Anyway - the game. Real shame because it looks good, plays well (other than the bugs) & captured the old style M&M reasonably well. In terms of length, it's probably equivalent to MM8, but this is assisted by the turn & tile-based retro nature: you move around the map by moving from 1 "square" to the next, rather than the open world of MM6-9. Combat is also turn-based, so there's no running around certain areas & battles in real time. I know this was part of the intentional "retro" feel of the game. But consequently the entire storyline is somewhat linear as you can't get to certain areas until certain other parts of the game are complete, or until you beat the boss which is placed in your way & which you have no chance against until your party is more developed. So this makes the game "longer" without actually being "bigger".

On a first playthrough, this obviously doesn't matter that much as you are learning the game & the linear storyline works well enough. But it also means replayability is low as you can't use knowledge from previous playthroughs to speed things up, go straight to a quest item that's in a locked area, run around the baddies to the next town etc. Several extremely useful spells (I would say crucial, especially for new players) are also only available to one particular character class, so even party creation leaves less options for replayability as you pretty much need a Freemage.

In terms of intrigue, the main quest isn't the typical huge world-at-risk story - at best it's somewhat less "important" than MM9. I believe they added a 5th Act in a patch which may improve this, but apparently this can only be experienced via a new game so I can't comment.

Overall, I did enjoy playing it and would happily play it again, especially to check out the 5th Act. But I'd have to begin an entire new game, and overall I can't be bothered, due to:

* would be playing largely same character classes as last time, due to abovementiond spell selection

* tile-based nature means I'd have to move over every tile in the game to ensure not missing anything, rather than being able to run in a straight line & seeing when you pass close-ish to a chest, dungeon entrance etc (or get a cheat-map showing the location of everything in the game)

* would be playing the game in largely the same order due to abovementioned inability to get to areas until unlocked or strong enough