Thier hope may be to no avail because on the Darkside of the World one claiming to be Alamar has promised to bring peace to a vigilant land, and has declared himself King. These promises are now seeming to be lies as Alamar has done nothing. No one on this side of the World seems brave enough to stand against him, but perhaps heroes traveling from the other side of the World may find there way to the Darkside of Xeen and defeat Alamar.
B. M. Everett
World of Xeen is my personal favorite Might and Magic game. I recommend completely completeing the Clouds game before even going to the Darkside. The reason, simple, Darkside is much more difficult and completing the Clouds portion of the game will prepare you for the more difficult Darkside.
My favorite part of World of Xeen is the introductory videos. Clouds has a funny introductory video with really cool music. Darkside has a totally awesome introductory video with the coolest music in the world. There is no hesitating in answering this question. What is the best introduction in a Might and Magic game? Obviously, Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen, no question.
The automap is really good in World of Xeen. In Isles of Terra you would have to cast Wizard Eye to get the automap up in the corner, but in World of Xeen as long as one of your characters know cartography the automap will be there, simplifying exploring (a lot).
I love World of Xeen. It's very fun. I recommend this game to anyone. The puzzles aren't too difficult and the combat is never boring. World of Xeen is the end of Might and Magic I - V's story. Begginning with Heroes of Might and Magic II - Might and Magic VIII is a whole new saga.
If you are playing World of Xeen as one game, not either of the two parts separately, you should complete the clouds side first; it is much easier. Then result to the darkside, following that do the crossover quests.
I'd like to mention that Swords of Xeen was not created by New World Computing it's only distributed by them. The game was actually developed by CatWARE using the World of Xeen engine. Swords of Xeen is really lousy I'm willing to bet that the creators were planning on doing a lot more with the game but gave up, it seems very incomplete.
If you really want to win the game cheat, it makes all the difference. Actually its almost impossible to win without cheating. I don't like to think of it as part of the Might and Magic World but I've included some text on it for old times sake.
The game is lousy. You suffer while playing the game and when you complete it you get a stupid ending, and I do mean stupid.