Since my first experience was with sixth game, I see the eight episode as a bit mediocre. Day of the Destroyer is VERY easy compared to the two previous games (the dungeons here are for laugh only) and the another change of the rules and character creation made me even less happy. In sixth episode you could choose only from human race, but you had six classes to pick from. There was eight classes and four races in seventh game, but now race means class, so you have to choose between night elf, necromancer, knight, minotaur and vampire... Probably the most interesting aspect of the game is that you can hire up to four dragons as your companion (it's the only race you can't pick at the start) and you can play Arcomage from the very begining. On the other hand, if you want to collect treasure from the obelisc riddle, you have to wait until one specific day in the year and if you miss it, you have to wait. I have to admit that the graphic is better than the previous game and the music is still beautiful (maybe slightly less memorable than the previous soundtracks). Final verdict: great for less experienced gamers who want to get into Might and Magic saga, not so great for those who already played the previous games.
I've tried first five installments, but I'm affraid those have only historic value now... feel free to disagree with me, but I hope you'll agree with me that the Mandate of heaven ties with the seventh game as the best in series. Apart from being the second RPG I ever played (first was BG, hard to beat start of RPG experience, those two, right?), this game is good in so many ways... I love the soundtrack and the immersive gameplay. In this game marries complexity of the old games with visual qualities of the newer ones. No other sequel brought so diffilcult and vast dungeons. Sadly, the story itself isn't that great, but when it comes to the look, personaly I think it looks the best from the whole series. In conclusion, if you want to taste the times where dungeons were dungeons and not just kindergarten, feel free to explore continent of Enroth.
