NetDanzr's Full Review: Might and Magic 8: Day of the Destroyer for Window...
Those of you who have read some of my other reviews of games know that I tend to rip apart even the best game. I'll do the same here as well, even though I'd keep it as short as possible, because there's a lot to criticize.
Overview The story: A stranger appeared in the middle of Ravenshore. A huge crystal, summoned by the stranger, has caused havoc all over the world of Jadame. You, a caravan guard, get caught in the middle of all this, and slowly advance towards the final solution of your quest - to save the world. You will have to find a way from Dagger Wound Islands, where you are stranded. You will have to convince other races to join you to defeat the Destroyer, and you will have to quest through your world, elemental planes and the inside of the crystal to destroy the enemy.
Game specifics: Unlike other games in this series, you'll start with one character, and slowly will be able to add more (up to five, including you) into the party. As for the engine,. the game uses the same engine than its two predecessors, just a bit polished. And as for the music and story quality, well, read further.
The good Story: The Might and Magic series always had a superb story. Once again, the story is believable (considering it's a fantasy game), and heavily supported by characters you got to know in the previous two parts. I would say that this game is even more interlined with the previous part, which creates a strong feeling of familiarity.
The music: Even though not reaching the qualities of Might and Magic VI, the music is much better than the one in the previous part. Once again, it makes the environments much more believable and realism (how I whish different smells were included in the next game).
Characters: One of the best new features of the game is the choice of character races. Apart of the "normal" races (cleric, knight), you have the choice of some new races, such as a vampire, necromancer, dark elf, minotaur, troll, and even a dragon! This nice touch adds a lot of attractiveness to the game, especially for players who are sick of playing barbarians and palladins.
Dungeon design: This feature was greatly improved from the previous games. Dungeons now feature false floors and traps everywhere. It is much harder to get around with the invisibility spell, but you'll also find the dungeons to be designed in a logical fashion, often having more than one way to reach your final destination.
The bad Story: Unfortunately, the game has the most linear story of all the Might and Magic games. You simply don't have to do anything else than follow the exact directions of a couple of people you meet in the right order at the right time. The side quests are completely optional, and by avoiding them the game can be finished within a day.
Characters: The character design is very unbalanced. The dark elf has all the important attributes to make him a perfect fighter, thief and archer, and a very good spell caster. Relatively early in the game, you'll be able to hire a fully developed dark elf, and since that moment, you'll have just marginal problems with the adventuring parts of the game, such as trading and disarming traps. Even worse, a dragon in your party makes the game look like Quake for babies. My last party (around level 70) did a total maximum damage of 100 points, while my dragon alone did over 400 points of damage. In such a case, all you need to do is to fly around and shoot down everything that moves.
Hardware: For some reason, the game does not like my DVD-ROM player. It sometimes crashes when starting the CD, and always crashes during the final movie. So even after going through the whole game for three times, I still don't know how the game ends.
The undecided Quests: While the quests are more varied, they still get tiring soon. The designers wanted to decrease the dependence on the Invisibility spell by adding a couple of "kill 'em all" quests. However, this makes the game feel more like an early version of quake.
Engine: The game engine is still the old one from two years back. However, it got polished and became much more smooth than I remember it from the previous game. On a 450MHz computer, I got very choppy graphics when fighting in the Arena, while on the same computer this game behave very smoothly.
The bottom line
I expect this game to be the last using this engine. If you want to play a first-person RPG, you have no other choice than getting one of the Might and Magic games. In that case, I'd recommend Might and Magic VI, with this game being my second choice.
Info Line: 415-503-9089 Email: sales [at] tekgems.com MIGHT AND MAGIC 8 - DAY OF DESTROYER view larger image Description UPC: 5037999006701 Unit Weigh...More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.