Might and Magic .

[sigard]

.

 

[Ysaye]

PC Portraits: M&M3 (3-9 only)
Paperdolls (relevant only 6-9): M&M8
Inns/Shops/etc.: M&M4
General Overall Consistency: M&M6
Monsters: M&M6

 

[Shadenuat]

It's Xeen I don't see how there can be any doubts, and I am 90s child and mostly played 6 to latest.

What we see in Xeen and Heroes II is finality, they were figuring out how to merge art with tech of the time and what art they wanted, and they figured it out, to the point where everything there looks as beautiful today as years ago. It's a complete, self sufficient style.
After that, came experimentation with 3d engine, stagnation, and thing died before it could truly mature. It still has some nice art here and there, but it's not final like the golden age thing.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It's Xeen I don't see how there can be any doubts, and I am 90s child and mostly played 6 to latest.

The art direction from Darkside is great but the colorist is Daltonic.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Anyone pissed you don't get to at least soften up Sheltem or kick his ass? Fucking Corak butting in. World of Xeen CD was great and I had chars that could really kick ass. If old Sheltem was worse than MegaDragons then maybe we did need Corak.

I still wish i could have taken a party from 1-World. I guess that'd make shit too easy (esp considering MM2 craziness). And that would suck the challenge away to boredom.

MMX gets a lot of shit but I like it went back to xeen grid based. Maybe I would have preferred all MMs to be that way. When the 3D art first hit... i can't say I was overly impressed. It would take gameplay to actually immerse me into the game.

Funny how some shit on MM6 mobs but I see them as sort of close to Daggerfall looking mobs.

MM games changed in steps so Maybe their gfx suit each stage.

1-2 is a stage and of the two I like 1 better but will agree 2 is graphically superior.

3-Xeen is a stage and Dark/World is the better of the teo imho.

6-9 is a stage and uh... well... 6 is the most vibrant of the landscapes. But you have your mobs running around, portraits, shops/buildings pics, inventory items, spell books, and effect animations and some look better than others. Fucking mixed bag imho on this part of the series.

And 10 stands alone for many reasons that piss me off (like having to be logged in to play the mother fucker thanks to ubi-fucking soft). I still think it looks pretty good.

For me it is a toss up between 1 & Xeen series. (Dark side being the fav). Maybe I just like the darkness. In MM1 the background was Black even for the sky on c64 & DOS.

 

[Fowyr]

Might and Magic 2 is cute as button and better game overall than M&M3-5, I could agree. Still, animations in Xeen are top notch.

 

[Snorkack]

MM2 SNES version

 

[Alex]

Anyone pissed you don't get to at least soften up Sheltem or kick his ass? Fucking Corak butting in. World of Xeen CD was great and I had chars that could really kick ass. If old Sheltem was worse than MegaDragons then maybe we did need Corak.

I still wish i could have taken a party from 1-World. I guess that'd make shit too easy (esp considering MM2 craziness). And that would suck the challenge away to boredom.

I think the idea was to make the world seem more strange than the lightside. Although I do agree it often came out as just plain weird rather than mysterious or intriguing.

 

[Butter]

Someone should probably just ban this graphics-obsessed retard.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The one most people have probably never played.
World of Xeen, Macintosh version.

 

[Aarwolf]

It's Xeen of course.

 

[jackofshadows]

So far, the codex doesn't dissapoint. Never change, cotex, never change

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So far, the codex doesn't dissapoint. Never change, cotex, never change

6-8 had no cohesion between the artstyle which ruins it
10 looks like a cheap world of warcraft knockoff

if you asked a random gamer what game they thought this was from

I guarantee they'd ask you if blizzard made a mobile turn-based WoW RPG

 

[Butter]

Too much detail shows the devs don't understand blobbers.

 

[jackofshadows]

if you asked a random gamer what game they thought this was from

I guarantee they'd ask you if blizzard made a mobile turn-based WoW RPG

That tower dungeon looks bad as a whole, those backdrops are horrible especially. Basically a low point, visually speaking.

Moreover, game's UI is meh and no match for most ones from the old installments, outsourced art to some asian guys looks generic in general (although not repulsive). Ubi's art direction isn't something awesome to begin with...

Still, claming that the overall look is worse than roughly looking with plenty of grotesque art style examples and ridiculously sketched portraits

(who is that, ^ Drew Barrymore in the middle?) is absurd but like I said, it's cool that Codex is this resistant to changes and new perspectives.

I'm not a fan of 3-5 looks as well as incohesive mess of 6-8/9's straight up ugliness that I even agree with that (slightly deranged) man who said that mm2 was the peak in the first place, I like its restrained approach to graphics probably the most among 1-9. But Legacy has actually decent graphics.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

MM10 looks pretty goid to me. I only hate ubi's fucking online bullshit. That's what is retarded.

 

[octavius]

MM9 is the only one that is downright ugly. MM1 is rather crude in appearance.
The rest are fine, with MM8 being the best looking of 6-8.
So I'll vote MM2 since that is the best M&M blobber.

 

[Comte_II]

Heroes of Might and Magic 2

 

[ropetight]

MM6 was somehow better than MM7 or MM8, even if it was first iteration of that engine.
They used more photos in 7&8 and it looked out of place.
Never was a fan of Xeen looks, and earlier installments - they looked great in their time, but it was still time of text adventures.

 

[Fowyr]

it was still time of text adventures.

The shit that you hear only on Codex 2022.

Might and Magic 2, Amiga version.
DOS version was very pretty too.
And if you meant that text adventures (if this should meant something to RPGs) were predominant, then how? Most new adventure games in the times of M&M and M&M2 were graphical.

 

[Kruno]

M&M 6 still looks really good today! The art style with those 3d graphics looks nice.

 

[luj1]

MM6

 

[wishbonetail]

Might and Magic 2, Amiga version.
DOS version was very pretty too.
And if you meant that text adventures (if this should meant something to RPGs) were predominant, then now. Most new adventure games in the times of M&M and M&M2 were graphical.

I think snes version of MM2 looks better than PC. They even implemented 3D map for some reason. But snes is slow and PC has more animations.
detailed overworld in SNES

some atmospheric nights
snes

amiga

SNES

 

[ropetight]

it was still time of text adventures.

The shit that you hear only on Codex 2022.

Might and Magic 2, Amiga version.
DOS version was very pretty too.
And if you meant that text adventures (if this should meant something to RPGs) were predominant, then now. Most new adventure games in the times of M&M and M&M2 were graphical.

MM got released in '86, MM2 in '88 (prettier Amiga port was released in '90).
Infocom was still publishing their adventures in second half of 80s, and they were not considered relic of the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infocom#Interactive_fiction_2

In '86, 8bit home computers and consoles were still predominant, Amiga was still expensive and not accessible to most of people.
There was a lot of graphical adventures, but they were mostly drawing static screens to preserve memory, like Hobbit or Erik the Viking.

Maniac Mansion (1987) and Zack McCracken (1988) were progenitors of point'n' click adventures, removing the need for complicated input parsers.
I think that VGA standard was published then, but the games that used it were made some time later.
Amiga 500 was introduced in 1987, but it wouldn't sale well until 1989.
MM2 is from that age, and it can be seen in better graphics and even animations.

But still, first two MMs were published in time when playing text advenutres was not niche, computer magazines were full of maps and walkthroughs for text adventures.

 

[Fowyr]

I think snes version of MM2 looks better than PC.

Yep, but they censored game in many aspects and simplified it, I remember that proper battle formations were removed. Could be mistaken, I run SNES version many years ago.