Which one are you talking about? There were no wandering NPCs until VI, and in VI-VIII the skill trainers were always in buildings, in fixed locations.
I’ve been with this series since the first one, on my Apple IIc. VIII was kinda lame, though, so I never finished it, and I didn’t play IX (too many bugs that never got fixed, I hear). Were the skill trainers in that one wanderers?
X is looking awesome - it looks like the first few games in the series!
Like I don’t have enough games from the Steam Summer sale to go through already…
But this is an insta-but for me. In fact starting tomorrow I have 5 days off so I’m seriously thinking of getting the pre-order.
I played the original on the C64, and wrote the creator a letter telling him how much I liked the game and asked him a bunch of questions. He wrote back and was really nice and answered all my questions and thanked me for playing and for my support! I picked up the next one for my Commodore Amiga and loved it, unfortunately the Amiga died by time M&M 3 came out and it was a long time before I could play the rest of the games in the series. I bought the collection a while back on GoG, and had a blast going through it again but was struck by how much RPG’s have changed since.
Love how it looks modernized but feels like a throwback. I’m pumped!
this is on Steam right?
Yep, and it starts at $29.99.
And I did not play it, but IX was the one famous for having skill trainers that are hard to find and hard to identify. I hope X gets good reviews and goes on a winter or summer sale for $10 or so in the next year.
I only played the first game in the series, so I am behind. I assume the game now automaps your dungeons as you progress.
The game does have automapping but it is unfinished in that the locations of NPCs and doors/passages to other areas are just marked with a dot and you can’t make notes on the map.
The game is unfinished – it is a Pre-Release version, pretty much a playable alpha. There are bugs and problems and features that are not yet implemented that show up as placeholders – stuff like [0].
IMHO, they have done a good job of making the game feel like Might & Magic. Those without a nostalgic attraction for the early games in the series probably won’t think much of the game in its current state and should probably wait for the final release. I’ve played them all and am liking this one a lot.
It is M&M. It is not a hand-holding follow the glowing trail to finish the quest type game – you have to explore and find your own way in the world. There is not a magical portal at the end of each dungeon to take you back to the quest giver. You have to manage your inventory, find safe resting places to restore mana and HP, and be sure you have food. Lloyd’s Beacon will be in the game but is not yet implemented.
If you’ve played the whole series and have been jonesing for a fix, this will work. If you played a game or two, maybe MM6 or MM7 and kinda liked it, wait for the final release. Personally, I’m happier with the current state of the game, even with bugs and still unimplemented stuff, than I’ve been with most any full retail release in years.
IX was just supposed to be a placeholder until X came out…then the company fell apart before that could happen.
Turble’s comments are spot on. I’ve played it a bit so far, run into some bugs and there’s some stuff that’s clearly in-progress but it’s definitely a throwback to the first few games in the series. It has the classic grid movement system, although looking at the actual viewer window the graphics look more organic. Works really well. Graphics and animation look pretty nice imo.
Ran into some minor glitches and the game froze up in combat once or twice. I am really liking the look of it so far, but am not too far into it yet. I’m hoping it has the massive random loot tables and huge amount of crazy dungeons of the first 2 games as well. I’ll post a little more in a few days.
Played it all weekend. Had serious problems killing the guy up the lighthouse first try. Second try I took my freemage up the light tree instead of the fire tree and the healing she supplied made the fight winnable.
I’ve also had issues with freezing in combat. Notably when I make all my people defend to force the enemy to move into view instead of giving them the first strike. I defend, and they refuse to take a turn.
Looks like hours of playability ahead though 
Only 4 of 12 classes availble for play in the pre-release version.
The freezing during combat thing can usually be unstuck by pressing Ctrl-Alt-r.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this … looking forward to the the full release version of the game.
Thank you.
If you took the Wizardry name off it, it would be a much better game. (meaning the game doesn’t live up to the name). It’s ok but the Japanese anime look turns me off, and the game is wildly unbalanced.
