User Reviews (1 - 11 of 35)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

might and magic IX

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 39 / 59
Date: March 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Might & Magic IX will be built of areas connected by an overland map. Lang compares overland travel to Sea Dogs or Fallout.The new dialogue system will take a page from RPGs like Baldur's Gate with branching conversations. A new class system will stress flexibility throughout your characters' careers. There are might classes (paladins, rangers, crusaders, mercenaries) and magic classes (mages, druids, liches, priests) and you'll be able to change your class as you play. The spell system will be more flexible by opening spellcasting to more classes. Skills will have specific and unique functions for each class to differentiate characters as they get more powerful. The combat system won't change much, offering real time or turn-based modes depending on the player preference. Lang says the LithTech engine will allow combat to be a little more "action oriented" this time around. I think this game is amazing and definitatly reccomend it to RPG gamers.

A solid RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: April 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Many people have dissed this game, but after about an hour of playing it turns into a really good game. The graphics aren't up to standards, but they aren't that bad and they are a previous improvement over the previous games. Many things have been changed in this game, and if you just want another MMVIII, then you won't probably won't like it. But in my opinion, this is the best Might and Magic of them all. It is fun, addictive, and worth the money. I definitely recommend this game to a serious RPG player.

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

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 14
Date: March 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Might and Magic 9 is a great adventure game. It's ability to combine turnbase and real time is very useful when fighting the immensely broad variety of creatures. There is a secret around every corner and treasure in every dungeon. What is really cool about this game are the towns and the ability to converse with their inhabitants. In the towns you can discover skills, gain experience, and find new team members. This game is very long and exiting and it takes time to become a master of the elements,a lord of magic, and a weilder of weaponry, but in the end all of this is well worth the wait.

Don't pre-order - it may be seriously incomplete

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 23 / 30
Date: March 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I don't usually preview a game so close to release, if I'm that interested I usually buy it and review it. But bear with me this time...

The Might and Magic series is one of the three "old school" RPG stalwarts - the others being Ultima and Wizardry. Pretty much everyone has owned one or the other at some point.

MM6->8 all used the same dated engine, and didn't sell through very well. I thought the series was dead after MM8. So to some surprise, and little fanfare here's MM9. The good news is that it's boasting a whole new engine using Lithtech Development System (Half-Life, No One Lives Forever, Aliens vs Predator) so everything should look a lot better, and lots more scripting of events. Also another improvement is getting rid of the horrible teacher system for getting higher-level skills. So no more thankless backtracking and mindless searching to find the right master.

Graphically it looks better, but I'm concerned that it may simply be a case of style over substance. What appears to be a week before release, 3DO still doesn't seem to have created a Website devoted to the game. All I can find is a box shot. So if there isn't enough content to fill up a few web pages, I'm really wondering how they filled up a whole game. Also I can't even find the developers (New World Computing) website, the one link I could find automatically redirected me to the box shot on the 3DO site. I can't even find a list of minimum system requirements anywhere.

Also another 3DO game developed by New World Computing, Heroes of Might and Magic 4 (which looks good by the way), is also scheduled for release on March 29 - a bizarre self-competition if I ever saw one. Then again, with the threat of a few A++ RPGs arriving over the next few months, I get the feeling that MM9 has only right now to make any money before the big guns set up shop. Maybe a better option would have been to piggyback MM9 to Heroes 4 and charge a little more for Heroes 4.

MM9 looks like it could be an okay game. Maybe if it had been released last year, I would have excited by it. However 2002 looks to be a banner year for RPGs and frankly it's just not approaching the release date with much to inspire confidence.

If you like the old school RPGs, then you really should have a look at Wizardry 8. It has a similar feel to the Might and Magic games and was just possibly the best RPG of 2001. Both games use a first person point of view. Wizardry 8 manages to get past the feeling of a room full of people carrying a window everywhere, through little quirky interactions and dialogue. It's not clear what MM9 plans to do to overcome this

If you are really more interested in something cutting edge, Dungeon Siege comes out in a week (April 4) and is a much better target to hurl your money at.

My final verdict is: Don't think about ordering this one until you get reviews from people who tried to play the whole game through to the end. (Four stars because I have to choose something)

Dig around for MM6, MM7, and MM8. They are all okay titles and cheap as dirt to boot.

They gave complainers what they asked for

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First let me say that I am a fan of MM8, despite all the negative things that people said about it.

MM9 was designed to "fix" all the things people said they didn't like about MM8:
1. Old, outdated game engine - well, now it's a new one, with pretty good first person graphics which don't make me nauseous (some games do).
2. Playing dragons/vampires, etc., made the game too easy - so they took those options, along with the "fly" spell - out.
3. Monsters which weren't smart enough to know others of their kind in the next room were being attacked - well, now they mostly know and come running.

Unfortunately, these "fixes" didn't satisfy the complainers - they'd complain no matter what. What the "fixes" *did* do was take a perfectly good system (one you didn't have to buy a new computer for each time a new game came out, I might add) and make it less enjoyable (not that I don't like the new graphics) than the first. But complainers are always more loud than those who are satisfied, and they are the ones 3DO heard.

Don't get me wrong - I'm still enjoying playing it -- and you should know that many of the quests, while they may not include "insider" jokes, are designed specifically so that the player has to overcome any habits he/she picked up in MM8 (for instance, getting into the water, just to name one). I also like that hack-and-slash is not always the answer.

Oh, and btw, I've been playing it in WindowsXP and haven't had a problem with it - not even one crash, although I'm only about halfway through the game so far.

Backward Compatibility

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Might and Magic IX is one of the few games on the market that is playable on older computers. The game is playable on a Pentium II; consequently, the game has outdated graphics. As somewho who has an 5 year old computer and refuses to buy a new one, I appreciate the fact that at least one company is still making games that I can play.

