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okay why 3 stars?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: September 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I gave this game three stars because it's the only turned based game of it's kind that I've found. I don't have fantastic dexterity and I like to think about what is the best course of action in each battle. Yes, the graphics are poor, but they were the normal 5 years ago. I am not spoiled by graphics, especially because when I was a teenager, pong was the closest you could get to an interactive game.
The cheat book I think is essential to the game. I felt the starter book was useless. The fact that you could only start with a fighter or magicuser a disappointment, but it made sense in the promotions.
One of the things I hated was the uneven ease or difficulty of promotions. My party easily promoted a healer, but got slaughtered repeatly by lowly Yobboos trying to get that fighter promotion.
Another thing I hated was the Thronheim map. It was off by 90 degrees.
The thing I hated the most was the mirrors desert. I worked for hours trying to get those stupid things aligned. I wished there was a cheater code to bypass that stupid thing. I never finished it because of that.
Finally I gave this game three stars because the hours of play I got out of it. I didn't like Thief, Dark Stone, or Laura Croft because of the dexterity problem and the turn based problem. If you don't care about graphics and you don't want to play with others on line, this game is the best to get, regardless of it's problems.

Can be fun, if you can tolerate some shortcomings

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

THE GOOD: New 3D engine from Lithtech (No One Lives Forever, Aliens vs Predator 2). Buildings and landscape looks good, and monsters look frightening. People and NPC's however, did not impress me much. Jagged edges on the humanoid models with mediocre texturing makes interactions feel like you're talking to a picture. Soundtrack is also pretty good, but a little repetitive.

THE BAD: Long load times, movement and turning is not smooth even with a good video card and may strain the eyes, low resolution. MM9 uses paper dolls to represent your characters, the same graphic no matter how you equip your character. One of the pleasures that I have in playing RPG's is seeing my character all deck'ed out in plate mail, or seeing my character with a huge flaming sword. MM9 only has a sketch of your character depending on your class and gender. You'll never see what your character looks like with a shield, dual swords, etc... Another not-so-good aspect of this game is the lack of monsters. Monsters do not seem to respawn, which means that your exp and money is limited. The interface tries to be like a first person shooter, and takes a bit of getting used to. Personally, I prefer the classic mouse click RPG interface. Also, no potion making.

BUGS: 3DO released patch 1.2 almost immediately after the public release of the game to fix a slew of bugs. There are still major quest bugs that have not been addressed, such as the Thjordgard Training Hall quest and the orb of linking quest. The game feels sloppy, and the broken quests may result in hours and hours of lost playtime.

IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES OVER EARLIER MM: Trainers seem to be more abundant and accessible, so you don't have to travel the world to get trained in a particular skill. For example, both Sturmford and Drangheim have similar trainers. Quests seem to be easier (and very buggy). The world seems to get uglier and uglier - in MM6 and MM7, there were majestic castles, snowcapped villages, bright hot deserts. In MM8, there were lizard villages and dragon characters. Now, in MM9, there are half orcs, the game is often very dark and you seem to need a grandmaster mage to cast a decent light spell. I think the creators just don't want us to see (to cover up the ugliness?). Even at higher level, the light spell (torch) lasts longer and not much brighter.

OVERALL: I would say that this game may be worth checking out. I have to admit, despite its shortcomings, I am having a lot of fun. Definitely a buy if you are a die hard MM fan and this game happens to drop [in price].

This was quite a disappointment.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As an avid Might & Magic fan I looked forward to this one. It certainly did not live up to my expectations. One of the previews said there was no teacher system. Well there is, and you have to chase down everyone in every town to find them. The music was good, but I couldn't understand why everyone thought the graphics were so great. I played on a laptop and they were terrible. A lot of areas were so dark I couldn't tell where I was. The map helped, but in a few places it was screwed up and north was west, the arrow pointed the wrong way and the map hurt more than helped. This was only one of the MANY bugs. The game hung up almost every time I played it. Some of the quests I completed were not recognized. Thankfully they were not part of the mainline quest.
Most of the townspeople did not respond to your actions. They all had a set conversation. If you completed your quest they acknowledged it and gave your reward, but the next time you talked to them they asked you to do something for them, as if you were meeting them for the first time. You did not get the quest to complete again, just the dialog for it. Nothing seemed to react to my heroics. I never got the feeling that I was in the game. A role playing game should make you feel like your playing the part. A good example was the frost giant. The townspeople are freezing and starving because of him. You go and kill him and guess what? They are still freezing and starving. What did I kill him for?

