First the
, some things I'm sceptical about that could turn out well:
- On accessibility: he makes a great distinction between accessibility and complexity. And yes, M&M was always accessible and easy to use, and it was an important element in making it fun. I just hope they do stick to this distinction in the shipped product and make sure the difficulty and complexity doesn't at some point get sacrificed for the sake of accessibility (the mistake that many, many new games make)
- Level trainers: they were such a staple of the series I'm annoyed to see them go. Not a deal-breaker, and they don't define M&M for me, but they
were an ever-present element.
- Length. 25h seems short... but not that short. People bandy about 200h for WOX but really as others pointed out it was a 50-75h affair at most. Clouds, when it came out as stand-alone, was ~30h at most, not much longer than Legacy seems to be. While I don't like Clouds as much as other games, another M&M of the same length is fine by me.
- No SF elements. Yes it's a shame. But it's Ashan, and we knew we were stuck with it 7 years ago. As long as the world is interesting to explore this isn't a big deal.
Now the really
stuff, which in fact is a pretty small list....
- Winks to the old universe: please don't. Nothing made me rage in HOMM5 more than the gratuitous and out of place references that were supposed to make me feel validated as an old-M&M fan. This isn't an old-M&M, this isn't the old world, and you are not NWC. If you went to the trouble of making a brand new world and discarding the old one then MAKE it a brand new world. Don't try to do things halfway, and most importantly don't use the least significant elements of the old NWC world like names to make a connection to please fans - all it does is remind us that this is in fact NOT the old world and it's STILL missing the elements that we LIKED about the old world. If you're going Ashan, go full Ashan, and if you can make the exploration part work (see below) then none of us will CARE that this is Ashan (well, not care in a bad way at least) - because it'll still be fun to explore and it'll still be a true M&M.
- Uplay. WHY UBISOFT WHY? I won't go on about this, since if Ubisoft wants it there's nothing Limbic can do about it. I would, however, like to point out the rather impressive sales of Grimrock - a game that has no DRM whatsoever. Incidentally I bought the GOG version. You know why I specifically picked that one instead of any other? that's right, no DRM. I'll still buy MMX because are you kidding? a new M&M game and you want me to NOT get it? But I do wish Ubisoft would actually think about the audience they're targeting, about how likely they are to pirate a game they've been wishing to see for some long, about the fact those who pirate it WILL pirate it Uplay or no Uplay, and about how many might be more willing to get it if it IS DRM-free. Just a thought.
(ok so I did end up going on about it)
Of course I left the
for last.
- "To us, Might & Magic RPGs are about a party of adventurers exploring a large world in first-person view, meeting a variety of characters, visiting cities, and of course exploring dungeons and fighting monsters in turn-based combat. The specifics may vary from one game to the next, but these basic ingredients were always there" This is almost enough to dissolve my natural scepticism entirely. THIS IS MIGHT AND MAGIC. Yes the SF/fantasy mix made the setting unique, yes JVC's particular brand of (sometimes awful) humour was part of the charm, but what really made M&M what it is was the exploration. That Limbic seem to understand this and at least
say they want to focus on these elments can't help but make me optimistic.
- The Eras: WOX-style exploration with MM7 skill system is perfect. I'm glad they picked MM7 in particular, as this means having the limitations on which classes can get the highest skill tier (in MM6 everyone could Master whatever skills they could learn), and that made the MM7 skill system much superior to MM6. Keeping in the class trainers with the same frequency too (many Expert trainers, one GM trainer that is hard to reach) exactly mirrors MM7-8 too, and I like this. Very very much.
- No level scaling. Of course everyone knows Might and Magic did have level-scaling, but that was 15 years ago and in the worst entry in the series, so glad to see it go :trollface: On a more serious note I assume this means loot is also not scaled - another essential element. A lot of it was randomized in both old and new era, but the level of the items did depend on what monster dropped them or where the chest was. The best combination of hand-placed and random loot.
- "If you want to go to that mountain over there despite the fact it’s notoriously full of angry Cyclopes, nothing will stop you." Again THIS IS MIGHT AND MAGIC. Limbic, can you see this? PLEASE NEVER EVER REMOVE OR TAME THIS ELEMENT OF FREEDOM. EVER. This is why MM6 is one of my favourite games ever - because I made it to Sweetwater as a low-level party and nothing stopped me from getting there - and then I got my ass kicked VERY BADLY. And I LOVED IT.
So em yeah,
commie will hate me, but it is now official: I am now fully excited about this. I want to see it made, I want the guys currently working on it to be the ones working on it, I think they understand what makes Might and Magic, and I WANT TO PLAY THE DAMN THING ALREADY!
. I Hope this approach works for them and we see more attempts to cater to the niche PC RPG crowd in the future.
