This wasn't my first Might & Magic game (that was Might and Magic 2) nor my last from this developer (Jon van Canaghem, who also did the original King's Bounty and the Xeen series). I was no stranger, then, to the worlds of Might and Magic and the sly humor which delights the wit by popping up at the most unexpected times. Nor did the Sci-Fi twists bother me, since they were SO wonderfully conceived and woven into the fabric of the games. After the superlative Xeen series (Might and Magic IV, V and Va), though, and the unfocused, spotty experience that was Might and Magic VI, I had my doubts about this entry in the series. About ten minutes into the game I was hopeful. After the first month of game time (yes the calendar in the game DOES matter) I was ecstatic. The flaws from VI had been corrected, and here was the true successor to the world of XEEN. Here is all the free-roaming goodness you can imagine, including the freedom to wander into areas far too dangerous for novice adventurers. Want to get up on the roof of the inn? Ok, if you can figure out a way to climb up there, go for it. Have a burning desire to climb that mountain range in front of you? Great! The game won’t stop you. It may not reward you either, but then again you might just discover an ancient shrine that permanently boosts your elemental resistances. Either way, you’ll have a magnificent view of the countryside which is sometimes reward enough for the effort. Here too are moral choices, cast in pure black and white to be sure, but no less weighty for all that. Do you side with the necromancers and sample the delights of awesome destructive power free of any ethical restraint? Or choose the wizards of Bracada and channel the restorative and protective power of the gods themselves. It’s up to you, and the game plays out wonderfully either way. Oh yes, and did I mention the class system? Nine classes divided into fighters, spell-casters and hybrids makes for a lot of replay value. The game is subtly different when the party composition changes. Adding a monk and a druid to the knight and thief forces you to approach the critical battles much differently than you would with the standard cleric and sorcerer combo. Or dispense with the thief entirely; you’ll take a lot of punishment from traps, but your party will be stronger in combat for the extra fighter or spell-caster who replaces it. I could go on of course; the skill system alone is worth a paragraph. To summarize, though, there’s a lot to fall in love with here. I fell for this game twelve years ago and I still love it dearly. I mourned when a Windows update finally killed my heavily-patched CD copy, and rejoiced when GoG resurrected it. Now if they could just get the Arcomage sub-game working properly….
