For whatever reason the zones just seem a bit smaller in World Of Xeen than other Might and Magic games I've played so far. As such I'd end up wandering around more like a madman than anything else. It seems like I'd be changing how I explore this one.

While in the first area outside of the town Vertigo, I explored most tiles. There seem to not be as many hidden loot tiles in this game as in Might and Magic III. As such it seemed better to just attempt to take a different path of tiles every time I would go somewhere.

You could also tell for some a decent distance unless I was in a thick tile like the forest or later mountains when I unlocked the mountaineering skill. Where some of the things to interact with like creature dens or NPCs.

There also seemed to be quite a lot of questing in World Of Xeen. It also seemed to be the way to get different keys required to enter into dungeons. I’d end up finding quite a lot of dungeons. Each time getting blocked from entry saying I lacked the requirements. Along with not telling me what those requirements were.

One rather nice thing is they ended up telling you where the NPC turn-in for anything was. Many times, you would also get a small experience reward if you had to interact with another NPC during that quest. Then you get the final quest reward of a large amount of experience, gold, or even items.

This would end up being a bigger deal than I'd expected. While some quests seemed to just be one zone over. Others would take me quite some time to find whatever object that an NPC wanted returning or a creature killed. Long after I had forgotten even around where I had encountered the quest giver in the first place.

After a little bit of exploring around. I just decided following the road for the time being until I had a route fully exploded would be the best way to go. I was hoping to find another town. It would turn out not all towns are the same in the services they provide as they did in the Might and Magic games before this one. At least in this World Of Xeen version.

I ended up wandering into the town of Nightshadow. It was filled with vampire-like creatures like bat queens and gnome vampires. There would even be buildings with coffins that had vampires in them.

Like many areas, I'd end up discovering. I was not able to fully clear this time the first time around. I at least made some decent progress inside of it. I ended up buying a magic membership for my cleric, range, sorcerer, and paladin.

That is also when I realized there are a lot of new spells for sale here. It almost seemed like spells no longer have a level requirement to learn them in the magic guild. Instead, I just needed to either find the spell in the wild or visit each of the towns.

I ended up exploring around further and finding some of the other towns as well like Rivercity and Asp shortly later. It was perhaps quite a bad thing I ended up having so much gold with me after running my first dungeon. I’d quickly spend most of it on spells. Anytime I'd hit up a new town I'd go on a spending spree.

It’s hard to say no when I could already get things like the town portal, cures, and Lloyd's Beacon so early on. Along with some massive damage spells. It seemed like spells did not scale by level as much as they have in Might and Magic III. Many of them were just flat damage.

I could tell there was quite a lack of level requirements when I ended up picking up Day of Protection for the cleric and a similar one with a different set of buffs for the sorcerer. It at the time required more mana to cast than my casters even had. At the very least they were group buffs and not individuals. Making me want to use them more often than I had in Might and Magic III.

It seems like my thirst for dungeons would take a bit longer to quench in World Of Xeen. At least they were quite a bit different from one another. This was something that Might and Magic 1-3 seemed to struggle with. Having so many of the same tiles over and over for each dungeon. While that would still be a thin gin World Of Xeen it was at least as bad.

One thing I'd end up finding a little shocking. Despite all the zones I'd end up visiting in quite a short amount of time. They lacked feeling as challenging as I'd expected. Sure, the dungeons I'd get access to later on would be the real challenge. It however seemed for the dozen outdoor zones I had been in. That most things were dead by ranged damage by my melee characters. Allowing me to save up mana for far more interesting indoor encounters later on.

I also noticed that the game seems to have a bit more meaning from the passage of time. My characters would end up getting tired from all my exploration. I’d just end up letting them rest for eight hours. While sure I had a spell that would do the trick as well. I was still rather struggling to have enough mana if there came a point when it was needed. It seemed like the safest thing to do was to rest.

At one point I ended up finding my first castle as well. These are a bit different as well. While I could usually find a couple of quests in such a place like Castle Burlock. Along with a dungeon. It seemed like I was not going to get as rich as quickly as I did like in Might and Magic III. While I did end up finding a chest that summoned the guards to loot. I would not say it was worth the trouble.

While exploring around the castle I ended up finding some books that I could read. These allowed me to pick up some spells. This was a bit of a shame as I had already spent some decent gold on some of the spells I found here. I also noticed these books could be read multiple times. Allowing me to learn the same spell across all characters in my group if they could learn it. That I felt was a nice touch.

I also started to notice yet another there being a couple of different zones all connecting Castle Burlock. Oddly enough the second floor of the place required finding three different ways up to explore it. It also looks like it spells something out on the map with three letters as well.

At the very least there was a dungeon to explore. It finally gave me a little challenge which was somewhat lacking from the outdoor zones of the game so far. The castle guards down there sure put up some challenges requiring my magic casters to deplete most of their mana taking them down.

There were also some strange things like mad fools and other things to take out. The loot down in the dungeon was not as amazing as I'd hoped it would be.

Final Thoughts

I’d later return to one of the two towns that I found had a trainer in them. I was expecting to get a couple of levels. Instead, only three of my characters could level up. Each level required quite a lot of experience. I am certain now leveling in World Of Xeen.

While I had a decent amount of loot. It all seemed to be of quite low quality. I did not get as many upgrades as I was hoping. Even for how early the game was. It was mostly just stuff my characters already had if even that.

I also noticed that not just the chest piece would end up breaking in this game. I had an entire character with all their equipped equipment being broken. It’s a shame there was not a repair all button to be used. At the very least I could click on a repair tap and quickly go through each piece. It still however required a manual clicking of the approve button before anything would be repaired.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic IV And V World of Xeen.