Heroes Chronicles: All Chapters

I just finished playing through all of the Heroes Chronicles for the first time today. I have been playing it over the last two and a half months, and it's been a lot of fun. I would estimate that I got somewhere between 80 to 120+ hours of gameplay out of it too. Each one of the Heroes Chronicles (there are eight total) in the collection is a campaign with the hero Tarnum. At first I wasn't sure about the whole thing being focused only on a single hero, but the approach really works, and I was won over quickly. In each Heroes Chronicle, Tarnum is a different class of hero, and he uses a different town set. In one Chronicle you might be playing as a barbarian, then you play as a knight or a beastmaster in the next one. I thought it was fun and unique to have one character switch between different classes like this. Personally, I thought that the story was pretty good too, and I found that Tarnum's story was interesting right from the beginning. It hooked me. Whenever I finished a map, I wanted to go on to the next one just to see what was happening next in the story. Heroes of Might and Magic III is one of my all-time favorite computer games, and I think that it's up there among the best computer games of all time. I'm pretty sure that I have finished the Restoration of Erathia, Armeggedon's Blade, and the Shadow of Death campaigns at least two or three times each by now. It's one of my favorite old games to dig out and play every now and then. I love it, I'm a big fan of it, and I have a lot of fun playing it when I have it installed on my computer. So if you're like me, and you enjoy playing Heroes of Might and Magic III, then you definitely should have Heroes Chronicles in your game collection too. I really enjoyed playing through the Heroes Chronicles collection, and now I just wish that they had made more of them.

Heroes Chronicles are a funny thing. They were probably intended as a money grab. They feature relatively small amount of content. Especially for a 2000-2001 game. Especially for a Heroes of Might and Magic game. The price tag -- $20 for each chapter -- was kinda ridiculous back in the day. Unfortunately, that led to most people not knowing how good Heroes Chronicles actually are. They blow every other HoMM campaign out of the water! The missions offer great variety. The difficulty spikes of Heroes 3 are gone - you don't have to already know the map in order to beat it. The story is surprisingly good, which matters a lot since Heroes Chronicles are highly story-centric. I can especially recommend it to two groups of people: 1. People who want more of the same. After all, Heroes Chronicles is basically HoMM 3 DLC. 2. People who haven't played Heroes of Might and Magic before, but are curious. Or sceptic - this is the best entry to the HoMM universe in both cases. For $10 you can get 64 missions -- about an hour each -- of the most polished HoMM experience available.

I have heard all the good things about HOMM3 from the TBS fans. As a fan of TBS also, I have bought both HOMM3 and Heroes Chronicles here in GOG. I tried HOMM3 first, but some how still couldn't get myself on hold / understand the game even after the tutorials. I give up for few years, and this year some how I pick up Heroes Chronicles. In my surprise, I finally get myself on hold of the game. This game let me understand the system way much better than HOMM3. Now I finished 6/8 campaigns of Ch.1, and I indeed like the game. I think I can play back HOMM3 after finishing all the chapters. Recommend people to play this before HOMM3 even this game is released after HOMM3.

As a keen fan of HOMM3, I was pleased to find these campaigns available after finishing the main game. Aside from the fact that they lack game mechanics from the core game like the random map generator, they're satisfying in their own right. The story is entertaining and the maps, though not as engaging overall as those in the core game, are worthwhile. I believe I bought these during a sale but even at 9.99 they are well worth the price, especially considering how expensive they would have been during their original release. Even though these campaigns are supposed to bridge the storyline between HOMM3 and HOMM4, it might make sense for someone new to the game to play these first before tackling HOMM3 Complete simply because the Chronicles campaigns are far, far easier than the core HOMM3 campaigns. True, the difficulty can be adjusted in Chronicles but on the Hard setting, for instance, the maps are still quite easy compared to maps of the same difficulty level in, say, Armageddon's Blade. The first few campaigns even have hints included in the dialogue to guide new players. If I'd known about these before, I might've played them first and been more prepared for some of the difficulties of the main game. Conversely, they're also not as good as HOMM3 complete so it could be better to just start with that. However one chooses to order their approach to these games, they are well worth it and for fans of HOMM3, the story of Tarnum at the very least provides another 40+ hours of gameplay.

If you love HoMM3 you should not miss the chronicles. This mission pack continues the story from where it was left. This is a unique package that you can not find anywhere else to buy. The missions were initially sold separately and never as a complete compilation. Here on GoG you have a unique package at a very good price. This is the dream of any HoMM3 fan. Note: It has no random map generator but you have that in HoMM3 so get that if random maps are your main focus. PS: Thank you GoG!