Of course, if you are already familiar enough with the game, you can basically skip the early game and kill the Cuisinarts very quickly, without having to level up first. (Here's a challenge that I have mentioned in other posts: Kill the Cuisinarts without winning any other fights first. Yes, it is possible, and I have done it; I even posted a screenshot in another topic I made.)

Now that you have done this, you now have enough experiencee to level up into the 20's. That is enough to cast every spell without having to temporarily increase your Spell Level, and should be enough to handle any reasonable challenge the game throws at you. (Maybe not the Mega Dragon or 66 demons, however.)

something like:

10=3 > 9=7 > 8=4=5 > 6 > 2 > 1

9 has a lot of problems, but it also has the best dungeons in the whole series, and I loved the class system. I also loved the story, even though it didn't have anything to do with the other ones.

3 there are things about 3 that I love that aren't really in the other ones (HARD puzzles, lots of crazy stuff everywhere, etc.) it was the least formulaic feeling of all of them, if that makes sense. it's has very chaotic progression.

10 I love its style even though it's not really like the others. I don't get people that complain about it, the game is awesome in every way.

4 and 5... 4 has better slower progression than 5, which I like. 5 has amazing music and style, but IMO World of Xeen kind of ruins 5 a little bit, because you end up being way over-powered for it and lose half the progression. would love a mod that massively buffs the early enemies in darkside. (darkside also seems to have some kind of guild spell bug for druids and rangers? the first guild has the *alphabetically* first 20 or so spells for sale, rather than a logical starting set of 20 spells.)

6 I actually couldn't stand. very very little that I liked about that game. when I finally played 7 I was like "now THIS is what 6 should have been like!". I liked the dreadfulness of castle darkmoor, but at the same time it was such a chore... the lich lab in 9 was a WAY better dreadful dungeon.

7 was mostly awesome, though it had problems in the later areas I guess. The Pit was horrible to fight through. harshest difficulty spike of all time? also hiding water master in some far off hard to reach area was not nice.

8 I HATED that you can't actually make a party. other than that, once I found the party I wanted, it was great until the end. I feel like it's missing a last chapter that never got made or something, because it ends extremely abruptly and anti-climactically.

haven't played 1 and 2 for more than about 10 mins each

M&M2 is the best. :)

For those who can't stand playing it, I'll try to remake it as a Neverwinter Nights multiplayer module some day.

I actually liked MM1 better than MM2. The maze-like overworld was more interesting to explore; in MM2 the overworld just felt like a big flat plain, especially since it was easy to get mountaineering and pathfinding skills at the start. I also enjoyed the mapping challenges in MM1.

But they're both really good. It's a great series!

I slapped my forehead when I realized you can cast Invisibility to bypass fighting in The Pit. It's not super reliable, but I barely had to fight anyone in town. Of course, getting the spell is kind of tricky.

There's a mod for that. :) You can make up your own party, which is what I did.

This is GOG. Most of us (before the Witcher 3 that is...) first came here for the old games, so your age is probably around the arithmetic mean...

My first console was an Atari 2600 (we got it in the 80s)

yean you have apoint there maybe im not that old, witin this community, though ive yet to find someone who dosnt think im talking about the N64 console when i metion commodore 64

I'm torn between World of Xeen and M&M8. The former because of the beautiful 2D sprite art, although it's too goofy for its own good at times. The latter because of the greater freedom of exploration and Arcomage. Both are perfected versions compared to their precedents in terms of graphics/engine (M&M3 and M&M6 respectively). Xeen has more challenge and surprises if you like that, while M&M8 is a tighter experience.

The crossword puzzle is technically on the cloudside of xeen. (The key to enter that dungeon though is on the darkside of xeen.)

I've played 4-9. I've beaten world of xeen like 5 times, I played it as a kid, I play it through every 4or5 years just for nostalgia now.. I've memorized most of the game and it is pretty easy so it's relaxing.

I've never beaten mm6 I couldn't solve one of the dungeons, even after I looked up a vague spoiler... the way levels and secret doors and ingame mapping worked just meant that sometimes a dungeon was almost impossible to solve, simply because the graphics were so bad you couldn't see the switch...or the door seem... or w/e I got pretty far though, far enough to have farmed dragons for levels at least.

Beat mm7 twice, iirc, wanted to see both sides of the story. mm7 best story in the series IMO! The factional warfare is brilliant if janky, I wish other rpgs had wars between factions. MM7 literally does this better than fallout new vegas, imo. Sure mm7 is much buggier and jankier but on the flip side it really feels like the wars mm7 tells you about are really happening. whereas in new vegas the ncr will tell you how they're at war with caesar legions but outside a couple scripted events you don't get to witness it first hand.

mm9 I've played through 2or3 times, it's UI/NPCs/ART are barely finished and barely work but the dungeons and combat are surprisingly interesting. mm9 is basically the sweeping dungeons of mm6 only with slightly better graphics meaning I could always see that switch.

mm9 involved a LARGE amount of wandering about retracing your steps walking slowly through big empty areas though. The towns felt very barren and bland... the art felt unfinished.

mm8 is actually somehow my favorite game in the series. I just love the graphics and theme. mm8 looks better than mm9 or heck even mm10. Some people hate that you can't make a party, but I love it. It feels more engrossing, I have to just take whoever I can get to help me. Usually recruitable npcs annoy people because they recruit them and they're way behind and it's frustrating you couldn't've just started with someone. In mm8 though the npcs you can recruit are in no way restricted by levels though! you can get a level 50 dark elf to join you at level 12 if you do the quest she wants you to do. Most of the later game party members simply wipe the floor with your starting party members (4dragons hype). Some flaws with mm8 though are that it is also way too easy, a lot like mm4+5.

So 8>4+5>7/6/9>1-3didn't play>10 (I played ten too it's an okay game, but doesn't really hold a candle, it's just way to dumb and simple)

I will say though that in terms of hours played mm6 might be the one I have the most in. mm6 is huge. mm4+5 or mm8 or even mm9 can be blitz through right quick, mm6 has two or three or four times the content of each. I like 7,6,9 each for a different reason. 7 has the most interesting setting, 6 has the most interesting game mechanics like combat and flight, 9 is great when you just want to put your cdrom in and have it play on your modern computer without needing dosbox :)

And yet you haven't even played MM3? That is odd.

I own mm4-9 on cdrom bought them all brand new in the store.
when I was playing them... it was before GOG existed or was invented... so I had no way to get 3.
not sure if I wanna go back and do 3 now, but maybe? I thought it was on 1/2's engine... but if 3 uses the same engine as xeen I'd probably like it.

MM3 uses same engine as MM4-5, but is a bit more difficult.

that actually sounds like the perfect game for me, I loved mm4/5 but just found it a bit too easy.

Well actually I found the puzzles in mm4/5 exactly as hard as I could handle, it was the rpg combat and character management I found too easy.

Are mm3's puzzles much harder? or just it's rpg combat type stuff?


edit: I guess one reason I posted here at all was to hear about mm1-3 and consider picking them up on GOG because those are the only ones I not only never played, but never owned either.