Legends of Might & Magic

by 3DO

Product Features

• Choose from six unique character classes - Sorceress, Druid, Archer, Cleric, Crusader, and Warrior
• # Band together with five other players for a powerful gaming party # Buy the right equipment to use before each quest, then enter fast and furious battle
• Buy the right equipment to use before each quest, then enter fast and furious battle
• Online multiplayer action with multiple game modes
• Powered by the Monolith LithTech 2.0 game engine

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004W4WO
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.9 x 1.8 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: June 20, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,897 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Might and Magic role-playing-game series debuted way back in the mid-'80s. In the '90s, it spun off into an excellent turn-based strategy series, due for a new installment in the fall (Heroes of Might and Magic IV). Now 3DO is taking its franchise, monsters, heroes, spells, might, and, of course, magic into a whole new genre: the multiplayer online shooter. Legends of Might and Magic plays like Quake, Tribes, and Unreal Tournament, but with swords and sorcery instead of guns and rocket launchers.

Actually, that's not true: Legends of Might and Magic plays exactly like those futuristic shooters, only instead of lasers you're shooting magic rays and arrows. There's not much of a difference in gameplay, and experienced players might find themselves wondering why they aren't playing a modern-day action game like Half-Life: Counter-Strike instead.

Legends does feature plenty of cool monsters and player models, but the various character classes play the same. The game uses the LithTech graphics engine, which just isn't as pretty as the engines of other current games. While characters are detailed and colorful, they are also angular and stiff.

Like in Counter-Strike, you begin each round "buying" stuff to use in the fracas. Then you fight the enemy team in fantasy medieval versions of standard FPS scenarios. Instead of rescuing a scientist or a president, you've got to rescue a damsel in distress. Sword in the Stone mode replaces Capture the Flag variants, Protect the Warlord stands in for Protect the VIP, and Slay the Dragon just isn't as cool as it sounds. Given the size and scope of Legends of Might and Magic's bestiary, the game is a little disappointing.

But not-so-jaded fans, new players, and Might and Magic fans in particular will find all the repetitive things mentioned above a fun take on a genre crowded with look-alike modern combat games. Maybe next time 3DO can add a little more magic to the mix and come up with something more than a polymorphed Counter-Strike. --Andrew S. Bub

Pros:

• 1st-person Might and Magic action
• It's basically fantasy Counter-Strike
• Plenty of weapons and game modes

Cons:

• It's basically just fantasy Counter-Strike
• The graphics are angular and a little fakey
• The classes are too similar

Product Description

Legends of Might & Magic, free unlimited Internet play

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great, addictive game, May 28, 2002

By 

Stan Smith "uifvmkfrt" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends of Might & Magic (CD-ROM)

I think this is an awesome game. First I'll talk about the major criticisms:

"The graphics are subpar" - So what? They do the job.

"The classes are not very different" - Untrue! The differences may be subtle, and not very obvious to inexperienced players. The sorceress and archer have superior long range abilities, but are worse at melee and cannot use all armor types. This brings me to one of my favorite combinations - Tracking Crossbow + Plate Armor on a Warrior/Paladin. You're like a tank, but incredibly slow. It doesn't work quite as well with sorceresses, for example (they can't buy plate). While you save up enough money to pay for this combination you'll possibly want to rely on cheap throwing knives and use of melee to get your kills. Since Paladins/Warriors are the best at melee this works out pretty well.

Other reasons the classes are different - Druids and Heretics are quite powerful at short range, terrible at long range, and middle ground in melee. On most maps you'll want about 50% of your team consisting of druids or heretics, as they are the most well-rounded. Melee is a very important part of this game (see below). If you're on a wide open map, you can be sure you'll always have a solid long range weapon if you're a sorceress or archer, even if you just died (and thus lost your purchased weapon). Not so for the other classes.

