Heroes of Might and Magic® 2: Gold

In terms of artistic style and especially the music, this one is one for the ages, not just in turn base RPG, but pretty much in all games ever made. it has one of the best fantasy style music you'll ever hear , every track is awesome, you can spend hours just listening to the tracks alone.

Heroes of Might and Magic II feels like Spenser's [i]Gloriana[/i]: you traverse a magic landscape where anything might happen. Serendipituous encounters wait at the back of each corner. The sequels somehow did not convey that feeling in the same way. III built on the reputation of II. It managed to reach an ever wider audience. It became a larger game, with expansions and more complex stuff. Scenarios were larger, the figure of the supporting heroes that ferried reinforcements to the ones who carried out the fight became practically indispensable. Many people started with the series with III and swear by it. It is a great game and there is a lot to play there. Yet the magic abides in II. If you want to experiment it and find out why III is like it is, II is the place to start.

For new players, Play this one first before HOMM III, being less complex overall. Very replayable, due to the excellent Random Map Generator and Editor. I still play it besides Heroes III, AOW Shadow Magic, and Warlords II and III. They do not make games like this anymore.

For me this is the best part of HOMM serie, with also best graphics. I know it can be debatable, but for me units and castles from homm2 are beautiful pieces of artwork with the soul :) When You have it, download the Nosferatu map from the web- it's probably the best single-player map for homm2 ever.

Titan or Black dragon... always depends on who acts first. Unless of course your Hero stats are jacked through the roof :). This game is an amazing haunting. No matter how many times I beat it I always return in a year to try and get a higher ranking, win using different tactics and just enjoy my immersion in the fun turn based world. Also the audio always brings a smile to my face. Enjoy