. Well, not precisely useless, but my party, which would be nice and balanced in most games (A Knight for melee toughness, an Archer for ranged attack, a Cleric for Healing and a Sorcerer for butt-kicking magic) turned out to be far from the optimal "Gang of Four" with which to beat this particular chapter of Might and Magic. This game is skewed heavily toward magic users. The result was that for a while I wondered why the heck my Biff, my Knight, was even along for the ride, but I eventually learned various ways to put him to effective use.

Not surprisingly, there is a great deal of dungeon crawling in this game. Considering the vast amount of hours necessary to complete the story, there's a danger that all this combat could become repetitive and tedious. Luckily, the sheer variety of opponents helps prevent this from becoming a problem. Each region of the map has its own groups of nasties to deal with. Also, several times during the game your group acquires a skill or a spell so significant that it revolutionizes the game play. For example, when you have a sufficiently advanced magic user, you can expedite travel back to town with a spell called Town Portal. Advance your magic user enough and you can use Town Portal to go to a variety of locations. There's even an advanced spell that allows you to set teleport locations at will.

After the challenges of travel in the first half of the game, this is a radical change. Various other skills, spells and abilities (like flying, high repair and trading skills, etc.) have an increasingly significant impact on game play. This results in variety that's vital in a game this long.

Enjoyment:

The story begins with that simplest of quests, the delivery of a letter. This quickly leads to more complex and dangerous tasks. An admirable quality of the game's structure is that it's an enormously open game. Many of the quests can be done in any order, and virtually all areas of the huge game world are accessible at any time as long as you are brave and resourceful (or, at times, foolish!) enough to venture into them.

Phyllis, the wily Warrior/Mage

One of the great pleasures of a good RPG is when the world created by the game feels real, and in this department M&MVI really scores. There is a richness to the structure of the game that makes you feel your characters are truly inhabiting an actual place.

Two areas that contribute to this robustness are the travel system and the skill system. For about the first half of the game, travel between distant points can be a real challenge, as you have to learn the schedules of available means of commercial transport (such as horses or ships). Overland walking is frequently, but not always, an option. However, it is not for the faint-of-heart.

The skill system is simply terrific. Unlike other RPGs that let you immediately upgrade a selection of skills whenever you level up, M&MVI takes a much more real-world approach. Upon receiving enough experience points (through monster butt-kicking or completing quests) you qualify to be able to train for the next level. To do this, you must find a training center qualified to train heroes of your level, and then pay for the training. This training takes up real calendar time. This process results in giving you skill points, which you can distribute among your characters' various skills (such as weapon skills, magic skills, and miscellaneous skills such as identification, trading, trap disarming, etc.). However, to learn these particular skills (and to advance to new categories of expertise), you must once again search for characters who are willing to train you. These trainers are scattered all over the game world, and keeping track of them is an adventure in itself.

Certain skill levels are only available to a certain character class, or after completion of a specific quest. You can also increase your party's skills by hiring up to two additional NPCs to join you.

The game has a huge list of lengthy required quests, and many more optional quests. In addition, there are other activities you can participate in, such as visiting shrines to upgrade your base statistics, gambling at a local circus for valuable prizes, and solving a gigantic independent puzzle that leads to a treasure cache of staggering value.

Multiplayer:

N/A

Overall Impression:

Story-wise, the game begins fairly conventionally (the Prince needs help ridding the countryside of a strange evil and only you can help him!), but ends up in some pretty surprising territory. I'd tell you more, but I'd then I'd have to have my Knight, Biff, open up a big ol' can of whupass on you.

The combat can either be turn-based or real-time. The player can switch between these two modes with the flick of a single key. I'm a big fan of turn-based combat, as it makes for battles that feel tactical rather than frantic. The first-person perspective of the game does impose fairly strict limits on battle strategy, however. I'm sure I've been spoiled by the top-down third-person BioWare games, but I missed the ability to place my characters in different positions, rather than always have all of them standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the same spot.

In conclusion, Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven gives the player an enormous amount of chewy, crunchy RPG goodness. After giving my poor mouse hand a rest, I'm eager to tackle VII and VIII.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

On the plus side, the character creation system is completely gender-neutral. There are no penalties or bonuses for making characters male or female. However, there are times in the game when a particular type of monster will particularly target a character of a particular sex (or class, for that matter).

On the minus side, the fact that the female NPCs are virtually all negative characters struck me as just the tiniest bit misogynistic, though this was not a major distraction. It's a small vice compared to the excellent gender neutrality of the character creation system.

Ray Ivey regularly provides his esteemed wit and wisdom at Just Adventure. He joins JA News Editor Cindy Kyser Morgan, aka Luna_Cee, as a WomenGamers.com contributor. We are delighted to feature their work.