"The fantasy aspect is lost" or "it's just like every other shooter" - I disagree. Sure, there are lots of explosions and rays being fired, but melee is a very important part of this game, much more so than UT, for example. In confined areas a paladin will most likely destroy an archer if he uses sword. Turn on your fire ring in conjunction with a melee weapon and you're a monster in close quarters. Plus, melee duels are fun as hell if the players involved are any good. The armor worn by melee participants makes things more interesting, as speed and damage taken vary depending on armor type. In tight spaces, having armor is usually good for melee. But if you want to chase someone around the map with a battle axe in a frenzied rage, you might be better off with no armor. It's so much fun butchering armor-burdened enemies who can't escape from you!

"The monsters are dumb" - Yeah, they are. As are the monsters in most games. Most servers turn them off anyway so this is a moot point. For beginners, it could be a good idea to beat up on monsters in single player practice mode, just to get used to things. I suppose if you play small games, such as 2 vs. 2, monsters could liven things up. But I recommend larger games.

My only gripes about this game are as follows:

3DO discontinued support. This means no more servers. Not a big deal since there are plenty of user-made ones. This also means there is no hope for a map editor. I honestly don't get bored of the stock maps, but I do think it [stinks] that we can't make our own. And it would be nice if the glitches could be fixed.

There ARE a few minor glitches, such as getting stuck on ladders, but with experience you learn how to get around them. Oh yeah, I wish losing focus (alt-tab, receiving an instant message, etc.) wouldn't disconnect me from the server.

The prices of fire staff and holy hand grenade are too low. These weapons are very powerful for their respective prices, so they pop up way too often. This causes some other weapons to be neglected. Servers can be configured to adjust the prices, although I think a hack might be necessary (never set up a server myself so I'm not sure). The server I play on adjusted some prices so the game is much more balanced.

I highly recommend Legends of Might and Magic. This is a very addictive game that I keep coming back to on a daily basis. Especially at this price, you can't go wrong!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great potential, sadly unrealized, July 31, 2001

By 

Scott C. Smith (Happy Valley, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legends of Might & Magic (CD-ROM)

What a great concept: take 3DO's popular "Might and Magic" universe and add online, multiplayer support. It should have worked, but unfortunately, the shipping product is more like a poor Half-Life: Counstrike with a fantasy setting.

Releasing or including an editing tool that allows users to create their own maps is a common practice; how else to explain the continued, huge popularity of a game like Half-Life? Nearly three years after its release, Half-Life is still the most popular multiplayer, online game, with thousands of servers operating at any given time. The Half-Life community has created enormously popular "mods" for Half-Life, such as Counterstrike and Day of Defeat. Curiously, 3DO has not released a set of editing tools for Legends of Might and Magic, which means players are stuck with a handful of maps provided in the shipping product. This may explain why, on a given night, only 17 servers operate, with an average total of maybe 80 players engaged in battle.

Essentially, gameplay options cover familar scenarios: an escort style called "Warlord," where one team is tasked with getting a designated player to a particular destination, while the other team tries to take out the warlord; "Princess," with a team attempting to rescue a kidnapped princess; "Sword in The Stone," which is another version of capture the flag; and "Dragon," where competing teams attempt to kill a dragon.

Players can choose to be good or evil, but there is no roleplaying element involved in that choice. Between good and evil there are only six player models to choose from. Unlike Quake III, or Unreal Tournament, you cannot alter the appearance of your on-screen avatar.

Graphics are provided by Monolith's Lithtech game engine. Amazingly, the same engine that powers the visually exciting "No One Lives Forever" powers Legends, but the graphics are not particularly engaging or visually interesting. Character models are a bit blocky, and the player animation is simplistic. The scenery looks okay, but it's not in the same league as NOLF.

Hopefully 3DO will release a level editor and the gaming community will breathe some life into a game that has a lot of potential.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game is awsome!, June 20, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Legends of Might & Magic (CD-ROM)

This is an overall good game. 3DO has made some good games in the past, but this is the best! There is a slight amount of blood and the gameplay is excellent. There is no swearing on the one player campaign, so it's alright to play! I highly recommend this game.