Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

In these heady days of 3D acceleration and graphical trickery, Might and Magic arrives to remind us how ugly games used to be. Sparse backgrounds and environments and badly animated sprites inhabit the dated and unimaginative world of Might and Magic VI. Rubbish, then, obviously. Well not quite - not if forced to spend a reasonable amount of time with it.

You start the game with a group of four adventurers who can be given their own character classes at random, or if you want to be really anal about it you can spend hours deciding what their attributes are and what colour pointy hat you think they should wear etc. This sort of behaviour is to be frowned upon, of course, and all sensible types will accept the default party allotted to them (and I can vouch that it makes very little difference whether you customise your party or not).

Gameplay consists of talking to people who give you quests, which you then complete in return for large wads of cash which in turn can be spent on buying new weapons and spells and stuff. If this sounds familiar, it's probably because this type of thing is familiar. Might and Magic VI offers nothing you won't find in a standard RPG, but at the same time, if you're willing to persevere with it (and you're prepared to live with the dodgy graphics), it will keep you busy for a reasonable period of time.

Overview

"Panic! It’s gnawing at everything, everyone, everywhere. Some say Doomsday is coming to call, that it’s been foretold in the stars. There’s no shortage of men and women buying into that, cowering under the night sky."

So begins the story in which a king has disappeared, devils walk the land, and the people fear that the ruling lords have lost the "Mandate of Heaven," the divine right to rule. It is up to you and your band of fearless adventurers to find out what happened to the king and to restore order to the world. To do this you’ll need to battle countless foes, win the favor of the ruling lords, and consult the Oracle.

As if saving the world and rescuing a king weren’t enough, many people that you meet will have special requests for you, creating enough sub-plots and side quests to be complete games in their own right.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Before the game begins, you will have to choose your party. Your four characters can be selected from six different classes and customized by selecting from many skills. The skills you choose will determine what weapons and armor you can use, how people react to you and how well you interact with your surroundings. As the game goes on your characters will advance levels, learn new skills and improve existing ones.

As you move through the world there are many people with whom you can interact, many of whom will have information for you or special things you can do for them. The way you relate to them and the actions you take on their behalf will determine both your fame and your reputation. Fame and reputation then affect who will deal with you and how the plot will unfold.

Gameplay consists of two modes: real-time and turn-based. The real-time mode offers smooth-scrolling first-person action for both movement and combat. The turn-based mode allows for more control in combat, giving the player more time to consider actions and choose targets. This turn-based mode is based not on fixed turns, but rather on the concept that various actions take differing lengths of time. This means that a character using a fast weapon such as a dagger may move quickly enough to get in two swings for every one move of his sword-swinging comrade. The main drawback to this mode is that no movement, other than turning, is possible. To either flee from or chase after the enemies, a quick change to real-time is necessary.

Graphics & Audio

The graphics and sound in this game are not especially impressive. The background music is particularly annoying and doesn’t seem to relate to gameplay in any way. The sound effects are limited to repetitive sounds that only respond to specific actions. The best thing about the sound is that the volumes are fully configurable and the music can be completely turned off. The graphics are better than the sound, but are not anything impressive, either artistically or technically.

System Requirements

Might and Magic VI requires a Pentium 90 or greater with 16 MB of RAM. A Pentium 166 with 32 MB of RAM is recommended, but I found that on my P166 with 48 MB RAM the game occasionally bogged down in both modes of play. The game also requires a DirectX compatible video card, a 4X CD-ROM drive and 200 MB of drive space.

Bottom Line

This game is a worthy successor to the long line of Might & Magic titles. Although there is nothing particularly innovative about this game, the intricate plot and attention to detail make it a must-play for anyone who has enjoyed the previous titles in this series.