Character development was never very clear. The manual was seriously lacking. I knew from previous games what numbers I needed to advance, but a lot of times the teacher told me a character couldn't advance a certain skill. I never knew why and wasted a lot of time planning my character development for nothing. None of that mattered because of the bugs. Once my characters were promoted it seemed I could do anything I wanted. I never had a chest blow up in my face, I could see all the traps and secret doors. Each character could carry practically everything in the world. I never had to leave anything behind because I didn't have room to carry it.
Your 3 NPCs are worthless. They cannot be controlled and you cannot even look at their stats. When in a battle they either cast a spell or attack. If they use magic they cast a low level spell, if not they attack and almost always miss! They have no ranged weapons and if you are not next to the enemy they are totally worthless. If you click on them you get the original conversation or a choice to fire them - nothing else.
I wasted a lot of time trying to decide which spells I wanted. There were two or three spells that were so powerful I didn't need any others. My healer could cast a spell that restored all health and magic points and cured any problems, over and over again - every turn. That made every battle a joke.
I hope the developers take notice and do a better job. I really liked this series and hate to see it ruined.

Huge Disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game over a year ago, and was very much looking forward to it. I loved Might and Magic 6-8 and played each one all the way through (some more than once). I liked the gameplay, the graphics were (at the time at least) pretty good, and most of all they had good stories to them. I had been hearing how 3DO was planning major improvements for MM9, so I had high hopes for this one too. Then I played it, and what a let down. I really tried to like this game, but just couldn't. I played it on and off for a little less than a month and have not bothered with it since. The graphics, even though there is a new engine, are really quite bad compared to other games in its class (things are much to angular). The NPC's are downright aweful looking. The story did not intitally make a lot of sense to me and didn't seem at all compelling or interesting (and I think this is really key to a good RPG). In my humble opinion, this is the worst of the Might and Magic lot (at least since 6 came out). I'd avoid this one. Go pick up Neverwinter Nights if you want a really interesting PC RPG. If you're looking a good console RPG try Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits for Playstation 2.

Worst Might and Magic game I've played

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: April 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Might and Magic 9 however is the worst I've played and I've played 3 through 7. I loved might and magic 6 with it's great graphics and music and interface. I liked 7, and I'm hoping to get 8.
I believe the worst part is that you only get TWO classes to choose from. Yes, two. A fighter and an "initiate"(mage). They eventually branch off offering two other choices but that's it. There are less skills and magic disciplines as well. The class variety was one of the best parts of the series.

The graphics are boring and bland with the occaisional decorations that you can't do anything with. I believe this game has the worst sky as well. Unlike 6 and 7 it doesn't move in anyway(clouds, etc) and is rather boring to look at. The music is awful, I listened to all of the songs and didn't hear even 20 seconds of sound I liked. The sound effects are alright but nothing special or imersive. The 3D engine they use is very poor in my opinion. NPCs in towns move stiffly and their faces look crudely "pasted on". They have no moving facial expressions though their bodies occasionally move. The inventory screen dropped from the great system from 6 and 7 to similar to might and magic 3,4,5 only not as pleasant. The voices are mostly stupid though there is an occasional funny line here and there.

Doors in this game are very poorly done. They automaticly close after about 5 seconds. This gets very annoying when you want to keep track of where you've been as the automap is already mapped out for each dungeon I'e been too and therefore of no help to the explore.

What next... Oh yes, you don't get a plain "attack button" you get an attack/use/open button and an attack/shoot missle button and a use button. You usually can't attack nothing and you can't attack people. No longer do you have to worry about the temptation of killing the peasants wandering by. You can't. You can shoot them with arrows all you want but they don't even blink(ever). When you attack you don't even see any blood or any responce other than a little popup window at the bottom that says you did a little damage.

