Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer Review

Might and Magic, one of the longest and most established RPG series have recently released their latest instalment, Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer. With only 10 months separating the previous game from this one, fans barely had to wait; however this led to below average graphics and sounds and an overall disappointment.

Might and Magic VIII begins with a major even occurring in Jadame. As foretold in an ancient Dark Elf prophecy, the powerful Planeswalker Escaton has returned to Jadame, and raised a gigantic crystal from the depths of the sea. What this leads to is the opening of four elemental portals of fire, air, water, and earth and chaos throughout the world. It's now your job to restore order and peace to Jadame and the rest of the world. To help you, you can choose from Knights, Clerics, Trolls, Dragons, Dark Elves, Minotaurs, Necromancers, and Vampires. This story, even though it is not very original, is a great fantasy RPG story and fits the game perfectly.

Now on to the most important part of an RPG; gameplay. The game is quite fun to play and it will keep you interested, to a certain extent. It is from a first person perspective so it offers something new to all of you who have never played a game like this. I At the beginning of the game, you can choose your character class and allocate certain skill points to things like strength and different weapon skills. However, unlike its predecessor you can no longer create a party to go through the game. Might and Magic VIII is in full 3D and plays quite well. Might and Magic, unfortunately had its share of problems. One of which is the numbing repetitiveness of killing monsters. You basically do the same thing throughout the game: kill a few monsters, rest, then get back to the killing. After a while, it honestly gets quite boring. Another major problem was the multitude of amazingly boring quests. All I seemed to be doing was taking one item to another place, with a few new original quests mixed in. On a brighter note though, you have the number of character classes and length of the game are enough to allow for hours and hours of play. Learning how to perfect 8 races, will take everyone a long time, and for that I think that the game is definitely worth taking a look at. There are so many possibilities and the story is quite decent. Overall, I enjoyed the way this game played, despite the many obvious problems.

I know that the most important thing in an RPG is gameplay and that graphics are just a minimal part. However, its just so hard to sit there and play this game for so long when it looks so...bad (for lack of a better word). This game uses the same graphics engine that the previous game used and it is beginning to show its old age. The pixelated graphics and uninspiring scenery just wont keep you interested unless you are a hardcore Might and Magic fan. For the next instalment, we can expect a whole new graphics engine and hopefully some decent graphics.

Well, sound effects were also a problem. They were just so boring and low quality that I wanted to just turn them off. The repetition of these horrible effects are just so frustrating that they take away from the overall game. That being said, the soundtrack is quite decent and gives the game a good feeling (just stay away from those sound effects).

So the graphics are below average and the sounds kind of suck, but still I am saying that Might and Magic VIII is a good game. You might be asking yourself why I would say such a thing. Well, the story quite interesting, the number of classes a huge plus and the shear number of possibilities someone that is willing to overlook the major flaws are endless. Having said that, I would recommend this to a Might and Magic fan and to a person who has all the top selling RPGs and just wants a new experience.