In this review, we brave the strange and wondrous world in Might and Magic II – Gates to Another world. We find out how well this RPG game plays.
This game was released in 1988. It is the second game in the series.
We are quite familiar with this series already. Previously, we tried Might and Magic One: Secret of the Inner Sanctum. That game wound up being only passable with a lot of flaws holding that game back.
Moving further down the series, we tried Might and Magic 6 – The Mandate of Heaven. That game got an excellent score. From there, we tried Might and Magic VII – For Blood and Honor. That game got an OK score. After that, we tried Might and Magic VIII – Day of the Destroyer. That game got a pretty solid score. Finally, we tried Might and Magic IX. That game also got a pretty solid score.
So, we thought we’d try and fill the gap in the series and give the second game a try.
Based solely on the game, the story is basically that you are a set of explorers ready to take on a major adventures filled with wonder and mystery. So, from the town of Middlegate, you set out on this adventure. That’s, well, pretty much it.
The game carries over some of the features found in the previous game. This includes towns basically being in dungeons, though in more open sky dungeons at least. They are complete with food markets, blacksmiths, training guilds, and temple’s.
Food markets allow players to purchase food (and even order specialties in this game). Food is necessary because successful resting requires one food for each character, so it’s once again a statistic to keep an eye on every so often.
Blacksmiths return and the inventory is extended to include some special items and a few extra miscellaneous items. Initially, they are great for buying some initial equipment to make your early moments of the game easier, but ultimately, they serve as a place to dump extra inventory after you’ve upgraded your characters a few times.
Training guilds return with the ability to level up your characters once you’ve built up enough experience points. This time, though, training is much cheaper, so training is easier on the pocketbook this time around.
Temples permit you to restore alignments and resurrect characters. They have an additional role, but more on that later.
Inns, meanwhile, are basically your save points. Signing in allows you to save your game. Additionally, you can rearrange your characters and even get “hirelings” here. While you can get a party of 6, you can increase your party to 8 with the addition of two hirelings. Hirelings can be obtained through rescuing or even completing quests.
Hirelings operate similar to normal characters, but you can’t directly sell items in their inventory (need to trade items unfortunately). They also cost a small amount of gold every day (the higher the levels, the more expensive they are to keep around). Still, they do have benefits. Healing them at the temples are free. Additionally, training is also free. So, there are some added benefits outside of having two additional characters in your party.
In addition to these shops, there are new shops around town. A large portion of these are skill shops. Each character has two skill slots they can use. Buy a skill and you’ll get an extra skill that can either boost your characters strengths or boost your ability to explore. Cartographer, for instance, allows you to build up dungeon maps. If you want to remove skills, you can always check in at the brain detoxification shop in Middlegate.
On a side note, this game adds the ability to follow a map. While very basic, this is a definite enhancement to help you explore areas and dungeons. These maps can be viewed through the “M” key.
Another shop in many towns (not all) are lock smiths. Each lock smith sells you a specific coloured key. These keys are used as part of a certain quest.
Now, if you’ve played the first Might and Magic game, you’ll likely have noted that spells operate on a number dash number basis. This system, unfortunately, returns. This means reading material is pretty much mandatory so you have an idea of what spell you are casting. In addition to this system, the total number of spells have been bumped up to a whopping 9 levels. Anywhere between 4 and 7 spells can be found on each level. A site that can be used to figure out what you are casting is mightandmagic.fandom.com.
Like the previous game, in this game, your magic users will learn spells as they level up. However, if you want a full spellbook, you actually have to do more than just level up. For clerics, some spells need to be bought once you attain the right level at the temples. Temples sell spells for a small amount of gold. In all, they can sell three different spells. If you are not up to the right level, you cannot buy those spells.
Meanwhile, sorcerers are a similar story. Unfortunately, they can be a bit more expensive when it comes to filling out those spell books. First, you need to find the right place to buy magic guild memberships. Memberships range by quite a bit in price in this game. From there, you can go to the magic guild and learn some of the spells you don’t automatically get when you reach the appropriate level.
In addition to this, some spells require the completion of a certain quest or finding the correct location to learn. So, even if you buy every spell and make it to the highest spell level, you won’t necessarily get a complete spell book.
For sorcerers and clerics, you gain a spell level every other level up. On level 1, you get the level 1 spells. On level 3, you get the level 2 spells. So, basically, if you want access to all levels of spells, you need to get all the way up to a monstrous level 17.
Paladins and archers will also gain spell levels. However, they will gain those spell levels at half the pace. It’s a nice added bonus part way through the game, but it will take a while to get something decent out of them over top of their combat capabilities.
You can equip various pieces of equipment. You have two hands, so you can either equip a weapon and a shield or a two handed weapon. The choice is really yours. Additionally, you can equip accessories, helmets, armour, and other pieces of equipment. Just remember that you have a limited number of slots available, so eventually, careful management of what you equip may be required.
