Legends of Might & Magic

Actually, that's not true: Legends of Might and Magic plays exactly like those futuristic shooters, only instead of lasers you're shooting magic rays and arrows. There's not much of a difference in gameplay, and experienced players might find themselves wondering why they aren't playing a modern-day action game like Half-Life: Counter-Strike instead.

Legends does feature plenty of cool monsters and player models, but the various character classes play the same. The game uses the LithTech graphics engine, which just isn't as pretty as the engines of other current games. While characters are detailed and colorful, they are also angular and stiff.

Like in Counter-Strike, you begin each round "buying" stuff to use in the fracas. Then you fight the enemy team in fantasy medieval versions of standard FPS scenarios. Instead of rescuing a scientist or a president, you've got to rescue a damsel in distress. Sword in the Stone mode replaces Capture the Flag variants, Protect the Warlord stands in for Protect the VIP, and Slay the Dragon just isn't as cool as it sounds. Given the size and scope of Legends of Might and Magic's bestiary, the game is a little disappointing.

But not-so-jaded fans, new players, and Might and Magic fans in particular will find all the repetitive things mentioned above a fun take on a genre crowded with look-alike modern combat games. Maybe next time 3DO can add a little more magic to the mix and come up with something more than a polymorphed Counter-Strike. --Andrew S. Bub

Pros:

• 1st-person Might and Magic action
• It's basically fantasy Counter-Strike
• Plenty of weapons and game modes

• It's basically just fantasy Counter-Strike
• The graphics are angular and a little fakey
• The classes are too similar

Six different character classes are available to choose from: Sorceress,Druid, Archer, Cleric, Crusader, and Warrior. The game begins as KingRydric's advisor, Zephram, attempts to go back in time to alter history so hecan take the throne instead of Rydric. You take the role of Prince Golwyn,the King's son, and must prevent Zephram from starting a chain of eventsthat could change the course of history.

"The graphics are subpar" - So what? They do the job.

"The classes are not very different" - Untrue! The differences may be subtle, and not very obvious to inexperienced players. The sorceress and archer have superior long range abilities, but are worse at melee and cannot use all armor types. This brings me to one of my favorite combinations - Tracking Crossbow + Plate Armor on a Warrior/Paladin. You're like a tank, but incredibly slow. It doesn't work quite as well with sorceresses, for example (they can't buy plate). While you save up enough money to pay for this combination you'll possibly want to rely on cheap throwing knives and use of melee to get your kills. Since Paladins/Warriors are the best at melee this works out pretty well.

Other reasons the classes are different - Druids and Heretics are quite powerful at short range, terrible at long range, and middle ground in melee. On most maps you'll want about 50% of your team consisting of druids or heretics, as they are the most well-rounded. Melee is a very important part of this game (see below). If you're on a wide open map, you can be sure you'll always have a solid long range weapon if you're a sorceress or archer, even if you just died (and thus lost your purchased weapon). Not so for the other classes.

"The fantasy aspect is lost" or "it's just like every other shooter" - I disagree. Sure, there are lots of explosions and rays being fired, but melee is a very important part of this game, much more so than UT, for example. In confined areas a paladin will most likely destroy an archer if he uses sword. Turn on your fire ring in conjunction with a melee weapon and you're a monster in close quarters. Plus, melee duels are fun as hell if the players involved are any good. The armor worn by melee participants makes things more interesting, as speed and damage taken vary depending on armor type. In tight spaces, having armor is usually good for melee. But if you want to chase someone around the map with a battle axe in a frenzied rage, you might be better off with no armor. It's so much fun butchering armor-burdened enemies who can't escape from you!

"The monsters are dumb" - Yeah, they are. As are the monsters in most games. Most servers turn them off anyway so this is a moot point. For beginners, it could be a good idea to beat up on monsters in single player practice mode, just to get used to things. I suppose if you play small games, such as 2 vs. 2, monsters could liven things up. But I recommend larger games.

My only gripes about this game are as follows:

3DO discontinued support. This means no more servers. Not a big deal since there are plenty of user-made ones. This also means there is no hope for a map editor. I honestly don't get bored of the stock maps, but I do think it [stinks] that we can't make our own. And it would be nice if the glitches could be fixed.

There ARE a few minor glitches, such as getting stuck on ladders, but with experience you learn how to get around them. Oh yeah, I wish losing focus (alt-tab, receiving an instant message, etc.) wouldn't disconnect me from the server.

The prices of fire staff and holy hand grenade are too low. These weapons are very powerful for their respective prices, so they pop up way too often. This causes some other weapons to be neglected. Servers can be configured to adjust the prices, although I think a hack might be necessary (never set up a server myself so I'm not sure). The server I play on adjusted some prices so the game is much more balanced.

I highly recommend Legends of Might and Magic. This is a very addictive game that I keep coming back to on a daily basis. Especially at this price, you can't go wrong!


