home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Fresh Fish 4
/
FreshFish_May-June1994.bin
/
useful
/
reviews
/
software
/
games
/
mightandmagiciii
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
1993-04-26
|
14KB
Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: atul@cadence.com (Atul Srinivasan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Might and Magic III
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games
Date: 26 Apr 1993 21:12:47 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 329
Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <1rhj8f$kvr@menudo.uh.edu>
Reply-To: atul@cadence.com (Atul Srinivasan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: game, dungeon, adventure, role playing, commercial
PRODUCT NAME
Might and Magic III
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Might and Magic III (referred to as "MM III" for the rest of this
review) is a Dungeons And Dragons style computer role-playing game. For
those familiar with the first two games in this series, it is pretty much
more of the same. You control a party of adventurers who set out on a quest
to find someone named Sheltem. The rest of the story you find out during
the game.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: New World Computing
Address: PO Box 4302
Hollywood, CA 90099-5551
USA
Telephone: (818) 999-0607
LIST PRICE
I believe the list price is $49.95 (US). I paid $42.95 at a local
store, not through mail order.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
1 MB RAM required (512K Chip).
If played from floppy disk, you need 2 floppy drives (or
more) and two blank disks for saving games. The game comes
on 6 disks.
If played from a hard drive, you need about 5 MB free disk
space.
The game runs fine on my 68040. The documentation does not
mention compatibility with other 68000-family CPU's.
SOFTWARE
Kickstart 1.2 or greater. Runs properly under AmigaDOS 2.04.
COPY PROTECTION
The copy protection is of the "Look up a word in the manual" type,
and you are asked before the game starts. This is quick and pretty painless.
However, you do need to have the manual present. I would rate the protection
as acceptable.
You have three tries to look up the word. If you cannot find the
word being asked for, then game does not start, and you have to reboot your
Amiga to try again.
The program does install on a hard drive using a supplied
installation script. It works painlessly. (Note: The script copies the
fonts used during the game to the FONTS: directory. I chose to move these
fonts to a different directory, and add that directory to FONTS:, using the
ASSIGN FONTS: ADD command. That worked fine.)
You have no need of the original disks after the installation.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 2000, 1 MB Chip RAM, 1 external drive
Fusion Forty 68040 accelerator with 8 MB RAM
GVP Impact SCSI controller with additional 8 MB RAM
Kickstart 37.125 (2.04), Workbench 2.04.
AMAX II with external Mac floppy drive
REVIEW
The first thing I did is I open the game and read the section of the
reference card which deals with installation. Installation on the hard disk
was painless, except that I preferred to move the fonts as explained above.
I did this after the installation completed, and have had no problem.
I did not read the rest of the literature which came with the game,
at this time. Having seen the first two games in the series, I thought I
could play right away. For the most part, I could.
The layout of the screen is quite nice. There is a large window for
the party's perspective view of the dungeon. On the frame of this window are
various figures (bat, gargoyle, etc.) which convey information to the
party. For example, the bat opens and closes its mouth when the party is in
danger. I thought this was quite nice. However, you have to train yourself
to see both the contents of the dungeon window and the frame at the same
time, as it is easy to miss the figures on the frame when concentrating on
the dungeon.
There is also a smaller window which shows a map of the immediate
area, when the appropriate mapping spell is cast. This too is a nice
feature and well known to Might and Magic players.
There is a small window which contains icons for performing actions.
This window changes during combat to allow different actions to be
performed.
Finally the character icons are at the bottom of the screen.
The interface to the game is both keyboard and mouse driven. For
every action which can be performed with the mouse, a keystroke equivalent
is available. I find this immensely satisfying. Although the keystrokes are
a little slow to respond, they are still in my opinion faster than the mouse
approach.
(Note: If you have a utility running which binds keys to actions,
such as Commodore's "FKey" commodity, you will have to disable this utility
to use the keys for MM III. The game multitasks nicely, meaning that other
programs can grab its keyboard inputs.)
The graphics for the game are in the same style as the previous two
"Might and Magic" games: not spectacular, but nice. Things are well colored
for the most part and imaginatively drawn. At first, I did not like the
music at all. It is well done but somehow very different from the music in
other games. Now, after having played the game for a while, I quite enjoy
the music. There is a good variety of tunes, and they change depending on
the environment. The special effects are nice too: again, not spectacular,
but nice. Casting a cold spell shows a small ring of ice flying toward the
target. If it hits, the target spurts a little blood and makes an impact
noise. It goes a little way to making the game more realistic.
(Note to old Might and Magic fans: one thing I found nice was that
the distinction has been removed between indoor and outdoor spells. You
might not like that, but I do. All spells can be cast indoors or outdoors.)
Also you have the option of turning off the music and effects. I
keep the effects and music on, as they don't slow the system down and have
not yet turned boring.
When fighting, you have the option to control the each character
completely or to "Quick Fight." Quick Fighting allows the character
to perform a relatively complex action, such as casting a spell, with
a single key stroke or mouse click. You may set this option; but
once set, it remains in effect until you reset it.
The character icons have a health status bar which changes color
depending on the health of the character. Full health is green, yellow is
full to 25% of full, red is 25% to 0%, and blue is unconscious. If the
character is poisoned, then icon changes such that the face actually looks
poisoned. This is quite nice since it allows you to know something is wrong
with your character quite quickly. For each type of malady, there is a
corresponding face (e.g., diseased, poisoned, paralyzed, asleep, in love,
stoned, etc...). And no, I'm not kidding about the "in love" bit.
When spells are cast which affect a character (i.e., Power Shield) a
little shield appears on the icon. There are quite a few little effects
like this which make the game easy to play.
There is also a quick reference screen which lists the status of all
characters in the party. This is available at any time at the stroke of a
key or a click of the mouse.
The game has an automapping feature. It keeps track of every place
you have been. The usual mapping chores are done effortlessly. In only one
place did I have to actually draw a map.
The game seems to have been designed to contain help for the game
within the game. For example for every location you visit, there is a
little history available which tells you special things about the place.
Also there are places in the game where you learn the answers to
other puzzles in the game. I won't mention where these places are, because
I think the game is more fun if you find out as you play. I really feel the
game was designed that way. When you start, you know you're supposed to find
this guy, Sheltem, but not much else. In fact, I have been playing for a
while, and I still don't know much else, but that may just be me. Anyway,
it keeps the suspense up.
For beginners, there is a Help option available when the going gets
desperate. The option takes you to a safe plac