Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete

I grew up in the 70's and have been an avid gamer since the Atari 2600. HOMM3 is a true masterpiece that stands up even today. One of the first things I want to mention, that seems overlooked in many of the reviews is the music. The musical themes and scores written for this game were composed by a literal music genius. Look him up. All too often, we gloss over the little things that make truly great games, like the music. The music in HOMM3 is unmatched. The game itself is addicting and endlessly replayable even today. I own hundreds of modern games, and this is still in the top 20.

Replaying the game after a couple of years, 30 hours later I'm reminded of what an incredibly addictive masterpiece this game could possibly be and why it's one of my favorite games ever made. + Tons of well put together content to play around with (campaigns, random map generator, map creator, multiplayer) + Fantastic lore, music, sound design and atmosphere that is unique to the universe of Might & Magic + Polished to near flawless perfection (no bugs, fantastic gameplay, controls/user interface are intuitive and simple) + Huge modding community and frequently updated mods - Engine/Artstyle is technically outdated (not a big deal after 5 minutes) This game is basically heroine sort of like the Civilization series, but it's more like smoking a fat joint to chill out for a while.. and THEN injecting yourself with heroine. Combat/movement is turn based strategy RPG goodness in which you manage your main city/cities and control heroes on the main map, recruit/create armies of your own customization to explore and conquer. It's really simple to start and get a grasp of it, because it's casual enough to not feel too overwhelming yet deep as all Hell to keep one invested for literally decades. You can play around in the many well made campaigns/mess around in the scenarios, but the real star of the show is the random map generator and the multiplayer which is quite amazing. The random map generator has many variables to mess around with like size, rules, how many players, etc., and you can play with friends or against them locally, on the same computer. Then there's the Map Creator, in which you can create whatever the hell of a scenario you want. Just like Chess or Tetris, Heroes of Might & Magic III is an eternal classic, fun and easy to pick up 'n play 10, 20, 200, 2000 years later.

This game is incredible, not much to say about it, and this is the best version avaliable. Importantly, there are fan-made mods that greatly enhance the experience (easily found on google). As a tip, it can easily run on Linux and Mac as well using Wine or CrossOver.

Not much to say, buy it and play it.

Picked this up a few years ago after I got tired of making my old CDs work when PCs and OSs updated. Well worth it. Everything good you remember from 30 years ago, and a very effortless installation/play process.