The game has a lot of problems, and this remains true in spite of the unnoficial patches. HOWEVER, people are clowning this game as if it's a sin against mankind. The game is not bad but is not great either. There's at on of fun to be had with the game if you can cope with a certain level of issues. The most annoying part for me is the game getting stuck occasionally on loading screen or crashing straight up. But rebooting the game and loading takes less than 20 seconds so is not that big of a problem provided you save decently enough. A general consensus about Might and Magic RPGs is that IX is some kind of sin against the series but that's pretty much nostalgia speaking. Played this game originally back in 2005 without the oficial pathes and it was playable albeit hard due to gamebreaking bugs, however as a whole it plays better than previous entries in the franchise (talking about gameplay)
