I first played this game shortly after its release and, like most people, I was pretty disappointed with it. There was a multitude of issues with the release and it felt like an alpha, complete with game breaking bugs that stopped me progressing the main quests. I don't believe I got through to the end because I kept having to load previous saves because of all the bugs I was encountering. Fast forward a few years and I tried it again with the 1.3 patch installed, which is what the GOG version ships with. What a transformation that is! I didn't encounter a single game breaking bug, I didn't have to revert to a previous save a few hours back, and all the minor annoyances the game originally shipped with were gone. The story is a typical "start from nothing, save the world" adventure but there's sufficient twists in what you'll think is a cliche story to keep you hooked. Combat is a similar to the previous games. At first you'll be throwing spells and desperately healing yourself to stay alive and later in the game you'll be holding down the attack key to (literally in the case of the Druid) punch your enemies to death. Those who played this back in the day will remember arrows were awful at first. I'm pleased to say the to hit calculation bug was fixed with the patch. Character progression is good. I see a few reviews saying the class system was dumbed down but I think it's the opposite. Every character will be able to choose what sort of path they go down, whereas in previous titles Mages were always... well, Mages. Not so here! The soundtrack is stellar, as it always was for Might and Magic games. The best part of the game is the dungeon design. The dungeons in Might and Magic IX show just how much promise this game had. They're intricate, terrifying and there's traps a-plenty. They really feel like a proper "dungeon crawling" experience. All in all, give this a try. I believe it won't disappoint! I rate it 4/5 because the graphics really are quite bad.
