I played MaM 6 way back in the day and I remember it being a very pretty dungeon/outside environment dungeon crawler. Your party is a blob of doom pretty much devoid of any personality; however, they do speak up from time to time ("party banter") but it's nothing like Baldur's Gate style party banter. I cannot speak for the other Mam games because I haven't played them.

I've played MM6-7-8 and a bit of 9. I like 6-8, 9 to me was too far out of the original lore and contained too many real life pop culture references; but then again I vastly preferred HoMM3 to 4 :P

It's been a while so some of my memory may be a bit wrong. The parties in all of them though are mostly blobs of doom. In 6-7, you pick 4 party members at the start and stick with them through the end, you can make your party alignment follow the good or evil side but they don't really do or say much besides a bit of flavour here and there. In 8, you get to actually pick and choose who you want in your party, by going around and recruiting adventurers to your cause and then going to the tavern to select your actual companions. So they all at least have a tiny bit of backstory in the world. As they often come with preset gear and even levels as well, I think MM8 is probably the most accessible in that you can make it as challenging or easy as you like by either picking and carrying along/developing the higher level recruitable party members, or using the medium/lower ones, and mix and match as desired.

None of them are really huge on personal storylines though, I think, just "class quest" quest lines for each profession, though the storylines for each game are fairly decent (well, until the end where it goes scifi on you suddenly - looking at you, MM7, though also partially in 6) and the games are fun in general. Oh and your party gets to own a personal castle in MM7. I'd wait for other opinions too though!

I'd say go for MaM7. 6 might be too hard and 8 too easy (if you take dragons to your party). Also in 7 you have to choose between the good and evil side, each will grant you its own magic (in 6 and 8 you can have them both, IIRC). So then the game has even higher replayability.

Avoid Crusaders of Might and Magic, it's a crap. Not even RPG, more like action TPP.

I personally reccomend that you check out MAM: Dark messiah as well

Damn that game is awesome

I'm really happy that you are enjoying the campaigns in 4 - they are even better in 5

Oooh no, no way in hell, camaigns in H5 are horriblle. But Dark Messiah is fantastic, I have finished it several times already,

I own 1-7 on GOG and have often asked which is the best one to play for someone who started playing RPGs in the late 90s. Most people say 4/5 are the best ones, but 6 and 7 are very good as well and more modern.

I don't think any of them focus on narrative though, more on exploration.

None of the games are big on narrative, and MM8 is as close as the series gets to giving you actual written characters to play with. There is a loose storyline that runs through the series, but just playing one of the games won't give you much insight into it.

I guess MM6 is probably the best-written, but it's not the best game. It's poorly balanced and can be very frustrating depending on your party configuration. I actually really like the science fiction underpinnings of the series. I think 6 and 7 didn't give much insight into the backstory, but the sci-fi elements are pretty integral to the series lore.

The only 2 I've ever played straight through are 2 and 8. 8 had the strongest story elements.

My favorite M&M game so far (besides Heroes games) was Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. I know tons of people hated it, but I just absolutely loved it. I played through all of that one, too.

NO ONE kid yourselves, Might & Magic VI is easily the best Might & Magic game and one of the best RPGs ever created.

If only infinite loop for the music actually worked......

All of the games are sci-fi, that's part of the plot. Seeing how the first game takes place on a space station....

Also, 3 and WoX are still fairly accessible, and if you don't mind hand-drawing maps the first two play fairly well.

I'd say that the one with the best writing is MM7. Characters and plot tie into MM3.

Ah. I haven't played MM1-5, since I started with 6 and the drop in graphics back to earlier games was really bad, I didn't bother. So I don't know the plotlines in them. I just thought the scifi portions were weird. I also strongly disliked Dark Messiah when I tried the demo.

And yes, if you see a game called Crusaders of Might and Magic and am tempted to pick it up, don't. :P It's not an RPG. It's terrible.

I am not sure you will find something to like based on the above statement. However, you could give MM6 a try. It does tie in nicely with HoMM after 2 around the time of 3. The dungeons can be hard and long. I thought 7 was the easiest but 6 is my favorite of the 6-9 group.