TL;DR: nice midgame, great sounds and music, boring endgame.

I had high hopes for this game. The beginning captures with its beauty and atmosphere. Great music and sound design like good old times. An open world with a lot of tasks, a variety of mechanics and enemies.

But the farther, the weirder the game became. Difficulty starts from the average and fell to zero. But then the last quest began and something strange happened. Enemies grew much stronger, and some of them may kill the whole party with a couple of strokes. I barely reached the end, already anticipating a battle with the final boss. In addition, he constantly runs away, and ... there is simply no battle with him --- party just press the button and he dies. Great disappointment!

The game has a lot of bugs. But the most annoying thing was that I complete the game without deaths, especially to get the achievement "Unbreakable", and it did not counted for me! In addition, there is an achievement to get 40th level for each character. But I killed all enemies and complete all quests with experience boost - and ... I have only level 36. What the hell?


Further, a more detailed description why I did not like this game. The previous parts (from the sixth to the ninth) I played just after release. But after completing this part I replayed previous parts for comparing and refreshing the memories.

1. Movement by cells. This was normal in the 80s, when there was no 3D graphics, and world view was a breakthrough after text quests. And even in 1993 it was playable. The Legend of Grimrock (and hundreds modern projects before it) decided to revive this approach. This was good when the party is always in a hostile environment in narrow corridors, where a battle can begin at any moment. But in the Might and Magic series, developers abandoned this approach in 1998, because half of the time we study the peaceful open world, it is rather strange to move by cells in the mountains, fields or cities. It is inconvenient and destroys an immersion.
2. Turn-based world. In previous parts, the time went smoothly. At any time, you could go into a turn-based mode for battle. And this was brilliant. It did not interfere with the movement and communication with the NPC. On the other side, in battle, you can very accurately control the actions. But this part was abandoned. Now the battles feel about the same as before, but there is no pleasant peaceful exploration time. Even the time of day changes stepwise by command.
3. Detailed magical self-made world. That was in all previous parts. Citizens were walking around the cities, it was possible to talk on abstract topics with any of them, discuss weather, politics and the neighbor’s illness. The peasant will talk about the harvest and complain about the bandits, with the scientist we can talk about the ruler of a neighboring country. Dialogues was changing depending on the influence of party to history. Even stores had unique working hours. The world made an impression of a living and evolving. There are none of these nice features here. People are nailed to the ground and standing night and day, they are not alive. There are too few dialogs. The world gives the impression of theatrical scenery, which are simply arranged and do not react to you at all.
4. Disgusting interface and lack of journal. In the previous parts, all important facts that the party met in the world were automatically recorded in the journal. Tips for quests, location of skills teachers, automatic map, all interesting objects. There is nothing of this. All this you have to write yourself on a separate sheet of paper. You can make notes on the map, but you cannot rewind the map and open other places' map, which makes it completely useless. It is so strange that the interface elements, which were extremely convenient in 1998, are absent.
5. Unbalanced classes and skills. For example, the bow skill is just awful. It increases the firing range instead of shots number, but this is a mockery, since you can shoot only at the cells in a row. It is impossible to fire diagonally. Because of the wretched level design, you never can start a battle from a great distance, usually, it is about 3-4 cells, which makes increasing bow range from 5 to 7 useless. Mages are also weak, the novice druid is much stronger than the top-level magician (who cannot damage endgame enemies due to their specific resists). Almost the same can be said for all other skills.
6. Thus, there was forgotten of all the good innovations of the sixth, seventh and eighth parts.
7. Awful optimization. The game was released in 2014, but the top-end computer of 2017 cannot provide stable fps. Permanent fps drops up to 10-20. Especially when crossing the borders of regions. Quite often, walls and obstacles are loaded for a long time and appear right in front of the party (SSD does not help). Graphics are rather mediocre, they correspond to 2001.
8. Monsters and experience. In almost all previous parts, monsters were respawning and it was possible to leveling characters infinitely. Any mistakes in the early stages were forgiven. Here a limited number of monsters and experience, and at the end of the game you can’t even get half of the grandmaster perks.
9. Only four small cities on a tiny peninsula. It looks like a mockery. In the previous parts there were usually 9 ± 2 large cities on a vast continent.
10. Clumsy side quests. Quests for upgrading not-in-party classes are not available for completing. But its items was remain. It comes to the point of absurdity: I put together a plate for raising paladins, talk to the NPC -- "insert a plate into the altar," I have it, but there is no phrase in dialogue.
11. Buildings. Inside, they are larger than the outside and even have a different shape. Usually they differ hundreds of times. This is a trifle, but there are dozens of them in the game and they really spoil the impression.
12. Hundreds of bugs. Moreover, most of them can be fixed in 5-15 minutes of programmers. What a pity that Ubisoft give a damn about its product. And a bunch of them are in the translations. For example, in the Russian and French versions it is said that the Dual Wield skill allows you to hold a spear in one hand (and this is logical, it was so in all previous parts), but this is not so.
13. No support for widescreen monitors. Although the game is made on Unity Engine which supports any resolution. Support could be added in a couple of hours.
14. There is no town portal! Although there are three types of different transport. By the way, moving is instant.
15. No need to attend training centers for level up.
16. You cannot escape from the battle. You cannot fight and move at the same time.
17. A strange final boss, which is weaker than many ordinary opponents, and with luck it can be killed 1-2 hours earlier than expected (I have not tried it myself, my friends told me).
18. Achievements. They are, it’s good, but they are poorly designed. One didn't counted for me, although I strained and fulfilled all the conditions. There is an achievement of 100,500 steps, my friend passed the game five times and still have not received it.
19. The plot and lore. They are normal. Although shorter than in the previous parts.
20. Music. The only thing about which I can't say anything bad. She is beautiful, as in all previous parts. Of course, except the battle track which consists of looped samples for 10-15 seconds.

