Retrieve the scroll, save the princess.... (Might and Magic VI - The Mandate of Heaven (PC))

Member Name: nlee

Product:	Might and Magic VI - The Mandate of Heaven (PC)
Date:	20/01/02 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stress-relieving, Cheap

Disadvantages: Repetitive, Too pixelated

(Why is this located in the playstation section? This game was only released for the PC! Well, I can't find it in the PC section so I'm just going to settle for this one. Here goes...)

Try and visualise yourself in an alternate world where monsters, dragons, wizardry and sorcery exist. Now try and place yourself inside this world; You and three other friends happen to be a band of optimistic rebels trying to set things right in the world and will do whatever it takes to get there. If you're familiar with the concept of adventure role-playing games, then this is pretty much your bog standard "complete these quests to save the princess" game. There are also plenty of maze-like dungeons for you to scavenge and loot.

However, what makes Might and Magic VI stand out from the shroud of games in this genre is the option to play in real-time combat or, if you prefer, "freeze" the game and take turn-based tactical moves against your opponent. I much prefer the latter as I find myself being constantly shot at from bow-wielding alligators, unable to pinpoint where they are standing and finding all my party members unconscious within a matter of nanoseconds. The game is fair though; they won't let you wander round the world without the help of your colour-changing enemy alert radar. This makes it easier to find out when enemies are near as they change colour, from green (no enemies) to yellow (enemies near) and eventually, to red (they are standing 1cm behind you and you don't even realise).

Characters within your party all have very fake-looking actors playing them. It is hilarious to see one of my character's realistic heads attached upon a stout, animated man's body. There is a row of portraits on the bottom of your screen so that you can keep an eye on your party's status. If they look as if they are about to throw up what they had for breakfast, they are poisoned. If they are tired, they will
start drifting off to the side and if they get hit by ravaging Minotaurs, they will reel their head back in pain and say "ouch!". The characters WILL show you how they are feeling and it is important to pay attention to this, as unhappy adventurers are bad fighters. There are numerous ways to make your group feeling in tip-top condition again. The easiest and cheapest way of doing this is to rest at a nearby inn, or if this is not possible, drink from magical fountains that replenish energy, heal members with magic, drink potions, go to a temple, etc. Weapons, armour, magical items and herbs can be bought and sold from stores placed within towns around the gaming area or they can be obtained from the remains of your enemies, conspicuous treasure chests or secret walls. There is a limit to the amount of stuff your characters can carry so it is best not to burden them with useless items before setting off to loot another dungeon. You can also acquire the help of some civilians in the towns that you go into. Some may provide a healing service, increase experience gained or increase the weapon proficiency of your characters but all this comes at a price. Usually it would be something like "1000 gold pieces to start and 200 gold pieces a day". However, there is a maximum of two civilian characters that you can hire.

The game is huge in terms of how long you will be playing it and also in terms of the area in which you get to travel around. Most areas will be accessible by walking from one place to the next, or by hiring horses and saddles to ride to whichever town you like, provided that they are located on the same piece of land. Those that are not, or are located along the coast can be made accessible by buying fares and travel there by boat. It is unique in the way that the destination that the boating and horse company go to change for every day of the week. There is also a spell that enables you to travel from town to town that won't
be learnt until the later stages of the game. The element of time is very important as sometimes, quests need to be completed at a certain time and there are various obvious light changes as you go between day and night that can affect your visibility whilst in combat. Music creates atmosphere in the game. A town environment will have an ambient jog of everyday life playing through it, until you leave the town and go to a temple operated by a cult, in which there is sacrificial doom music coming in. Indeed, the music provides an appropriate feeling for the environment that you are in and helps define the theme better than the graphics in the game.

The game is extremely non-linear although to accomplish the biggest quest in the game, some smaller quests will have to be completed first. Every time you complete a certain quest (which is conveniently logged into your journal automatically), you will earn experience and skill points and perhaps a few things that the person, or creature, no longer requires. This helps build the strength of your party members. Skill points can be allocated accordingly onto different statistics so that your character may become better at certain weapons, magical elements or skills. This gives you the opportunity to give each of your characters a role so that overall, they may all work in co-ordination with one another. If you have a character with mage skills, he is obviously better off plucking enemies off from a distance with magic while a knight starts hacking away at enemies at a close range with a well-brandished sword. Training centres are dotted around the world to help your characters take up new proficiencies, for example, if a knight suddenly decides that he wants to learn magic, he can go to a sorcerer who can teach him the profession for a price. Personally, I prefer to keep my characters specialised in one or two abilities so as to increase their statistics upon these abilities, but nothing will be keeping you away fr
om creating a character who is a master at magic, weapons and thievery; it just requires more time and effort.

All this is well and good, but I find several elements in the game that could have been improved. Enemies will attack in droves so that they their hits become more effective but this sometimes leaves the game a bit too difficult for me. Enemies that come too close to your line of vision will disappear into a cloud of pixelated blurs that become invincible unless you move away from them. In fact, some may complain that the graphics in this game are the work of nursery school children as the textures in the landscape are extremely pixelated. The only thing that would convince you that a mass of green blocks of various shades was in fact, grass, is that it makes that wet springy noise when you walk across it.

I also find that the game can sometimes become a bit repetitive. The central idea of this game is to basically lead a band of merry men (or women) into large labyrinths, killing most of the things that dwell inside of it and come back, victorious and in one piece, with a vital object that in turn, is handed to a needy citizen who grants you passage to further areas of the game. This cycle repeats until you reach the ultimate conclusion of the game. People who like to de-stress and not do any difficult thinking will find the game idealistic, as beating your opponents simply by clicking on them will prove as a very effective stress-relieving remedy. Others who like diversity in life can try this game for the diversity of having tried a range of games in their lifetime.

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