Might and Magic 9

by The 3DO Company

Product Features

• All New Adventure..Completely 3D Product Information The adventure begins when you and your shipwrecked party meet a strange woman onthe Isle of Ashes in the middle of the Verhoffin Sea. She tells you of thebloodthirsty Beldonian Horde that is poised to invade your homeland of Chedian.Your destiny starts to unfold when she explains that you are the only chance forthe land’s survival, a

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005YWFY
• Item Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 29, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,081 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Explore an all-new 3-D universe filled with richly detailed castles, dark foreboding dungeons, lush outdoor environments, and more. Create a party of four main characters, and hire nonplayer characters to aid you in your quest to save your home, the peaceful land of Chedian, from the bloodthirsty Beldonian Horde.

Product Description

All New Adventure...Completely 3DProduct InformationThe adventure begins when you and your shipwrecked party meet a strange woman onthe Isle of Ashes in the middle of the Verhoffin Sea. She tells you of thebloodthirsty Beldonian Horde that is poised to invade your homeland of Chedian.Your destiny starts to unfold when she explains that you are the only chance forthe land’s survival and that you must unite the six clans of the Chedianagainst the Beldonian Horde. The fate of the world rests in your hands.Product Features All New Stunning 3D game Engine creates a while-new realistic gaming experience! Choose from over 6+5 quests to complete along the way. Taylor each characters development to be stronger in either Might or Magic Create a party of 4 main characters and hire non-player characters to fight alongside you Explore over 40 massive levels All New Spell combat system - Spellcasters have a wide range of devastating spells! Intuitive interface and all new Conversation system Multiple character classes each with unique strengths and weaknesses 23 skills to customize your characters abilities.Windows Requirements Windows 95 98 Me 2000 Pro XP Pentium II 400 MHz or better processor 1 GB of free hard disk space 64 MB of RAM DirectX 8.0 compatible with at least 16MB VRAM All major DirectX 8.0 compatible sound cards Keyboard Mouse 4X CD-ROM drive

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Awful graphics - it really kills the game, April 4, 2002

By 

M. Larsen "diamond" (Vernon Hills, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Might and Magic 9 (CD-ROM)

I have always been a Might and Magic fan. I thought 7 and 8 were great games despite the graphics because the graphics didn't get in the way and still set a good atmosphere. I realize they were dated, but it worked.

The graphics in Might and Magic IX so far are inexcusable. Just in the training area there are a lot of clipping problems, and I have already gotten "stuck" in between textures twice already. The mouse-look is exaggerated which makes it almost useless. The text is blocky and choppy -- it looks like zoomed in text on an LCD panel running at the wrong resolution. They really tried to take the faces on people and improve them, but they look very out of place against the jagged background.

On the positive side of the graphics, the monsters do look good.

The sound is quite good, however, so I'm hoping a good sound card and 5.1 speaker system can help set the atmosphere. Although get to know your sound system very well - I was presented with seven sets of 3D sound options with no explanation of them or recommendations.

The character progression model also looks entertaining, and it obviously has some nice M&M touches that should still make it enjoyable. However, it is hard to get around the graphics.

Also, as of April 4th, 3DO still does not have a support section available for M&M9. That's right - no support. If you're hoping to find an answer as to why the graphics look so bad or why the text is jagged, you're out of luck.

So the pros: M&Ms have always been good in the past. The story seems to have some interesting lines to it. The character model look like fun mix without being overly complex. Good looking monsters.

The cons: Terrible 3D graphics that look flat and jagged -- their old 2D model looked more like 3D. Numerous clipping errors including the ability to get "stuck". Bad implementation of water. Jagged text. No explanation of sound options on install.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Might & Magic IX. . ., May 4, 2003

By 

-- "--" (Gondor, IN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Might and Magic 9 (CD-ROM)

Facing the facts, 3DO should have switched to a full 3-D engine long ago where its Might & Magic RPG franchise is concerned, but, for some reason, that didnt happen until 2002s Might & Magic IX. The games new facelift, though, is anything but pretty, and youll immediately feel like you just entered the magical world of Polygon. Thats not to say the graphics dont have their moments (certain environments look better than others, and certain NPCs or enemies do likewise), but it all looks very much like something you could have been playing in 1998. But, of course, graphics dont make the game, and for those who can look past the graphical problems of IX, theres some decent adventuring to be done  primarily if youre a fan of the past few Might & Magic games (which all have a distinctive style of gameplay, for better or worse).

The storyline in IX is a bit on the soft and ridiculous side, but it works, and at least its not as cut-and-dry as kill the Dark Lord, save the universe. It is your job to unite the six clans of the realm in order to face the looming threat imposed by an Attila-like figure who seeks to conquer the land. Odd twists of fate abound, uniting you with your enemies, and ultimately pit you against the gods themselves. To win the day, you must assemble a party of four adventurers (picking from only two initial classes  warrior or magician), and venture into the fantasy landscape.

