Might and Magic® 8: Day of the Destroyer™

I was for introduced to rpg's through this game from a good friend of mine. He had it on his computer which we would both spend hours, to days eventually into weeks just messing around with it. To this day, this game had always been a pleasant and exciting to play. After playing M&M 8 I instantly flew and played the others at a later date. Though all exciting with their own different play types, M&M 8 is something that separates itself from the rest. More races to choose from, more freedom of choice, and even though the story is rather short and to the point which isn't as elaborate as most would want, the game has plenty of side quests which make the gaming experience lengthy and worth the exploration.

When this game was first released, and for about 14 years afterwards, I had little interest in playing it. The 'race as class' thing reminded me of OD&D - a game system I absolutely hate- and the 'Create one PC and recruit the rest' thing was at the time starting to get on my nerves. But I bought it on GOG with the idea that maybe there was some fun to be had if I found myself really bored with no other games to play. Boy was I wrong. For starters after playing this for a while I could understand why they went with the 'class = race and class' thing. It has a lot to do with how the skill and abilities system works with classes in the modern Might and Magic games. It makes a LOT more sense to me now that I understand the reasoning behind it. I won't waste space here with elaboration on this though. Play this game and you will see. And the 'Create one and recruit the rest' aspect, while I never hated such in any RPGs I have come to really appreciate in this game (Plus there is a custom add-on script thing which you can download from Greyface's M&M page which allows you to create all of your party members). One reason is that dragons...are unfortunately way overpowered and being able to create one as your primary PC would have made the game hard to enjoy. At least this way you have to go achieve some things before being able to recruit a dragon. Sure the 'recruit most of your party' aspect, as in most RPGs which use this - allows you to exploit and get absurdly powerful characters earlier than you should but really most people who play this (your typical average RPGer) will not even think of going on a near suicide run to be able to exploit healing temples and recruit a level 50 knight before their party is level 30. And so having this option does not really hurt anything. Running out of room here so I will end this a bit shorter than I would like.

I remember when I was much younger I bought it in one of the local shops. At first I got killed by pirates, later by guards... But some time later, as I got better (at finding NPCs) I realised this game has an insane potential - and the save files are easy to edit, thus my main character became a dragon. Story is ok, perhaps nothing super epic, but it's good - and by today's standard it's more than good taking how boring many modern games are - plot wise. The really remarkable part of this game however is the mechanics. Offers incredible freedom including flight, unique powers and races that normally represent monsters that get killed by heroes.

This was the worst of classical Might and Magic. Compared to VI and VII this is... blasphemy. Light and dark magic, once elite skills that were accessible only to the most powerful magic users become starting skill...which of course lead to neutering it. You no longer chose race and class...you want to be goblin knight? Sorry, you can either be a knight or a troll, or a vampire. Apparently being a troll is know a carrier, same with a vampire. In time you may chose to recruit a dragon in your party, of course, dragons are so powerful that if you recruit it you gain so great mid-game boost that game becomes boring. At the same time they do not follow with the punch, I mean if you can recruit a dragon why not recruit an angel, or a behemoth? Why not turn your team into mythical powerhouse considering that we actually fight against world ending event? You do not build your party from the start, instead, you recruit them in inns. At the same time this game is still classical M&M, story is fun, exploration is interesting and world is filled with wonder. I do not see any reason to play it other than morbid curiosity, kind of like watching car crash. If you crave true M&M just pick up part VI or VII. Game is simply mediocre, everything good is nothing but vestige of old games, it is not utter disaster like part IX but... just do yourself a favour and pick older ones.

This installment is not going to be as fun for everyone, but it has some of the most original elements of the entire series. The game is fairly easy compared to the previous two which seem to use the same engine. The aesthetics of the game are somewhat less appealing than it's prequels, MM6 and MM7; the dungeons and world are also smaller, but it's difficult to beat the overall sense of epic fantasy thats provided without overloading on caricature fantasy with exaggerated phenotypes slathered in special effects for a million buffs such as in the Ubisoft might and magic world has become. Although the 3DO might and magic world goes from neophytes beating on goblins to heroes flying around in the sky, it will feel authentic and down to earth compared to today's generic, cumbersome, cluttered austentatious tacky World of Warcraft ripoffs. You will have the most unique selection of classes and races and can change both the number and type of characters in your party. This makes the game more focused on developing your characters vs exploring and allows you to choose how much of a challenge you want. Ever want to go it alone? Now you can attempt to beat the game solo, or with up to 5 characters. This game currently lacks the availability of mods which the previous two games had. If you're familiar with how to extract files and tinker with it, you can adjust how the items look and how tough enemies are to provide more challenges and rewards. For example, I like to severely limit how long the "fly" spell can be cast and since I like to play with one character at a time, I also like to change the availability of certain skills. Be sure to check online for the 'mouse look patch' and other tweaks on Greyface's Might and Magic website to experience the game more fluidly and without as many bugs.