Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven, often shortened to Might and Magic VI or MM6, is a role-playing video game created by New World Computing and released by 3DO in 1998. It is the sixth game in the Might and Magic series, following Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen and the first in the series to take place on the same planet as Heroes of Might and Magic. The game continues the story from Heroes of Might and Magic II and occurs at the same time as Heroes of Might and Magic III in the series timeline. Reviewers liked the game for its easy-to-use design, interactive and detailed world, and its smooth, problem-free launch. A special version of the game included a cloth map of Enroth, a strategy guide, and the first five games in the series on CD-ROM. It was followed by three more games, with Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor continuing the story directly.
Gameplay
In Might and Magic VI, players control four adventurers who begin with weak abilities and must grow stronger to save the fictional world of Enroth. This game differs from earlier versions by using open maps instead of grid-based ones, allowing players to explore large areas, including mountains that can be climbed higher. Battles can happen in real time or in a turn-based mode, where players take turns to decide actions, but turn-based mode limits how much players can move. All action is shown from the characters’ perspective in first-person view, and the game allows players to turn 360 degrees and look up and down. Unlike earlier games, Might and Magic VI does not let players transfer characters between games.
The game includes a main story and smaller side quests, though these are not very common. Events like the Solstices and the Circus of the Sun occur based on the time of year, as the game follows a calendar with day and night cycles.
For the first time in the series, all playable characters must be human, and the party size is limited to four characters (with two slots for non-player characters). Players choose one of six classes: Knight, Druid, Paladin, Cleric, Sorcerer, or Archer. A character’s class determines their starting skills and how their health and magic points are set. Players can add two more skills and adjust their abilities by changing seven statistics: Might, Intellect, Personality, Endurance, Accuracy, Speed, and Luck. Characters age as the game progresses, and their abilities weaken when they reach over 50 years old.
After creating the party, characters can improve by fighting enemies, completing quests, and using items. To gain stronger health and magic points, players must visit a training center in a town. Other abilities, like magic resistance, can be improved by using items found in the world, such as barrels, shrines, or potions. Characters can also earn promotions by completing class-specific quests, which give them new titles and abilities. Each class can earn two promotions, and players must complete the first promotion before attempting the second. Characters not in the same class can only receive an honorary promotion.
The game’s skill system lets players choose how to improve their characters. Skills are divided into two parts: Rank (how skilled a character is) and Expertise (how well they master a skill, with levels like Normal, Expert, and Master). Rank increases by spending points earned from leveling up or using special items, but the points needed to improve grow over time. Expertise requires finding teachers, who can raise a skill to Expert level. Only one teacher in the game can teach a skill to Master level, and reaching that level requires meeting strict requirements, such as having a certain ability score or completing a class promotion. Higher expertise gives benefits, like longer-lasting spell effects. For example, a Knight who reaches a high level in sword skills becomes stronger in battles.
While Might and Magic VI allowed flexible skill development, later games made the system more restrictive, limiting how high characters could advance in skills based on their class.
Plot
After the corrupt Guardian, Sheltem, is defeated in Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen, the 1,500-year war between the Ancients and the Kreegans—a devil-like alien race—spreads to nearby planets. One of these planets is Enroth, home to a continent-nation of the same name. Seven years after the events of Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars, on a day known as the Night of Shooting Stars, meteor-like spaceships filled with Kreegans fall from the Void onto Enroth. King Roland Ironfist leads an army north to fight the Kreegans but is betrayed by a traitorous air mage named Sulman. Roland’s forces are attacked by a large Kreegan army, and he, his court wizard Tanir, and noble Sir Ragnar are captured. The rest of Enroth’s army is defeated. The Kreegan king, Xenofex, secretly forms the Temple of Baa, a group that seeks to remove the Ironfist family from power. With King Roland missing, Queen Catherine has traveled to her homeland of Erathia for her father’s funeral (as shown in Heroes of Might and Magic III), and their young son, Prince Nicolai, rules with Regent Wilbur Humphrey. The people of Enroth begin to fear that the Ironfist family has lost the "Mandate of Heaven," the belief that they are chosen by the gods to rule.
The four player characters come from the town of Sweet Water, which is attacked by Kreegans. A powerful warlock named Falagar saves them, teleports them to safety, and trains them until they are ready to act. They find Sulman’s body in an abandoned goblin camp with a letter from Xenofex, which they give to Regent Humphrey in Castle Ironfist. Humphrey rewards them and asks for their help in finding King Roland. Before fighting the Kreegans, they must seek guidance from the Oracle of Enroth in the city of Free Haven. Access to the Oracle is controlled by the Enrothian High Council, made up of six delegates who represent nobles. Each delegate will only allow the party to see the Oracle after they complete a quest for their lord or lady. All six must approve before the party can proceed. However, Prince Nicolai escapes from Castle Ironfist and joins the Circus of the Sun, a traveling group led by a red dragon named Blaze. The prince must be found before Castle Ironfist opens its gates again.
Even with Humphrey’s support, his delegate, Slicker Silvertongue, refuses to let the party see the Oracle. Humphrey suggests Silvertongue is confused and asks the party to heal him with an antidote. When cornered, Silvertongue reveals himself as the High Priest of Baa and disappears, cursing the Ironfists. The other delegates allow the party to meet the Oracle, who is an intelligent computer named Melian, created by the Ancients. Melian was damaged during the Succession Wars by Roland’s brother, Archibald Ironfist, who stole its memory crystals. Melian tells the party to recover the crystals from dangerous locations. They retrieve two from Castles Darkmoor and Alamos, and a third from Castle Kriegspire, along with Roland’s journal. The journal explains that Sir Ragnar died from his wounds during the Kreegan capture of Roland and Tanir, as confirmed in Heroes of Might and Magic III.
