Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World

The Good
It has some of the cool "Might And Magic" atmosphere.

The Bad
The game mostly consists of lots and lots of combat and running around trying to find items needed for quests.

The last few quests are extremely tedious and time-consuming, and require the player to fight extremely hard monsters. But just wait until the final dungeon: it's monotonous beyond belief. Really. I couldn't complete it without cheating and editing the stats of my characters. 'I don't see how anyone can finish it without extra help.

And the ending was the worst of all. After spending 2-3 hours fighting an endless stream of monsters in the final dungeon, the reward left me feeling like I wasted my time playing the game.

I heard Might And Magic III has a better finale, and I want to see it, but right now I'm turned off by Might And Magic.

The Bottom Line
Only play it if you want to finish all the Might And Magic games.

The Good
There are five towns, a couple of castles with dungeons that might reach as far as two floors down, a wide expense of wilderness to explore and hundreds of monsters to fight.

The game came with a over 100-page manual which contained maps of the dungeons, which was useful considering how complex and maze-like they were. The towns were as RPG towns are like - there would be a place for buying and selling, inns for resting, temples for curing, training grounds for leveling up and town portals.

There are lots of quests to do and puzzles to solve. Players will also enjoy many in-game jokes and parodies of real life popular culture.

The Bad
The story became a little strange and off-key in the end. It was unexpected and was just too weird as a sword-and-sorcery world suddenly turns sci-fi.

Character graphics are not always present, sometimes a text just pops up on the screen and someone's there talking to you. Yet, there's just no graphic there to show that there is.

Background music gets repetitive at times, and at times vanishes so that one is walking around in eerie silence. Town environments are hopelessly boring, consisting of grey brick walls all around. It's like you are walking in a maze, not in a town.

The Bottom Line
Old school roleplaying game attempting a 3-D environment. You still fight 2-D monsters that randomly pop up while you are exploring dungeons or the wilderness. It's huge and will take the player many hours to complete. There are five towns, a couple of castles with dungeons that might reach as far as two floors down, a wide expense of wilderness to explore and hundreds of monsters to fight.

The Good
This game has one of the most non-linear storylines around -- great for an RPG. You are free to wander the world, cities, dungeons, caves, and elemental planes... solving minor quests as you gradually learn more about the main plot. Character development is stunning, magic is handled well, there are scores of interesting items and weapons, and there are a host of NPC hirelings who you can have journey with your party.

Characters have an assortment of skills available. Some assist just the character, while others benefit the entire party. Auto-mapping is a skill that can be learned; if you like this feature, have a character learn the Cartography skill. If you don't, then don't. Normally I'm not a huge fan, but it's worth having maps in this game. Trust me.

I also like that your characters can gain levels to their hearts' content. The maximum level is 255, created only by the programming limitations of the day. You can still train and add hit points over level 255, but 255 is the maximum that can be displayed.

The Bad
A few things. First, the sounds leave much to be desired (particularly the tune that plays after you kill a monster in combat -- it quickly gets old). Thankfully, they can be turned off.

Another gripe I have is that you can only save your game at an Inn in one of the cities. While not unusual for games of the time, it makes it frustrating to make one wrong move deep in a dungeon, and have to then restore your game and begin the entire dungeon again.

And finally, the puzzle at the end is needlessly confusing. I won't say too much about it, but I solved it and I could not figure out exactly how to type in my solution. Add to this a real-time "countdown", and I was quite despondent (especially since the final puzzle requires you to hack 'n slash your way through a particularly nasty dungeon to get to it).

The Bottom Line
Great overall. The interface will take a bit of getting used to, but I guarantee it will be worthwhile. There are enough cities, castles, dungeons, quests, and items to keep you playing for a long time.