Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete

Things that are annoying and clearly imperfect from today's perspective: 1) Game mechanics is of the 'death spiral' kind - if your early performance is suboptimal (not bad, just not perfect), the gameplay becomes exponentially harder later on. Trying to work around your past mistakes (e.g. one of the heroes/towns lost) isn't an option in most cases. You will end up loading games a lot. 2) Game is click-intensive, i.e. you will end up doing the same things, repeatedly, that require (unecessary) clicking through a bit too many options/sub-menus. 3) Some scenarios containt a 'catch' - an element you should be aware of but aren't informed until it's too late - e.g. time limit (or similar constraint). Replaying them for this specific reason ruins he immersion.

But you'll need mods to make it worth your time. Here's the thing, this game is a classic that's been continuously played since it came out. The problem is that hardware has moved on and now you need at least the HD mod to make this playable on modern HD screens. And if resolutions keep on going up even that might not be enough. It's a great strategy game with incredible depth and pixel art that still holds up 20 years later. The UI needs a bit of a massage via a mod or two but all in all you couldn't do any better when it comes to turn based tactics. Worse? yes. Better? no.

It will always be worth picking up after all the years that have gone by.

Since this game is old, its still a blast! I played it first time in 2021 and regret that i just not start sooner. Just Fantastic. This game offer more fun then lot of new games today... It has lot of content so it keep you at last 100 hours busy. and than they are scenarios that is so awesome that they tell little story too. Just Grab it now and dont do same mistake of overloking this GEM as me.

Incredible strategy game with infinite replay-ability due to random map options. Even an editor to create your own maps and campaigns. But on multiple computers with different OSes, the game occasionally crashes. There are also some balance issues with the base game. Hence the 4-star rating. The Horn Of The Abyss (HotA) third-party download fixes 99% of these issues and adds a new faction: The Cove. I wouldn't play this game without it and kicks it easily into the 5-star arena. Either way, if you're a turn-based strategy fan, it deserves a look. (Base game also has worked well in linux with "PlayOnLinux" - or even just base WINE - but I haven't tested HotA. But you could always run it in a VM and then move the dir into the linux Win directory as an easy test.)