A good game that's been raked over the coals mercilessly.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm not quite sure why this game has received such savage tearing apart from reviewers far and wide; while flawed, it is a solid entry in the Might and Magic series.

I've always enjoyed the Might and Magic series, even though I haven't played all of them; I think the last three installments (6, 7, and 8) were all good, though of declining quality from one to the next.

Might and Magic IX certainly doesn't wow you with an amazing intro; the opening movie is quite boring, unlike the others in the series, which really gave you a motivation to get in there and find out what's going on. Here, it feels more like watching an old movie rell in the back of a dusty classroom (but not in a cool way, as in the marvelous intros of Fallout 1 and 2.)

The manual is sadly lacking as well; it's obvious that it was designed to make you want to buy the strategy guide; leaving out information crucial to designing your character is a shady decision.

So, why do I give this thing 4 stars? All I've done is gripe so far, right? Well, it maintains that "just 5 more minutes" syndrome that haunts the others in the series; you want to make it through that dungeon, or complete that quest, or see what's in the next town. I'll break it down with pros and cons.

Positive aspects:
* New graphics engine is nice - a great improvement over the previous versions. Not breathtaking, but well-done (despite the scary faces.) New monsters and models, and great spell effects.
* GREAT music! Laid-back, not in your face, dark, foreboding, whimsical... I'd say it's probably the best music next to 6.
Plus, THE MUSIC NOW LOOPS! Thank the gods.. I remember saving and reloading quite literaly thousands of times in the earlier games to get the music to restart.
* Great character development - instead of forcing you to decide from the start exactly what sort of character you want. I've always liked the skill advancement in the series, and it is preserved here.
* Smarter monsters - they'll run, and call for reinforcements. Good monster models.
* Fairly interesting quests. None of them will blow you away, but some have a bit of humor injected into them.

Bad:

* Dialogue seems juvenile. Interaction still feels very wooden and unfulfilling.
* Party members are still just a jumble of numbers - you don't get the rich feel of controlling actual adventurers, as you do with the Baldur's Gate series.
* Stability - I've had about 8 drop to desktop crashes in about 10 hours of play. Not great.
* Lousy manual.

Overall, a worthwhile game. If you're a fan of others in the series, you should like this one.

Might & Magic IX. . .

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: May 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Facing the facts, 3DO should have switched to a full 3-D engine long ago where its ýMight & Magicý RPG franchise is concerned, but, for some reason, that didnýt happen until 2002ýs ýMight & Magic IX.ý The gameýs new facelift, though, is anything but pretty, and youýll immediately feel like you just entered the magical world of Polygon. Thatýs not to say the graphics donýt 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 donýt make the game, and for those who can look past the graphical problems of IX, thereýs some decent adventuring to be done ý primarily if youýre a fan of the past few ýMight & Magicý 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 itýs not as cut-and-dry as ýkill the Dark Lord, save the universe.ý 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 ý warrior or magician), and venture into the fantasy landscape.

Customizing your party isnýt half as fun as it was in earlier incarnations of ýMight & Magic,ý and gives you far fewer options than the last installment in the series ý which poses the obvious question: shouldnýt 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 characterýs 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. Donýt expect the kind of roleplaying youýd get from ýIcewind Daleý or ýMorrowindý 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 werenýt expecting, or bump into quests that boost your experience. Unfortunately, monster encounters arenýt 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 isnýt very exciting either, since you canýt 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 youýre 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 youýre 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 youýll marvel at how an outdoor fog can follow you indoors as well, graying up whatever castle or keep you have entered.

The gameýs 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 couldnýt penetrate. Behind the wall is a demoness that is freed by your incursion ý unless of course you donýt 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 youýve 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 gameýs quests are tepid and tedious and require too much walking across open country that youýve 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 gameýs sound effects are sparse and generally gratingý 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 ýIcewind Dale II,ý ýMorrowind,ý and ýArx Fatalis.ý But to those who absolutely adore the unique style of adventure that only ýMight & Magicý 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 ý but if youýre a CRPG addict, and have already run through the yearýs best, then itýs worth a look (despite the horror stories you may have heard).

Final Score: C

Bottom Line: The game is fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: April 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As someone who has been a hobbyist/gamer for 20 years now - you don't have to tell me what graphics are, or how games have advanced from the days of the Commodore Vic 20/64 or the Apple IIe machines until today.

To this day I still insist no finer RPG series to date (and this includes 2002 releases thus far) rivals the series called "The Bard's Tale".

Anyway, if you rate a game by graphics so critically - then hey, you are a casual gamer and no more than that. The graphics in M&M IX aren't stellar by far, but beyond saying "man the graphics are disappointing" that's it. They have little impact on your gaming experience if you are truly into RPG games and engross yourself in the actual game's content.

Some things I think are (to be blunt) "stupid" - 1) There is far too much idle walking time in the wilderness areas. You'll spend literally 2-5 minutes of actual time just walking to your destination. That's in a word: boring.

2) The interface is a bit more clumsy than I'd normally prefer. For example, the auto map has nothing labeled. So even after you visit, say the armor shop, its not like their's an icon on the map indicating it. So you have to wander around the town remembering where it is. I think that was silly how they did that. (What's the point of an auto map if it only gives you an "idea" of where to go, even after you been there?) also this is a petty thing, but it irks me...the game's save feature should be improved. It should save files and label them in real world time (in the game it will label the files with the date and time in the game world) AND when you die and it autostarts you back - it should reload the LATEST save file NOT just your latest autosave (which it currently does).

But the game other than that, is fun to play. The missions range vastly from simple...to VERY VERY challenging. I've died several times trying to complete some.

Its a good game. Not the best RPG, not the best graphics. But TRUE rpg fans can and will appreciate it.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions