Why Blasters Unbalance Might and Magic VI

Might and Magic VI is so far the only Might and Magic game I have played; once when I was younger and again somewhat more recently. In the past, I abandoned the game midway through, but I was recently able to see it through to the end. It was overall a fun experience, even if the endgame devolved into traversing large dungeons full of hordes of enemies and repeatedly shooting aliens with lasers.

If you haven't played the game, and only vaguely heard about it as a high fantasy RPG, that sentence may come as a surprise to you, and for good reason. The blasters are only obtained in the penultimate dungeon, the Control Center, near the end of the game. The inclusion of ray guns in the series isn't too surprising if you know the context, since the series features science fiction elements. The Kreegan invaders look like demons, but are actually aliens, and Tomb of Varn, the dungeon before the Control Center, is a structure left behind by a spacefaring civilization. This entry will look at the blasters' impact on gameplay.

Combat in Might and Magic is an odd hybrid of real time and turn based combat, in which the characters in the party can perform various attacks- swinging a melee weapon, firing a bow or casting a spell- with a cooldown system that leaves them unable to act for, on average, a few seconds after each attack. Success depends on building a well-rounded party that balances fighters and spellcasters(as well as the hybrids of each), managing your party's gear and skills, and using your abilities to their fullest potential in battle. This holds true throughout the game, but the blasters upend this.

The blasters are essentially a ranged weapon that, unlike the bows, are held in the same hands that would hold your weapons. Usually, pressing the attack button involves you firing a bow when your opponent is far away, or swinging your melee weapon when your opponent is close. Your melee weapons are generally stronger than bows of similar quality, so while it's advantageous to shoot monsters without ranged weapons or spells from a distance, it's often better to close in on ranged attackers and hack them to pieces. With blasters, however, you're always at an advantage at range, and don't have to worry about whether to fight up close or keep your foes at a distance.

Of course, the choice of a weapon is a moot point, since the blasters are the most powerful weapons in the game. The Blaster Rifles do 5d5+12(17-37) damage, while even the less powerful blasters do 3d5+8(13-23) damage, which is stronger than most weapons without a modifier; a Stellar Bow does 5d2+8(13-18) damage. Spells can do significantly more damage; for example, a Level 10 Incinerate does 10d15+15 damage(25-165), but has a longer cooldown and costs a large amount of mana. If properly trained, buffed with Haste, and wielded by a user that has mastered the skill for the equipped armor, blasters can fire multiple times per second. Essentially, they make all other weapons and offensive magic obsolete, and make most of the differences between classes irrelevant.

Some challenge-seeking players may want to try the game without the blasters, but that isn't an option. The penultimate boss, the Reactor, is immune to all forms of attack apart from the Blasters, an immunity the player is warned about in advance. This makes a certain amount of sense, as otherwise, a party could walk all the way to Sweet Water and bypass the main storyline, since all the player's efforts lead up to activating the Oracle and opening the Control Center in order to obtain those Blasters, but it underscores that the Blasters are the only real choice of weapon for the endgame.

Fortunately, the Blasters are only obtainable near the end of the game, by which point the party should have completed most of the sidequests, so their impact on the game is minimal. Nevertheless, they are a shining example of how the endgame is one of the weakest parts of Might and Magic VI.