Conclusion. The game is bad, but it still deserves to be played by fans because it tells interesting stories and reveals pieces of lore. But the quality does not even reach the previous Might and Magic IX, which led New World Computing to bankruptcy. This game mimics the previous parts, which were much more fun and elaborate. If you are not familiar with the series, do not play in any case - there are much better games exists, for example Legend of Grimrock 1 / 2 or Might and Magic VI / VII / XIII.

TL;DR: nice midgame, great sounds and music, boring endgame. I had high hopes for this game. The beginning captures with its beauty and atmosphere. Great music and sound design like good old times. An open world with a lot of tasks, a variety of mechanics and enemies. But the farther, the weirder the game became. Difficulty starts from the average and fell to zero. But then the last quest began and something strange happened. Enemies grew much stronger, and some of them may kill the whole party with a couple of strokes. I barely reached the end, already anticipating a battle with the final boss. In addition, he constantly runs away, and ... there is simply no battle with him --- party just press the button and he dies. Great disappointment! The game has a lot of bugs. But the most annoying thing was that I complete the game without deaths, especially to get the achievement "Unbreakable", and it did not counted for me! In addition, there is an achievement to get 40th level for each character. But I killed all enemies and complete all quests with experience boost - and ... I have only level 36. What the hell? Further, a more detailed description why I did not like this game. The previous parts (from the sixth to the ninth) I played just after release. But after completing this part I replayed previous parts for comparing and refreshing the memories. 1. Movement by cells. This was normal in the 80s, when there was no 3D graphics, and world view was a breakthrough after text quests. And even in 1993 it was playable. The Legend of Grimrock (and hundreds modern projects before it) decided to revive this approach. This was good when the party is always in a hostile environment in narrow corridors, where a battle can begin at any moment. But in the Might and Magic series, developers abandoned this approach in 1998, because half of the time we study the peaceful open world, it is rather strange to move by cells in the mountains, fields or cities. It is inconvenient and destroys an immersion. 2. Turn-based world. In previous parts, the time went smoothly. At any time, you could go into a turn-based mode for battle. And this was brilliant. It did not interfere with the movement and communication with the NPC. On the other side, in battle, you can very accurately control the actions. But this part was abandoned. Now the battles feel about the same as before, but there is no pleasant peaceful exploration time. Even the time of day changes stepwise by command. 3. Detailed magical self-made world. That was in all previous parts. Citizens were walking around the cities, it was possible to talk on abstract topics with any of them, discuss weather, politics and the neighbor’s illness. The peasant will talk about the harvest and complain about the bandits, with the scientist we can talk about the ruler of a neighboring country. Dialogues was changing depending on the influence of party to history. Even stores had unique working hours. The world made an impression of a living and evolving. There are none of these nice features here. People are nailed to the ground and standing night and day, they are not alive. There are too few dialogs. The world gives the impression of theatrical scenery, which are simply arranged and do not react to you at all. 4. Disgusting interface and lack of journal. In the previous parts, all important facts that the party met in the world were automatically recorded in the journal. Tips for quests, location of skills teachers, automatic map, all interesting objects. There is nothing of this. All this you have to write yourself on a separate sheet of paper. You can make notes on the map, but you cannot rewind the map and open other places' map, which makes it completely useless. It is so strange that the interface elements, which were extremely convenient in 1998, are absent. 