Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra

The Good
Might and Magic III was very time occupying, and had an excellent storyline. The overall best part about mm3 is that it doesn't have a set linear plotline. You are able to explore as you please. The Isles of Terra was also one of the first of its kind, introducing new graphics and a new style of RPG into the world of gaming.

The Bad
Compared with the graphics and technology nowadays, this game is obsolete. There is one major drawback to this game; it only has one save game slot. You cannot go back to previous segments of the game.

The Bottom Line
A must-have for dedicated gamers. Might and Magic III was a big part of the foundation of todays computer games. Endless fun; this game was first released in 1991, and it's still one of the best there is.

The Good
MM3 seems at first to be nothing more than a wonderful, old-fashioned RPG with the stereotypical medieval/fantasy theme. This was my introductory game in the Might & Magic series, and I was taken by surprise by later elements that are common and recurring in the Might & Magic games; the back story of the space-faring, high-technology culture.

You will begin with a party of six, whom you can keep, or trade in at the nearest inn for characters you "create" by rolling dice. At the inn, you may choose each party member's role, alignment, and name - I'm superstitious and don't like to name my characters after real people because I suffer tremendous guilt when they die ;-) As you travel through the towns and make your way through the dungeons you may pick up additional characters, who can be hired in exchange for your hard-earned gold.

You must start by saving your home town of Fountain Head, gaining experience points as you venture out beyond the town gates to do battle with goblins, orcs, huge spiders, and many more enemies. Most of your adversaries are deadly, but there are a few that are on the edge of silliness; my personal favorite being the candle creeps! Any of these battles can be quite difficult, you must work to level up and train bit by bit, and make use of the various artificial/temporary powerups – might fountains, a well that raises hit points, a crystal ball that raises spell points, etc . These give you some needed enhancements, especially in the earlier parts of the game when preparedness is all.

Some members of your party can learn spells, many many spells, from the various magic guilds you will discover along the way. Some spells are very powerful and useful, like Wizard Eye, which allows you to see where you are on the map; Protection from Elements, which is self-explanatory, and Energy Blast, a good all-around defensive spell, to name just a few.

The makers of the game have provided a Mr. Wizard option for the faint-of-heart; Mr Wizard will extricate you from any fix and return you to your home town at the cost of a level if you so choose. This may actually be necessary in the beginning of the game, at which point you have no levels to lose, anyway!

Isles of Terra is a big map to cover, with lots of dungeons and places to explore, be sure you have Wizard Eye! As you travel around the Isles you will learn more about the world and solve many puzzles, win fortunes, slay dragons and find mystical orbs on your way toward this adventure’s conclusion.


The Bad
You may find the battles to be tedious sometimes, due to the sheer numbers of assailants and the sameness of the fighting - when you are just pounding the "a" key and the "s" key over and over, with an occasional spell thrown in. And the attempt at copy protection is an annoyance; in order to enter the game at all you need to hunt down a page/line/word from the Isles of Terra manual. These are minor irritants in a worthwhile game, however.

The Bottom Line
Play this game with an open mind for the old-fashioned graphics - enjoyment is in the gameplay of this early entrant to the Might & Magic series.

The Good
Great 256 Color VGA Graphics for it's time. Sprites were also highly detailed.

The Music is rather good. Simplisitc but good. Make sure Soundblaster or Midi is enabled though unless you enjoy PC Speaker rendrations.

Big parties. You can have six characters yourself and two more characters as hirelings. This makes sure enemies don't overpower you. The hirelings are also several levels above you and are strong enough.

Big Game World! The gameworld is HUGE! For it's time it's almost impossible NOT to get lost sometimes. There's also so much stuff to do and places to go into and such.

Character stats are very detailed and have a big chart to them.

Huge level of items with random mixed stats to go along with it. Such variety that is hard to come close to.

You can either help good or evil with the orbs.

The Bad
The enemies can be overwhelmingly hard at times. Even at the beginning of the game going anywhere EXCEPT the first few steps away from the town will result in the death of several characters.

Walking in new towns can almost guarantee you a side of beatdown unless you keep your levels up.

Really GOOD Items cost a LOT and most of the really GREAT stuff has to be found. Or picked which means you need a thief character with not too good stats to be in your party at all times.

Being brought to life crushes your hitpoints. Every time you die and are brought back to life you lose max hit points. Imagine having a Level 12 Wizard at 15 hitpoints while a Level 1 Wizard can have 19 hit points. Extremely frustrating.

The game gives you NO sense of what to really do to really progress the quest. In the strictest fashion this game is NON LINEAR! That can be a good thing or a bad thing to me in this game it's just a bit of a bad thing.

Though the world is huge there isn't that many people around so it does feel kind of barren. A small complaint but still it's worth noting. Where is everybody?

The Bottom Line
How would I describe this game to others? I'd describe it as one of the most challenging games I've ever played. Even though I spent several hours on it I have never actually beaten the game myself. The monsters themselves get to a point where they become too powerful and then eventually overpower me.

Do you like rpgs in the style of 1st person perspective? Do you like the prospect of tons of status? How about characters that age and die from old age? Are you a true rpg fan in the dice fashion?

The characters you get in this game are actually dice rolls. Keep rolling for better stats but in all honesty no matter how you slice it this game will offer you plenty of challenge and a very non linear and open ended quest. But the game is just a little too big and hard for it's own good..... If your a die hard rpg fan then by all means go ahead. However if your a newbie OR a fan of Japanese style rpgs then steer far FAR away from this game as the difficulty and lack of storyline will make you run for the hills. Overlal I'm conflicted since this is a very good PC Rpg but very difficult to the point where your discouraged from playing. I give this game a 8/10