Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor Ships for PC

3DO started shipping Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor today. It is New World Computing’s follow-up to Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven and the Might and Magic universe’s eleventh game overall, and the series has never had trouble selling copies worldwide.

The big addition is 3D acceleration support. The game runs in 16-bit color (65,000 colors) with smooth-scrolling, high-resolution environments, and New World designed it to hold up in software mode too if you have no accelerator card. Combat lets you choose between real-time and turn-based fighting, and this time you can move around in turn-based mode. There are 26 new monsters to deal with, and crafty adventurers can turn them against each other instead of soaking the damage themselves. The monster art comes straight from Heroes of Might and Magic III, the most advanced creature graphics the series has produced.

Beyond the main adventure you get hundreds of new hand-tuned mini quests plus what 3DO calls multi-dimensional quests, and the game includes special on-ramps for players new to the series. Might and Magic VI ate months of my life, so my summer plans just got rearranged.