Outward Definitive Edition | Life In Jail
My Favorite Video Game From Childhood
It came out in 1998 published by 3DO and I just played again for a short time this week in 2017. It’s interesting how a game that old and pixilated looking by modern standards I still find not only playable but enjoyable
Gaming back then had its benefits.
- CD no downloading large files and endless updates
- No day 1 patch
- No cash shops
- No internet connection required
- You got more than just a few hours out of a single game
- It shipped completed
You had to buy a game on CD at a store, and it was sold as is. I don’t even think we had the internet back then and if we did I had zero interest in it. There was no pre-ordering and getting some “amazing” item in the game.
Its Name Was Might & Magic VI
Ah, the nostalgia of logging into your favorite game when things were just simple with very few worries in the world. That music and the familiar character starting point bring back so many memories.
I doubt I got it right when it came out. Maybe a year or two afterward when it was discounted. We had one working computer at the time in the middle of the house and it was MINE! Anytime I was out of school I was on that computer smashing that “A” button and mouse clicking every single rock, wall, and torch looking for hidden items.
It was a true joy there was no YouTube to spoil things or go to cheat if I got stuck. Guides? I never read any for my first play through. Was just me and whatever I worked out how to do on my own. All my friends were still playing console games and at that point in time, I was starting to really love computers.
The controls ancient by today’s standards of having to use a very clunky arrow keys to move left, right, forward, or backward and not having any impact from using your mouse. Whose only purpose is to click on objects and move things around in inventory that kind of thing. You had to adjust your shooting angle using page up or page down depending on a slope or you would just miss shots.
The game had such amazing AI and pathing it was laughable I will admit. Could stand on a hill and hold down attack till everything died. I always picked up bow and crossbow skill very early on because you could kite more or less everything.
It had such complex crafting such as picking up herbs off the floor and you guessed it combining it into a glass bottle for potions!
The sky was truly mesmerizing to the eye
The content was just endless. At least for me as a kid I have no idea how long I played that game. I just remember over the years I became more and more disappointed the shorter and shorter games felt and became unless you played a mmo.
My Favorite Things Back Then
Keep in mind I was a really young kid at the time. I had a few things that I always enjoyed doing over and over and well over some more.
I loved to hunt the goblins and do the first two dungeons in the starting zone. The Nice thing was if you zone back and forth between different zones the time passed and eventually the zone would respawn so you could re-clear it!
I enjoyed the way too much just opening up chests looking for gold and items and identifying things hoping for upgrades.
I also recall doing or just about doing every single quest I could find. It never felt like I had a main quest going. Just a bunch of random ones that I did that slowly progressed me over time.
Few Years Back
A few years back I purchased a game and it had an extra bonus game that came with it for free-- Might & Magic VI. My cd not only had stopped working long ago I had even lost it. I could not believe my luck. You could not even buy the game directly from the place I got it. It only came with one game for a short while and I don’t’ even recall which one.
I even had friends who noticed I was playing and were like “WTF WHERE???.” Why it was never sold along with a bunch of the other Might and Magic’s on the same site is beyond my understanding.
Naturally that time I was a bit spoiled. I cheated and check out all the guides many of them still out there on the internet from 1998 - 2002. To my shock, I had missed out a lot in the game. I set out to do everything and take advantage of all the information I found.
From starting off getting amazing gear rather easy and lots of gold from a hidden area. To spamming levels due to bugged quest later in the game and just gaining amazing levels to steam roll the rest of the content.
2017
I fully admit after just logging into the game the other day and seeing it still works. That I am very tempted to do another play thought of it. I have forgotten quite a bit over the years about the game many parts of it would feel brand new. While others would feel like a dream I have had before.
The only thing that is stopping me is how long I think it would take. Also, how bad the controls are on my wrists they were not so friendly in creating movement controls back then. But for that I could use a macro mouse and since there no anti cheating software I would have no fear of being banned trying to further avoid carpet tunnel.
Even surprising when I loaded up the game I was not greeted with that normal and rather silly long EULA (end user license agreement) that today's games tend to have. It just felt odd not having to scroll past a bunch of fancy words and move on.
Always amazing to find that one thing from your past that you would still do today.
How about you?
Is there any old game you enjoyed in your childhood that you would consider replaying today?
Information and Citation
Everything written is my own expressed opinion of the game Might & Magic VI published by 3DO
Unless otherwise cited all screenshots were taken by @enjar from the game Might & Magic VI published by 3DO
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