Might and Magic Might & Magic X Pre-Release Thread

[Bubbles]

Reminds me of the DA2 concept art.

 

[Morphi]

New Char:
The Hunter

https://mightandmagicx-legacy.ubi.com/opendev/blog/post/view/the-hunter

 

[Infinitron]

PC Gamer preview by Richard "at least he's not Rowan Kaiser" Cobbett: http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/might-and-magic-x-hands-on-back-on-the-grid/

Might and Magic X hands on: Back on the grid
Richard Cobbett at 19:00 on 10 January 2014

Might and Magic X: Legacy doesn't waste much time planting its flag in the ground. You've barely stepped into its first town when the first of many quest givers reassures you that "Don't worry, I won't ask you to go kill rats in a cellar." Good, you might think. After all, that's so 80s. But what's the actual assignment?

"Quest: Spiders In The Well"

Well, of course it is...

Just for fun, sometimes they jump out of barrels to go "Boo!"

Legacy is a bizarre sequel. Even with its obviously low budget, feels like it should be a Legend of Grimrock style nostalgia piece from a couple of devoted indies rather than a giant like Ubisoft. At points, it seems almost ashamed to be harking back to the earlier games with actual modern technology on its side, like some grizzled mob enforcer caught ordering a banana daiquiri. "Yes, I'm using Unity to create a real-time 3D world," it mutters sheepishly, "I'm even using... shaders. But it's okay! It's an old-school grid underneath everything! See? And it's still turn-based real time! Forgive me!"

Just as strangely though, its approach doesn't simply hark back to the long faded Might and Magic games, but a style that they themselves gave up back in 93/94 with the Xeen duology. In the decade that followed, the series embraced 3D and free roaming just like everyone else, making this an old-school take on an already old-school RPG series. It's so devoted to it, it keeps it up even when it makes little real sense - specifically, putting 3D world exploration within a grid system. There are reasons grid-based RPGs tended to stick with constrained, locked down areas like dungeons, with even outside areas focusing on dense forests, hedge mazes and ruins that tied into that structure. Here, you quickly have to get used to things like not being able to take a clear ranged shot at an enemy because technically they're still behind a corner, and the goofiness of angry naga running freely through the world before having to take a moment to politely side-step into the middle of the screen for combat.

It's not a very interactive world, with little pretence of being alive.

Legacy's heart is in the right place though, serving up a super-combat heavy experience of a kind we don't see very often this side of Millennium Bug hysteria. There's a reasonable amount of plot, with an intro so long-winded that it's a wonder it doesn't end with the party emerging into Might and Magic XI, a heavy political edge to the specific problems facing the world this time around, and even a few characters around to tell jokes and snark things up. Mostly though, this is less about that side of things as travelling around an attractive enough overworld in search of hidden goodies, delving into dungeons to liberate their residents of anything shiny, and trying not to pick fights you can't walk away from.

That's not always easy, even when you're not accidentally wandering into locations with names like "Dangerous Cave" or taking on quests several notches above your pay grade. While Legacy isn't the Dark Souls of blobber RPGs or anything, it does demand rather more attention than most recent offerings. Enemies like to hang out in groups, and even the earliest ones can deal out a lot of pain - giant spiders (thankfully carrying antidote) poisoning the party so often that it's a wonder they don't end up immune to the stuff by the end of the first dungeon, and Elites scattered amongst regular enemies just to trip you up. It's not simply a question of having the bigger numbers though. Enemies use strategies and respond to your moves rather than simply rolling a damage dice, ensuring that simply slashing away at something like a naga kenshi is a guaranteed one-way trip to the death screen. They get a free hit for every strike evaded or blocked, plus a 20% damage buff for every strike not blocked, and are friends with priestesses who give them a 25% damage shield. These are the guys you fight right outside the first town's walls.

The Bestiary slowly builds up a list of stats and abilities for each creature type, but only as the party learns by killing a few of them. Having a Freemage blow an enemy back a square for instance can be vital for avoiding a nasty hit, warrior classes get skills like taunting to keep the squishy ones out of danger, and a party that tries to run up to a couple of archers is a party that should have been ducking behind a rock instead of working on its porcupine impression. Even playing safe though, there's a lot of resting and wound-licking required, as well as regular trips back to town to stock up and stare at how fast the generous piles of gold collected during adventures soon get whittled away to nothing.

