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Badger
Stripey Forest Dweller
Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 924
Location: UK |
| You're Damned Ugly! But I love you for your mind. |
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Hi All
Yesterday, was my birthday  and someone was kind enough to surprise me with "Might and Magic IX".
It's not a game that I might have chosen myself. I haven't really played a game like this since the old flick screen days of "Dungeon Master" on my Amiga. I'll admit that I have been terribly spoiled in later years by graphical marvels like the recent "Dungeon Siege" and perhaps this has made me a little shallow in my tastes. Because although those of you who have already read my posts, know that I am looking forward to the upcoming "Morrowind" with a passion, (and lets not forget the beautiful looking NeverWinter Nights will be here soon) it is none the less true that I generally tend to prefer my RPG's to be medium on the stats, heavy on the Hack n Slash.
In my "Slack Jawed" fashion, my first impression of M&MIX is perhaps not fantastic, as it appears graphically primitive and not massively satisfying in the combat department. When I move to slice and dice me some demon meat, I generally enjoy the spectacle of the sun glinting on the blade, as it falls in a deadly arc toward my intended victim. A little gore is not unwelcome (Bwa Ha Haaaaa) and maybe even a little added spice in the form of my Demon enemy writhing on the ground as he meets his demise. (Would you let this man babysit YOUR children?)
But M&MIX with it's swoosh swoosh of invisible swords and occasional comment from invisible companions, is going to make me go to that room that I have not visited in a long while, to knock gently on the door and then again a little louder because the occupant of the room is sound asleep. Finally to creep in uninvited to the foot of the bed and gently shake the slumbering figure. "Wake Up... Wake up Mr Imagination."
Here I am though, with a fantastic present, (Thanks Aunt Beru) which I am sure I will be able to really sink my teeth into, if I just give it a chance. At least until "Morrowind" (it's my precious) comes along and forces me to delete everything else from my hard drive because of course that IS the law!
So I wonder if this Statistically challenged and shallow type, might get a little foreign aid from you UberStatMeisters out there because I know that having started the game yesterday I am massively missing the point and I could do with a few pointers to help me get the most from this worthy beast. "I want to enjoy you M&MIX, I want to enjoy you so."
1/ Starting town. Nice little place.
A museum (which admittedly looks more like a church) to which I get free entry because MY grandad is apparently the curator. (Huzzah!)
A corner shop, open at the most convenient hours for my purchasing pleasure.
A bar, complete with barmaid. Albeit not as busty as RPG's tend to generally give us. Which I imagine is why I appear to be her only customer. The other patrons presumably having meandered over to the next town in search of proper RPG breasts to stare at over their Ale.
Plus an assault course complete with climbey ladders and balance ropes, target dummies and watery bits.
But should I be doing something in this town? I have read all the scrolls I found and I have played on the assault course. But I still end up leaving town penniless and armed only with my starting equipment.
The house/office to the assault course, has switches and buttons. Which I can pull and press to my hearts content, but nothing seems to happen. They appear to be like traffic lights in Italian Cities. They change from red to green... That's ALL they do. No-one takes a blind bit of notice.
My Intuition tells me that I should have found a curator of some kind to this assault course. A man whose mission in life is to send Newbies on a number of orientating assault course based tasks. Designed to let you find your legs and to give you a little starting cash and exp.
Instead no-one seems to be working today. I am worried about the old man who undoubtedly works there. Here's how I see it...
One day this old chap (who looks remarkably like an old Kevin Costner) is working in his field. When he hears this ghostly voice saying.. "If You Build It... He Will Come"
"WHAT?" Says old Kevin "If I build WHAT... Who Will Come?"
So for a week, he tosses and turns in his sleep, wondering what the hell it is that he is supposed to build. Then in a dream it suddenly comes to him. He is supposed to build an Assault course.
So the next day, people come from miles around to watch Kevin plough his field under to build an assault course. They mutter about how he is a fool to waste his crop this way and that his "vision" is in fact the first sign of impending insanity.
None the less, a month later a shiny new assault course stands where Kevin's wheat used to be and he wanders through it, breathing in the heady atmosphere of accomplishment and waiting for who ever it is that is supposed to come.
Well, he waits and he waits and no-one turns up to climb the ladders, hit the training dummies or eat hot dogs from his concession stands. It turns out that the "Ghostly Voice" was the local kids messing about, hidden in some bushes. No-one ever comes and Kevin eventually takes to his bed and dies of embarrassment, because it turns out that after all that work, he has all along actually been a complete tit!
2/ I go penniless to the dock, where I catch a ship which then (I think) gets dashed on the rocks and maroons me on a small set of tiny islands joined by dodgy rope bridges.
Now this kind of thing is just my luck! But what can you expect? I obviously paid no fare on this boat, because I was penniless right? So the skipper would probably have been challenged sailing a rubber duck in his bath tub, because in this life you gets what you pays for!
Plus, we also had a cheap narrator. Because he didn't even bother to tell us that there was a shipwreck in the first place. But our clues were..;
A: We were on a beach.
B: There was driftwood and crates lying about.
Oh and C: There seems to be a broken ship on a large rock behind us.
Having taken stock of my situation, things look grim. We have no money no food, not much in the way of weaponry, oh.... And just to ice the cake, I seem to have picked up a nasty splinter of a piece of driftwood.
Well I have a bit of a nosey around the place and I soon find lots of pygmy Skeletons to kill. Some of whom had pouches of gold in their ...er.... Pockets? Then there are "Acme" RPG dragonfly bugs as well, many of whom are similarly financially independent.
