Heroes of Might and Magic® 2: Gold

I was thinking for a long time about whether to give this particular release of the game four stars or five stars, and finally my hand moved to the four-star rating. Now before you decide to flame me for that, please listen to the reasons why I did it. First things first, I'd like to make it absolutely clear that the game itself is no less than truly awesome and it deserves 6 stars out of 5, but as for why this particular release (GOG release) is a bit lacking in my opinion, read on this review. But first of all, let's talk about the game itself. Heroes of Might & Magic 2 is an eternal masterpiece, a truly great and wonderful game that I feel very nostalgic about and that I could not resist buying from GOG when it became available, and you certainly won't regret it if you buy it - it'll provide you with hundreds of hours of great, unsurpassed gameplay that only Heroes of Might & Magic 3 can rival to this date. This game is absolutely unique, and it's one of the first three games (HoMM 1-3) that faithfully kept and preserved the atmosphere that got absolutely ruined in the next installments (especially HoMM 4). Now, the GOG release. On the positive side of things, this release is a two-in-one package that includes both the original game itself and the expansion pack (collectively known as "Heroes of Might & Magic 2 Gold Edition"). This is really great, because for just $10 you're getting two of some of the greatest games in the history of turn-based strategies, which is an awesome offer. Now, the part where the release is lacking - the CD music. The CD music is included in the release, yet it is recoded into OGG format with a significantly low bitrate (96 kbit/s) that does not allow to preserve all the vividness and depth of the original music, some of which featured operatic elements. Of course, if you don't care too much about music or if you can't hear the difference between a 96 kbit/s sound and a 256-384 kbit/s sound, and if it's OK for you if the music sounds a little less vivid than it did on the original CD, it won't be a problem for you, but for me the music in HoMM 2 is a great part of the original atmosphere, and I can't find a valid justification for the fact that the music was not encoded in a higher bitrate. It doesn't sound like a valid assumption that the only reason for this was the preservation of space. Now, there's another problem which is potentially more annoying for a broader audience - several tracks I've listened to had an audible strong click in the middle of a tune, which was probably due to the CD ripping fault or something like that - it's not too bad but it's definitely very noticeable (for instance, listen to homm2_05.ogg at about 00:29 - 00:30 or to homm2_06.ogg at about 01:31 - 01:33 - and there are other examples, too). Now, most of you won't notice or won't care about any of that stuff I was ranting about above - unless you're an audiophile and have an ear for music, you're unlikely to notice or care too much about any of that, so just go ahead and buy the game since it's absolutely fantabulous. Personally, however, I felt that HoMM 2 deserved a better treatment than that - it definitely deserved a clean, high-bitrate conversion of the original soundtrack which was one of the greatest aspects of the atmosphere of the game. Of course, you can always tell me "well, what did you want? it's just $9.99 for everything" - well, while it may be argued that it's already great that I can buy two of the best games in the history of PC gaming for just ten bucks, it would still only be fair on behalf of GOG Limited to let it be known to the customers that the soundtrack featured in this particular release is audibly inferior (in more than one way) to the original CD that was sold in 1996.

While I did not buy this yet off gog.com (but I surely will!) I have Heroes II here without the addon. So I can't say anything about the addon yet but just about the basic program. The game puts you - other than the main series "Might & Magic" into a turn-based strategy game. Now I don't like turn-based strategy much but a few brillant games are an exception here, especially such with more depth than battles only. Among turn-based strategy, I especially like games with global conquest much - Master of Magic, Master of Orion II, Civilization I and IV, Alpha Centauri - and the Heroes of Might & Magic series. When Might & Magic still had great comic graphics - the most recent part was the grandios "World of Xeen" - New World Computing used the characters from that game to make a turn-based strategy game with roleplay and (very basic) economical elements, advancing greatly their game "King's Bounty". One year later the sequel to this game appeared, and that's what we have here. Who liked the original Heroes of Might and Magic will love this game. The story is not really interesting - something about a war between the evil Archibald and the real prince Roland for the kingdom of Enroth. Let's come to the different aspects of the game. With exception of a few rendered videos, it is full 2D. The pictures above give a good impression of how the game is like. This is however nothing to complain about. I personally like the comic look and 2D more than the isometry of Heroes 4 or the 3D of Heroes 5. The sound is nice but on the quality as sound was in 1996. It's just standard sound, no orchestration or so, but fitting to the scenario. The gameplay is easily done by mouse. You go around, capture resources, mines, sawmills etc and dens with creatures. Also there are special buildings that for example give you +2 luck for the