I could not wait to go on another grand adventure in a Might and Magic game. The dust had not even settled after I had finished Might and Magic III and I was already at it hoping this would be just as or even more amazing than the last. First, I needed to get used to the game a little bit and explore my first town so I know where to go when people get killed as they sure did.

World Of Xeen for those not in the know are both Might and Magic Iv and V combined. When I booted up the game. There was a nice little cut sense of just pure strangeness. Granted with this including Might and Magic IV and V I have no idea if there was some kind of insider joke from the first to the second with the cutscenes.

I’ve always felt in video games there is that era where you have old stuff that ends up aging well enough that you rather enjoy seeing it even with today's standards. Then you have the graphic of stuff that came after it that tried to include far too many details in a way that just lacks feeling like an improvement over something a bit older. This is kind of where I feel Might and Magic IV and V ended up. At least it is not as bad as some of the older ones after this that tried to make up for not pushing for better graphics sooner.

I feel that is shown in the maps of this game. I’m just not a fan of how they are displayed. The curse also blinks oddly as if it’s struggling. I've attempted to change some of the out-of-game graphics settings with no luck but making things worse.

I’ve even noticed in the inventory window when trying to select items to see what items your characters have. Your curse just vanishes. Thankfully you can still click the item buttons if the mouse is over, it all be it invisibility.

I’ve also lost track of how many times I've attempted to change the mouse speed. I just can’t quite it right. Either it’s so slow I'd go insane before I'd get the mouse where I was moving it. Otherwise, it’s at like double the speed I'd prefer. Thankfully using the mouse is only needed for certain interactions. Otherwise, you can get a lot done without it.

The first town I found myself in was called Vertigo. While I never found any dungeons below it. I did find quite a few slimes roaming around the grounds of this town. It was also nice there ended up being a little story about why that was.

I did discover something that I've always loved about some of the later Might and Magic. I was walking up to a tree and I ended up just trying to interact with it. It seemed kind of funny how many objects were scattered all around the town. For my efforts, I got like three gold.

While that amount of gold alone could do nothing for it. It's the fact that I could search for objects. I ended up running around the town searching for beds, boxes, further trees, and even the benches. You never know if something powerful is hidden. I’d not doubt if something was. I did not find anything amazing just some loose pocket change.

The biggest thing I wanted to do was get a sense of how the town flowed. I wanted to know where the temple was for healing. Where the blacksmith who is now an ironworks is for buying and selling items. Where the trainer and many other people were in the town.

It was also kind of funny to see they made zero attempts at making humanoids. Unlike the past Might and Magic where I just clicked on a building and I'd start interacting with the NPC that ran it. This time I got to go into the building. I would then however just walk up to an empty table and press the space bar.

There was also a serval tent around the town. This again was a way to avoid having humanoids. As one had the mayor of the town in it. Others were offering skills or even membership for sale to the local magic shop.

It also would not be long before I needed to run to the temple to revive characters or even get some cures. Knowing where that was until I got some of the more powerful spells under my belt was quite key.

I noticed there were a lot of locked gates in this town. Behind them, all seemed to be slime. It seemed like many of these areas were just alleyways between homes. Some I could even use as shortcuts to other locations of the town once I cleared them out.

One area ended up having a storeroom filled with slimes and other creatures. It turns out the building's owner was selling and shipping them around. He was also missing. With many of his shipments having escaped from their crates. He had quite a little breeding operation going on. I ended up reporting my findings to the mayor for a reward.

You can also bet I searched every single object I could find in this town. It did not matter if all I found in a bed with one gold club. It was pure enjoyment on my part wondering if the next thing I checked would have anything at all.

The highest value items I did end up finding I was told I was “stealing” when I attempted to search. There were cases in the ironworks that ended up having a few items I'd end up wearing. Like plate armor and some weapons.

Hopefully stealing won’t come to bite me later on. I know Might and Magic tend to have some kind of good-to-evil alignment system. Thankfully no one attacked me or seemed to be angered by my actions. It looks like at least for the time being I got away with it.

Before leaving the town, I was given a quest to find some dwarf mines. They would end up not being that far away. Before entering into them I did a little bit of local exploring around.

I even found right next to the town a pyramid. That seemed a bit quick. It however required quite a strange combination of buttons being pressed to gain entry into it. As soon as I did I decided quite quickly to leave. I thankfully made it out alive.

Final Thoughts

While it’s a different game some things were not so different after all. I think the strangest part of starting was trying to get used to the small changes. Between how the game looks from Might and Magic III. Along with having to press the space bar every time to interact with things instead of a window popping up once you got close enough.

Overall, I could feel quite the sense of adventure was about to start. This was another Might and Magic that I never played. The only things I somewhat can kind of expect are from playing other Might and Magic. Other than that, and who knows if even that. It’s a new world for me to get lost in.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic IV And V World of Xeen.