Might and Magic clones

[aleph]

are there any games like the old Might and Magics (3,4,5) apart from swords of xeen? I kinda miss the feeling I had when playing them the first time, replaying is not the same and the newer Might and Magics are not that good. (I played M&M7 first, it was okay, but afterwards 8 and 6 felt just like more of the same.And M&M 9 well let's rather not speak about it).

 

[JarlFrank]

The Wizardries are a whole other level [difficulty!], but they have similar game mechanics and are absolutely awesome. Play Wizardry 6, 7 and 8. In that order. Because you can import your party from the previous game into the next.

Also, try Lands of Lore. It's not too difficult, but it has good level design and it's a beautiful game. You have to try it out.

Also, Eye of the Beholder series.

And Dungeon Master, but that one has real-time combat.

I think the others can recommend more "blob" RPGs, but that's all I came up with right now.

 

[mondblut]

Indie series Yendorian Tales 2-3 are pure, honest-to-death M&M3-5 clones. The only difference is that they are highly railroaded, not a sign of free-roaming M&M were known for. (YenTales1 is more in Ultima 6 way, topdown and tactical).

Undercroft, recently ported from communicator platforms, is also very much in this style. And highly linear as well.

You may also look for old Ancients series (2 games), but I don't remember for sure whether they play more like M&M (i.e. pure turn-based combat) or like Wizardry/Bard's Tale (phased TB). Phased combat games are a lot more common in the subgenre.

 

[aleph]

yendorian tales looks quite interesting. btw how do you find this less-known indie stuff if ou don't already it exists?

 

[mondblut]

Well, most of them are quite old (mid-late 90s), and in those yon years there was a plenty of specialized portals devoted to indie RPG scene.

 

[sportforredneck]

The Wizardry series came years before Might and Magic.

 

[Saxon1974]

Can't really think of too many others that haven't already been suggested.

Definitely recommend the Eye of the Beholder games, love those. They have real time combat though.

Did you like Might & Magic 2? It's my favorite of all of them.

A couple that are kind of similar, or at least have the same type of view screen, even though some of these are smooth scrolling games.

- The Bard's Tale series, 1 is good but I think 2 is the best. These are pretty old school though so if graphics and fast gameplay are your thing you wont like these. They are in my top 5 personal favorites though.

- Black Crypt. Amiga only game so you would need an Amiga Emulator. I havent found time to play this yet, but im going to.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/black-crypt

- Dark Heart of Uukrul. This has isometric combat but has a view screen similar to M&M's.

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/475/D ... C+The.html

- Menzoberranzan. This game is a dungeon crawl that has smooth scrolling and real time combat. The other similar game on the same engine called "RAvenloft" is actually probably the better game.

- The ultima underworld series

- Realms of Arkania series

 

[Binary]

Indie series Yendorian Tales 2-3 are pure, honest-to-death M&M3-5 clones.

 

[SkeleTony]

Indie series Yendorian Tales 2-3 are pure, honest-to-death M&M3-5 clones. The only difference is that they are highly railroaded, not a sign of free-roaming M&M were known for. (YenTales1 is more in Ultima 6 way, topdown and tactical).

Undercroft, recently ported from communicator platforms, is also very much in this style. And highly linear as well.

You may also look for old Ancients series (2 games), but I don't remember for sure whether they play more like M&M (i.e. pure turn-based combat) or like Wizardry/Bard's Tale (phased TB). Phased combat games are a lot more common in the subgenre.

Ancients: Deathwatch and Ancients II: Approaching Evil were turn-based and a lot like the M&M games. IIRC, neither has an automap feature but Ancients II did have some sort of hint/map view cheat thing(by which you could open up a no frills map of the main areas/dungeons. The first game only had a few races and classes to create your 4-person party. The second game added Halflings and a few classes IIRC and is a much larger game.

@ the OP: M&M 6 was not as good as M&M 7. M&M 8 was terrible. 9 was bug-ridden crap but there was a huge fan-made patch that made the game playable and relatively bug-free. You can find it at HERE(click on teh "downloads" link on the left then scroll down. May need to install the "Official patch" first which is on that same page).

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Indie series Yendorian Tales 2-3 are pure, honest-to-death M&M3-5 clones. The only difference is that they are highly railroaded, not a sign of free-roaming M&M were known for. (YenTales1 is more in Ultima 6 way, topdown and tactical).

Undercroft, recently ported from communicator platforms, is also very much in this style. And highly linear as well.

You may also look for old Ancients series (2 games), but I don't remember for sure whether they play more like M&M (i.e. pure turn-based combat) or like Wizardry/Bard's Tale (phased TB). Phased combat games are a lot more common in the subgenre.

Ancients: Deathwatch and Ancients II: Approaching Evil were turn-based and a lot like the M&M games. IIRC, neither has an automap feature but Ancients II did have some sort of hint/map view cheat thing(by which you could open up a no frills map of the main areas/dungeons. The first game only had a few races and classes to create your 4-person party. The second game added Halflings and a few classes IIRC and is a much larger game.

@ the OP: M&M 6 was not as good as M&M 7. M&M 8 was terrible. 9 was bug-ridden crap but there was a huge fan-made patch that made the game playable and relatively bug-free. You can find it at HERE(click on teh "downloads" link on the left then scroll down. May need to install the "Official patch" first which is on that same page).

Okay, I'm officially confused now.

By definition M&M was a cloned series from the getgo. It was a Wizardry clone (like Bard's Tale was). This makes the Wizardry and BT games a no-brainer.