next battle. Talking about battles, there are several factors which influence how the creatures you can train in your towns (with fixed numbers being added each Monday) will fight, other than their attributes. Morale and Luck play a certain role that can easily give the edge. If your luck or morale is low, you have a chance of only do half the damage (or was it minimum?) or not move at all. The opposite happens with high luck - chance to deal maximum damage - and morale - chance to move twice per round. Monsters strike back when attacked, but not under certain circumstances, for example when an archer shoots at melee monsters the melee monster is just too far to strike back. Some monsters also have special attributes, for example monsters of Death cities (Necropolis) cause morale loss among living creatures if fighting in the same army. Monsters are stacked so you have for example one stack of 100 bowmen in a hex field instead having to move 100 bowmen one after the other. The battles are done on hex fields, as I said. Best is to look at a battle picture to see what I mean. Heroes also can fight but only by casting spells. After a lost battle by losing all monsters, a hero deserts and can be found in a random inn later. If he retreats before the battle is over, instead, he loses the battle and all monsters with him but will appear instantly in the inn of that player again. This is an important thing to know since heroes level up with experience gain to get better attributes which strengthen the monsters. They also can hold artifacts that can be randomly found in chests or special buildings, often guarded by monsters. Also, a skill system makes heroes even stronger by having them learn skills for their classes like pathfinding, saving movement points on the world map. The world map has a fog of war above it. The campaign itself also is slightly dynamical. You have on free games six kinds of cities to choose from, with six to seven unique monsters each (not counting their upgraded forms). They all need different resources - for example, knights would rely on gold while wizards need more crystals for their cities - but luckily you can build market places that (expensively) allow you to trade resources. Multiplayer is supported via Hotseat, LAN and TCP/IP (I think). The game has a map editor that can be used to create maps. However, they can only be deathmatch maps (I don't know if this was changed in the addon included on gog.com since I didn't buy it from here yet). Since it has a random map function, one can create good maps to play against friends or the computer. If I remember correctly, they also can be blindly saved, i.e. without you seeing it before (or was this included as late as in Heroes III?). But even if not, it can't be too hard to just click save and do that without looking at it. From what I read on internet, the addon contains a building that makes ghosts recruitable. Since they are very powerful, this might destroy balancing. It's also possible one can run into the "One more turn" phenomene: I will just do one more turn, just until my building is upgraded, just defend myself against this attack, just conquer this one city, just win this scenario, just have a glimpse at the next one, just do the first week, just... wait, why is it becoming bright outside again, is the night already over? Ok, just one more turn before I go to bed... and one more... and just this week... However, to me the scenarios around 5 or 6 became too difficult, so I always stopped there... My opinion Graphics: 10/10 Sound: 8/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Map editor: 8/10 Atmosphere: 9/10 Overall: 9/10

I love all the HOMM games (except 4 and 5 which are not HOMM games) equally, like they're my own children. But HOMM2 is my favourite son. He's the heir to my throne. He's the one I show favour. With a lovely, relaxing soundtrack and lovely graphics as well as a terrific storyline, this is the pinnacle of turn-based strategy. Building upon the world and lore laid down in HOMM1 you're thrown into the middle of the battle between the two sons of Lord Ironfist - Roland and Archibold. Roland is on the "good" side, he's honourable and kind and has been bullied by his corrupt brother for years. Lord Ironfist wanted Roland as his heir but through mysterious circumstances he had to flee the castle and Archibold was crowned king. You can choose to help the rightful heir as a Wizard to overthrow his deceitful brother or you can play as Archibold and command the undead to aid you as a Necromancer. The story is further continued later in the Might and Magic games and even with Roland's wife in HOMM3 (however Roland's victory in this game is canon). HOMM2 also improves a lot of the features from HOMM1. Minor changes such as the "Movement grids" in combat make planning your moves easier. The battlefield is bigger with smaller scale units and there's even reactions from the hero themselves (they may hang their head in shame if it's not looking good or even cheer). The spellbook has been further increased, there's more units (with upgrades!) and... oh I could go on. The story can only be fully enjoyed if you followed the completion of this game with a playthrough of Might and Magic 6 - 8, which are all canon with Roland's victory and each alludes to eachother. In closing: The Might and Magic universe is one of the greatest lores around (before it's destruction by Ubisoft) and this is where it truly begins. Pick up this game and wait for Might and Magic 6 to be released. I highly recommend this. Grab it. Go on. You know you want to. I can't put it in enough words.

