Might and Magic: Book One - Secret of the Inner Sanctum

The Good
Well, what's there to like about this game? Quite a bit actually, and let me begin.

First, the immense scope of the game. Back in 1986 there were titles like King's Quest 3 and Space Quest 1, along with the Ultima IV a year earlier, and though those games were pretty good, none of them matched the scope of the game and it's sheer size... a quick look at all the grids put together, along with the maps of the dungeons and towns and what could and could not be accomplished and when would definitely set the tone for the later games in the series, but yet for some reason, they don't seem to have as much of that 'epic adventure' to it. In this case, the technology limitations might actually help since you'll need to really stay focused on your quests and where you're going otherwise you'll veer off course and will waste too much time.

Secondly was the interesting twists to the game plot and, in fact, the game world and general overaching plot. Seriously, how many fantasy games do you mix in pure science fiction with a world of goblins and wizards and sword slashing knights? To top it all, one thing which boggled my mind is the fact that the world of VARN, which is an acronym standing for Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle... and that basically means that it isn't a planet at all, but a giant research vessal going through the cosmos just like that. Just thinking about that boggles my mind, and this part would be the best of the game, and perhaps of the series as a whole.

The Bad
A lot of things that are good about this game can actually be annoying in some ways. For one thing, the game is not easy. I'm not talking about 'this is gonna need some extra hours' type. No. What I'm talking about is that this game is something you dedicate yourself to, perhaps for months, or even a year or so (assuming you use no help from the old, but still functioning websites on the internet) to complete successfully.

When I said the scope of the game is huge, I was serious, and while the freedom this provides is great, it also means that's all too easy to get lost. There's no auto-mapping feature in the game meaning that you will have to hand-draw everything as you move along, and taking into consideration that the in-game perspective has absolutely no indication of any objects you might run into (if you run into a place where a town is supposed to be, you see nothing, but instead just get a message), what this means is, unless you know all the maps by heart, which is no easy task, you'll be moving along the game with your eyes darting back and forth from the map you've drawn constantly. This seriously detracts from the game play and makes it less enjoyable.

And there are no less than twenty overland grids (just the overland... there are also over 35 maps of towns, caves, and castles out there) meaning that you'll be spending a LOT of time mapping out the places least you get lost (and it's not easy to find your way back, even with a map at times), plus finding quest-givers is no easy... and to make matters more difficult, you can only be on one quest at any given time. This problem becomes solvable later on after you've gotten some spells capable of removing your current quest, but the fact still remains that having only one quest at a time is a tad annoying.

The other issue the difficulty of the battles, and most especially the beginning of the game. The monsters are way too strong and your starting party has only a bunch of clubs and no money or gems and barely enough food for a few rest periods. Unless you're patient enough to save constantly and hope to run into monsters that you're capable of defeating at the beginning, you're going to be frustrated easily and you will give up.

Also, for the first time players, there's no sense of direction at all in the game, the person who gives you the quest which starts off the main plot seems fairly innocent and non-descript. While many games suffer from this defect, Might and Magic, is, unfortunately, extremely unforgiving in that regard.

The Bottom Line
As I mentioned, this game is for dedicated players and not for the casual gamer. You wanna play a nice classic game that you can finish relatively quickly and in a linear fashion, then you're gonna have to go elsewhere for that.

But if you've got the patience, dedication, and drive to finish a massive game (which I believe would be among the hardest of all in the M&M series) then you might have a shot at this one. It's insanely difficult, with the mapping work needed taking a great deal of time, mastering a lot of dangerous monsters, an d getting a party up to scale and not running into the countless pitfalls that await... and finally, the possibility that you might need to start over and over again with different character combinations and alignment to see what different results you might get.

The back of the game box mentions 'After you've played Might and Magic a few hundred times, you'll know all of this... but you might not know the secret'. There's a lot of truth in that quote, so consider yourself warned you enter the world of Might and Magic.

