Might and Magic X coming out tomorrow
Just in case - most of the BG fanbase seem to be quite fond of old RPGs.
Might and Magic was a wonderful RPG series (almost destroyed by the infamous M&M 9), but Limbic is cooking a new installment - Might&Magic 10 (X in Roman).
They went back to static movement by tiles, which is interesting in this day and age, done a lot of improvements and released the game as "Early Access" on Steam. I played the patched Early Access version and it looks great.
Check it out, if you're interested. Release is tomorrow on Steam and Uplay.
Developer's Blog that shows lot of info : https://mightandmagicx-legacy.ubi.com/opendev/blog
& quite bad, official page : http://might-and-magic.ubi.com/mightandmagicx-legacy/en-US/home/
P.S. : still not as good as Baldur's Gate EE :-P
Might and Magic was a wonderful RPG series (almost destroyed by the infamous M&M 9), but Limbic is cooking a new installment - Might&Magic 10 (X in Roman).
They went back to static movement by tiles, which is interesting in this day and age, done a lot of improvements and released the game as "Early Access" on Steam. I played the patched Early Access version and it looks great.
Check it out, if you're interested. Release is tomorrow on Steam and Uplay.
Developer's Blog that shows lot of info : https://mightandmagicx-legacy.ubi.com/opendev/blog
& quite bad, official page : http://might-and-magic.ubi.com/mightandmagicx-legacy/en-US/home/
P.S. : still not as good as Baldur's Gate EE :-P
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Comments
I viewed a couple of hours worth of Let's Play video with the early release version, and I decided from that and a lot of posts I read on their forums that I wasn't going to like this game, so I won't be buying it, unfortunately.
They were having lots and lots of problems with balance of the magic system (too little damage for mana spent, players constantly running out of mana mid-battle with little damage done), inability to move freely or retreat from combat, (you move one square back, they move one square forward and hit), equipment constantly breaking with no repair skill (in fact, *all* the utility skills are gone), stores not restocking (so you couldn't even buy more mana and health potions), movement and targeting systems locking, turns getting disrupted, characters not following orders, and lots more.
Plus, my first and preferred experience with Might and Magic was MM 6, and they were aiming to recreate the experience of MM 1-5 (and failed, imo.)
I like the free movement, 3-D environment, and choice to toggle turn-based and real-time play modes that came with MM 6-8, and there is going to be none of that with MM 10. They even took out the paper doll inventory system and the animated character portraits. In short, they've gotten rid of *everything* I loved about the MM games.
"Ubisoft" has become a curse word in my vocabulary, unfortunately.
I was very pleasantly surprised, that although my computer is somewhere around or even below their "minimum requirements", the game was very smooth, much prettier than the EA version and much faster.
I like turn-based combat and haven't seen anything that you've described, not even in the patched EA version. Paper-doll inventory system is gone, but the artworks are pretty and I stopped caring 5 minutes into the game.
The magic system was immensely tweaked since the EA version and magic is now useable.
Yes. All the utility skills are done - the game focuses skills on fighting, but that's not really a problem. Also - the combat is always turn-based, but I like that.
Overall, I like the game very much. And I played MM6, MM7, MM8 and tried to like MM9 (twice).
What I'm hoping for is that, at the end, we get to see someone working on the blueprints for the Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle or something else like that to tie the two 'verses together. Even if it's just a background gag.
The pre-Ubisoft, pre Ashan world of Might and Magic was a thing of beauty, a perfect hybrid of swords and sorcery fantasy with science fiction, a lot like Star Wars, and Stargate.
The beauty of it all was increased by the fact that you always started out in a pure D&D world, and only found out in a big reveal into the end game that you were actually in a sci-fi universe, but had been raised as a child of the Apocalypse for the first two acts of the game in a fallen, "post-apocalyptic", swords and sorcery world.
"They came from the depths of the Void. An ancient enemy of an ancient people. No one knows why they hate us so, or why they have made war upon us. Some say the struggle against their evil is the Mandate of Heaven. Though their origins and purpose are shrouded in mystery, their plan is simple. They travel, they land, and then they conquer. Now, they are here on our world, to do to us what they have done to so many others. And they WILL do it. Unless someone stops them..."
Cue music by Paul Romero in the style of John Williams and Star Wars, a red dragon flying over Enroth like the imperial star destroyer over Tatooine, and the same archetypal beginning of a breathtaking epic as the beginning of Star Wars episode IV.
