Heroes of Might and Magic® 4: Complete

HOMM4 is basically HOMM3 with a -massive- amount of extra content. For many gamers all that new content can be overwhelming, but if you're someone like me who loves just having "more" options to play around with then you will grow to love HOMM4 as surely as you as the rest of the games in the Heroes series. In order to truly appreciate HOMM4 one must not fall into the trap of comparing the gameplay to HOMM3 or HOMM 5. HOMM4's gameplay is very different - your hero now participates actively in combat, and so you must tailor his abilities to fit your particular playstyle while also complementing the overall playstyle of your main town. For example, if you want a hero who who excels in physical combat (or at least have very good survivability) then getting Grandmastery Combat is a must. If you prefer a hero who specializes in map control instead of direct combat then you will want a hero with Grandmastery Scouting/Stealth. At the same time, if your town of choice favors quality over quantity (fewer but more powerful/expensive troops) then consider taking Nobility (resource generation, additional unit generation and diplomacy) as your second main skill, while if your town favors cheaper, generally well-rounded creatures then Tactics (which improves the overall abilities of all friendly creatures) would probably give them just the edge they need to prevail in combat. Several other things make HOMM4's gameplay unique from other games in the HOMM franchise. First off: each town is now allied with two other town types, which means you may hire heroes from these towns. For example: you may hire a Life might hero to help you lead your Nature town along with your Nature magic hero. This opens up an incredible amount of possibilities. Consider, from our example, that the Life might hero specializes in the Tactics skill while the Nature magic hero specializes in summoning/buffing allied creatures... To reflect this change, all town types (except Might) have mage guild upgrades that allow them to learn spells from town type allied to them. Second, depending on your two highest skills your hero may gain a new "class" or title, along with some cool new abilities. Each class is amazing in its own right, especially once you consider its base abilities. For example, the Beastmaster class' only ability is a token bonus to the Summon Wolf spell. Laughable (it's not a very useful spell) although in the end there's really nothing funny about a druid-turned-Beastmaster who is essentially an extremely difficult-to-kill summoner/buffer-type hero. Third, managing your heroes in HOMM4 is just as important as managing your creature army - this is noteworthy especially in early-game since using your heroes correctly or keeping them at optimum/peak efficiency means buying them items. Obviously, this means that hero upkeep now becomes a factor in resource management. Having your hero use potions (some of which can be thrown at enemy stacks for a variety of effects) can, in many situations, be a much more sound investment than buying extra creatures your army won't need to beat a particularly encounter with as few casualties as possible. A good player must learn to juggle between focusing on his heroes or on his army, so that in the end their total efficiency is higher. Finally, in HOMM4 line of sight becomes a major factor in combat. This revolutionizes unit positioning especially when it comes to casters and shooters (including your heroes). Slower but tougher units are a valuable asset in HOMM4 since they can be used to stand in front of and protect your heroes/shooters. The presence of ranged retaliation in HOMM4 makes them doubly important. HOMM4 is not without its drawbacks. First off, the AI. Easily the worst in the entire series. Second, the aesthetics need some getting used to - the creature animations are generally less intricate than those from HOMM3 and 5. Third, the shortcut keys are only mentioned in the manual. Finally, the game requires precise control and planning and is far less forgiving of mistakes than other games in the series (in a large part due to the hero system). On the plus side, the music is great, the campaigns (especially from expansions) are good and that particular HOMM humor is as alive in HOMM4 as it is in HOMM3 (case in point: the female chaos magic hero). So why 5 stars you ask? Easy. Despite its flaws, this remains to be one of the most enjoyable strategy/tactics games with among the highest re-playability -in existence- today. That tells you a lot about the quality of games these days. All in all, mechanics-wise, HOMM4 is a strategy/tactical game fan's paradise. There are so many different things to try that it's a shame how very few people have played it compared to the other HOMM4 games. Even today, when there are people who can tell you the exact damage range of a dozen HOMM3 Blacks Dragons modified for hero statistics/specialties (and possibly how many pixels there are in one Black Dragon, even). Do yourself a favor and try this game. Even if you loved HOMM3 just pretend that this is a completely different game set in a different reality. It's what I did a few years back, and I have not regretted that decision.

I have been a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic since I was a little kid and asked for H3 on a whim one day for christmas. I absolutely loved it! When HOMM4 came out I was dissapointed, initially, but when I came back to it years later I realized what a fun, lovingly made game it truly was. The graphics are great, gameplay is amazing, and many of the changes I found improved the game rather than detracted from HOMM3's great formula. All in all, still a favorite of mine to this day.

While HOMM4 certainly departed from the formula of its predecessors, it is clearly unfair to dismiss it as inferior. Sure, the good old system we all know and love was left behind but the overall HOMM feel is intact in this installment. I played it back when it came out and I really felt that at last there was something new, something to discover and master, a whole new system that somehow challenged HOMM veterans. The most noticeable change is that now the heroes take an active part in battles, they can move, attack, cast spells and even get killed. Units can also move on their own, this pushed the system to a whole new level of strategy that I, for one, really enjoyed. It really is a shame that a horde of fanboys cried over these changes because, frankly, the series just had not evolved all that much from HOMM1 to HOMM3 and was becoming redundant. With HOMM4, the series finally proposed something new without losing its identity : while all the changes really depart from the classic HOMM formula IT STILL FEELS LIKE PLAYING HOMM. As a result, HOMM4 is my personal second favourite. I still prefer HOMM3 for a lot of reasons, but I'd sooner play HOMM4 over HOMM2 or HOMM1, simply because it feels like playing a different game unlike HOMM2 and HOMM1 which could easily be renamed HOMM3 - and HOMM3 - - HOMM4 definately isn't HOMM3 + but it is in no case a HOMM3 - At this price, there really is no reason to complain about anything anymore : just play it and enjoy the whole new system !

As I was fanatic about HOMM3, I bought HoMM4 as soon as it came out. I absolutely hated it when I first got it. I rejected it simply because it was different, not that it was bad. As I play more and more the game just grabs with with its much improved skills, spells, combat, and town building. People may say that some aspects I listed are not improvements; I did at first. Combat, although no grid for precise positioning, is much more fun with individual heroes on the battlefield. Town building, though lack the graceful design of HoMM3, contains much "cleaner" building process with no creature upgrades. This IMHO is better than HoMM5 or 6.

I Love HOMM4 But miss the Hungarian language option a lot. It's my favourite game ever made by far, and a beautiful Hungarian translation to the texts, voices and everything else does exist. (It's not fan-made, it's an official (professionally made) hungarian release of the game.) Please include this language. I think it's fair to say, that I'm asking this on behalf of the still living and breathing hungarian homm4 community