Customizing your party isnt half as fun as it was in earlier incarnations of Might & Magic, and gives you far fewer options than the last installment in the series  which poses the obvious question: shouldnt a sequel outdo its forebears? Only four races are available to you (human, elf, dwarf, or half-orc), and the portrait selection is limited to two generic faces per race, and two more per sex. You can customize your characters voice, but that ultimately boils down to choosing the voiceover that least annoys you. And, of course, you tweak a few stats and traits, but they too are few. Dont expect the kind of roleplaying youd get from Icewind Dale or Morrowind here.

When you have assembled your party, the story begins. The game plays essentially the same as previous entries in the series: combat is an optional real-time or turn-based affair, and you visit various provinces and cities seeking quests that can transform your humble fighter into a crusader, or your magician into a lich. Wandering the countryside is somewhat gratifying despite the blocky landscapes, because you often run into things you werent expecting, or bump into quests that boost your experience. Unfortunately, monster encounters arent very intense, primarily because only two or three different breeds of monsters seem capable of stalking any one given province, and most of them look pretty ridiculous. Combat isnt very exciting either, since you cant really even tell when your blows are connecting against your opponent unless you read the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen. Only archery reveals sound cues and splashes of blood (even from skeletons and the like who should obviously not bleed when hit).

The more time you spend with the game, the more it will grow on you, and the more addicted you may even become, but it still feels like youre playing an early beta of what could have been a far superior game. Outdoor and indoor environments all suffer from a lack of detail that makes them feel mostly generic. This pervading lack of polish makes it very hard to suspend disbelief, since you rarely (if ever) feel like youre in a living, breathing world. There are graphical glitches to further hamper your adventures, and you can sometimes clip into hills or embankments and become stuck in them. Scenery pop-in often raises its ugly head, and youll marvel at how an outdoor fog can follow you indoors as well, graying up whatever castle or keep you have entered.

The games scripting can also be broken. For example: in a dwarven mine, you are supposed to break through a wall that, for some reason, the dwarves couldnt penetrate. Behind the wall is a demoness that is freed by your incursion  unless of course you dont break down every piece of the wall. Break only a section of it, walk into the room, and find that nothing happens until you go back and shatter the rest. Then, and only then, you find yourself in a cut-scene, since youve only now triggered it. This is why games are playtested rigorously before release, 3DO!

The list of complaints that can be leveled against IX is pretty lengthy indeed. Many of the games quests are tepid and tedious and require too much walking across open country that youve already cleared of foes; the inventory and outfitting screen is unintuitive and not half as interesting as that seen in the previous games (why does my female elven warrior have a male dwarf representing her?); the games sound effects are sparse and generally grating All of these flaws make IX a hard game to recommend wholeheartedly, even to fans of the franchise, especially in a year that brought with it great RPGs like Icewind Dale II, Morrowind, and Arx Fatalis. But to those who absolutely adore the unique style of adventure that only Might & Magic offers, this should do, provided you brace for some disappointment. I can only hope that 3DO licenses a new engine next time around, and makes sure to take it time polishing up the game before its release. Despite all of the new additions made to IX, it is inferior to its predecessors in almost every respect. This one has all the signs of a game rushed out the door to meet some dreaded deadline  but if youre a CRPG addict, and have already run through the years best, then its worth a look (despite the horror stories you may have heard).

Final Score: C

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I loved Might and Magic - but this is too much, May 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Might and Magic 9 (CD-ROM)

I read lots of negative reviews and chose not to believe them - after all, I played Might and Magic 3 to 8 to not overwhelmingly good reviews, too and enjoyed it a lot. Graphics for me aren't the most important part in a RPG and I can live with a story which isn't epic (I do some other things besides playing on my computer). That means, however, that I don't want to bother with stupid details like searching fort an expert for hours or walking through an area for hours on end. In the last installments of MM, there were some brilliant solutions for that. I especially liked the mini map or the Fly spell. These are all gone, and after some hours of playing, I haven't even found Town Portal yet.

To add insult to injury, the handbook is seriously laughable. Character creation is boring and there are many pesky little details in handling simple things that should be intuitive. At least on my 1 MHz Athlon, there were loading times even for a map or a chest to open. Oh yeah - and even if graphics aren't that important to me, there seem to be only about five looks for NPCs - boring.

I didn't listen to the good advice I read everywhere - you should (I bemoan the fate of my 40 bucks). Why 2 stars ? For nostalgia's sake, I guess (and even as I type this, I seriously tend to reconsider).