魔法门 6：天堂之令 Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven p.240

尽管存在诸多争议，但是我依旧认为回合制与实时战斗系统的无缝切换是游戏的重中之重。我们曾为此绞尽脑汁，我认为这是将《魔法门》的队列系统向《毁灭战士（Doom）》代表的后 3D 世界游戏时代过渡的关键要素。

Although controversial, I feel the most important thing was the turn-based/real-time combat system. We really gave this a lot of thought, and I think this was the key to bringing Might and Magic's party-based system into the post-Doom 3D world.

Jon Van Caneghem
《魔法门》作者

Jon Van Caneghem,
Might and Magic’s creator

你的队伍起初会感觉很弱，但是随着游戏流程的推进，他们的力量会逐渐增强。这时候回到过去让你觉得很头疼的地方，然后在里面耀武扬威绝对是一件非常让人爽快的事情。

《魔法门 6》的故事发生在《英雄无敌 2（Heroes of Might and Magic II）》之后，但是它并没有完全遵守线性化叙事——其整体的结构是开放式的。虽然新索皮格（New Sorpigal）作为游戏的新手村有着各种各样的新手任务和地下城，但是大多数区域在游戏初期就可以进入，许多任务，甚至是在主线任务中都完全可以按照任意的顺序来完成。

游戏中的地牢经常有着非常大的地图范围和数量非常多的敌人，涵盖了从不起眼的洞穴和下水道到庞大的废墟和高科技控制中心等多种场景。游戏本身的体量也非常大，大约有 15 个大型室外区域和 30 多个地牢。那些地点中包括白帽的雪山，被诅咒的闹鬼沼泽，以及龙之沙漠，一个理所当然的满是龙栖息的沙漠。

Your party will start out feeling rather weak, but will ramp up steadily in power as you play. It can be very satisfying to return to an area that once gave you trouble, and cut a swath of destruction through it!

Might and Magic VI takes place after the events of Heroes of Might and Magic II, but it does not follow a completely linear narrative – it is quite open-ended in its structure. While the starting town of New Sorpigal has a useful assortment of low-level quests and dungeons, most regions are accessible from the very beginning of the game, and many quests, even within the main quest line, can be completed in any order.

Dungeons are typically sizeable in scope and overflowing with enemies, and range from unremarkable caves and sewers to lavish ruins and high-tech control centres. The world itself is quite large, with about 15 large outdoor regions and over 30 dungeons. Locales include the snowy mountains of White Cap, the haunted Mire of the Damned, and Dragonsand, a desert unsurprisingly full of dragons.

GrayFace 的《魔法门 6》补丁修复了许多 bug，并添加了许多新的功能，如按键重设定和鼠标外观自定义。如果你还想要更多的冒险内容你也可以玩《混乱阴谋》mod，一个粉丝制作的新游戏流程。

The GrayFace MM6 Patch fixes many bugs and add new features like key re-mapping and mouselook. If you want more adventures, you can also try the The Chaos Conspiracy mod, a new fan-made campaign.

行动的方式也有很多种：可以步行、坐船或是骑马到达某个地区，这样玩家就可以在各个城镇之间快速移动。队伍中若是有一个高级法师则更加方便：例如，水元素大师（Water Master）可以放置信标以便以后可以传送，或者立即将队伍传送到某个城市。空中魔法中的飞翔法术（Air magic's Fly spell）则是我个人的最爱：你的队伍可以自由的在空中翱翔，并对那些毫无防备的敌人下上一场死亡之雨。

新的《魔法门》引擎和玩法被应用到了另外两款游戏中，即《魔法门 7：血统与荣耀（Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor, 1998）》和《魔法门 8：毁灭者之日（Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer, 2000）》。但尽管他们对游戏引擎进行了诸多优化，却也无法恢复往日光辉，它们的内容根本无法跟《魔法门 6》中近 100 小时的游戏内容，丰富的地牢以及强调自由探索的开放世界相匹敌。

基于以上诸多原因，《魔法门 6：天堂之令》或许是当时最优秀的电脑 RPG 之一了。

There are plenty of ways to get around: regions can be reached either on foot or via ships or stables, which can quickly move a player between towns. A party with an advanced spellcaster has additional conveniences: for instance, a Water Master can save beacons to warp to at a later time, or instantly teleport the party to certain cities. Air magic's Fly spell is my personal favourite: your party gains the power to soar freely through the air, raining death onto any unsuspecting enemies below.

The new M&M engine and gameplay style would be used in two more games, Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (1998) and Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer (2000). But while they add polish to the engine, they don't match M&M VI's nearly 100 hours of gameplay, meaty dungeon crawls and emphasis on free-form exploration.

For these reasons and more, Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven may well be one of the best computer RPGs of its time.