Might and Magic® 8: Day of the Destroyer™

This is one of the best Might and Magic games in the entire series. The Destroyer is fated to destroy the land of Jadame and you are assaulted at the beginning by Regnan Pirates. The engine, while the same as used in MM6 and 7, still works quite well. The elemental lords, not seen since Gates to Another World(MM2) make their grand return as does an Ancient .. I don't want to spoil the surprise. You must unite the peoples of Jadame on your quest to save the land, Game is well worth your time and has many of the great characters of the game's history in it.

M&M8 is a good sequel, not the best of all times, but good. I think the new things they added are decent enough to interest the fans. The fluidity of the game remains the same as M&M 6 and 7, smooth and steady. The graphics are slightly better, but if you're a fan, you don't care much because you play M&M for the thrill not the looks. I recommend this if you have liked any its predecessors... especially at the low low price of GOG.

When I first played MM8, the game felt far more confusing than 7, which had its own intro area and a slower learning curve. In addition, you must recruit characters and you only have full customization over the first one (without using mods or hacks, at least). On one hand, this makes for an interesting party system where you can swap out characters at a tavern, but on the other hand it's punishing to a player who doesn't know what characters they'll get early on or how to plan for a balanced party. Luckily the game gives you a good core group early on to counteract this issue, but it's still disconcerting if you've played the other MM games. The gameplay and leveling is almost exactly that of 7's, which is a plus for me. The classes, however, do not follow typical archetypes of the MM series. Your mileage will vary whether you see this departure as a pro or con. I personally have mixed feelings about it. The story is also a slight departure from 6 and 7's. There is a bit of choice given to the player, which is refreshing, but it doesn't impact gameplay quite as much as 7's choices. Ultimately I enjoyed it because it didn't try to be the previous two games while still maintaining the core gameplay. Despite initial disinterest, I came to enjoy the game.

I've played this game around 15 years ago and it was my first CRPG and M&M game so it would always keep it's special place in my heart. To be fair, i found this game third in quality after 6 and 7. While it gives you more customisation of the party over previous games, it's also loses the charm over growing your party from start to finish. Also it loses all balance in about midgame-late midgame. When you manage to put 4 dragons in your party (some of which is free to acquire just from the beggining of the game) you get incredibly overpowered ability to constantly fly and use very strong AOE, while maintaning good survivability of your party due to natural tankiness of the dragons. Neverless this is still top quality RPG. Exploration is fun, puzzles are challenging, there many secrets to uncover and many loot to collect. I would recommend this game for the people who want more relaxing game from M&M series to play without any worries of losing experience of what made M&M such a cult series.

If you wanted more of MM7, this is basically an expansion pack. The major difference is you make 1 character, then you recruit the other 4 members of your party. From fighters, to mages, to dragons and vampires. The advantage being you can switch party member for particular tasks. Acromage reutrns, as well as staples like the obleisk quests. In this version, however, blasters are not present, so bear in mind there will be no deus ex in the final levels. Downsides The "new" character classes are just normal ones given a coat of paint; Vamps are Fighter-priests, Dark elves fighter-mages, etc. All the "hirelings" will be better than your charcter for the 1st 1/3 of the game. If you had "enough" MM7, you'll proabaly not enjoy this one. As I said, this is less a sequel and more an expansion. NOTE There is a patch available that allows you to continue during the last dungeon; Search MM8 Grayface to find it.