Might and Magic II

Following on the Success of Might and Magic I: Secrets of the Inner Sanctum, the second release in the series was a vast world with many dungeons to explore. Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World, released in 1988 on the PC and Sega Genesis console, was very large in scope for its time. The story continued from the first game in the series, but the main quest was almost an afterthought because of all the side quests, dungeons to explore and virtually unlimited player leveling.

The adventure began with the player creating up to six characters to play, choosing from eight classes. Character classes included Barbarian, Ninja and Sorceror. Might and Magic 2 came with a user's guide that contained a hint book. The hint book was a virtual necessity because of the many areas to explore and quests to solve. One drawback of the game was that combat began instantaneously. That is, there was no warning that monsters would be encountered - they just simply appeared in front of the party whenever the space containing the encounter was entered.

Might and Magic 2 had some interesting aspects to it. One was that characters could reach level 255 if they kept progressing far enough. A character could also gain over 65,000 hit points if they leveled enough and knew how to maximize their hit points. Battles could involve up to 255 enemy creatures, which could take quite a while, since only a small group (9 or 10) could be affected by any spell at once. The game's main quest also involved time travel, and required solving a Crypto-quote at the very end.

Most role-playing games have loopholes of some kind that allow the player to advance in power very quickly. MM2 was no exception, and if the player knew exactly where to go, they could gain very powerful items in the first stages of the game. The "cheat" exploited the fact that encounters were based somewhat on the collective character level of the party. So, if a low-level party encountered a high-level group of creatures, there might only be one or two monsters to fight.

In the eastern desert there was a certain oasis that contained a fountain that would temporarily raise attributes such as Strength and Dexterity enormously. If the party could make it to the oasis (not easy, since it was surrounded by tough monsters), and drink from the fountain, then find a high-level creature to fight, the resulting treasure might include some very powerful items, such as a Long Sword + 37. As long as the party didn't level up, they could stay there and pick up these powerful items all day long. Then, much of the rest of the game would be a "walk in the park".

The graphics in Might and Magic II were nothing great, and the music was downright annoying. But, the vastness of the game gave adventurers the opportunity to spend many hours in the world of Cron.