This preview code makes it tough to tell how the balance of key elements like the potion economy will be in the final version, as well as how many healing fountains and other pick-me-ups will be on offer, but it does make it clear that even on Legacy's easier 'Adventurer' mode, the gloves are never even going on. Legacy is a game for people who cut their teeth on early RPGs and still remember the taste of the blood. Other hardcore-friendly features include having to acquire Supplies to be able to rest, not resting making for a tired as well as injured team, and weapon/armour degradation that suggests the local blacksmiths consider tinfoil a fine alternative to steel and mithril. And could really use a slap.

There's a default party, but you can make your own, or pick a Random one if you're feeling slightly crazy.

While Legacy's old-school approach isn't quite my thing, being firmly from the Ultima class rather than Might and Magic/Wizardry 101, it's good to see it keep its focus wisely tight. It's a type of RPG that hasn't really existed for many years, in or out of the Might and Magic series directly, and while it's yet to show off any of that series' more memorable flourishes (not least mixing up fantasy and science fiction), there aren't many names better suited to jumping into the role-playing time machine for one more quest.

That said, time has moved on, and having a foot planted between then and now doesn't always do it many favours - a particular bugbear in this preview code being that you have to wait for monster animations to finish playing whether you can see them or not. The release version promises to ease that by allowing them to play at up to 300% speed, but it's still slightly unsettling for a turn-based game to find a way of being overly stop/start in design. Other annoyances included not being able to flee from combat, with the party refusing to take sanctuary in a town before finishing a battle even when on their last desperate breaths, and the general difficulty of avoiding a fight when necessary. Hopefully the final version will be a little smoother in these regards, even if the levelling curve feels like it's going to be more of a problem early on, while the party is still struggling to scrape together their basic spells and skills.

Might and Magic X: Legacy is due out on January 23rd/24th, with a full campaign and modding support. It also features the dumbest question in the RPG genre since "Are you sure you want to uninstall Ultima IX?" (Answering truthfully of course makes for a sadly short and uneventful adventure...)

Sorry world, you're screwed until you hire a team of spider hunters. A Raid group, if you will.

 

[V_K]

giant spiders (thankfully carrying antidote) poisoning the party so often that it's a wonder they don't end up immune to the stuff by the end of the first dungeon

- that actually sounds like a pretty cool mechanic (slowly acquiring resistance to a condition each time you get it). Does anyone here know any games that bothered to implement it?

 

[Crooked Bee]

So, it looks like he didn't explore beyond the starting area. The preview makes it sound like his experience was something along the lines of "explore the area - encounter the naga - run back to town - omg gates closed - die".

Also this preview has basically no information about Act II, exploration, dungeons, party building, etc. Goddamn mainstream games journalism.

 

[sser]

That was a well-written shit article. PC Gamer at its finest.

 

[Visbhume]

giant spiders (thankfully carrying antidote) poisoning the party so often that it's a wonder they don't end up immune to the stuff by the end of the first dungeon

- that actually sounds like a pretty cool mechanic (slowly acquiring resistance to a condition each time you get it).

It could discourage certain types of savescumming.

 

[Roguey]

giant spiders (thankfully carrying antidote) poisoning the party so often that it's a wonder they don't end up immune to the stuff by the end of the first dungeon

- that actually sounds like a pretty cool mechanic (slowly acquiring resistance to a condition each time you get it). Does anyone here know any games that bothered to implement it?

In ~New Vegas~ becoming crippled 50 times makes you take 20% less limb damage.

 

[Zeriel]

giant spiders (thankfully carrying antidote) poisoning the party so often that it's a wonder they don't end up immune to the stuff by the end of the first dungeon

- that actually sounds like a pretty cool mechanic (slowly acquiring resistance to a condition each time you get it).

It could discourage certain types of savescumming.

