Game Play 3 out 5
Replayablity 3 out 5
Graphics 3 out 5
Sound 2 out 5
Details 1 out 5
Fun Factor 2 out 5

Might and Magic 9 is the latest in the long running Might and Magic series, and is clearly the worst game in the series. The game does have a number nifty bits, but every good bit is ofset by the greater number of sucky bits.

Take the graphics engine. It's is a pretty advanced engine, capable of handeling large maps, lots of special effects and a large number of creatures active at one time. But it is also plagued by visual problems, such as dots of white showing between tiles, objects that change appearance as you get close to them, misaligned textures, misplaced textures and lighting oddities.

The biggest single problem is the number of quest related bugs. The most critical of these is the promotion bug, if you don't say you want to have a character promoted when you get the promotion quest then they won't be. The problem is that nobody will point this out to you, so it's easy to miss the message where the person giving you the quest asks which are interested in promotion. And if you miss that then you can never get that promotion, which pretty much makes the game impossible.

There are a number of other bugs though, usually triggered by the player not doing the quest in exactly the way the designer planned. For example, one quest sends you off to kill a giant that has been kidnapping children. But the giant is supposedly invunrable and the correct solution involves tricking the giant into a trap. But if your characters are powerfull enough you can go ahead and attack the giant and win. If you do that the quest won't be considered done, which will keep you from finishing the game.

An even worse example is an early quest that sends you off to clear a small castle of imps. The problem is that the castle has two entrences, and if you pick the wrong one you can't finish the quest. Some of these problems have already been patched, but there are still a lot left in the game.

Might and magic 9 is set in a new world. The part the characters are in is called Chedian, a faintly viking area. There are 6 significant cites, each of which is lead by a Jarl. The cities are feuding between themselves and launching raids against others on a regular basis. There is an interesting background worked out for this area, and this background is reflected in the types of items you will find during the game.

Unfortunatly this background material is wasted by a plot that is barely tolerable. The plot telegraphs it's blows heavily, and you end up thinking the heros are idiots for walking into it. This isn't helped by ultimate villian, who seems to have no other goal then to serve as a villian.

The game interface is mostly OK, but there are a number of flaws in the interface that make some things annoying. For instance, the location of spells in your spell book changes as you learn spells, and since you have to go through your spell book pretty much every time you want to cast a spell it gets to be an annoyance keeping track of where the spells are in each characters spell book.

The game manual covers the basics but leaves out a few imporant pieces of information. The most critical is a list which characters can develop which skills. This is a very important piece of information in a game system where only certain character classes are allowed to master certain skills. This is compounded by the sometimes peculiar choices for skill / class links. For instance, only Paladins can fully develop merchant.

In a comparison between Wizardy 8 and Might and Magic 9, M&M 9 comes up short in almost every way. The one place where M&M 9 comes off better is that it has more types of monsters. Wiz 8's graphics are less colorful them M&M 9 but the overall effect is better. The plot in Wiz 8 is about the same level of complexity as M&M 9 but more interesting. M&M9 has more NPCs for you to talk to, but the ones in Wiz 8 have more to say and a lot more character to boot.

The end result is a game that is terribly inconsistant. The best parts of Might and Magic 9 are quite good, but the game as a whole spends most of it's time below the average line. If your a might and magic fan you may want to go ahead and play this. But if your not, then you should avoid this game.

Jay