First of all, great choice. :)

Back in the old days I started with Might & Magic IV Clouds of Xeen. It's a great game to begin with and I don't think that it depends much on the storyline of its predecessors. Infact, MM4 and MM5 (Dark Side of Xeen) can be seen as one game (called World of Xeen), as there is the option to merge them, so that you can travel between both worlds ingame. Personally I think that this is the best you will get out of the Might & Magic universe of games :)

I'd say, get a hold of both games, do what's necessary to merge them (don't remember the whole procedure, but it can't be more than copying files together) and start playing :)

Notice, that the merging of games was officially intended and not a fan-made crack or something like this. It's quite exceptional, I'd say. Haven't seen this much with games.

You can also start with MM3. This game stands alone however and as I remember it is a great deal harder. I haven't gotten through this one yet, MM4 and MM5 however I did beat.

I don't have any experience with earlier games unfortunately. Maybe I should look into them some time. :)

If you like these kinds of RPGs, might I suggest some other titles? (Don't get me wrong, Might & Magic IV/V is top-notch) I'm sure you'll like Stonekeep and Anvil of Dawn, maybe even Ultima Underworld or The Elder Scrolls: Arena.

It's a real pity that step-by-step dungeon crawling RPGs of the western world like M&M are quite extinct. What comes closest to them nowadays might be John Carmack's Orcs and Elves for Nintendo DS, albeit much simpler in game design.

Hope this helps,
locutus

I started playing MM3 if I recall correctly. MM4 and addons are quite enjoyable too.

Thanks for the advice! Actually, my college roommate a few years back also recommended the Xeen series as the greatest games he ever played, but I didn't know until now which numbers in the series they were. He himself was confused as to which ones they were, and "Xeen" showed up in a couple of the games' names, so now it's good to have the confusion over.

I have Stonekeep on a compilation disc called the Ultimate RPG Archives, which I originally only bought for Wasteland and the Ultima Underworld set (I already have Wiz Gold and the other Wiz games on the Ultimate Wizardry Archives set). Luckily, it also comes not only with Stonekeep, but M&M 4 and 5, too!

I downloaded and played Anvil of Dawn for about an hour as an unofficial "demo," and it seemed like fun, so I deleted it and put it on The List(tm) to buy later. I also own Arena on CD, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Morrowind and Oblivion were way fun, so I'm looking forward to that series, too.

Since I just got through Fallout 3 + add-ons two days ago, I'm probably going to play something mindless next. But after that, I think I'll hit up ol' Xeen and teach him not to mess with a world under my protection. 😏

If I like them, 3 is next, Mr. Pusher. 🤣

I started with Might & Magic III : Isles of Terra too. Good game which imparted good first impression of the series, which later prompted me to get the M&M Collection.

M&M 4 : Sword of Xeen and Clouds of Xeen (or was that Dark Side of Xeen? - confused) are equally good too. If I remember correctly, when both games are installed together, you get access to additional areas. (Known as World of Xeen, combined.)

I started with Might & Magic II which I thought was just terrible. I skipped to 7, and i kind of liked that one albeit the corny production (yay 3do work)

Seems more than a few of us started with MM3 - me too, it's the game that led to my interest in RPGs. GOG has the M&M 6-pack (Might and Magic: Book 1, Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World, Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra, Might and Magic 4&5: World of Xeen, bonus adventure Sword of Xeen and Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven) for $10, but they have some really good sales sometimes, just wait for it 😀 Although, ahem, I guess $10 is pretty paltry change to some people, anyway, just not me 😀