Excellent! Heroes of Might and Magic 2. As I described in my Heroes of Might and Magic 1 review, the stumbling blocks of the original are only really visible in retrospect, but after playing the second you’ll quickly notice the improvements. But first to gameplay. If you’re familiar with the gameplay of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, feel free to skip ahead a bit. The game, like all of them, focuses on the battles between several empires controlled primarily from several large towns and cities. Of course, securing these towns and using them to fuel your war machine will require more than patience and good will, and you will need to move out of your comfortable walls with the help of powerful Heroes leading, preferably, large armies of soldiers to press past neutral creatures to capture mines and production facilities, artefacts and, ultimately, the towns of your enemies. Unless you are playing a specific scenario, where a specific target on the map may serve as objective, the game normally ends once you have eliminated all comers, which is done by seizing and holding their towns and cities. If an opponent loses both their towns and Heroes, or does not hold a town for a solid week, they are thrown from the game. The creatures and heroes in the game are divided into six factions, seven if you include the neutrals, two more than in the previous game. This game introduces the Wizard and Necromancer factions, as well as the Knight, Barbarian, Sorceress and Warlock factions with whom you may already be familiar, though the creatures they command have been shifted about, updated, and/or given new powers. For the first time in the series, the game has made an effort towards actual, serious game balance. As is to be expected, each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses. Beyond the minor abilities held by faction Heroes, the faction creatures generally hold a tactical theme. The Knight faction, as always, is cheap enough to be hired in bulk, but is comparably lower-rung. The new factions join the strategic twists, especially the Necromancer faction, which can draw on defeated enemies to build an army of low-level Skeletons. One of the primary and most earth-shaking additions to the game is the addition of Skills. Like in most of the post-Heroes 2 games, this system has a simple but ingenious system to encourage a diverse set of skills on each Hero, ever game. In short: whenever a Hero gains a level from combat or from the map, not only will they gain statistics, but they will be presented with two skills randomly selected from the full list. Each faction is somewhat biased towards certain skills, while others are less disposed. The skill of Necromancy is a prime example – for Necromancers, it is their most common skill, while only Warlocks have even remote odds of finding it (indeed, it is so useless on top that it’s no surprise the later games curbed nonsense like that by cutting some skills from the list entirely for certain Heroes). Every skill, remarkably, holds a great deal of potential, even in this relatively primordial stage, and each skill (unlike, especially, Heroes 5) is divided into three tiers, so there is as much a reason to concentrate one’s levels as there is to expand. Combat, like in the other games, is easy to get a grasp on. Every unit in your army is grouped into stacks, so one character might represent upwards of thousands or as few as one. These characters manoeuvre past randomized terrain on invisible hexes, trying to attack one another. Attacking at closer range is the function of most units, some of which can also fly to close gaps quickly, but this is a dangerous process as the enemy gains the ability to counterattack once per unit per turn. Dealing cleverly with these Reactions is a major part of the strategy, but even an amateur player can gain an easy advantage over the Reactions by using missile troops. These troops, in turn, can be countered simply by attacking them at close range, at which point most of them will be reduced to attacking at half strength and only at their attacker. Add to this the presence of the Heroes themselves. The stats of the Heroes are added to that of their troops, which can turn a stack of one hundred pathetic peasants with only 1 point of attack each into a nightmarish stack of one hundred peasants with 20 each. The Heroes can also influence the battle through the use of spells learned on the map or in Mage Guilds, once per turn in tangent with one of their own units. Not only does this add to strategy (getting the fastest soldier lets you cast the first spell, while Blinding the last can keep your opponent from casting at all) but the spells take the form of powerful buffs and dangerous direct-damage spells. However, these spells have been curbed since the last instalment. The Wisdom skill is crucial for spellcasting, as it is required to cast 3rd and stronger level spells, and the old restriction, where Knights and Barbarians do not have spell books by default, stands, and while these can still be purchased, their continued absence seems like more of misbalance since the number of magic-using factions versus the might-factions now numbers 4-2. Later games would take a variety of measures towards correcting this, but for now the deficiency stands as one of Heroes 2’s few. In regards to Heroes 2’s graphics, the game has in some ways not improved from Heroes 1, especially with its reuse of the ever-present Hero sprites, but the new art style in use in the towns is a particular joy, with its less cartoonish, more realistic style with an emphasis on subtlety. The Necromancer town is a particular high point in my personal opinion, but there’s far more to be said about the more complete art upgrade in the third game, and as such the art can be considered one of the game’s weakest points, but only slightly. There is not much to say about the Price of Loyalty expansion pack, as the pack lacks any remarkable pieces but do not underestimate its inclusion, as the minor additions are virtually essential. There are new single-player campaigns, maps and minor bits of content. Some of the crucial updates include an alternate for the Necromancer’s lack-of-Tavern that made the faction slightly weaker than the others, and the Champion upgraded unit for the Knight faction. The inclusion of a Ghost-hiring building was probably a mistake – it’s worth noting that Ghosts, as they have stood since Heroes 1 with their ability to “absorb” dead opponents as Ghosts, are removed permanently in Heroes 3, and letting a player control them causes new problems in balance Price of Loyalty had otherwise fixed. Heroes of Might and Magic is a wonderful series in that every fan seems to find their favourite game at a different level. For me the winning game has always been this one, #2, but for many the favourite is the third, and from an analytical position the bonuses and improvements justify the title. As such, I have no problem rewarding Heroes 2 a perfect score while still giving Heroes 3 a higher recommendation, but I will gladly add that I will happily recommend that fans of the genre buy both games, especially if they have tried or enjoyed any other Heroes of Might and Magic game, King’s Bounty or the Disciples series. The games are full to the brim with a seemingly inexhaustible value that will keep you entertained for years. If you have never tried Heroes of Might and Magic at any level, give this game a strong consideration, as it’s one of the greatest resource-based strategy games ever created.