I have never liked blasters, in MM6 or 7; but then you are not forced to use them. I seldom do. No need to kill sharks, really.I much prefer MM7 to MM8. Besides forcing a player to make a distasteful choice (help dragons or dragon hunters) and an apparently meaningless one (help Sun or Necromancers--nothing happens one way or the other in the game whatever choice you make), the game finishes, IMHO, very weakly: the long traipse through the maze in that preposterous palace and the platform-
jumping in one prison.