Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World
System: Genesis
Release Date: July 1991
Developer: New World Computing
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: RPG
A dark, chaotic age has descended upon CRON in Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World! Corak the Mysterious heralds the coming of new heroes to save the land. The four elementals constant war against each other ended with the earth elemental Gralkor the victor. His attempt to take control of the land through great dragon was thwarted by King Kalohn, but not without an ultimate sacrifice along the way. Now, four elemental talons and the Orb of Power must be found to bring order and light back to the land. It will take much time and perseverance to be a true hero, do you have what it takes?
You begin in the Inn in Middlegate. There is a default crew of adventurers available for you to take out, or you can create your own. The stats rolled are might, intellect, personality, endurance, speed, accuracy, and luck. Based on the values, you can create a knight, paladin, archer, cleric, sorcerer, robber, ninja, or barbarian. Knights, paladins, archers, and barbarians are you fighting classes. Clerics and sorcerers are your casting classes, with paladins and archers able to get some spells, too. Robbers and ninjas are utility classes, able to gain rank in thievery. You then choose their race from human, elf, dwarf, gnome, or half-orc, each with stat modifiers attached. They all come with the weakest weapon for their class in their inventory. Remember to equip that weapon right away or else.
Starting out with a new party requires luck to survive and time to gain experience to do anything worthwhile. I bought Green Tickets and fought in the Arena for hours to amass a bit of cash and outfit my characters fully in basic gear. I then began portal hopping between cities, exploring and trying to learn what my quest is. I had very little luck, but found a wizard in the first town who requested I find a goblet for him. The dungeon beneath Middlegate holds fixed monster spawns that obliterated me every time I tripped them. The jump spell is useful for avoiding them. After finding the goblet and then doing a quest for his sister, I was given instructions to donate money at the temples in each town, so I did. This got me an iron coin, which I threw in a well to get a Castle Key. This unlocked some more of the main quests.
It was about this point I was beginning to burn out, so I found a walkthrough and followed it for awhile. The overworld map connects the cities with roads, but off the beaten trail are where encounters exist. Some are against enemies, while others are fountains, or dungeons, or the elemental planes themselves. Fountains are how you make things doable. They convey upon you some sort of stat boost (or remover, if you’re unlucky), and last for one battle or until the next time you rest. There are secondary skills, like mountaineer and pathfinding, that allow you to walk through mountain and forest squares, where many encounters are hidden. They also unlock paths to some of the better fountains. I got into a pattern of buffing my levels to 20, increasing my spell level to 9, getting 200 spell points, and then increasing my stats to 100 before taking on any of the difficult encounters I’d face. Without them, combat is incredibly unforgiving and just plain unfun, but holding the A Button will make easier battles go by in a flash.
The instruction manual gives you an idea of the main quests you can partake in. There are class quests, the triple crown, and Lord’s quests besides all of the little side quests and adventures you’ll get up to. Each of the castles have a lord that gives you a quest line to complete. I was able to get through most of Lord Hoardall’s task and began on Lord Peabody’s quest before I realized how many dozens of hours were probably still in front of me and called it a day.
Graphics: 1.5
It looks alright, but there’s not much variety, it’s all looking at the same environments with the occasional enemy sprite.
Sound: 0.5
The music and sound effects are terribly shrill to the point I turned them off when I realized I could.
Gameplay: 1.5
The menus aren’t laid out in a convenient way. There’s very little variety of things to do.
Difficulty: 2.0
I don’t think most battles are fair and until you can fly to fountains to power up, you’re going to have one heck of a time getting anywhere.
Fun Factor: 2.0
If you have a ton of time to pour into every map and find every secret, you’ll love this. If you don’t… you won’t.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World earns a C-. Ten year old me would have loved to have this game and get sucked up in each little hint. Forty year old me doesn’t have the time or patience anymore.