Decent game, definitely could be better   April 12, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I had a lot of fun playing Might and Magic 6, so when I heard about Legends of Might and Magic I thought that 3DO would bring some of that fun to a multiplayer format. What they offered instead is a game unoriginal in concept (this is basically a medieval Counterstrike), presented with a production that leaves quite a bit to be desired. This game still manages to offer some fun though its flaws, however.

Legends of Might and Magic allows you to choose a character on one of two sides, Good or Evil, and to choose one of three classes on each side (the Good classes are Paladin, Druid and Sorceress, the Evil classes are Heretic, Warrior and Archer). Once you choose a class the goal is to duke it out against the other team in one of four mission-based scenarios (Sword in the Stone, Rescue the Princess, Warlord Escape, and Slay the Dragon). The maps are relatively well done and offer some of the better graphics in the game, and they are (optionally) sprinkled with some monsters to mix things up a bit. Basically the goal for each of the maps is to meet the scenario's objective while you bang on the enemy and try to make their team all dead before they kill all of your team, or until the round ends.

There are extra-special super weapons unique to each class, but beyond this and each class's starting weapons there are no real differences between the classes beyond their blocky character models and the different voices used for each and the grunts each emits when hit or killed. Some of the weapons (which you can buy at the beginning of the round in Counterstrike style) are pretty neat and imaginative and fun to use. The character animations themselves are uninspired, to put it mildly. The monsters have no real A.I., and with their cheesy animations they are more funny than scary and more of a nuisance than anything - most of the servers, its no wonder, have the monsters turned off. You will notice this among the few servers you will find up and running at any time. I find it humorous how on Gamespy I'll see at most 20 or 30 Legends servers running at any one time and usually over a thousand Half-Life servers, and Half-Life is four years old.

Legends of Might and Magic does offer some lighthearted multiplayer fun, and I still play it occasionally for a distraction. It does make me wonder, however, what a more competent game design company could have done with a similar concept. Still, it has its positive points which make it a good purchase from the discount rack.


An wonderful addition to the Greatest Game Series Ever!   September 5, 2001
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

Legends of Might and Magic (LoMM) is the new spinoff of the wildly popular Might and Magic series and it definitley stands up to its ancestors. Maps range from new areas to old favorites like Xeen (from Might and Magic 4 and 5). The LithTech engine runs beautifully and its just a great game. I highly reccomend it!


Great potential, sadly unrealized   August 1, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

What a great concept: take 3DO's popular "Might and Magic" universe and add online, multiplayer support. It should have worked, but unfortunately, the shipping product is more like a poor Half-Life: Counstrike with a fantasy setting.

Releasing or including an editing tool that allows users to create their own maps is a common practice; how else to explain the continued, huge popularity of a game like Half-Life? Nearly three years after its release, Half-Life is still the most popular multiplayer, online game, with thousands of servers operating at any given time. The Half-Life community has created enormously popular "mods" for Half-Life, such as Counterstrike and Day of Defeat. Curiously, 3DO has not released a set of editing tools for Legends of Might and Magic, which means players are stuck with a handful of maps provided in the shipping product. This may explain why, on a given night, only 17 servers operate, with an average total of maybe 80 players engaged in battle.

Essentially, gameplay options cover familar scenarios: an escort style called "Warlord," where one team is tasked with getting a designated player to a particular destination, while the other team tries to take out the warlord; "Princess," with a team attempting to rescue a kidnapped princess; "Sword in The Stone," which is another version of capture the flag; and "Dragon," where competing teams attempt to kill a dragon.

Players can choose to be good or evil, but there is no roleplaying element involved in that choice. Between good and evil there are only six player models to choose from. Unlike Quake III, or Unreal Tournament, you cannot alter the appearance of your on-screen avatar.

Graphics are provided by Monolith's Lithtech game engine. Amazingly, the same engine that powers the visually exciting "No One Lives Forever" powers Legends, but the graphics are not particularly engaging or visually interesting. Character models are a bit blocky, and the player animation is simplistic. The scenery looks okay, but it's not in the same league as NOLF.

Hopefully 3DO will release a level editor and the gaming community will breathe some life into a game that has a lot of potential.


Fantasy FPS (First Person Shooter) wanna be   July 3, 2001
 8 out of 11 found this review helpful

Over the years 3DO has put out some great Magic and Magic games especially Heroes of Might and Magic, But Legends... is a different story -what can I say the 'round' is over before you can begin playing and before you know it the game is over. In short if your a veteran of DF:Land Warrior or WWII Online, you will be disappointed. There are no Map Editors so you MUST use stock maps and these are WAY too short and very limited in game space also certain classes are Evil only and the others are Good only. There are no 'abilities' or skills to excel in, the money in this game is about useless. 3DO just decided to jump on the wagon with an onliner and this what they put together, a very poor,repeatitive and very DULL wanna be Fantasy FPS. This is an Online Game but it does feature a offline practice- no goals, no missions just practice. All in all I am disapointed in this game I would wait for it to make its way to the Software bargain bin before you buy it, which shouldnt be that long.