Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

aka: MM6, Might and Magic VI : Le Mandat Celeste, Might and Magic VI: Boskie Prawo
Moby ID: 812
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Description official descriptions

After the corrupt Guardian Sheltem was defeated, the seemingly never-ending war between the Ancients and the alien Kreegans entered a new phase. Meteor-like spaceships populated by the Kreegans fell onto the technologically less advanced planet Enroth. The local king, Roland Ironfist, plans to attack the demonic-looking aliens, but is betrayed by a mage named Sulman and gone missing. Xenofex, the king of the Kreegans, establishes a cult teaching people that the Ironfist dynasty has lost its Mandate of Heaven to rule the realm. Meanwhile, the town of Sweet Water is invaded by the Kreegans, and four adventurers become involved in the battle and the search for the missing king.

The Mandate of Heaven is the sixth installment in the Might and Magic series, and the first one with the playing area done with a real 3D engine, allowing free exploration of the terrain (as opposed to the grid-based movement of the previous games) and camera rotation. Characters and many objects are represented by 2D sprites. The gameplay follows the formula of the predecessors with several changes, the most notable of which is the option to fight in real time. Real-time combat allows free movement, while the traditional turn-based one is stationary.

Character creation is somewhat more restricted: there are no other races but humans to choose from, and the party contains only four adventurers. Six classes are available: Knight, Druid, Paladin, Cleric, Sorcerer and Archer. A new skill system has been introduced, allowing the player to manually raise character skills (e.g. proficiency in specific weapon types) when the character levels up. Characters also gain access to skills of most classes, regardless of their original class designation.

Spellings

  • Меч и Магия: Благословение небес - 2003 Russian spelling
  • 魔法門VI ─ 奉天承運 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 魔法门VI:天堂之令 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

83 People (74 developers, 9 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 23 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 70 ratings with 5 reviews)

Mighty and magical -- not.

The Good
I liked the huge five year long gap between parts 5 and 6. Was anxious to experience all the vast improvements that would justify this gap.

I also liked the quirky touches in the manual.

The Bad
Others might disagree, but I think the main assets of any CRPG are supposed to be NPC interaction and atmosphere. When the emphasis shifts to anything else, like constant leveling upwards, the overall game experience comes off as hollow. Sadly, this is just what gives in M&M6. Prepared to get immersed in a deep, involving adventure, I found myself in a rather generic quest-fest, required to meet impersonal and laconic NPC's on non-interactive 'conversation' screens who proceeded to send me on repetitive killing sprees over and over again. Not even the most important NPC's are developed or memorable (Nicolai, Wilbur etc.), everything they have to say directly or indirectly triggers yet another XP-boost session (or quest).

I'm not rating graphics, audio or the like, because these are not what I'm looking for in an RPG. In this one I haven't found what I'm looking for, so enough said.

The Bottom Line
A glorified hack&slash game with no real depth or personality, almost like a 3D Diablo. All throughout Enroth, I felt a bittersweet nostalgia involving New Sosaria (aka Serpent Isle).

Windows · by András Gregorik (59) · 2004

Excellent traditional cRPG. Graphics/audio sufficient for the fan.

The Good
The storyline and gameplay are extremely addictive. Until MM6, I have never been interested in playing a cRPG more than once in the same decade.

Like others in the MM series of RPGs, 'Mandate' focuses attention on storyline and gameplay rather than stats and treasure. Oh, there's plenty of numbers to churn and loot to boot, but you New World Computing doesn't require you to learn the details. There are no important penalties for skipping a minor quest, dying, delaying, or getting lost.

'Mandate' includes a fairly detailed political structure that is worth learning about (although, again, you can easily play without understanding it). The politics and economics of the land are less important. However, there's a wonderful sense of detail in the stories behind the various towns, provinces, and characters that has inspired many people to write some rather excellent stories about the game.

While the AI isn't brilliant, many of the monsters are tough enough on their own ability to make combat challenging. You can play Might, Magic, or a combination, but Magic is by far the most powerful in the game. Casting spells and using weapons is easy, although (alas) there are no keyboard shortcuts. You can fight in RealTime or phased (Turn-Based) modes, but only the most die-hard action player will be able to handle spellcasting in real time.

There are plenty of puzzles and quests. Too many are monty-haul or seek&return, but there are enough imaginative ones to keep most players happy. The bad quests weren't so onerous that I remember them 2 years later and the good quests were good enough that I still look for ones like them in other games.

The Bad
If you really care about graphics or sound, you will be disappointed by this game, even if you haven't played any other RPGs before. The environment and background music is definitely moody in the best sense of the word, but it's never profound or StarWars calibre. If you care more about gameplay, the multimedia shortcomings won't bother you at all.

The AI is clearly A but not very I. It's almost always possible to divide & conquer so that a clever player can defeat almost any monster combination at the weakest levels with a few choice spells. However, this is quite time consuming; serious melee will require brains and brawn (i.e. high character and spell levels and a smart player).

