Might And Magic 3 "Isles of Terra"
Developer: New World Computing
Year: 1991
Engine: The engine is truly very playable now. We've been given a mouse, the graphics are now called VGA, and SoundBlaster support has appeared ;) The musical accompaniment is no longer irritating and evokes the mysterious atmosphere of the Middle Ages. It turned out simply magnificent.
Interface: Everything is much more convenient now. You can access almost any necessary menu with the mouse. The inventory now looks more intuitive, with images for each item. You can even move using the mouse. The character portraits at the bottom of the screen, familiar from subsequent parts, have appeared. In general, everything has become approximately what players of later (4-8) parts are used to seeing.
Plot: At the beginning, we receive a letter from Corak asking us to find a certain magic well and free Morphose. The biggest and most awaited surprise of this part: the plot finally becomes clear — the entire backstory of this universe is revealed to us. And then comes the confrontation between Corak and Sheltom on Terra, aided by our heroes.
Backstory: It was the era of the " Ancients" — an era of peace and prosperity. The civilization of the "Ancients" had come a long way in its formation and strengthening. It had now colonized unoccupied free stars and spread across the vast reaches of the universe. Sometimes flights to the next star took hundreds of years, but the culture and way of life of the Ancients consisted of many thousands of years spent in the expanses of creation, and therefore generations changed while peace and harmony continued to fuel the energy of light. Everything would have been wonderful if not for the meeting of two societies that were similar in goal but opposite in the means of achieving it: in one of the explored nebulae of the universe, the "Ancients" encountered an equally complex and ancient civilization, the "Progenitors," whose goal was to populate all planets they encountered while completely destroying any remnants of prior existence there. Thus began the Great Elemental War, when armadas of terrible, unbelievable creatures, created by the "Progenitors" using Elemental Manipulation Technology, invaded the planetary colonies of the "Ancients." In the end, the "Ancients" managed to push the enemy back from their domains. However, all planets located in the combat zones were completely devastated. The "Ancients" decided to launch the Great Experiment to restore the planets: they wanted to revive artificial ecosystems there for further colonization. The first such planet chosen was the third planet of the Minos system — Terra. After the war, this world was completely destroyed — the "Progenitors" left only an island surrounded by lava, where their created demonic hell-spawn resided. The plan of the "Ancients" was to send terraforming platforms to the planet Terra to recreate the destroyed ecosystem, and after this part of the Experiment was completed, to colonize it again. In theory, the project looked quite feasible, but who was to know how it would actually turn out?
The "Ancients" created the cyborg Sheltom, who was to protect Terra from any possible disturbances and anomalies that might arise during the restoration of the planet. Then, Sheltom, together with the planetary restoration platform modules, departed for Terra on the massive ship "Shikbat Zera." Time passed, the experiment approached its final success, but there is always a drop of chaos in an inevitably correct and bright path of a solution: when creating the cyborg, the "Ancients" made a mistake in the program. Realizing his power on Terra and considering himself its sole ruler, the cyborg was able to disconnect from the Center's obedience and took control of himself. Now he managed his own fate independently.
At the Center, they create a new cyborg — Corak, whose main task was to stop his rebellious predecessor. At this time, the Great Experiment was nearing completion, and the "Ancients" were preparing to colonize the planets with artificial ecosystems. To do this, the "Ancients" sent a huge planetoid called "Kron" into space. On it were Varns — huge transports carrying colonists. The Varns themselves already possessed an artificial ecosystem — a kind of suns possessing life-carrying energy. The Varns were to visit the planets with artificial ecosystems for their further colonization. The final destination of their journey was Terra. Corak was also on board the planetoid, tasked with putting an end to the rebel cyborg on Terra. Sheltom, however, upon learning of the grand plans for his destruction, did not intend to wait; using star gates, he moved to one of the Varns, and then to the ship "Kron" itself. After that, he redirected one of the Varns into the depths of one of the planets. And that is the backstory...
