I bought the game Dark Messiah of Might and Magic some years ago as I liked the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I realised however, that the HOMM games were more like turn-based strategy with RPG elements. I got to know the real Might and Magic series some time later (have not yet gotten far with it though). And Dark Messiah is an RPG, so I compare it to the Might and Magic series:

I've a huge backlog of games and just last month I tried to play Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. And I wonder: why is the word Might and Magic in that title? I couldn't find any connection to neither the HOMM nor the M&M games I know. Lorewise I don't know much about the games. But in my experience game-play wise it's so unlike Might and Magic.

Just like the game LotR - War in the North in which I soon got disappointed, DMoMM feels like a hack and slash clickfest. Though what moves you can make, how you interact with the world, is getting complicated as there's no pause-button in the game. After a few weeks away from the game, I have to get used to it again slowly but the game won't allow. The enemies that I arrived at by now, hacked me to pieces in seconds, without giving me time to think 'how was it that you could manipulate objects with magic and how will i be able to make sure the enemy stands under the planks and have all the contents drop on h... [Sareth is hacked to death].

Sorry for ranting in this forum about it, but it's the only Might and Magic forum I know and the only Might and Magic forum where I'm signed in as a user. Dark Messiah has the words Might and Magic, but for gods' sake, why?

A well known brand name sells more then a new, unknown one.
Dark Messiah has nothing whatsoever to do with Might&Magic, but fortunately it's IMO a very good game, with much better combat than for example the Elder Scrolls games.
So while it's not a real Might&Magic game, at least it doesn't shame the name, even though the story is lame and the voice acting at times cringeworthy.

I didn't think it was a click fest; it really wasn't that hectic.
Make sure you use the Kick a lot. And the Charm spell is overpowered, and will always buy you time, especially when facing several opponents.
I played it mostly as a stealth game, and enjoyed it a lot. The stealth gameplay is not as good as in the Thief games, but the combat is better.

I'm glad you brought this up. DMMM is about as awsome as they come, they game was awsome, the story was awsome, the combat was awsome, the spells were neat, the whole thing rules.

thus, it bears might and magic name becuase it upholds the awsomeness of the genre!

another reason: they used the might and magic licence becuase they were fans of might and magic, and wanted to expand on the series.

besides if you take the time to research might and magic titles, there are a huge assortment of genre's. all rpg'ish to some degree mostly, but they use the name in all sorts of games really.

buyer beware, if its called might and magic, it may not be your cup of tea.

I guess liking it or not has to do a lot with wether or not you like real-time combat in an RPG. I'm a Baldur's Gate player mostly, and I read on another forum a well-written comment from someone on BG who compared the game to chess: you make a move, see what the opponent does, pause while you think about your next move, order your next move to your character, unpause and see what happens.

The ordinary Might and Magic series can be played that way as well: as a game of chess, sitting back and thinking about your next move.

If something gets frantic like real-time combat does, the only thing I like is Battlefield-style FPS's: WASD, left-mouse button, either E or G to grab things, CTRL to crouch and Space Bar to jump. Nothing more to remember. And the 1-5 keys for weapons are all default, so you don't need time to think where you put what weapon. Anything more complicated, and I need time to think.

Basically, just like IRL, I'm much more a thinker than a doer.

Not for me.
For party based games I much prefer turn based, or real time with pause. I can't imagine controling a full party in Baldur's Gate 2 in real time. But for single character games I prefer real time.
It's two different experiences, really. Turn based games are about tactics and using your "pieces" most effectively, and are thus more like chess, while single character games are more about immersion, explorations and role playing. But Dark Messiah even manages to make the real time combat quite tactical, which I really appreciated.

I enjoy both turn based CRPGs and strategy games, but not real time startegy.
And I like first person shooters and action CRPGs, but not third person shooters or action CRPGs with behind-the-ass camera, since the 3rd person view ruins the immersion for me.

But like you I'm more of a thinker than doer in real life.

boy i love turn based. its as close to strategy games as i come these days.

my favorite rpg is probably wizardry 7 gold, everything thing about the game just screams RPG to me. when you characters get more powerful, you FEEL more powerful, like you've really advanced. a lot of rpgs these days, you level up and you barely notice.

dark messiah of might and magic, not an rpg in my humble opinion. but one of the most fun action games of its ilk, and its becuase of the combat. you can't just swing a million times and win the game, you have to use some strategy like an earlier posted has stated.

What's irritating with railroaded games like this is, if after some hours of playing, I get tired, I stop at a moment that the game gets too difficult, like the room where my campaign ended up now. But when I pick up the game a few weeks or months later, not only is my campaign still caught at that difficult moment, by then I've lost the feelings of the controls and need to get the hang of it again. And instead of going to an easier area or an easier quest like open-world games, in a lineair game there's only one way to do that, is to redo something you already finished by picking an easier fight and redoing something from there. Which I don't like, if I already know the track ahead.

Guess that's another reason why I'm having trouble with the game. It's the same reason I quit playing Brothers in Arms and Call of Duty, while I play Battlefield again and again (I'm talking single player here): if things don't go well in one place, I want to try my luck some other place and return later.

Strange thing: I like railroads in real-life and dislike cars, but that's got to do with emissions per train or car, something that's not making any difference per railroaded or non-railroaded games.

Thanks to all for joining me in this little bit 'off-'topic, by the way.

I think that you just don't like that type of game. And that's okay. I loved DMoMM, but I completely understand those not liking it.

As far as "real" M&M games go and the lore, Might and Magic is complicated.