I miss the keyboard shortcuts from previous entries to the series. I miss being able to easily cast all my protection spells by creating a macro or at least not having to click the mouse on just the right spot. It can be quite time-consuming



The Bottom Line
I won't describe the storyline in detail. Plenty of reviews on the net do that already. Instead, here are my thoughts on how different types of players will react to this game.

(Incidentally, I played the game on a 166 MHz laptop with 1 MB of vRAM and 80 MB memory. The game ran well, except in a few dungeons with nearly a hundred monsters. I recommend at least 150 MHz, 48 MB RAM, 1 MB vRAM but 200 MHz 60 MB RAM, 2 MB vRAM would be better. 3D acceleration is not needed or useful.)

Fans of Might and Magic should really like the game. Other hard-core RPG and cRPG fans should enjoy it as well.

Wizardry and TES: Arena fans will mostly like the game. However, Wiz-fans will wish for harder puzzles, more involved storyline. Both groups will wish for more variety of character classes (although there really are plenty).

AD&D fans will be disappointed. Too little attention to numerical details. Not enough limitations on classes. Not enough role playing.

Action-game players will also be disappointed. Limited graphics, unexciting sound.

Adventure-game players will probably like the game, unless they really enjoy high definition cut-scenes and well defined storylines. The game allows you to travel pretty much where you want when you want (except for the endgame areas...and keep in mind, some areas will be too tough to handle).

Windows · by Tennessee Ernie Ford (16) · 2000

It started out a ton of fun, but it's the first time I ever bought a strategy guide.

The Good
The story line was engrossing. This game really hit home with me and helped me break my addiction to an on-line text RPG. Well-picked background music really helped set the tone, and this was one of the first games where I closed my door to drown out other sounds.

The interface was fairly well done, though I used turn-based almost exclusively in battle. The few times I didn't I was launching ranged weapons at the enemy and strafing side to side to dodge the return fire. It worked fantastically, but it felt cheap. It wasn't hard to confuse or screw up the AI.

Gameplay was also balanced. There were good and bad things about pretty much every character.

The backgrounds changed with the weather.

The Bad
Considering how good I think the game is, a lot. Maybe I'm just more of a story line/gameplay type guy.

Graphics were shoddy. The box said something about 3D acceleration, but I'm still looking for it. Backgrounds looked like they came from a cartoon, and didn't move much.

Sound effects were definitely not high on the priority list in development. They're there, and they are useful to know when someone is dying or being attacked, but if a ball of lightning goes whizzing past you, it doesn't make a sound.

The AI was really dumb. Sometimes it helped because enemies had so many HPs it was ridiculous, but often I felt I was taking advantage of it.

There was really very little in terms of AD&D rules. Stats could be jacked way up (over 100, I think), and getting another +1 to Strength just got old.

There were far too many ways to improve your character, and the story line was so un-linear, it was like Baldur's Gate where you wonder what will happen if you finish something out of order. While it was nice to have side-quests and such, I often felt swamped with too many to complete, and not sure which one to do first. There was also no real clue about where to go next. I found myself fighting level 3 monsters at level 20, then thinking it would have been a lot easier to have fought that before doing whatever it was I did.

It was very long.

The Bottom Line
It's a great game. I never played any of the other M&M's before this one, but I didn't really feel that I missed anything. After getting part way through the game I went back and read some of the history, and it's actually quite interesting.

I wouldn't try to finish the game without a strategy guide (personally), but it's a lot of fun even if you don't finish it.

As inspiration, you may want to watch the intro a few times. It really sets the tone.

Windows · by Cyric (50) · 2001

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
MM6 guide Rain Ungert (1) Jan 18, 2014

Trivia

Hidden dungeon

There is a hidden easter egg dungeon in the game. More information can be found in the tips & tricks section.

References

In the town of Ironfist there is a not-so-subtle reference to Star Trek; the Original Series - when you leave the temple you are told to "Live long and prosper", a common Vulcan greeting. In the Tomb of Varn there is another original Star Trek reference; unfortunately it would be a major spoiler to reveal it here!

Awards

Might and Magic 6 was voted #39 overall (tied with Curse of Monkey Island) in PCGamer Magazine's Readers All-Time Top 50 Games Poll (April 2000 issue). * Computer Gaming World + April 1999 (Issue #177) – Runner-up as Best RPG of the Year * PC Gamer + April 2000 - #39 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games Poll" (together with The Curse of Monkey Island * Power Play + Issue 02/1999 – Best First-Person RPG in 1998

Information also contributed by DJP Mom and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by DarkTalon.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Jeanne, anneso, lord of daedra, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Igor Pokrovsky, Tom Chen, R3dn3ck3r.

Game added January 31, 2000. Last modified February 13, 2024.