Also, you have a limited number of item slots in your backpack. With 8 characters, the small number sounds like virtually unlimited item slots. Unfortunately, in practice, those item slots will quickly get filled as you venture through areas.
As you speak to various Non-Playable-Characters (NPCs), you’ll gradually get quests. Some quests are easier than others. In one quest, you may be asked to get a golden goblet down in the dungeon underneath Middlegate. Simply find the right square and pick up the goblet. Once done, you can get an experience bonus and gold bonus. Not all quests give you gold, but many will grant you experience point bonuses.
There are five towns including Middlegate. At first, it’s wiser to simply visit each town through the portals. However, as you get stronger, you’ll eventually be able to simply wander outside and walk from town to town if you need to. An improvement in this game is the inclusion of various signs that can point players to the locations of different landmarks.
Another returning feature is the use of Castles. You can visit kings and get quests. Unfortunately, in this game, castles are guarded. Without a specific item, you’ll need to fight your way in. Complete quests and you can get experience point bonuses and eve access to new things.
On a final note, gems make a return in this game. Some spells require gems and they can be collected in the treasure chests after battle (remember to “S”earch).
One way you can see this game is as being bigger in numbers. Bigger parties, bigger items, bigger everything. In the previous game, you could get a sword with a plus 2 bonus. In this game, we’ve seen bonuses as high as 6 and we’re certain you can just keep finding more and more powerful items. The sky seems to be the limit for the most part.
Additionally, monster battles are also bigger. In the previous game, you might be able to take on about a dozen enemies at the time. In this game, depending on your characters levels, you might find yourself taking on upwards of 150 enemies. The game seems to react to your characters capabilities and adjusts from there. So, it’s not hard to find a challenge in this game.
In fact, challenge seems to be plentiful in this game – to the point where it’s hard to really get very far. You are seemingly expected to be able to explore large swaths of land in your travels. Where you need to go and what you need to do next? Well, good luck with that. Even with a guide, it can be extremely difficult to figure out what you need to do by the time you reach around level 8. Either your location won’t grant you much in the way of experience or the next battle will almost kill your entire party off in a single round.
Personally, I thought I was doing well to get to level 9. I barely rescued the red bishop. After that, I seemed to hit a wall. Stat raising locations were clearly out of reach still. I needed hundreds of thousands of experience points to reach the next level and the manageable enemy mobs dealt out about 3,000 experience points if I was lucky (sometimes as low as 800 experience points even).
Eventually, it seemed like “cheating” was in order. Like the previous game, you can complete most quests as many times as you like. So, I wound up taking up key delivery for a few hours. Really, the experience wound up being quite the grind. Even if I managed to level up my characters, the bonuses I got from the level up amounted to very little. So, a marginal improvement for a level up after a while all the while having enemies that can toast me in one shot. For me, the experience wound up being a bit of a letdown.
At first, I thought this was certainly an entertaining game. There is an easy to access dungeon. The dungeon is getting nicely mapped out. Enemies are tough, but can be defeated. I tried to build up my characters through arena trips and enemy pits, but eventually, those areas wound up being a pain to really be useful.
At the same time, I felt very very lost. I got Lord Peabody’s quest and eventually found the location of the solution. It also wound up being impossible to defeat the enemies even with the precious few protection spells afforded to me at the time. With seemingly nothing left to do, I just ground my characters up until I was simply bored of the game.
So, generally speaking, there are certainly improvements over the previous game. Unfortunately, it winds up being a half broken experience after a while because of it’s overly open nature with only vague clues to guide you along the way. Even with following guides closely, the game can be a drag. So, great for a few hours, but unless you find clever ways of breaking the game, it winds up being a game with unfulfilling grinding.
Graphically speaking, there are certainly improvements in this game. These improvements do make navigation a fair bit easier (those maps help a heck of a lot more!). Additionally, sprites to show off different NPCs is also a welcome site. In all, this is a decent game on that front with its first person perspective.
The audio is a bit of a miss, though. While the intro track is nice, most of the sound winds up being small jingles at best. In fact, the audio winds up getting in the way of the game because it slows the action down. Turning off sound is pretty much a must after a while unless you want an already long experience to be even longer with repetitive kill jingles all day long. Console games are way ahead of this game on this front.
Overall, Might and Magic is a series I got a lot of entertainment out of. Later games give very solid experiences. While I was excited to play this game because I heard it is a much better game than the first, I wound up being disappointed. At first, it was pretty solid with character level building and exploration. Unfortunately, the grind eventually takes over and it winds up being a very repetitive experience. A lot of improvements, but I’m not convinced this one really makes the grade for a great gaming experience. Graphics saves it, so a fairly mediocre play in the end.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Freed the red bishop and got all characters all the way up to level 10.
General gameplay: 14/25
Replay value: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 2/5
Overall rating: 58%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