I meet an old lady who is also a gypsy Troll! (you don't see many of those these days do you)
Who tells me who I am and what I must do. (at least if I want to forward the plot) Oh... And I'm sure I met the same voice actress in a bar in Balders Gate.
Then I meet a salty old sea dog who wants to join my quest and suggests that there might be something worth having behind "THAT" locked door. Looking briefly around I see a rope bridge,.... a bit of seaweed,.... none of my companions! Because however fast I turn around, they run round the behind me and pull faces behind my back...the Buggers!... An old disused BurgerKing carton..... But no locked door!
Well it turns out "THAT" locked door is actually across a rather long rope bridge, on another little island, behind some ruins. I can't get through it by force and I have no key. I did find a large window on the sea facing side of the little tower that the locked door is in. I thought I had made a breakthrough as I swam under this little window and jumped up.
Finding myself perched Gull Like on the window sill, I could see inside I book resting on a pedestal and a tempting chest. ( Hmmmm maybe I should take it back to my starting town to give to the barmaid?) But.... Having shimmied up the wall with the skill of a bionically enhanced cat burglar, I actually have all the make entry skills of a rabid yak with three of it's legs tied together. So I can't get through the window and invariably end up plunging back into the sea.
Where I might add, I am now being waited for by giant killer Jellyfish! (Ever had one of those days?) I've no doubt that these fellows are also quite wealthy, but I have no way of finding out as they promptly kick my boney behind.
There is a little jetty on this island, with a ship that the Salty Sea Dog has insinuated might take me somewhere, if I clear the island of the pygmy Skeletons. Well no sooner said than done. These fellows are easy to dispatch, as you just sneak up from behind them while they are pointing at the sky shouting "Da Plane, Da plane" and club them into Pygmy powder. (Apologies to those of you under thirty, who have not got the faintest idea what I am talking about there.)
BUT...... Pygmies pounded. The ship stubbornly refuses to move.
Sooooooo I think what I need is actually in that locked room. I did wonder if I would find a key in the ruins. But the bouncers persuaded me that I am best to come back to this particular night club when I am a tad older and am armed with something a little more devastating than shoelaces and sealing wax.
That's where I stand then guys. Any and all advice gratefully accepted to get me going on my grand adventure. But pleeeease... Don't any of you Americans taunt me with "Nah Nah, we've got Morrowind" stories. Cause I know it was released over the pond last week. D'OH!
Badger. |
Sun May 05, 2002 8:41 am |
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Gothmog
Village Leader
Joined: 12 Apr 2002
Posts: 88
Location: Wales |
Your aunt is clearly a wise woman and generous. You should probably ask her advice but failing that return to the Troll-crone who may have a little task for you and a little reward. |
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Sun May 05, 2002 11:27 am |
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Badger
Stripey Forest Dweller
Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 924
Location: UK |
Thanks Gothmog, I don't know how I missed the conversation option "How do we get through that door", before.
Now I have the key, opened the chest, got the tee-shirt, read the book, sunk the island with a tomb thing on it. (Wha?) and Sailed in the boat.
So what about it guys? Any other comments? I still feel as though I might be rushing through these starting portions of the game and missing unspoken truths and a hidden point to some of the things I have seen so far.
Is there more to do than I've done? And why did I just sink a tomb anyway?
Unless of course it is just a plot device for bringing in Lara Croft in her Scuba gear later.
Badger |
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Tue May 07, 2002 9:40 am |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
The scene should improve some what from here on. Though the story is slow in changing. |
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Tue May 07, 2002 12:10 pm |
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Gothmog
Village Leader
Joined: 12 Apr 2002
Posts: 88
Location: Wales |
You've mised nothing of significance that I'm aware of.Be patient this is not a game that gives it all away in the first couple of hours.
It will grow on you.
or maybe it won't 
Just think how upset your aunt will be if you don't finish it. |
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Wed May 08, 2002 12:15 am |
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Badger
Stripey Forest Dweller
Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 924
Location: UK |
That's true Gothmog. She never really forgave me for breaking her china cat when I was six. Goodness knows I don't want to add insult to injury now.
Badger |
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Wed May 08, 2002 7:52 am |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
quote:
Originally posted by Badger
That's true Gothmog. She never really forgave me for breaking her china cat when I was six. Goodness knows I don't want to add insult to injury now.
Badger
Personally, I am really enjoying the game, but if it doesn't grab you after the first 15 hrs of play or so, tell your aunt that it won't run on your system! |
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Wed May 08, 2002 12:28 pm |
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Badger
Stripey Forest Dweller
Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 924
Location: UK |
Quote
"Personally, I am really enjoying the game, but if it doesn't grab you after the first 15 hrs of play or so, tell your aunt that it won't run on your system!"
LOL Thanks Lintra. that's excellent!
I am sure that M&M will grab me if I give it a chance. Don't read too much into my posts as I tend to be a bit tongue in cheek 
In all seriousness, I would have to say that it has hasn't really hooked me in from the beginning. But when I start an RPG I tend to be reluctant to give up on it too quickly. Like a book that I have not warmed to quite yet, I tend to think that I have to keep reading, because just over the next page might be something that truly captures my imagination.
For all you Hard Core M&M-er's out there. I'm sure this is a terrific game. The fact that the Badger is a shallow old graphics junky, is no-ones fault but his own
All the best
Badger. |
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Thu May 09, 2002 6:28 am |
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