This was another one I was not sure I'd be able to get to work with what I thought were some bugs. Turns out it was fully playable After all. Like Might and Magic VII, you start on an island.

Like Might and Magic VII when I fired up Might and Magic VIII it would just crash. After about a dozen crashes, I just went out and installed the standard mod that everyone uses. Instantly the game fired up. I did see it was possible this game would end up having some bugs in this one and I'm just hoping they won’t be game-breaking.

In Might and Magic VIII, there was a character creation. I kind of like that over just having an already set-up group. I could even find toon what skills I wanted in the class I picked and spend the stat points.

What I was not expecting was not having other characters that I got to set up. Turns out that in this one you just start with one character. You then have to go out and find others to join your group. It feels like it’s been a couple of Might and Magic games since they did this.

What could end up being a bit of a saving grace for this game is the ability to dismiss characters to an inn. Then go back later and swamp them out if you like. I feel it at least gives you some flexibility if you find yourself not liking your group setup or are struggling somewhere that a certain specific character would excel quite well at. That however would not come to a bit later on.

I ended up walking around the starting little town on the island I found myself trapped on. I had a feeling venturing out of the town without finding some other characters to join my group would end up being quite a bad idea.

I even found some fountains to drink from. One of them would end up being the fountain used as a town portal back to the island I was on. I just hoped this was not going to be like the last Might and Magic game where it took forever, till, I had access to the Town Portal spell. I was also fully expecting the spells to be all the same from the last couple of games. Since those don’t seem to change much.

From picking up some quests I ended up discovering there was a teleport system that would take me to other smaller islands. Along with someone I was on the hunt for who might be interested in joining my group. It also seemed from the quests that natural disasters were going on and answers were wanted.

While on the hunt for a cleric, I found an inn that had two characters who were willing to join me. This Might and Magic has some strange classes in it like vampire and necromancer. Most people I'd run into did not view me as worthy enough to join. This would end up being a common theme for quite some time as many required different class promotion quests to be finished before they would join me.

Despite being only level one on my main character. It seemed any characters that would end up joining me were level 5. The island also did not have training past level 5. So, it seemed that was kind of the goal of my main before I'd be looking to leave.

After exploring the whole town, I ended up finding the final quests and picking up the cleric who was interested in visiting a temple. While I was hoping to fill out my group. That would end up not being the case and I'd have to sit looking at an empty party slot for a bit.

The local island I was on had lots of investing pirates. When you killed their entire spawn, they would reappear. Thankfully there were also a lot of local guards on this island fighting it out with the pirates. Otherwise, the town would just have become overrun with pirates after a while.

After realizing the pirates would just respawn, I ended up farming them for a bit. I wanted to pick up a couple of levels and some gold. I ended up getting two levels and over 1k gold which I felt was a great start.

I also at this point discovered the correct teleport to send me over to the next island. I would end up needing to clear through a couple of islands before finding the temple I needed to clear out.

Despite feeling the bit of grinding I did should have more than made me ready for the first dungeon. I ended up discovering two things. Dungeons in this game would end up being quite smaller than in other Might and Magic games. They also had quite a high density of creatures you would have to fight off.

The biggest factor moving forward if I even got to explore a dungeon or not was if I could clear out the starting room. There would be some rather nasty fights and I'd end up using caster area of effect damage or burst damage spells quite heavily in this game.

This temple is also where I picked up my last group member for the time being. He was sadly the same character that my main was. So, I never felt like the templar I found I ever wanted to invest much into him as at some what I'd be dropping him off at the inn for a different class. I had no idea at the time just how long it would end up being before I'd find a replacement.

This dungeon was also filled with quite a few puzzles that needed to be solved. One was a simple button puzzle. Another had false flooring that you would fall if you stepped off the correct way across. Then another required you to find which trap to trigger to open up a hidden chest.

For the most part, these were easy. Such as the fake floor puzzle had a red line on the ceiling where you needed to walk. While Might and Magic games love to have puzzles, they also just like to flat-out tell you the solution if you find a scroll or have spoken with the right people. As such I knew there was a hidden chest and around how to trigger the door to get to it.

I would end up needing to run back to town a couple of times for healing and leveling up. While everything inside the dungeon was not hard for the most part. It was just the huge waves of creatures you found yourself always dealing with that creature the problem.

Once I had finished the other remaining quests in the area. Along with reaching at least level five. I felt it was time to head off for the mainland. Where the real adventure would start.

Final Thought

I would end up needing to run back to town a couple of times for healing and leveling up. While everything inside the dungeon was not hard for the most part. It was just the huge waves of creatures you found yourself always dealing with that creature the problem.

Once I had finished the other remaining quests in the area. Along with reaching at least level five. I felt it was time to head off for the mainland. Where the real adventure would start.

Overall, my first impression is not that great for this Might and Magic. I’m even less of a fan of the UI over the Might and Magic VII. The dungeons also seem to be rather short. At least in this one, they are bringing back quite a few elements from earlier. I have to say though some of those were best left in the past.

I also was not sure if I wanted to fully play through this one or not. It’s true what they ended up saying about this game. That Might and Magic 6-8 just feel so close to each other. Sure, there were some changes here or there. This also seemed like this was going to be my least favorite out of the three.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic VIII.