In the distant, distant times, in the era when a generation of ancient gamers played on the Apple II, when the MSX1 computer and the very first Nintendo console had just appeared, a 21-year-old medical student named John Van Cunningham creates his own computer game development company, New World Computing. This happened in 1983, and another 3 years later their first game Might and Magic: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum was released, which marked the beginning of the legendary Might and Magic series..

You, of course, know such games as Heroes of Might and Magic, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, someone may remember Crusaders of Might and Magic – but all these games, series of games are just branches – spin-offs of the original Might and Magic line. In this video I will tell you the history of this game series: how it started, how it ended and whether it ended at all. And for those who for some reason do not watch the video, I have prepared this post.

All games in the series Power and Magic, and in Russia Might and Magic, are an adventure game in the RPG genre with turn-based battles and a first-person view, in which we control a group of heroes. Our brave souls travel through the outskirts of a magical fantasy world, looking for artifacts with which they fight villains and save the world from disaster. Simply put, Might and Magic at first glance is a typical fantasy. But this is only at first glance. The series features some science fiction elements. The action takes place in a fictional galaxy in which all planets are controlled by a powerful race of Ancients who do whatever they please. For example, an ancient one named Sheltem likes to point planets directly at the sun, thereby destroying them. The worlds themselves, in which the plots of each part of the series unfold, are not even planets, but giant flat spaceships plowing through space. The only game in the Might and Magic line that the developers have deprived of its sci-fi background is the last, 10th part, but more on that later.

The first game in the series, The Secret of the Inner Sanctum, translated as The Secret of the Inner Sanctum, released in 1986, took us on a journey through a “ship-world” called VARN (Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle), where we, controlling 6 heroes, had to stop the villain who caused hordes of monsters to spread throughout the world and find that very Sanctuary. The adventure path led us through cities, desert, mountains and forests, the characters even found themselves in the astral world, where they had to fight the god Vulcan and eventually ended up in the treasured Sanctuary, where they were met by none other than John Van Cunningham, who congratulated the group on the end of the adventure and opened a portal for them to another world.

The game had 5 races, 6 classes and even 3 worldview options, all with their own characteristics in the form of bonuses to characteristics. Resources included gold, gems and food, with each character having their own supply. Gold was used for leveling up, buying and selling things, gems for spells, and food for recreation; each of these resources also had the opportunity to pay off enemies. But if it was not possible to pay off or escape, then a battle began in which your heroes and opponents took turns punching each other in the face in hand-to-hand combat, showering each other with arrows and using an extensive arsenal of spells. This, in a nutshell, was the gameplay of the first game.

The game received the highest ratings and a sea of ​​positive reviews. It was called one of the best games of that time. Mystery of the Sanctuary was praised for its amazing variety of content and features – such a huge map has never been seen in any other game; for the non-linearity of what is happening, for graphical achievements, especially 3D dungeons. Of course, the game had its shortcomings, but they were minor, so the advantages completely compensated for them, and therefore the project was commercially more than successful, and nothing prevented the developers from creating a sequel.

The next game, Might and https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/monixbet/ Magic II: Gates to Another World, was released in 1988. Adventurers, having passed through the gate opened by Cunningham, move from Varn to another world – CRON (Central Research Observational Nacelle). The heroes are still pursuing the villain from the first game – Sheltem, who this time is going to send the world of Kron to the Sun.

In general, the second Might and Magic was basically the same game, but expanded and improved. The developers updated the graphics and introduced new options to the interface. There have also been many innovations in the gameplay itself. If previously characters were created randomly, now the players themselves do it. The creators added 2 new classes and now there are already 8 heroes. At the same time, the characters of the first game could be imported into the second, thereby making the story continuous and looking more natural. A new feature was mercenaries, fickle heroes whose work you had to pay for. In addition, the characters grew old and died. The main feature of the gameplay of the first part was battles, and this feature migrated to the second part. However, quests now came down not only to searching and destroying the enemy, but also to solving problems and all sorts of puzzles.

The game also received mostly positive reviews. Although it was noted for its weak storyline and over-emphasis on combat, this did not stop PC Format magazine from listing the game as one of the 50 best games of all time.

The release of the third game, Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra, or Islands of Terra, took place in 1991. After the heroes defeat Sheltem again on Krona, they go to his home world – the water planet Terra. Once again this bastard launches worldships belonging to other Ancients into the sun, and again the heroes try to stop him. Having passed through the labyrinths of Hell, they find the pyramids of the Ancients, which turn out to be the control center for the revival of life on Terra, after plunging its lands under water and ultimately save the planet, but for the third time the villain manages to escape.

Due to technological progress and the expansion of the development team, changes naturally occurred in the technical plan of the game. The graphics have been improved, the soundtrack has reached a whole new level, and the interface has been updated. But the gameplay has not undergone any significant changes this time. Now it was possible to save at any time, and not as in previous parts in the hotel. The changes also affected the visual part: if earlier we only met monsters by stepping onto the same field as them, now we could see them from a distance. And in general, monsters began to respawn in areas of the map that had already been traversed.

Isles of Terra was highly praised both for its technical innovations and for the gameplay itself, which may not have been new compared to previous parts, but the old proven scheme was polished to a shine. And PC Gamer US magazine ranked it 25th in its list of the best computer games.

Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen – Clouds of Xeen – the fourth game in the series was released the following year after the third. The action takes place in the world of Xin, divided into two parts, one of them, in fact, is Obaka Xin, after whom the game is named, and the second is the dark side. A certain Lord Xin has seized power in this world, imprisoning the true ruler of this land – Crodo – in his tower, and is wreaking havoc throughout the land. To stop him and save Xin, we had to create a new squad of adventurers and, just as before, take reprisals against monsters, travel the world and pursue the villain.

Externally the game remains the same. The new feature included a notes section that tracked important information like quests, hints, passwords, and location coordinates. Difficulty levels appeared, although the differences between the two levels were only in the difficulty of the opponents and only. But that’s probably all. Otherwise, it was still the same Isles of Terra, which I wouldn’t call a minus.

The Clouds of Xeen are closely related to the fifth game Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen from 1993. The action will take place in the same world, but the heroes from the Cloud level move to the Dark Side of Xin. Darkside of Xeen concludes the storyline begun in Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum, which featured the interstellar confrontation with Sheltem. Calling himself Alamar, Sheltem has subjugated the local peoples and is doing his dark as night deeds in Darkseid. The heroes meet the character of the second and third parts of Might and Magic Korak, who was also pursuing Sheltem, and together they destroy the bastard once and for all.

Together, Clouds of Xeen and Darkseid form one system, which was later combined into a single game, World of Xeen. It contained complete versions of the plots of both games, as well as additional tasks for a new ending: after the destruction of Sheltem, the heroes return to the pyramid of the Ancients, where they are entrusted with the mission of uniting the two subworlds of Xin. Just as it was with the first two parts, the player could transfer the heroes of Clouds of Xeen to Darkside, which not only restored the consistency of the narrative, but also eliminated excessive complexity at the beginning of the game.

The last two parts did not bring anything new to the series, but if the fourth game repeated the experience of the third, which was considered the best at that time, then this did not work the second time. The Dark Side of Xin was met with more moderate reviews and was generally rated as a satisfying conclusion to the story. The plot in it was quite average, some publications noted the ease of the puzzles, but again the technical part of the whole thing was somewhat drawn out: Darkside of Xeen was one of the first games to use animations and digitized dialogues, it had advanced graphics and, perhaps, retained all the best that had been developed by the previous parts.

After this there comes a break in the Might and Magic series. In 1996, New World Computing was purchased by the 3DO Company, which was the forerunner of its end.