Surprisingly, M&M X abandons the free 3D movement of M&M VI to IX, replacing it for a very old-school grid-based system, with the party moving square-by-square. In spite of this dungeon crawler-ish gameplay, the game features an open world, with towns, forests and mountains to explore.

Compared with other open-world titles, it's closer to Gothic than Skyrim, as you can wander freely (some road blocks aside), but enemies in certain areas will tear inexperienced parties apart.

While exploring the world you'll come across monsters, side-quests, merchants, optional dungeons, secrets, puzzles and the series' usual trainer NPCs, which are necessary to improve your skill tier.

In line with its old-school ambitions, the game also returns to turn-based combat. Battles can be very challenging, and there's plenty of skills, spells and status effects to handle, making M&M X arguably the most tactical game in the series, despite a rather annoying over-reliance on unfair ambushes.

From a graphical point of view, the whole game was built on a tight budget, reusing many assets from Heroes of Might and Magic VI. And it shows, alternating very pleasant landscapes with really bad textures. On the whole, however, exploring the various areas and environments is a satisfying experience.

Unfortunately, the game is very badly optimised, leading to frequent frame rate drops and graphical issues, plus other annoying bugs. Ubisoft's Uplay store and invasive DRM can also be a hassle.

Overall, Might and Magic X - Legacy is a good and surprisingly old-school RPG. Clearly developed by fans of the series, it offers modern accessibility improvements, but also high difficulty and complex systems. Sadly, it sold poorly, so Ubisoft pulled the plug and another sequel is unlikely.