Might and Magic 8 (reflection)

Off and on over the past 2 weeks, I have started to replay Might and Magic 8: Day of the Destroyer.  I’ll be perfectly honest: I loved Might and Magic 6. Heck, I can completely lose myself in it for a few hours when I’m in the mood.  And while I haven’t played it’s sequel as much, it’s another game I can lose myself in.  I would argue that Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor is perhaps the most balanced and accessible game out of the games from the series I’ve played.  So why can’t I get into Day of the Destroyer?

First things first, you don’t create a party like the old games. Instead, you create a single character.  They range from the foundations of the series (Knight, Cleric) to more exotic characters (vampires). This is what makes the game so…interesting. There’s a sense that there are cultures crashing against each other and yet they don’t get along. The problem with this is that there’s nothing short of the general atmosphere to show off their differences, how they get along, what brings them together. Thus, the lands feel downright monoethnic to me. For example, everyone lives in a house. Not just any house, the perfectly square ones with perfectly manicured lawns of dead corpses of your enemies. While this is definitely an hyperbole, the feeling isn’t. Wouldn’t trolls live in something else than a perfectly square house? Vampires living in something a bit spookier? Maybe a hole in the ground or mountain? Or the Dark Elves living in something more grand since they’re mostly known as merchants?

Gameplay wise, it’s the same as the previous entries: Run around and explore the environment, merciless beat monsters (okay, get mercilessly beaten from enemies), grab loot, level, place skills. It’s tried, it’s true, and it’s still on display here. Yet there’s something about this game that just doesn’t click with me. First of all, most of the character classes seem very similar. Minotaurs are like Clerics are like Vampires; Knights are like Trolls and Minotaurs. And necromancers are similar, though not the same as Necromancers are stronger spell casters.

Furthermore, characters all share the same portraits. So instead of your crew being different from every other time you play (provided you create a balanced party), the parties mostly feel the same as well.  Sure, some classes wield skills better than others; some of the classes could have been better balanced.

I think that’s what drives me away from the game: it’s too similar. It’s too bland. The locales feel to similar, too bland. It has all these great ideas and…doesn’t seem to go anywhere with it. Sure, I can get into the other games–the sixth installment at a drop of a hat, there’s something missing from this one. I think what’s missing is the creativity, attention to detail, and a unified world. When it was mostly just humans, everything felt cohesive. Heck, even the elven village in 7 felt more “real” than the Necromancer Guild. Again, for a game that is about different cultures, it seems quite monoethnic.

This leaves the most important question: Is this game still worth your time now in 2014? When I originally picked this game up three years ago, I had some fun with it. It then quickly ended up on my digital bookshelf. It wasn’t because I was burned out like after playing Morrowind. I was bored, like after playing Fallout 3. Sure, it’s a solid RPG. It’s just a void with no personality. It only costs 6 bucks, so it won’t break the bank. On the other hand, there are so many better classic games to play.