Heroes of Might and Magic® 2: Gold

Homm 2 feels like playing in a fairy tale world. I much prefer homm2 over 3 when it comes to the single-player experience. It just feels like pure magic! The game isn't balanced, but who really cares when it comes to single player? The soundtrack is amazing and i find myself listening to it while studying, reading, playing other games - I even had it as a ring tone on my phone at some point.

One of the most addicting strategy games ever. I remember playing HOMM ever since I was a kid, it still holds it's charm and I still rank it as one of my all time favorite games and I'm sure that almost anyone who has played it feels the same. Don't let the first impression of the grainy and cartoonish map screen fool you, this game is a lot more than seems in the first sight. Very addicting and entertaining game play which takes a while to get into, but is easy to learn. Still, it the campaigns offer enough challenge and do not get old after years of playing. Building your town and armies, collecting treasures and most importantly, conquering enemy castles and watching their heroes' troops get on the wrong end of a horde of black dragons... or die trying. THAT is what this game is all about. The idea is simple, yet brilliant. There are only have a handful of hero unit types (each having their own type of town and troops) but that is a lot more than it may sound like. You will control multiple heroes and multiple towns and you will be battling for the mines and resources on the map. Your supply of units will be limited by your gold income, structures and most importantly, the rate on which your town inhabitants multiply. You can only buy a limited amount of each unit every 7 turns, thus making it slower to build an army in hurry and preventing you from buying only the troops you most want. The situation can chance easily. Move too far away from your castle and be unable to return before your enemy attacks it, lose your hero and army by fighting a too strong opponent... Make a mistake and you might suddenly find yourself without a castle and with only a half a dozen skeletons and mutant zombies. Even these days, this game classic will cause you to spent sleepless nights in front of you monitor and saying "just one more turn". If you tumble across it and decide to boot it up, beware, you will be stuck with it for a long, long time.

The game came out when men were men and boys had 100's of hours to sink into each game. As such, the game is brutally unforgiving. I found that out when I lost the friggin' tutorial the first time I played it. Now I'm in the campaign, and it's kicking my butt. The first mission, I started over twice before I won the third time. The second mission, I lost 5 times in a row until finally winning the 6th time. I still give it 5 stars as it's an excellent game, as you will see when you read the other reviews (which I agree with). Still, the difficulty is something I think needed to be brought to the forefront. If your frustration tolerance is low, the campaign may require the purchase of a new keyboard, as it is tempting to break it across your knee following yet another defeat. Having said that, the scenarios do have a difficulty setting.

Heroes of Might and Magic has always been one of my favorite series of all time. Heroes of Might and Magic through to Heroes of Might and Magic V have definitely changed the gaming landscape in terms of RPG/Turn-Based Strategy/Army movement games. Although already owning the original HoMM (Heroes of Might and Magic) II in CD format, it did not come with the expansion. The expansion introduced some new concepts that came into HoMM III (which, at time of writing, is coming soon to gog.com) and its expansions. For example, the system of allowing artifacts to stack and become an even more powerful artifact is but one of many changes. If any more are stated here, then all the surprise is ruined. The game system, of turn by turn movement of heroes, the concept of creature generation, resource gathering, castle building to access the more powerful creatures, these concepts served HoMM very well, and the transferral to HoMM II is brilliant, albeit with 2D imaging. The images may not be as cartoony as the original heroes, but some of the creatures do make a comeback, and upgrading your creatures to become even more powerful is a great aspect of the game. The classic Dragon is the main creature that comes to mind. Keep your eyes out for being able to get Green, then Red and finally, the dragon of all dragons, the Black Dragon to make appearances. Keep in mind, though, that not everything will go to plan, and that resource management is very important, especially to keep your resources safe from your enemies. Overall, HoMM II is a standard that the rest of the HoMM series revolves around after the success of the first. If you want a fantasy-based, turn-based strategy game that allows mass creatures (non-graphically) causing absolute carnage on the battlefield while casting very powerful spells, then this game is highly recommended. Replay value is quite high, for after the campaigns comes the single- and multiplayer-maps, which will have timeless playability. If you do decide to purchase the game, then welcome to the world of HoMM, and enjoy your gaming experience.

I’ve spent hundreds and possible over a thousand hours on this game. What brings back after all of these years is the Chess like elements to the game play. Some of decisions you make in the early, mid, and late game are super important. Also, the music and sound effects are without question 10/10. If this is a game you have been thinking about playing, I highly recommend it.