This month we're stepping into the way back machine and playing a first person dungeon crawler from 1991. The Might & Magic games are first person dungeon crawlers in the vein of Wizardry. But where Wizardry helped really kick off the genre, Might & Magic really refined things. The Might & Magic games are far more playable than their contemporary Wizardry games, and III is where the series steps out of the super cryptic early era and comes to resemble something that a modern gamer might recognize.
The game starts by giving you a fully equipped party, but half the fun is creating a party of your own. One interesting thing is that each race and gender combination has two portraits, and the game does not allow you to reuse portraits. This means you'll need to delete the starting party if you want to use their portraits, and also that you are forced to have some diversity in your party make up. You have a wide selection of classes available that all serve different roles, and a balanced party is key. I highly recommend you check out the following for more information on character creation:
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/mm3/character.shtml
Once you're set you can begin exploring. All enemies are initially seen at a distance, and can be engaged with ranged weapons and magic. But beware; enemies can use the same tactics on you. Once you close into melee range things switch into turn based combat with turn order based on your speed. You can only fight three enemies at a time, but if there are more around they can reinforce the monsters as you kill them. In combat you can attack with weapons, cast spells, or defend to increase your armor class.
One of the unique things about the Might & Magic games is that instead of you exploring one large and deep dungeon you instead are exploring a large world from that first person perspective. Dungeons end up only having a floor or two. You really get a sense of exploration similar to what you'll find in the Elder Scrolls game. You'll definitely want to refer to the world map as you explore, as it will give you hints as to the major landmarks.
Some other tips:
1. The temple can cast a blessing on you. The number of donations for the blessing to take effect will depend on the current day, but the more donations the stronger the blessing will be. These blessings are especially potent early in the game and can help get through early encounters.
2. Don't forget to Rest when your health or spell points are low. Unless interrupted, your rest will fully refill health and spell points and clear out minor debuffs.
3. Interior areas can be cleared out of enemies.
4. Locked doors can be picked by someone with Thievery or bashed down.
5. When someone loses all their health their health bar turns blue and they go unconscious. You can get them back into the fight with a healing spell that raises their current negative health value back into positive. However, if they take a hit while their health is negative they will move into a dead state and need the attention of the temple (or high level cleric spells). Enemies don't normally target unconscious characters but beware of hit-all magic.
6. Save, save, save. At minimum save every time you leave town to go exploring. There is no auto save.
7. When you have enough experience to level you need to see a trainer. You keep earning experience, though, so if you go a long time before seeing the trainer then you can gain several levels in one visit.
8. The only thing that irrevocably blocks you are solid walls. Mountains can be climbed and forests can be navigated with the right skills, while less dense forests don't even need that much. So try to move through everything.
9. Turning will not cause enemies to get a turn (shoot at you, move towards you). However, it will retrigger trap squares. So if you need to move out of a trap square by moving a square to the side of you use the strafe buttons.
10. Have fun!