The series took a slightly different direction with pt. 3 and a totally new direction with pt. 6.

So which stile do you want a clone of?

The ANCIENTS games are similar to the old games. I think they are not very good games, though.

Other than those I recommend the follwing:

Phantasie I (pure 2D, though)
Phantasie III - The Wrath of Nikademus (pure 2D, though)
Wasteland (pure 2D, though)
Dragon Wars
Escape from Hell
Legend of Faerghail
Spirit of Adventure
Amberstar
Thunderscape (World of Aden)
Albion
Wizards & Warriors

KTHXbye

 

[Binary]

Ancients: Deathwatch and Ancients II: Approaching Evil were turn-based and a lot like the M&M games. IIRC, neither has an automap feature but Ancients II did have some sort of hint/map view cheat thing(by which you could open up a no frills map of the main areas/dungeons. The first game only had a few races and classes to create your 4-person party. The second game added Halflings and a few classes IIRC and is a much larger game.

Not at all, they were closer to dungeon crawling EoB clones

@ the OP: M&M 6 was not as good as M&M 7. M&M 8 was terrible. 9 was bug-ridden crap but there was a huge fan-made patch that made the game playable and relatively bug-free. You can find it at HERE(click on teh "downloads" link on the left then scroll down. May need to install the "Official patch" first which is on that same page).

M&M7 was a very short game which even seemed rushed in a few places. M&M6 was a better game with some fantastic dungeons

 

[Jasede]

How can you recommend Albion and Amberstar, but not Ambermoon?

 

[Sir_Brennus]

How can you recommend Albion and Amberstar, but not Ambermoon?

Amiga release only.

 

[LCJr.]

are there any games like the old Might and Magics (3,4,5) apart from swords of xeen? I kinda miss the feeling I had when playing them the first time, replaying is not the same and the newer Might and Magics are not that good. (I played M&M7 first, it was okay, but afterwards 8 and 6 felt just like more of the same.And M&M 9 well let's rather not speak about it).

Could you define what you're looking for a little better? I mean are you after anything that's a party based first person CRPG? Or are you looking for something with the same kind of weird humor?

 

[rpgcodexusername]

has anyone tried devils whiskey?

its a modern bard tale style game

 

[Jasede]

Isn't it actually just a remake of Bard's Tale?

 

[Flux_Capacitor]

While I've only played the demo of Devil's Whiskey, and it was quite a while back, but the content I remember was completely different from any of the Bard's Tale games. For the most part, it really just shares the step-based movement, a similar combat system, and some classes. If the developers hadn't stated that it was a spiritual sequel to the Bard's Tale series, I probably wouldn't have recognized it as such. Its really more of a dungeon crawler that's simply in the same vein as the Bard's Tale series, early- to mid- Might & Magics, and and early- to mid- Wizardries, but with some updated graphics and functionality (eg. automap).

 

[Ammar]

M&M7 was a very short game which even seemed rushed in a few places. M&M6 was a better game with some fantastic dungeons

Only if you like long and tedious dungeons. Long boring corridors with lots and lots of the same types of enemies. Nah. M&M7 was much better, even if you disregard the superior plot.

 

[Trash]

Grimoire is said to be quite interesting. It should be out sometime after the apocalypse.

 

[Binary]

M&M7 was a very short game which even seemed rushed in a few places. M&M6 was a better game with some fantastic dungeons

Only if you like long and tedious dungeons. Long boring corridors with lots and lots of the same types of enemies. Nah. M&M7 was much better, even if you disregard the superior plot.

Are you joking? Hall of Fire King and Tomb of VARN are two of the best dungeons ever in any RPG.

Plot was never the strong point of the M&M games - and I'd still prefer M&M6s

 

[SkeleTony]

M&M7 was a very short game which even seemed rushed in a few places. M&M6 was a better game with some fantastic dungeons

Only if you like long and tedious dungeons. Long boring corridors with lots and lots of the same types of enemies. Nah. M&M7 was much better, even if you disregard the superior plot.

Are you joking? Hall of Fire King and Tomb of VARN are two of the best dungeons ever in any RPG.

Plot was never the strong point of the M&M games - and I'd still prefer M&M6s

I am probably just biased as I cannot stand playing humans in RPGs and M&M 6 gave you no other choice. When I see that a fantasy RPG game has nothing but vanilla humans for me it is like walking into an amusement park and discovering there are no rides or rigged games and the only food stand is a guy selling plain old hot dogs.

But even beyond that I found M&M7 to be superior in design, dungeons etc. Like someone else said M&M 6 just seemed too tedious.

But to each his own...

 

[Raapys]

I've to agree on MM6 > MM7. The dungeons would get tedious, true, but the world was just so much more interesting and fun to play in, especially outdoors. MM7 had some neat improvements to skills and such though, not to mention the autorun option.

I really liked World of Xeen too, but the useless interface was sort of a game killer.

 

[Elwro]

I prefered M&M 7. In 6, yeah, the Tomb of VARN was great, but before you got there... too many uninspired dungeons. M&M 7 had a more interesting world and Arcomage.

 

[aleph]

even with the fan made patch, M&M9 is still horrible. Dumbed down skill system, unispiring world, tiny linear outdoor maps. Having already heard how bad M&M9 was suppossed to be I expected nothing when gave it a try and was still disappointed.

@all: thanks. I'll try some of these when I am through Drakensang.


btw. WoX > M&M7 > M&M6