Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete

loved it as a child now years later with olden era comingup booting it up again: still awesome

I started my HoMM journey from the 2nd instalment. That game is still amazing/fun in and of itself, but then there's HoMM3, which even without nostalgia goggles is as close to perfection as possible for its type of experience. The art is timeless, the gameplay loop is always fun. The random map generator is solid 90% of the time, the other 10% it bullies you by putting your sawmill or ore mine behind a horde of tier 2-3 units, while you started the game on impossible with 0 of each resources. There is also a further "expansion" (mod) called Horn of the Abyss which adds 2 extra castles and lots of QoL that weren't present in the original game. It's quite frankly an amazing addition and there's lots of flexibility and different experiences available. Each castle feels different, each castle has its own winning strategies and tactics (If you play inferno you just need to NOT play it, then you can win, for example.). The game isn't fully balanced, but for me that adds character into each faction (You can choose the meta castles/strategies, you can take off-meta picks, it's all up to you). If you play against AI, you can still win with any faction, simply it's a matter of if you want to take the easy way or the "slightly harder way". Note: For new players this game will require a lot of time investment. I recently got a few of my friends into it, and it took them south of 50 hours to finally become semi-decent in terms of game knowledge. There's a decent amount of skill hidden inside - what should you prioritize, what do you need at the moment, how to maximize your movement on heroes, when to attack, when to leave your starting area for new castles/artifacts, CAN you win against the enemy monsters/hero (it's a big difference if you're attacking a horde of Tier 2 Marksmen or Horde of Tier 2 Walking Dead, it's a difference of having 0 losses and losing your entire army cause you cannot beat the marksmen). This game has a learning cliff for beginners.

The best

still play in 2024

is the best