NPCs just seem like cardboard cutouts instead of real people. Hirelings are special NPCs that will join you and offer their expertise to your party. They request an initial fee plus a percentage of all the treasure you find but they can increase the effectiveness of your group significantly. The various ways in which hirelings can help your party include but are not limited to magical bonuses and experience bonuses to faster travel rates. Purchasing things in a store is an integral part of MM7.
Shopkeepers have high grade and low grade goods for sale.
A right click of the mouse gives details about each object while a left click transfers the item into your active character's inventory while depleting your gold. Gaining experience requires you to kill monsters and complete quests. Once enough experience is earned to go up in level your party must visit a training school in order to put that knowledge to use. After paying the trainer his fee, your party trains, and leaves the training school tougher and wiser and with a few more skill points than they had when they started training. Not so role-playing stuff Graphics and sound were both adequate.