After Ravenshore I ended up picking up a few quests and had so many different locations I could go explore next. This ended up being my part of the adventure where I'm not quite sure where would be the next place to explore. As a result, I ended up going a bit all over the place.
One place I'd end up going to next was Alvar. The main quest line sent me over to find the city of Alvar. It would end up being perhaps the second-biggest town in the game with quite a few higher-tier training NPCs and even spells.

I'm not a huge fan of the town and region name being the same. For some reason, some regions would be like this. While others would not be. This kind of felt like another area of the game the developers were a bit lazy around.

I ended up doing some clearing across a bridge that had a river that ended up branching and cutting through the entire region. I then headed north for a while till I hit the town of Alvar. I ended up passing a few dungeons along the way but I skipped them at first glance. My main objective was to make it to the city first. I know I can become quite distracted by dungeons.

In Might and Magic VII, it felt like forever before I was able to get Town Portal as it was more of an end-game spell. I had high hopes of getting it a lot quicker in VIII and was thankful to discover that I'd not have to wait so long.

I even found the spell in a shop in Alvar that seemed to have most of the spells I wanted. I was also a little glad a single shop would end up selling a few different kinds of magic spells in it. Having to hunt down each school of magic like I had been doing in some of the former Might and Magic games was getting a bit old.

Once I was done with the town, I headed back south to find some of the dungeons I skipped over. One of them I popped into and realized rather quickly I was not ready for that one. There would also be another dungeon I'd get owned in and I'd also end up saving for another day that was cross the fork in the river to the east.

There was at least one other dungeon heading south that I went to check out next. It was the ogre fortress and despite it being filled with ogre. This one I ended up having a chance of clearing out.

I could kind of tell I was pressing my luck in this one as well. It was at least in my eyes possible to clear. It took a few recovery breaks and some trips to the town to revive those who got killed or to buy more supplies.

Most of my trouble was clearing out the first floor which was not even filled with ogre in the first place. I just had nowhere to run and quite a few things all trying to kill me at once.

There ended up being this strange second floor that was mostly filled with ogres. They had some rather dreadful pathing. So, when I was quick enough, I could pull a few and get around this corner. They then would get trapped trying to hit me while being too far away. Making it quite easy to clear out the second floor.

Up on that second floor ended up being a chest room with a chair. Along with a button that was somewhat hidden. It ended up opening a secret passage to a person who was being held prisoner whom I ended up helping out.

There was also a basement that had a few more ogres in it. I did not have the benefit of that bridge to take them out with ease. I however did manage without too much struggle as they were not as dense down below.

I then attempted to clear other sections of Alvar. While things like the Wasp Workers were easy to take out. Along with them dropping stingers that I could sell in the town for a nice amount of gold.

After facing many challenges in Alvar that it seemed I was not quite ready to face yet. I ended up heading back to Ravenshore and randomly to a few other locations. A big thing I was after was uncovering more locations of skill trainers as I had quite a few skills now at level 7 that could be trained up to master.

One thing I was shocked by was already being able to train for a master in water magic. I was somewhat expecting this to be behind some massive quest that would require some late-game requirements to be able to obtain.

Being able to use Town Portal this early on is a massive deal. While I only had a couple of areas unlocked on the map. This spell alone would end up being such a huge time saver for questing, skill training, and leveling up my characters.

Quite a strange thing I'd run into more than one. I’d enter into a dungeon expecting a fight. Yet, everyone inside was peaceful. While not always this would usually happen when I enter into an area that would just end up being a room or two large at that.

I was often looking for a quest item within them. Sometimes I'd be able to get that item without trouble. Other times it was quite clear if I wanted what I was sent to fetch I'd be taking some kind of faction hit.

Factions in this Might and Magic would end up being a little strange. I would slowly discover that the type of classes I had at my party had some kind of impact on things. This I felt was kind of strange as classes were race dependent which was the real culprit of quite a few things.

I was also expecting at some point I'd need to be taking sides. I’d end up discovering there were quite a few factions in the game that I'd get to interact with. Many did not play well with other factions. It became clear a few would be willing to put aside what difference they had.

Final Thoughts

After some dungeon clearing and gaining enough experience for a few levels. I spent some time running around and picking up new spells, doing lots of training. Along with seeing if I had any quests, I could go turn in for even more experience.

While I did not exactly get to fully clear Alvar this time around or a couple of other zones I quickly popped into. At least I started to get a general idea of where I should be focusing next on the game. As I slowly work towards the main quest line along with looking for some gear upgrades and gaining lots more levels.

This is also the part in my adventure where even this Might and Magic started to grow on me a bit. I finally got used to the UI, the strange classes, and feeling like I was not getting enough loot for my time. I was also starting to accept the size of the dungeons that I'd end up encountering on the regular.

Information

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