Hello!

I was thinking of picking one of the Might and Magic games to play. I never really played any of them thoroughly, I think perhaps M&M 6 and not for more than ten minutes.

I've always been intrigued about World of Xeen. I'm also told Isles of Terra was popular in its days and is included in trilogy compilations along with Clouds and Darkside (and Swords). One thing to know, I know they're tiled dungeon crawlers and I'm not crazy about this style of gameplay these days (it gets really repetitive at times), but I've enjoyed games like Eye of the Beholder, the SSI Dragonlance games, and I still play games like Realms of Arkania 1 and 2. So, I should enjoy one that isn't too slow-paced or easy to get lost (that gets old quickly too).

So here's the question: which one to pick?

Follow up:

- Is it a good idea to play World of Xeen instead of Clouds and Darkside separately? Would I miss anything from those standalone games? Or are they actually intended to blend together as one large game that keeps the cool things of both?
- Are the earlier games as good?
- What about Swords of Xeen, can it be a good starting point into this universe?

I quite liked the earlier games, but they're definitely older and can be harder to get into these days. Having said that, I only played them for the first time a few years ago and still had a blast. But if you're not a fan of tiled dungeon crawlers in general, you might prefer to start with Isles of Terra or World of Xeen, which feel like more modern takes on the tiled dungeon crawler formula. The games are only loosely connected to one another (except for Clouds and Darkside, of course) so it's no problem to start with one in the middle of the series.

As ZFR said, you won't miss anything by playing World of Xeen instead of Clouds and Darkside separately, other than the menu screens. In fact, you'll have MORE game than if you played them individually, because there's some content that can only be accessed when the two games are combined. Also, GOG now offers both the "talkie" CD-ROM version, which has extra spoken voices, as well as the original floppy version.

Thanks friends. I think I'll look into World of Xeen first, since it's a bit newer than Isles of Terra and it has been catching my interest for so many years (yeah, I don't know why I waited since the 90s to get it).

Suonds good! One thing about Xeen (and the other early MM games): identifying items is a pain. You can do it, but it's tedious, and is the one thing I recommend using the cluebook for. The cluebook is included with the purchase from GOG in PDF format, and it's searchable so you can search for the item in question to check its stats while minimizing spoilers for other parts of the game. There may also be online item lists you can check.

But if you want, you can get everything identified in-game too.

Enjoy the game, it's great!

Yeah, I read about this here in the forums so I was aware. I should keep the PDF around in my tablet, which, by the way, I'll use to play the game itself if possible.

Suonds good! The game might be hard to play on a tablet, though... it's much easier to control with the keyboard than with the mouse. But mouse control is possible.

Enjoy the game.

One thing I'd advice as well: although you can easily move between Darkside and Cloud world, don't start Darkside until you've finished cloud. The starting area in darkside has easy ways of getting high XP, which will make Cloudside too easy.

Also, if you want here is a link on how to convert the gog World of Xeen to standalone Darkside. The main menu is worth seeing :) After you see it, change it back to World of Xeen.
http://www.gog.com/forum/might_and_magic_series/is_there_any_way_to_get_the_original_4_and_5_manuals