Might and Magic® 7: For Blood and Honor®

In 2001, when I was a little boy, 11 years of age, I won a Pentium 2 at a give-away at my elementary school. My dad installed Might & Magic 3, 4 and 5 on said Pentium 2 for me. From that moment, I was hooked on this series. This installment in the series, Might & Magic 7, is by far my personal favorite. I love the selection of classes, the manner in which one allocates attributes and skills after a level up, as well as the impact each skill you choose has on your play style and party make-up. For example, do you wish to have a Paladin fighting on the front line along with your Knight while that same Paladin will also double as your healer? Fantastic, don't take a Cleric along then. The drawback you will be facing here as a result is that you will miss out on the most powerful of spells open to the Cleric at higher levels as, unlike in this game's direct sequel Might & Magic 8, you can't swap out your party members. You're stuck with whomever you choose to bring along at character creation. The variety of races, faces and voices, which often lend a rather comical touch to your in-game experience, are also excellent. There is a vast array of spells, weapons and armor out there for you to discover. But one of my very favorite parts of this game, and without giving away any spoilers, is the difference in how your game will play out depending on certain choices you make during your playthrough. All in all, I love this game to death and now that I found it here on GOG.com, I'll likely be playing it again for the 100th time.

For some reason at a few CRPG web sites whenever the question of 'Which M&M game was best?' comes up, either M&M 4&5(the Xeen games) or M&M 6 is always a few votes ahead of Might and Magic VII. Don't believe it. Nostalgia is a powerful and annoying trait we humans share and it gets in the way of critical analysis. M&M 6 was a good game overall but it suffered from some flaws such as you can only play humans, not enough character classes, a more limited skill system(you can advance skills to "Master" level) and entirely too long and ultimately boring dungeons to explore. M&M 7 was MUCH better in every way(save for graphics which were never this series' strong point)! Nonhuman races add to the strategic aspect as do having more character classes and branching class 'promotion' quests(a 'good' sorcerer can be promoted to "Mage/Arch-Mage" while an evil one can become a Necromancer/Liche etc.). Somewhat smaller but better designed dungeons and such really help to maintain interest. 'Choice and Consequence' plays an important role here, unlike M&M 6. Better story overall(not that I put much stock in 'story' in CRPGs). Better quests. Better items(as in more interesting items, not necessarily more powerful). And despite the primitive graphics(primitive for the 3D era. These M&M games look worse than Build engine games from years earlier.) there is a real, tangible feeling of exploration and discovery in this game. Whenever you make it to a new 'zone'(city, land, dungeon) it truly feels new and exciting. I still cannot understand why they bothered with adding the real-time component to these games?! No one uses it except as an exploit to beat a certain dragon at the beginning of the game or to get through very low level mobs quicker once you are already high level. But as a turn-based CRPG it is top of the line! The music/soundtrack for M&M 7 is unmatched and really helps to establish atmosphere. This game is right up there with Wizardry 7 & 8 and FAR better than the console-kiddie RPGs such as Dragon Age, Fallout 3/4, Oblivion/Skyrim etc.

I stared at my screen for a few minutes before I realized I have no idea how to express correctly how wonderful this game is. Just try it.

One of my first RPGs, very entertaining story (look at MMOs now, player housing is quite popular), nice class and atribute system...oh, and the card game! :) Apart from the graphics I'd say it's a great old school 3D alternative to DnD games.

Possibly the best MM game, although I have yet to play through MM8. There's a "linear" main quest line, but you have a lot of choice as to when to do the main quests vs side quests, how to prioritize using skill points, etc. There are also many different character types to choose from: Knight, Sorcerer, Druid, Ranger, Hunter, Thief, Paladin, Cleric, etc. You also have to make a choice between taking the path of Light or the path of Darkness at a certain point in the main quest line, which means gaining access to either Light or Dark magic. One critique I do have is that the the conclusion/climax isn't very interesting/exciting. There's not much of a story there, really, nor a big exciting battle at the end, and the plot at the end seems quite disconnected from the beginning. There seemed to be something shady going on with a certain Lord, as seen through some intercepted messages, but that never did reveal itself. Still, it was lots of fun to play, and I'm looking forward to trying MM8.