There are few items on the ground anywhere in the 3 dungeons I've wandered around in and the treasure is usually worthless skills. You'll accumulate tons of them though you won't be able to use most of them since once you use them you don't need them anymore.

Enemies look alright, occasionally. The skeletons look like flat skeletons, the zombies look like not quite as flat zombies. Dragon Flies are the best I've seen so far though they are quite hard to see among the flat trees.

The only GOOD thing I can say about this game is that you can finally swim in water. Yes, that's the only good thing I can say about it. Even the Loading screen is boring, just a map with a tiny ship sailing back and forth a couple of inches.

Not Bad, Not Great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I just completed the latest version of the Might and Magic series. You create the standard 4-person party, do quests, and advance your characters. Those who've never played any of the Might and Magic games will enjoy this more that those who've played M&M VI or VII.

The Good: The new game engine is pretty cool. I like being able to look in a 360° radius around my party. Some of the old favorite spells are here like Lloyd's Beacon and Town Portal. There are some good new spells. Quests aren't super hard to figure out and it is fun to play as an RPG. Also, the NPC's in your party can fight and you can set up your party's formation. You can swim now which is pretty cool.

The Bad: No "Fly" spell. Many, MANY bugs, even after two patches. Make sure to get the latest patch and then you might want to check out the MM Worlds website for words on the bugs that remain. Some bugs are so bad that it will make the game impossible to win. The various NPC's you run into aren't "smart" meaning that even if you've solved a quest for them, they complain like it hasn't been done. It would have been nice for NPC's to adjust as the game advanced. Also, the game's story is mostly uninteresting (to me) and there's not much change between the various regions (graphic-wise).

The game was rushed and it shows but I still enjoyed playing it.

What an Amazing Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Unlike most people on this site I think that MM9 is the best RPG I have ever played. The reason I think there are a lot of bad reviews is because it is very different from the other versions of Might and Magic and the long time players of might and magic are too lazy to get use to the new game. I admit, at first I didn't like this game very much, but then after a month a played it again and kept playing until I beat it. The graphics are not the best, but they're not bad. What makes the game great though is the quests. They are so fun to do, much funner than other RPGs (i.e. Morrowind). So, in conclusion, I would strongly recommend this game to anyone with enough patience to really get into this game.

Might and Magic 9

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The game is buggy, and locks up. 3 DO said on the box that it would run on windows xp, and on their web site said that it wouldn't. I checked later and I couldn't find the note about windows xp, but they hadn't put out a new update. I've played every might and magic game, but this will be my last!

Not bad, but far from good

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been looking for RPGs that rival some of the old M&M, and even Ultima etc. I'm pretty old school I guess, not as concerned with graphics as I am with gameplay and quest lines and so on. From those aspects, I find many disappointments and not too many good points to discuss.
First, when I got to Tronheim (one of the towns) it was a complete maze. It takes you a couple of hours to gain you bearings that you can go somewhere easily, and then you find out that the directional finder on the map is off by 90 degrees, so when you are actually facing south, your arrow on the map is pointing west, etc. Very frustrating and confusing for a town. I think this is ridiculous because since you have to be more than half way through the game to even find a lloyd's beacon spell (oh yeah no learning or completing quests for spells, you have to find them or buy them) town portal is your only savior sometimes. Then if you get thrown into Tronheim, good luck.
In relation to the lloyd's beacon thing, the game does not allow you to progress to any decent spells until the game is nearly over. And the lack of "fly" is a pain since the game score is rated on how long it takes you to solve, and there is an equally irritating travel ability between towns and areas.
This games is not totally terrible, because it does contain some very challenging quests, but it is not a good value at the current price. maybe at nineteen or fifteen bucks, then it becomes worthwhile. But with the things I mentioned, and the many despicable quest bugs mentioned in other reviews, you should wait a while before purchasing.

Bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: October 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

this is a plea. 3DO please stop slaughtering this great seris. please bring in some fans and let them design the game. because these one is horrable.

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