I have spent 3-4 hours in M&M now…
Most of the bugs and issues I have the devs have said they are going to fix soon. This includes the automap (names will be added, as well as the ability to make your own notes), the non-replenishing shops, the day/night cycle passing too fast and a quite a lot of others.
A few other comments:
To start this game you have to go to Steam and start the game, which launches Ubisoft’s Uplay service. You then have to sign into Uplay and activate the game (cut and paste the key from steam), then launch the game. I don’t really like having to sign into 2 services to play one damn game. The devs have said you should only need to sign into Uplay once for activation and that’s it, but Steam launches Uplay every time so I don’t know if that hasn’t been implemented yet or what. I’m seriously getting tired of having to sign into all this different shit to play a game. I’ve got 4-5 different DRM’s installed for different games and it’s pissing me off.
Enemies don’t respawn, once you clear an area they don’t come back. This seems to bother a lot of people on their forums so maybe they will consider changing it. I’m in favor of respawning myself. Although you shouldn’t NEED to grind there may be times when you want to squeeze out a level to get some skill or spell before facing a boss.
It’s kind of annoying how a group of monsters can split up and surround you on all sides but your party can’t do the same to the monsters. On the plus side you can move your party to take advantage of the terrain (choke points etc) also. Overall I like the combat difficulty but due to the complete lack of potions and healing I’m having a tough time getting through the last bits of the lighthouse.
It’s hard to say how open ended the game is so far. One of the hallmarks of the first two games in the series (the only ones I’ve spent extensive time with) was the freedom deciding where you would go and what to do. I’ve only gotten a little ways out of Sorpigal so far so I can’t say.
I am considering waiting for the next patch to play much more. The biggest issues for me right now are the blink-of-an-eye day/night cycles and the lack of potions in the shop. I’m also having a lot of issues with saving and the game crashing or becoming unstable. I think a new patch is due soon so I’m probably going to wait for that.
Finished the pre-release last night, had a blast. The only place I didn’t clear were the ghosts north of the light house and west of the castle.
Has anyone come up with a strategy? They have so much health and you have 4 turns to kill them. (1 person paralyzed a turn)
It seems the ghosts block access to the next area and are not meant to be beatable. If you struggle through the first ones, you step on a pressure plate that spawns definitely unbeatable uber-ghosts.
Looks like full game is scheduled for release on January 16, 2014.
Looking forward to it, but I’m waiting for reviews first. I’m cautiously hopeful, but Limbic Entertainment doesn’t have a track record yet, and I really need the writing to be good to enjoy games like this.
Looking at the video and pictures, this seems to be different from some of the other Might and Magics I’m used to seeing. Instead of moving pieces on a world map like Risk and battles between groups of static pieces you move from right to left on a 2D screen, this looks like a first person dungeon crawler like Dungeon Master or Legend of Grimrock. Is that an accurate description of how it plays?
Yes. I believe you are referring to the Heroes of Might & Magic series of games, and the M & M 10 we’re talking about here is an entry in the Might & Magic role playing game series.
Weren’t they supposed to be working on a new Heroes game as well?
I didn’t know there was a difference! Bah!
Last May, Might & Magic Heroes VI: Shades of Darkness was released.
There is an “unofficial beta patch” available, which lists fixes for many of the issues that I’ve had. But I’m confused about whether this unofficial patch works with Steam (the game web site says no, Steam seems to say yes). No word on when the patch will be officially released.
How many people have started playing the official release? I am really enjoying the updates they did from the early access.
One hint
Make sure you finish the looking for work quest before you kick open spider barrels, apparently spiders won’t drop antidote until you complete the looking for work quest, and my first attempt, I died from poisoning :-S
I just finished the main quest in the first town and heading to my second just on the outskirts.
I’m loving this game. It’s got some ugly warts here and there, but the formula is just as addicting as it’s ever been.
Very early game hint:
After accepting the looking for work quest and clearing out the spiders, you’ll probably have two quests available outside of town. The lighthouse and the smuggler’s den. Do the smuggler’s den first. The lighthouse can be pretty rough.