Starting off this Might and Magic was a lot less confusing than the first two. I hit play, created a name, and was given a group. While there is the ability to create my own after the fact. I decided I'd just stay with the starting party they give you to see how it goes.
It works a bit like Might and Magic II. Where each of the five towns has its inn. Any character left at that inn stays there. So, if you end up switching someone out and later want them back you have to recall where you left them.
Thankfully there is no having to press 1,5 or 6,8 or trying to work out what number combination you need to do things. You just flat out go to that town and the inn. Then select the character you want.
It’s also kind of nice you get 3k starting gold and 30 gems. I was rather thrilled when I started looting more gems than I'd need. I was also kind of happy how many early-game spells did not require any gems to cast at all. It made it easy to get ahead of my gem spending habits of loving to use the most powerful spells I could get my hands on.
It was kind of strange having a party that had three characters I'd consider to be tanks. It’s also not like the first game where each class can only hit at certain ranges depending on where they are in the group. That also means my poor cleric and sorcerer would end up getting attacked and killed quite a few times.
I did not even have to make it that far from leaving the first town. Before such an event of my cleric getting killed occurred. I kind of expected a little learning curve. Thankfully that period of getting used to a new game went by rather quickly. Since a lot of stuff was from the first two games in the Might and Magic series.
So, I decided to take my starting 3k gold and see what kind of gear upgrades I could get with it. As it turns out some of the stuff ended up being not worth getting. I’d later discover that the lowest tier of gear would have negative armor class or even hit on them. Making them not even worth using.
At the time, however, I did not know any better. The game also did not come with a standard user manual that had everything nice and listed for item stats to spell. While this game would end up being a bit more straightforward than the first two in the series. I’d end up needing to work out a whole new system of how they increase item progression in this one.
Thankfully at a blacksmith, you could not only pay to repair items. You could also pay to get the stats on them. I could also kind of tell if a weapon I had was only worth 10 gold and one I looted was worth 700. The second one would be a huge upgrade.
That way of thinking made it easy for a while to quickly work out what I'd consider to be an upgrade. That would be till later the game were everything seemed to cap out on price. Thankfully by then, I had worked out how items were being ranked from wooden to obsidian. It however gets a bit complex when you start adding things in like elemental prefixes onto items.
After that, I ended up walking around the starting town of Fountain Head for a bit. I was rather relieved when I pressed M to see not only was there an in-game map. That I also showed up on it.
I have recently been playing several games that lacked a game map. Needless to say, I don’t get as lost as I have in the past in games without a nice map feature. It was still quite a welcome from the disaster of a time I had getting around in Might and Magic II.
The town ended up having some rats and strange things like bubble creatures. Some of these I ended up getting to by bashing down a wall. It turns out there is an element in the UI that starts waving its little hands anytime you are next to a secret if you have the skill to notice hidden spots.
I found it to be a rather playful way to indicate to the player that there was something of interest they should discover. There would end up being other elements of the UI like the corners that would change if I had cast a certain type of resistance buff on the group as well. Many little things I'd end up discovering over time.
After a bit of fun in Fountain Head, I decided to chance it by heading out of the main gate. In the last two Might and Magics that choice would end up resulting in a swift death. To my shock, I was not dead within seconds. That death took a couple of minutes to occur.
While the town of Fountain Head like every town has a dungeon to explore. It was not something I stopped to go and check for a little while. It seemed like the natural progression in this one was going out and exploring above ground.
I mostly fought goblins in the first area known as A1. While there is an actual name for the zone. The in-game map shows A1 and that tends to be what I call the name instead of Hidden Valley. This funny enough is the name of a rather interesting place in Might and Magic IV. Thankfully it’s a bit tamer in this one.
After some exploring, I ended up finding some wagons. Some of them had people in them trying to sell me things. Others it turns out were being used as headquarters by the local goblins. Burning it down to the ground netted me a little boost in the experience of 2,500 experience. It would also keep things from respawning again.
While I've been known for enjoying farming respawns. I don’t mind some of the starting zones that I'll be going through to the point I get tired of them. Not having a horde of things, I have to take out each time later. Even more so when they stop providing any meaningful loot or experience after I've gained a couple of levels.
I even come across my first dungeon. If you know me can’t turn down a dungeon so I went right for it. As one would expect it was indoors and dark. Thankfully one of my casters has a light spell.
Once I could see in the room, I noticed some skeletons were attacking me. While I was able to clear out the starting area of Temple of Moo. I kind of got a feeling I was not ready for it yet. So, I ran out of there like something said boo instead of moo.
Final Thoughts
At least I was able to get my first couple of levels in the game rather quickly. I even found some loot that were upgrades to what I already had. I could already tell with how things started that I might almost enjoy Might and Magic III as much as Might and Magic IV. With the keyword being almost.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic III.