5. Unbalanced classes and skills. For example, the bow skill is just awful. It increases the firing range instead of shots number, but this is a mockery, since you can shoot only at the cells in a row. It is impossible to fire diagonally. Because of the wretched level design, you never can start a battle from a great distance, usually, it is about 3-4 cells, which makes increasing bow range from 5 to 7 useless. Mages are also weak, the novice druid is much stronger than the top-level magician (who cannot damage endgame enemies due to their specific resists). Almost the same can be said for all other skills. 6. Thus, there was forgotten of all the good innovations of the sixth, seventh and eighth parts. 7. Awful optimization. The game was released in 2014, but the top-end computer of 2017 cannot provide stable fps. Permanent fps drops up to 10-20. Especially when crossing the borders of regions. Quite often, walls and obstacles are loaded for a long time and appear right in front of the party (SSD does not help). Graphics are rather mediocre, they correspond to 2001. 8. Monsters and experience. In almost all previous parts, monsters were respawning and it was possible to leveling characters infinitely. Any mistakes in the early stages were forgiven. Here a limited number of monsters and experience, and at the end of the game you can’t even get half of the grandmaster perks. 9. Only four small cities on a tiny peninsula. It looks like a mockery. In the previous parts there were usually 9 ± 2 large cities on a vast continent. 10. Clumsy side quests. Quests for upgrading not-in-party classes are not available for completing. But its items was remain. It comes to the point of absurdity: I put together a plate for raising paladins, talk to the NPC -- "insert a plate into the altar," I have it, but there is no phrase in dialogue. 11. Buildings. Inside, they are larger than the outside and even have a different shape. Usually they differ hundreds of times. This is a trifle, but there are dozens of them in the game and they really spoil the impression. 12. Hundreds of bugs. Moreover, most of them can be fixed in 5-15 minutes of programmers. What a pity that Ubisoft give a damn about its product. And a bunch of them are in the translations. For example, in the Russian and French versions it is said that the Dual Wield skill allows you to hold a spear in one hand (and this is logical, it was so in all previous parts), but this is not so. 13. No support for widescreen monitors. Although the game is made on Unity Engine which supports any resolution. Support could be added in a couple of hours. 14. There is no town portal! Although there are three types of different transport. By the way, moving is instant. 15. No need to attend training centers for level up. 16. You cannot escape from the battle. You cannot fight and move at the same time. 17. A strange final boss, which is weaker than many ordinary opponents, and with luck it can be killed 1-2 hours earlier than expected (I have not tried it myself, my friends told me). 18. Achievements. They are, it’s good, but they are poorly designed. One didn't counted for me, although I strained and fulfilled all the conditions. There is an achievement of 100,500 steps, my friend passed the game five times and still have not received it. 19. The plot and lore. They are normal. Although shorter than in the previous parts. 20. Music. The only thing about which I can't say anything bad. She is beautiful, as in all previous parts. Of course, except the battle track which consists of looped samples for 10-15 seconds. Conclusion. The game is bad, but it still deserves to be played by fans because it tells interesting stories and reveals pieces of lore. But the quality does not even reach the previous Might and Magic IX, which led New World Computing to bankruptcy. This game mimics the previous parts, which were much more fun and elaborate. If you are not familiar with the series, do not play in any case - there are much better games exists, for example Legend of Grimrock 1 / 2 or Might and Magic VI / VII / XIII.