The party attacks the Temple of Baa on Hermit’s Isle, where they obtain the last crystal and kill Silvertongue. Restored, Melian explains the history of the Ancient-Kreegan war. After retrieving a Control Cube from the Tomb of VARN pyramid in Dragonsand, the party gets anti-Kreegan weapons from the Planetary Control Center, where they fight security bots. Melian tells the party they need a spell to stop the Kreegan ships from destroying the planet, a spell only Archibald Ironfist knows. However, Archibald was turned to stone after his defeat in Heroes II. Prince Nicolai agrees to free Archibald using Tanir’s bell. Archibald gives them the Ritual of the Void before teleporting away.
Finally, the party returns to their ruined hometown of Sweet Water and attacks The Hive, the largest Kreegan spaceship. They kill the Kreegan Queen, destroy The Hive’s reactor core, and use the Ritual of the Void to stop the explosion. This destroys The Hive and the Kreegans on Enroth without harming the planet. The story ends with the heroes being knighted and praised by Nicolai and Humphrey at Castle Ironfist. Archibald watches from afar through a crystal ball, sarcastically thanking them for saving his kingdom, setting up events for Might and Magic VII.
Development
The development of Might and Magic VI began in 1996, following the success of Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen and the first two Heroes of Might and Magic games. This happened even though New World Computing had previously said there would not be another game in the series. A teaser trailer, made from a collection of screenshots, was added as a hidden bonus in Heroes of Might and Magic II. During the early planning stages, New World Computing hired science fantasy author Geary Gravel to write a trilogy of novels based on the game's planned story and setting. An early plan was to include a copy of the first book with some versions of the game. However, as little information was shared over time, Gravel was asked to write the books and develop the setting first. The game's developers then based their story on the novels instead. Del Rey Books published two of the three novels, The Dreamwright and The Shadowsmith, before Might and Magic VI was released. However, the developers later decided to create Might and Magic VI's story independently, setting the game on Enroth, the world from the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Gravel was offered a chance to write a new novel set on Enroth instead of finishing the trilogy, but he refused.
This change in setting created a clear connection between the two series. Later Might and Magic games continued the Heroes storyline, with obvious links to the original series, such as references to the Ancients and a town named New Sorpigal, which was the starting town in the first game. These connections were expanded in Might and Magic VII and VIII, which included characters from the first five games. The story takes place ten years after Heroes of Might and Magic II and happens at the same time as the events in Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia. The game was first announced in a press release at E3 in April 1998. Jon Van Caneghem, the game's creator, called it "the best Might and Magic that I have ever made" and "by far the largest and most ambitious game in the history of role-playing games," with more than a thousand miles of virtual terrain. An architect was involved in designing the game's structures and dungeons, and two graphic engines named Horizon and Labyrinth were used to create the game's environments. In Might and Magic VI, large objects like buildings, dungeons, and landscapes are in 3D, while smaller objects like trees, humans, and creatures are 2D sprites. These sprites were created using pre-rendered 3D images in 3DS Max and Character Studio. This was the first game in the series to include full-motion video cinematics. The game's soundtrack was composed by Steve Baca, Rob King, Paul Romero, and Jennifer Wang. Baca, King, and Romero had previously worked on music for Heroes of Might and Magic.
Complex design features, such as rival adventuring parties and a quest system involving complicated alliances with nobles and other factions, were announced but were not included in the final game.
Reception
The game received good reviews from the review aggregation website GameRankings. GameSpot described it as "a standout game in what should be a great year for role-playing game fans" and noted that "the graphics in Might and Magic VI are the best yet seen in a 3D first-person-perspective role-playing game." IGN stated, "any fan of role-playing games should already own this game… [it] satisfies on a level that no RPG has in years. Highly recommended for almost everyone." RPGFan highlighted the gameplay as a particular strength. "When all is said and done, the sheer fun of exploration and character development is more than enough to keep playing Might and Magic VI. It can get tedious at times, and the gameplay and graphics have a few limitations. That alone is not enough to drag the game down, and in the end, the end result is more than the sum of its parts. Choose to enter the land of Enroth, and you'll find yourself playing for well over 100 hours."
In 1998, PC Gamer named it the 32nd-best computer game ever released, and its staff called it "a must-have for any roleplaying fan's collection."
The game was nominated for several awards, including the "PC Role Playing Game of the Year" at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, "Best RPG" at Computer Gaming World's 1999 Premier Awards, "Best Roleplaying Game" at the Fifth Annual PC Gamer Awards, "Role-playing Game of the Year" at GameSpot's Best and Worst of 1998 Awards, "Best RPG of the Year" at IGNPC's Best of 1998 Awards, and "RPG of the Year Award" at Computer Games Strategy Plus' Best of 1998 Awards. However, all these awards were ultimately given to Baldur's Gate. The staff of PC Gamer wrote that Might and Magic VI "takes all of the elements that made its predecessors some of the most popular RPGs in gaming history and, amazingly, improves on them." The staff of Computer Gaming World called Might and Magic VI "a gigantic, addictive hack-'n'-slash—and not much in the depth department. Still, for about 80 hours, it was a definite hoot to play."