The Good
This was the first RPG I ever played. It had a 1st person perspective with, great for the time (Commodore 64 version at least), graphics that were quite a step up when compared to the already old RPG series like Ultima and Wizardry.

The game let you make a party of 6 characters who set out to find the secret of the Inner Sanctum. Character stats, races and classes are your typical D&D stuff. Each class did have a role and need in the game although you could experiment by leaving out some classes in your party.

Combat was a simple text affair. It was quite fast and efficent and best of all apart from the preset encounters, all the battles would try to match your party's strength so the battles remaind competive.

The most notalable thing about this game is that it is HUGE. There were dozens of wilderness areas to explore, 5 towns and 5 castles. That is not counting the dozens of dungeons for you to find and explore. Each area had unique encounters and quests for you to do. You could win the game and still not have run into all there was to find and do. Also the game is a rare RPG with a non-violent ending to it, not that you won't do a lot of fighting to get to the ending though.

The Bad
Its is easy to loose track of the plot. Dungeons would reset after you left them, this meant you could battle the "boss" creatures again and again to get easy experience points but it felt as if you accomplished nothing when you returned to an area you previously cleaned. Random encounters in the towns are annoying. Shouldn't towns be safe for humans? You can only save in the Inns in the 5 towns, which was inconvient. No automap, be prepared to map A LOT.

The Bottom Line
This is an excllent old school RPG, still worth playing today, as the interface is quite good despite the aging graphics and sound. I'd reccomend finding the hint book to ease the amount of hand mapping you have to do.

The Good
As about every other reviewer noted, Might and Magic I is an extremely challenging game. From the beginning right to the very end, there is a real chance of your party being wiped out at each and every step. This may not sound so hot to the casual gamer, and indeed this game is not meant for casual gaming -- you have to really dig into it. But once you do (and you have survived the insanely hard beginning), you'll realize how well this game is designed.

Leveling up really MEANS something here -- your party gets stronger, but it does so slowly, and your characters do not evolve into some kind of fantasy superheroes capable of slaying a handful of dragons with a single stroke. Loot is always something to carefully check out and never something you'll routinely just cust a Detect Magic on and let it lie -- gold is sparse and keeps being valuable throughout the game, so at least pick it up to sell it (but as the backpack sizes are very limited, you'll have to choose carefully).

The monsters and their powers are very varied, and you'll have to study them and prepare for combat as best you can. And even at the end of the game, you'll meet monsters that you should run away from.

The game is highly non-linear, so you'll have can (and have to) freely explore the vast world on your own. However, I found the difficulty levels of the areas well balanced, so that you'll quickly steer into the right (= not too difficult!) direction.

The user interface is easy to learn and effective to use after a few minutes, and even the graphics are nice -- not really colorful or opulent in any way, but the monsters are nicely pixeled, and the graphics never distract from the actual game play -- indeed, the game has, IMO, more atmosphere than MM2 or Bard's Tale due to the nearly abstract feel of the graphics.

The Bad
The only thing that comes to my mind is the beginning. It's INSANELY hard. Even after finding a good grinding place, it will take you hours to get your characters to level 2, allowing you to venture a bit further than just a few steps from the inn. It would be nice if Mr. Van Carneghem would provide the starting party some more gold to get some decent equipment instead of a few clubs and daggers.

The Bottom Line
Might and Magic 1 is definitely not something for beginners or for casual gamers. In the end, it's -- like any other good RPG -- a complex resource management game: You'll have to think and keep thinking about what to carry, and what to use when, and what to sell and buy, and how to improve your party.

It is highly difficult, but this means it provides a challenging experience for many, many hours -- it took me at least a hundred gaming hours to win this game, and even this with some help from walkthroughs. However, I never felt bored once -- once you get into it, it keeps staying a challenging, but highly rewarding experience.

I can heartily recommend this game to all those looking for a challenging early RPG. It could be seen as a great mix of Bard's Tale and Wizardry, taking the best elements of both and evading their weaknesses.