The idea of "Might and Magic" was more of a brand name to let you know "This game is going to be awesome. It'll be mostly fantasy and possibly with some sci-fi elements present." That's about it.

The first several M&M games all took place on different worlds, but there were some loose connections with them. They were in the same universe, just different worlds.

Then Might and Magic 6 and 7 were on the same world and Heroes of Might and Magic 1 through 3 were on the same world.

HoMM4 took place in a different universe, but a few characters from the previously used universe were able to make it to that universe.

And then Ubisoft came. They used the same M&M title to say "We are going to have some awesome fantasy games" but they built their own world(who knows what "universe" it is a part of). That world is Ashan. DMoMM takes place in Ashan, as does HoMM5 and 6. Ubisoft will likely continue to use Ashan for its MM games.

Dark Messiah fits into the genre that Crusaders and Warriors of M&M fit into. Heroes still continues. But the original dungeon crawlers have yet to resurface. I honestly think they'd do well to build a Might and Magic X and create the link from the nacels and Erathia and all the other lore and connect it to Ashan. And continue the party 1st person perspective. If done right, it'll sell like all the others did. And it would provide a strong stable point for an overarching lore that players can really sink their teeth into.

Thanks Tallina! That's an insightfull post. I wasn't even aware HOMM IV and V took place in different worlds. Thanks for educating me a bit. I liked the background story of HOMM IV a lot, though I still have to make some progress in MM VI. I quited the campaign for lack of ingame-finance to patch myself up after battles: I got more wounds than loot to buy time for healing with. I want to start again but just can't make up my mind about my new party. I really want 5 people, and don't know which class I'll skip.

In HoMM4, the world from HoMM1-3 is destroyed and they escape the destruction. So it carries over some of the same people, just to a different world.

HoMM5 and 6 are on Ashan, where everything is completely new. Those are the Ubisoft titles.

If you're done with HoMM3 and HoMM4 isn't very fun or is annoying (as I found it), then I'd recommend going to HoMM5. It starts a new story and removes just about everything that's annoying with HoMM4.

That said, it still has some of the basic annoyances of the whole series (namely: slow, repetitive start up).

Well, opinions very on HOMM IV, I found it one of the most enjoyable of the whole series. My first acquintance with the series was HOMM V, and I wanted to know what it's predecessor was like, and I like it very much, for it being so much like a roleplaying game: good story, characters you can develop extensively and have a real role in combat, with a real chance of falling in battle (not just being slain when the whole army is defeated, like in HOMM V). I don't own HOMM 1-3 though, I don't know what they're like.

Just my humble opinion, but I don't think this is quite accurate.

The original games had a mostly-coherent overarching plot of which your adventures with different parties on different worlds comprised a small but significant part. In Might & Magic 1-5 the overarching plot is the intergalactic battle between Sheltem and Corak. Play through all five of those games and you can clearly see how they are more than "loosely" connected.

Might and Magic 6-8 tell the story of the world of Enroth and how the Kreegans almost destroyed it except for the different bands of adventurers that played a role in stopping them (I'm a little fuzzier on 8's role in this, because I haven't played it). However, by this time the better-selling HoMM series had taken the lead in advancing the main plotline.

Might and Magic 9 and HoMM4 were supposed to usher in a new overarching plot on a new world, but unfortunately 3DO and their subsidiaries (NWC) went bankrupt.

The Might & Magic name passed into Ubisoft's hands who have now used it simply as a marketing ploy to sell products of varying quality that have nothing to do with the original universe and its backdrop of the Ancients, the Kreegans, etc.

I completely agree with you, gammaleak.

By "loose," I mean that each game can be played individually and you still get the story. You hit the overarching Sheltem-Corak conflict in 1-5, but it's usually such a small portion of the game. You are participating in the overarching story of stopping Sheltem, but the true meat of the game is in all the mini-stories. In some of the games, you spend literally 10 minutes or less interacting with Corak and/or Sheltem, but the remainder 490 minutes of gameplay is on everything else.

That said, there is more flavor to be had if you play through the whole series. (and of course, 6-8 take things further with the Kreegans and Guardians)

The plots and characters begin to get muddled as you hit Warriors, Shifters and Crusaders.

All of that said DMoMM has taken a whole big step into a different direction (along with all of Ashan). But who is to say Ashan isn't reachable by many of the characters from the old MM? Or, who is to say that Ubisoft won't build a great overarching story into the world of Ashan?

"Might and Magic" means something completely different, but it also is trying to sell a product the same way that it was used before: branding. Even with some of the story elements absent, a lot of the branding still holds meaning. DMoMM takes things in the action direction like Warriors and Shifters, but did it so much better. And Heroes continues to hold onto the classic Heroes game mechanics with changes in the formula occurring regularly.

After New World and then 3DO died, I was hoping someone would pick it all up. And Ubisoft has. I wonder where it will go from here.

Yeah, Warriors, Shifters, and Crusaders were definitely a bit more "tacked on" than true Might and Magic games. And you're right that you can play the games individually without losing what's really fun about them.

I'm personally sad that Ubisoft scrapped the original universe and find Ashan to be dreadfully dull and generic, even if some of the individual games are alright.

And I agree there as well. I think they really need to pull everything together with a true Might and Magic title.

Perhaps the Kreegan survive and rule segments of Ashan. Or perhaps Ashan has an underground cave system with portals to tons of worlds -- some being Enroth and the nacels.

But honestly, i would settle with them just getting some more flavor to Ashan and make us fall in love with it by itself.