Heroes of Might and Magic® 2: Gold

This is simply so oldschool and lovely at the same time. Might it be the sprites, whose language is so sweet or the replay value, that still holds true today? I think it probably is a combination of all the points above plus how our minds relate to it.

I remember playing this when I was maybe nine years old, as obsessively as a girl can play a game. My dad got it for me back in the day along with a new computer (this was some years after the original release). I spent hours playing this all through my childhood, unable to stop. I remember sitting at the computer so long my eyeballs felt like they were burning out of my head. I popped it in just to see if it's retained its appeal after about eight years, and before I knew it I was just as plastered to it as always. This game is engaging, deep, and fun. It was my introduction to the world of turn based strategy but I've been unable to find anything that lives up to this great title.

While I bought the original game and the expansion back in the 90s, I had all kinds of trouble with them on Windows 7. Since this is my favourite game, and I have a mind to replay the campaigns every five year or so, this was rather annoying. Enter the GoG version, packed with a preconfigured DOSBox and a kind of CD image, and tested on various platforms. All the troubles are gone, and the game works as good as it did back in '96. I generally don't like re-buying games, but in this case, the money was well worth it. Thanks to the GoG team!

This game is freakin' awesome and I still remember playing this hours apon hours back in the day! This is one of those games where hard difficulty is acctually hard! Love it! Nostalgia trip. Highly reccomended!

I love Might & Magic and Heroes of Might & Magic franchise. I grew up with these, so there's definite nostalgia there.. but they are just plain great games too, no matter what perspective you look them at. Heroes 2 is just up to par there with Heroes 3 as the best game of the franchise in my opinion. What's different about them? Well HOMM 3 has more different alignments with more units, more bonuses, generally more everything -- and it's at least as well balanced as HOMM 2. Both have good music, but HOMM 2 takes the win in my opinion slightly. Music in the series is just plain great, as is in Might & Magic VI - VIII. Steve Baca, Rob King and Paul Romero (correct?) were heck of a composer team for the music, that really cranks up the atmosphere. On the other hand, HOMM 3 graphics fail slightly. Themes are good as in part two, but they look bit too bland and oiled up (sprites, menus). While in HOMM 2 lower detail graphics look more colorful and alive. There's some cool little things in HOMM 2 balance that I do prefer over the third. For example, in HOMM 2 you cannot swap artifacts between heroes thus preventing you to create overly powered superheroes (which will be born anyway in XL maps, just not in so great extent on HOMM2). You also cannot drop artifacts, which makes you think more wisely, which artifacts to pick up so you're not loading crappy ones to the max and then not be able to pick up the best ones later in the game. There's also some negative artifacts giving downsides, and if you pick one up you cannot drop it off. It's sort of a cool feature, though adds some random element to the balance, but also makes you memorize which artifacts did what (when you see them laying on the world map). On the other hand, HOMM 2 expansion's Ghosts boiled the game balance a bit being overly powered. I give both HOMM 2 and 3 thumbs up through the roof and call it even! Feel free to visit my blog at www.thegamersdungeon.com