This grand adventure incorporates swords and sorcery with classical fantasy monsters, gradually morphing into a sci-fi adventure that includes Jaffar (otherwise known as "Defenders of VARN", who look just like the Egyptian god Anubis, all of them, or else "Jackal Guard,") pyramid shaped VARN spaceships that look *exactly* like pyramid shaped Goauld spaceships, laser blasters, killer droids, and even "Borg" hive mother ships.
The player finds out slowly, over the course of the game, that everything they knew as "swords and sorcery", and "magic", both divine and arcane, were actually manipulations of "Goauld-like" and "Tokra-like" beings known as "Kreegan", and "the Ancients", who have had an epic galactic war encompassing dozens of planets going on for centuries.
In a nutshell, the Ancients follow the Prime Directive, while the Kreegan (otherwise known as "demons"), plunder the resources of any planet they find, regardless of any development of indigenous life.
This fantastic hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi is what is being called, in insider slang, "the nacelle-filled universe", as in, the "warp engine nacelles" of Star Trek starships like the Enterprise.
The epic franchise of Might and Magic died with the disaster that was MM IX.
Then, about a decade later, the hated Ubisoft took over the franchise, in name only, and started with HommV. HommV wasn't *too* bad. It had *some* redeeming characteristics. It was set in a new world named "Ashan", that was pure, generic, bland, swords and sorcery, copied five times over.
True fans of the original MM multiverse refer to this "new", tastelessly bland world as "Asha-centric".
All the creative, wonderful elements of the world of Enroth and Erathia are gone.
Even worse, the later HommVI by the hated Ubisoft was an unmitigated disaster. They took out town screens, hero builds, and anything else you know as fun from Homm I-V. It's like they were *trying* to make a game that was no fun, and a mockery of New World Computing's original fun games.
Now, they're doing it again with MMX. They've taken out everything that was fun about MM6-8, and have made another bland, cardboard offering of soulessness. Ubisoft's "Ash-centric" universe is, to me, like an undead, zombie version of the original, "nacelle-filled" world of Enroth.
(Footnote: The meeting of the Sword of Armageddon with its opposite, which destroyed the planet containing Enroth, led to a new world in HommIV. This barely explored new world was *not* what Ubisoft used.
Basically, Ubisoft totally trashed the classic series in favor of its new "Ashan", which had no relation whatsoever to Enroth, or to the world to which the refugees of post-apocalyptic Enroth fled. They created "Ashan" as a tie to the franchise in name only, with *all* sci-fi elements permanently removed.)
Can you tell that I *hate* them? They are "Death, destroyer of worlds!"
"They, UBISOFT, came from the depths of the Void. An ancient enemy of an ancient people! No one knows why they hate us so, or why they have made war upon us! Some say the struggle against their evil is the Mandate of Heaven! Though their origins and purpose are shrouded in mystery, their plan is simple. They travel, they land, and then they conquer! Now, they are here on our world, (of ENROTH), to do to us what they have done to so many others! And they WILL do it. Unless someone stops them..."
EDIT: I apologize if maybe I came on a little strong with my negative opinion of Ubisoft, here. I hope I didn't break forum rules by dissing an outside developer.
btw - Wasn't the world MM8 named Jadame?
http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=10
It used to be fairly busy, but it's died down a lot. I'm sure they'll be discussing MMX over there. I'm "BMJedi" on those forums.
I obviously have very strong negative emotions and opinions about what Ubisoft has done with the franchise, but that shouldn't discourage you from trying the new game yourself if you want to. If people start posting positive experiences here about having played it, I'm open to changing my mind.
I'd be a very hard sell, but I always listen more to friends I've made around here than I would to any random Joe on the internet.
http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11731
@BelgarathMTH - I understand your position. I will try to play the game and might report later ;-)
So far, it resembled MM7 the most.
From older games, there was one game that I'd bet nobody remembers or knows anymore. It did combine fantasy and sci-fi worlds very, very well. Had a great system, fantastic storyline, beautiful graphics and insane length. (Also, it was quite hard, but I loved that.)
It was called Albion.
Does that ring a bell?
No voice acting dialogue was unsatisfactory too.
But it looks nice, much better than the Early Access version people are doing "Let's play"'s on youtube.
The Narrator is voice-acted. Your group is too, others are rarely.
TBH - voice-acting does not really bother me at all.
Edit: It is on sale from GOG for $5.99