MIGHT AND MAGIC 7

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

SO - another 3 months of my life have gone and the latest 3-DO
epic is completed down to the last optional mission. It can take
less - firstly I thought I had made a fatal mistake near the start
of the game and decided to restart when I was about halfway
through - and secondly there is a choice of good and evil paths
with different spells and missions. You don't have to do both to
complete the game but of course I wanted to see both endings thus
adding several weeks gameplay. So - was it worth all that effort
and can I recommend it?

A few observations first. In "Fallout 2" amongst your attainments
was a list of various monsters killed. It quite shocked me looking
at it at one point in the game. But M&M7 makes this look like
beginner's fodder - I suspect the number of characters that have
to be killed here are in the tens of thousands. I suppose you can
reduce that number later in the game by using the invisibility
spell but then of course you lose experience points. One nice
thing about the recent "Fallout" was that going in all guns
blazing was often the wrong option - you don't get that option
here. There's no negotiation or interplay with the enemy except
putting them to the sword. And it does get wearing after a while..
The saving grace here is that one compulsory "good" mission and
one of the most difficult in the game forbids you to kill any
creature in the enclosure. It came as a breath of fresh air.

Secondly the game is unique in my experience for an RPG in having
no central plot. Usually early on you know that there's an
ultimate enemy to defeat or relic to find - not here. All you have
is a vast number of sub missions to complete. most of which are
compulsory. And of course if you want to grow up as big and strong
as possible you've got to do them all.

But of course any fan of this series will know that once started
it's difficult to stop. You always want to strengthen your
character that bit more or earn money for that latest spell. This
usually means staying up till well past bedtime most nights. And
of course it is very compelling. It looks quite good but is very
heavy on software - you need a 16mb video card just to recreate
the colours properly. Character generation is exactly the same as
in past episodes and similarly to the last game magic and ranged
weapon skill is vital. You have a choice of more races this time
including goblins but I stuck with my usual batch of paladin,
archer, priest and sorcerer. And no - I'm not going back to see if
I'd have done better with another party.

Apart from the lack of cohesion and interactivity my major gripe
is that it is just TOO big. It really is nothing more than M&M6
Part Two - I really am not sure why the game requires 3D
acceleration.  If that's all you want you won't be disappointed.
If you're craving something more may I gently direct you to
"Fallout 2"?




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