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

I spent weeks playing MM2 in my teens (on my trusty PC with Hercules Graphics). I just loved that massive world to explore and of course drew maps and tried to visit every square. Even back then I didn't have the time and gave up at some point.

Then, a few years ago, I stumbled upon the CRPGAddict's blog and saw his glowing review of MM1 and decided I really wanted to check it out. And it quickly got me hooked.

It had the same tactical and strategical depth and the same massive open world as MM2, but it was much more serious in nature. Subsequent MM games got more and more zany, which really doesn't make me want to play them. MM1, in contrast, is pretty dark and gritty. It's a constant challenge to survive, and you have to know your spells and other resources, make the best of them, and especially know when to turn back to the safety of your inn. Yeah, there's still some silly stuff (gender-changing squares and whatnot), but I was able to accept it as part of a weird fantasy world and it never completely took me out of the game. (As an ex-game developer, this is a capital sin to me.)

Like many 80s game, it IS incredibly hard. I remember spending hours at the beginning to get my party to level 2, dying on 80% of the encounters in the starting town. Today's whiny gamers won't like it and want immediate gratification, but back then, you were ready to spend time and actually WORK towards reaching your goals. It gets a bit easier later on, but there is a constant sense of danger.

Although the game is just as open as MM2, I found this one a little more structured and less confusing. I always knew pretty well what to do next -- explore towns, then their caverns, then start exploring the countryside, first around Sorpigal, do the castles, etc. Although you'll definitively want to make notes to visit places that obviously are too hard at the moment -- and how satisfying it is when you come back later and stomp out those 150 Greedy Snitches that maimed your party last time :)

I actually played through and won this game, and the difficulty curve kept being steep, the game challenged me to the very end. The ending may be a bit offputting to todays standard-fantasy gamer, but mixing sci-fi and fantasy wasn't considered a crime in the 80s.

One more thing that sets this (and the whole MM franchise) apart from other RPGs is the wealth and variety of monsters and items. Jon Van Caneghem actually used every single bit at his disposal (I completely disassembled the game later) and stuffed as much as he could into the few hundred KBs. You never stop checking out items or encountering new monsters, sometimes with surprisingly deadly attacks that will put them on your TODO list :)

Anyway, to me, it's one of the best RPGs ever, on par with Pool of Radiance and Ultima IV, and I actually prefer it to MM2.

Oh yeah, the graphics are VERY basic, but they are completely appropriate, the monster pics are very decent pixel art, and MM always was good at having a great user interface which made playing easy. (Item handling could be better, it's quite tedious to tidy up the party's inventory getting back to town, but again -- this was the 80s.)

So I probably wouldn't recommend it to people who require eye candy to enjoy a game. But if you love open world exploration and hardcore strategy mechanics and difficulty like me, this is the one for you.

Don't underestimate this game based on it's age or graphics. This is by far the most tactical game in the series, and many fans consider it the best or second best.