New World Computing, a division of 3DO, came by the office to give us a look at its upcoming first-person team-based action game, Legends of Might and Magic. The game has evolved from its previous incarnation as a hybrid role-playing/action game to become exclusively focused on action. Players choose to play as one of six character classes on two different teams - the crusader, the druid, or the sorceress on the good side; and the warrior, the cleric, or the archer on the evil side. Each character has exclusive weapons that are only available to that character, although if a character is killed in battle, another character can pick up and use his or her weapons. The game features 18 different weapons separated into might weapons and magic weapons. Spell-like effects can be cast using the magic weapons.

　　Legends features four types of games: the sword in the stone, a capture-the-flag game; rescue the princess, a hostage-rescue game; warlord escape, which is similar to a VIP escort game; and slay the dragon, a game where the first team to deal the killing blow to a dragon wins. The dragon won't just stand there, though, so teams must choose to attack the other team first or try to fend off attacks from both the enemy team and the dragon itself. The game will include 25 different levels, all of which were inspired by locations found in previous Might and Magic games. In addition, the levels will be populated with AI-controlled wandering monsters.

　　The game is built using the LithTech 2.5 engine. The environments look good, and the alpha version ran well on our test machine while playing over the Internet against players in the New World office. Monsters and characters move around smoothly, and the controls are similar to what one would expect in an action game. Magic weapons produce appropriate particle effects, and although the version we saw didn't include the final sound, the retail version will use Creative Labs 3D audio. Legends of Might and Magic should appeal to Might and Magic fans that are interested in more action, since the monsters, characters, and environments in the game will all look and feel familiar.

　　Legends of Might and Magic is currently in alpha stage, and it's expected to go into a public beta sometime next month and be released at the end of March. We'll have a full preview of the game soon - until then, take a look at our previous coverage.