The Gaming Den

So, I've been thinking about getting into the Might and Magic series, or possibly the Heroes of might and magic series, but I don't really know where to start. I understand that Might and Magic is an rpg series, and I've heard that VI is one of the better ones, but would that be a good place to start? And the Heroes Of series, is an rts of some sort to my limited understanding, and I saw Frank's rundown of HoMM VI, which was just bad bad bad apparently.

Would it be worth my while and my money to get into either of these series, and if so, which ones should I get?

Here is video of MM4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwzpS4cHIQ

Here is video of MM6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlwLfXZDHTE

I personally recommend MM 3 4 and 5 (they go together) as well as Swords of Xeen, the bonus scenario.

You can get 1-6 for $10 at GOG as well as the other series including Heroes.

3, 4 and 5 are basically the same game with slight increments in graphics. You're even allowed to walk back and forth between 4 and 5 if that is what you want to do. 6, 7, and 8 are pretty much exactly the same game with minor changes.

In going from 6 to 8 there are various minor improvements to the graphics and mechanics, at the cost of the world building being more half assed. 8 is a modestly prettier game than 7, but it's way shorter because the world is incredibly tiny and half assed.

My suggestion would be to either play 4 & 5 together or to play 6 or 7 separately. 1 & 2 are CGA graphics compatible and are too hideous for modern audiences. 8 is rather phoned in - you can literally beat the entire game without leveling up. It has nicer looking cutscenes and shit, but the actual story doesn't have much meat and the game world is super small.

-Username17

Heroes of Might and Magic is an excellent series up until III, as far as my limited experience with the latter games indicate. 1&2 (and their prdecessor, King's Bounty) are great curiosities, but of course limited and imbalanced to the point of unplayability. So, you won't lose anything by starting with HoMMIII. But what's important to understand is that the game's campaign modes are essentially filler for the real game: Hot Seat single scenarios, which you can create yourself in a very user friendly map editor. You can play online too, and of course against the AI, but it's Hot Seat that made the series so fabulous. Not also that HoMMIII got some expansion packs that were hit and miss, but an overall improvement, so you'd probably want to get the Complete package.

HoMMII had essentially unsurpassed music, though.

HoMM and Might and Magic are completely different series.

The two series share major characters. Sandro the necromancer, Crag hack the barbarian, and so on. The two series get their closest with Might and Magic 6 and 7, which explicitly take place in the same world as Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (MM6 takes place "far away" and MM7 is literally set in the standard Heroes 3 kingdoms). The divergence is pretty intense after that. Heroes 4 posits that the "world explodes" end of the Armageddon's Blade expansion happened, so the entire world of HoMM 3 and Might and Magic VII are simply gone. MM 8 does its own wacky thing, and when Ubisoft took over the franchise for Heroes 5 they did a hard reboot and set everything in their own world that no one gives a fuck about.

But if you're playing Might and Magic 6, Heroes 3, and Might and Magic 7, the games mesh together pretty tightly.

-Username17

FrankTrollman wrote:But if you're playing Might and Magic 6, Heroes 3, and Might and Magic 7, the games mesh together pretty tightly.

I'm referring to the gameplay mostly. No one play Might and Magic for the hotseat multiplayer.

Oh, one thing to be aware of is that Might and Magic endings piss people off a lot because there's a bunch of bait and switch going on. You wouldn't know it from 90% of the gameplay, but technically Might and Magic games take place in a techno-fantasy world with spaceships and ray guns. So right near the end, things are going to go all Barrier Peaks on your ass, and that may or may not cause you to rage and throw things around the room.

It's actually a bit pointless, because by the time blasters show up, they are so amazingly not as good as the high grade magic items you have access to that you won't use them. Definitely do not save skill points to buy up your beam weapons skills in Might and Magic VI or VII. You might think that seems like a good idea when you find out there is a beam weapons skill, but the beam weapons show up at the end of the game and you won't give a shit because your artifact weapons are better.

But yes, there will be aliens and robots in the last couple of dungeons. Just a heads up.

-Username17

Frank's point is especially noteworthy when you consider that half the reason for having knights and paladins around in the first place is that they're good for Shared Life shenanigans and acting as designated skill monkeys.

Mind you, I don't think blasters are completely useless--they've got the fastest base delay in the game and the damage they deal isn't subject to resistances, so they're actually kinda sweet. It's just that their advantages have fuck all to do with skill ranks, so the way you "optimize" for them is by pretending they don't exist and putting some damn ranks into that fucking sword you've been dragging around for the last 11 hours of gameplay.