In the vacuum this game would probably deserve 5 stars, but it is remake of the classic, so it must be compared to that. This is a fun title that I thoroughly enjoyed playing. The story is close to the original game with some minor modifications, some for good, some for bad. Graphics is great, but the original was very good for it’s time as well. City, people and cars look amazing, but driving experience got simplified. In the original Bolt almost would not make it to the Chinatown as it did not have enough HP. The game is much easier than the original. The new voice actors are very good as the ones in the original. Now for not so good. - Soundtrack is good, but not even close to original one which had the best 30s-40s music, such as Django Reinhardt. - Controls are much worse than in the original. - Some technical issues – in Linux it crashes soon after start, in Win 11 I was forced to look for solution online because it did not start at all (hint: in Compatibility disable full screen optimizations) Overall it is a good game, but original is just better.
The first two games in the series (The Legend and Armored Princess) are classics, the last two this one and the next are not so much. Most of the criticism is for this game is applicable for The Dark Side as well. Good: - Same old mechanics, just slightly improved. - The world is vast. - music is still great. - you meet some characters from previous two games. Bad: - the story line is cliche. The main character is stupid (if you play it you'll see). There is very little imagination in naming NPCs (i.e. take famous painter Aivazovsky and name orcish painter Ay Vaz, etc.) - the game is unpolished and possibly unfinished - the bugs are aplenty: crashes (save after each battle or you'll be sorry), uncompleteable quests (such as "paper for the professor"), parts of the world you cannot get to (you see it in Demonis). - game is much easier than the first two - by the end any battle will be a cakewalk. - if you want achievements and medals the game involves a lot of grind. So if you really liked the first two and want more - buy it and play it, otherwise don't bother.
This is a good entry in Enroth/Erathia/Jadame trilogy, though not as good as the first two (6 and 7). The game has a better graphics than 6 and 7, quite good story and good quests. You can play different races that are substitute for classes of the previous games (for example, Dark Elf is very close to the Archer class of M&M 7). You can even have dragons in your party. But on the negative side it has smaller world, smaller dungeons and it is much easier than previous entries. Once you get a dragon, the rest of the game is a easy. You also get a lot of experience for the quests leveling up quickly (bounty hunter guild quest gives you more than a million of the experience on the last level). There are too many relics and artifacts as well. There are bugs, but besides the crash entering Escaton palace (which you can avoid by lowering all sounds to 0 in control menu for the moment of entrance), nothing breaking the game. The game also removes SciFi settings, except for the last cut scene, so you will not be shooting blasters. The game works well on Linux with WINE, provided (as for any 32-bit game) you add 32-bit graphics drivers and log-in via X, not Wayland. Overall this is my least favorite out of M&M 6, 7 and 8, but it is still very good
This is my favorite of M&M games. As M&M6 it is tied to Heroes Of Might and Magic series, happening just after HoMM3 - you will be instantly familiar with some races and characters if you played it. The story is better than M&M6 and there is a moment when it splits up resulting in two completely different second parts of the game, thus adding to replay value. The classes have much more meaning than in M&M6 as there are skill level limits depending on the class. The graphics is better than M&M6, for the first time using 3D accelerators. The world is not as vast as M&M6, but still huge. The game is also not as difficult as previous installments. There are even shortcuts: instead of fighting through very difficult dungeon closer to the end, if you have Archmage or Lich you can cast invisibility and just walk through it. This is the last M&M game that has strong SciFi elements, that become important closer to the end. If you played previous installments, such as WoX or M&M6 you'll know what I mean. While M&M8 improves on some of these points, it smaller, easier and not as replayable. Overall, in my opinion, this is the series best. PS It also works perfectly with WINE (and so Proton) under Linux.
These games are fun to play, with some caveats. The M&M is a perfect RPG complement to Heroes of Might and Magic and that is how I got into the series: by playing HOMM2, then HOMM3, then MM7 then MM6, then the rest. The games in this collection are undeniable classics. Might & Miagic 1 and 2 are good but very dated: they do have old graphics (1 has CGA - 4 colors 320x200, 2 has EGA 16 colors 320x200) and are very difficult to play because of lack of auto-map, limited save capabilities and regenerating monsters between saves. Fortunately the guides are included so you might play them for completeness. Might and Magic 3 is where things start to get interesting. 3 to 5 are using the same VGA (256 colors out of 16m, 320x200) graphics with gradual improvement from title to title. The graphics is colorful and pleasant to look at. 3 to 5 have nice stories and 4 can be (and should be) combined with 5 into the World of Xeen. They have good stories and vast worlds. You have automap and you can save almost everywhere. It will take easily 50 hours to finish Word of Xeen if you want to complete every quest and kill every monster as I do. There is also bonus game Swords Of Xeen. Might And Magic 6 is prize of this collection. It got completely new graphics (which got further improved in M&M 7 and 8), full freedom of movement (you can even fly!), good story, about hundred of quests and enormous world. When I played it for the first time it took me more than 100 hours to complete it. While the game is great it is not without negatives, that got addressed in the next games: you can play only as human, if you can learn a skill you can master it, thus diminishing classes, and the game is difficult. You often surrounded by hundreds of monsters (like one moment when you clear temple of Baa but as soon as you get to the altar more than 100 skeletons are teleported in), some dungeons are very difficult (like Darkmoor). Nevertheless, it is an amazing game. Buy it. Play it.
I thoroughly enjoyed Driver: Parallel Lines. I Played GTA III/Vice City/San Andreas several times and it is feels like GTA-Light. The graphics is good, the driving is fun and the soundtrack is amazing. The story is clichéd but acted well. The problem is that the game is *very* glitchy: going to main menu results in the crash 90% of the times in Vista 64. 1978->2006 results in the crash is well, so you need to restart the game. Once you find a way around the glitches it is a very well done game. Not sure if it is worth the whole price, but it is certainly worth the price on sale :).
This game is amazing fun - constant Doom-like action in the beautifully rendered Ancient Egyptian landscapes. In fact the temples are so detailed it is hardly believable that the game is 10 years old. But don't admire this beautiful cartouche on the wall for too long - some beheaded bomber wants to say hello. Did it just appeared from the thin air? Most certainly so! And his friends are coming to the party as well! But you get out your trusted double barreled shotgun and they are history! This game is a throwback to the times of a simple 3d-shooter. No special skills required. So to summarize: - non-stop monster bashing - simple controls - beautifully rendered simple environments (I do not think you will need a walkthrough to find all the secrets). - will work even on the modest systems, including Netbooks (with some settings reduced - Intel Graphics adaptor really that bad!) - works in widescreen mode with a simple ini file edit (in ScriptsPersistentSymbols.ini set plr_fFOV=(FLOAT)100 for 16:10, (FLOAT)105 for 16:9, set sam_iScreenSizeI to the width, sam_iScreenSizeJ to the height) - tongue firmly in cheek :)