Or encourage it, depending on how it's implemented. Plus adulterated behavior like intentionally standing around letting monsters attack you with conditions + healing up until the end of time to get immunity. But players will always find ways to pervert decent design, so whatever.

So, it looks like he didn't explore beyond the starting area. The preview makes it sound like his experience was something along the lines of "explore the area - encounter the naga - run back to town - omg gates closed - die".

Also this preview has basically no information about Act II, exploration, dungeons, party building, etc. Goddamn mainstream games journalism.

To be fair, the preview build was pretty impenetrable to your average, modern gamer, which I suppose makes up most reviewers. Act I didn't segue properly into Act II if you make a new party, and the saves meant to have you adventure in Act II have piss-poor stats/skill distribution.

That's no excuse for sounding like they didn't finish Act I, though. Let's not forget that most reviewers don't even play what they review (hence press packets with supplied screenshots), however, so this guy is just doing his best to live up to the standard.

 

[twincast]

Xeen duology

"Duology" isn't a word, teapotfuckindammit.

And yes, the content of that writ is of equally low quality.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Xeen duology

"Duology" isn't a word, teapotfuckindammit.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/duology

 

[theSavant]

The theme of Karthal look interesting, but the graphics look... uhm... bleh. It kinda seems every developer struggles with the low budget visuals of Unity.

 

[Bubbles]

Thankfully MM6 and upwards had absolutely horrible graphics, so it's a little easier to get used to this stuff. I agree though, it looks like an iPad game.

 

[Broseph]

At max settings the game actually looks p. gorgeous. Of course it looks terrible in compressed jpgs like in that preview.

 

[SuicideBunny]

At max settings the game actually looks p. gorgeous.

too bad there is no options setting to make the designs more in line with mm3-5 rather than the shit from recent heroes games.
just imagine if this had a "classic look" setting akin to dark spire's..

 

[Grunker]

Seriously? I think the graphics are pretty neat. Heroes VI, unlike IV and V, wasn't an ugly game. It was a p. shitty game, but it wasn't ugly.

I think the graphics of M&MX are pretty good. I have some personal niggles with the UI, but overall I have no complaints about the way the game looks.

 

[Tigranes]

Preview: "I played an old-school game with an old-school name that promised to be as old-school as old-school games were. It turns out they were right, this is a very old-school game. Sadly, I don't enjoy old-school games very much. Bai!"

Seems like I'll be buying it soon after release.

 

[Excidium]

It looks like ass.

 

[Broseph]

It looks like ass.

no u

 

[Excidium]

No it does. Technically it's average but artistically it makes me vomit. But all modern M&M products are like that, DoC for example has some serious awful card "art", every undead is just a mess of green shit. And in this game everything looks oversaturated.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Seriously? I think the graphics are pretty neat. Heroes VI, unlike IV and V, wasn't an ugly game. It was a p. shitty game, but it wasn't ugly.

riiight.... oh wait, i misread. you said 6... so let's see

well, that is artistically more refined but still the same kind of stupid teenager power fantasy designs that were present in 5. just because it's better drawn doesn't make it less boring and banal.

 

[Grunker]

That's art style, not graphics, but yeah, V was a fugly game.

Art style-wise, I've never like Might & Magic much to be honest, except for interface/character portraits/avatars/items in VI-VIII, which I quite liked.

 

[Grunker]

DoC

DoC truly is an ugly game.

 

[twincast]

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/duology

Well, okay, so that idiocy is much older than I thought it was. Still makes it an abomination of an unnecessary mongrel construction, though, as the proper term dilogy already existed for millennia before that (cf. tetralogy vs. "quadruology"). ;P

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

giant spiders (thankfully carrying antidote) poisoning the party so often that it's a wonder they don't end up immune to the stuff by the end of the first dungeon

- that actually sounds like a pretty cool mechanic (slowly acquiring resistance to a condition each time you get it). Does anyone here know any games that bothered to implement it?

Only non-roguelike I recall doing that is a top down action jRPG for the GBA called Shining Soul 2, up to a certain threshold, taking elemental damage (and allied status effects like burn/freeze poison etc) causes your innate resistance to increase.