Might and Magic VI Reviewed on a P-300 with 64MB by Alex van Kaam Well it finally arrived, I just e-mailed my software store if it was in yet and 5 minutes later they called and they'd got the Limited Edition, all 7 games on 2 CDs. So off I went to Eindhoven, exceeding the speed limit several time to get the game that every RPG player has been waiting for .... Might and Magic VI. Getting home, installing, which was a breeze, starting, seeing the cool intro, pressing new game, spending half an hour creating my 4 trusty character, pressing OK and I was in the game.... What else can I say then that it is brilliant, as much as Lands of Lore was a disappointment, so good is Might and Magic VI, finally a real RPG, with stats and items and gold and food and taverns and shops and fountains and a map on a cloth that is now hanging on my wall. The rules of the game have remained the same as the other Might and Magic games, but the looks have improved very much, set your options right and you can turn 360 degrees smoothly, you no longer walk in steps of a square which were so easy to map, you walk like in Quake or Doom. And so do your enemies, and believe me fighting off a horde of goblins in real time is something you don't easily do, 3DO/New World Computing understood this and made it that with a simple press of the enter button you go to turn based mode, you can no longer walk, but you and the monsters fight in turns like in the previous Might and Magic games. As you explore more and more you get a certain reputation, solve a quest and it will go up, sell human bones to a collector and it will go down, depending on your reputation NPCs will talk or not talk to you, you can have up to 2 of them in your party, but so far I only took those in that I needed to complete a quest. Talking about quests, there are hundreds of them, from making your Mage into an ArchMage to finding a missing child in a deep dungeon, they are all written down in a log book you can access anytime in the game, and like the other Might and Magic games, you can be on as many quest at once as you want. As you complete quests and kill monsters you gain experience which will allow you to train to a higher level, as you train you get skill points which you then have to distribute among the skills your character(s) have. Certain skills are important to certain characters, and it's important to develop the right skills ... skills you don't already know can also be bought/trained for in town. As you go from town to town you will encounter people who can train you to be an expert in a certain skill and later even a master, this again will improve your character's performance on that skill. But I am drifting off again.......... Graphically the game looks great, DirectX 3D, which means that dungeons are more complex then ever before, with corridors running over and under each other. But again 3DO/New World Computing have done a great job with the maps, as you walk up a staircase all the floors that were on the same level as you where turn grey and all the floors that are on the level you go to turn white, giving you a good view of where you are and where the current corridor runs too and you don't get confused. All your armour, weapons, potions and items look stunning, you can pick them up in your inventory, put them on your character and get the most weird results in dress code . But again well done, you can compare it with Dungeon Master, see the armour, put it on, see the effect, very nicely done. The outside world looks great, from green valleys to swamp areas, desert areas and snow covered mountains with real snow falling down!!!! Monsters you encounter are brilliantly drawn, and from a distance you can already see if it is a simple Ogre or an Ogre Captain .... each monster comes in 3 types: simple, medium and hard. The simple once always have something brown/orange on them, Medium something blue and Hard something red. So see an Ogre approach and by the colour of the spikes on his shoulder you can see what he is and either run or face it Soundwise the game is great, good sound when you shoot your arrow, slash your sword or fire off your fireball, great background sound that fits the surroundings, little humorous touches when you enter a dungeon and one of your characters goes "hmm I don't think this is such a great idea", or talk to town people and depending on who is your active character you will here "hello" or "greetings, your noble one" .... fire a fireball too close so you get impact damage and the Mage will go "oh oh". Talking about Magic, this is an important part of the game, as you gain the skill for a certain magic you can learn spells from it and you cast them by opening your spell book and select the spell you want. You can set 1 spell you use very often under the S key to save you some time. Many of the old spells have stayed like the life saving Lloyds Beacon and some new once like Shrap Metal are added. There are many different kinds of magic, earth, fire, water, air, mind, spirit, dark, light etc. etc. and depending on your character you can use these. A Mage can't use mind or spirit, that is for the Cleric but he can use the 4 elements of which fire is the most powerful one. So to conclude..... Gameplay, well 100%, it's fun, it's involving, it's huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, I must have played around 60 hours now and have explored about 2/3 of the map and now even half of the dungeon I am sure. What else can I say then this is the best RPG released since Dungeon Master , the feeling I got when playing that game on my ST is the same I get now when playing Might and Magic on my PC .... more more more. If you are an RPG player and you don't have this in your collection in a few months then you should be ashamed! - o -