Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete

This third installment is highly regarded as the best in the series, largely (in my opinion) due to the failure of Heroes 4 to stand to its predecessors (which I will comment further when that game comes to the catalogue). That more or less caused a seven years hiatus in Heroes fandom. When Heroes 5 came, it seemed too late for many fans -- some moved on to other games, others stuck with Heroes 3. To put it simply, Heroes 3 *is* a great game, probably for the same reasons of its predecessors. GAMEPLAY Heroes of Might and Magic, as always, is medieval-fantasy, turn-based, resource-management-driven, old-school, with a boardgame heart. Each player starts with one or more "towns" and "heroes". Towns have fixed positions on the map (you can't build new towns, only conquer existing ones), and in them you raise armies, hire new heroes, reseach spells and more. Heroes move your armies, conquer towns and mines, level-up, cast spells, learn skills, gather treasure and more. Mines yield resources to keep that engine running. When a hero finds an enemy on top-level map movement, you're taken to a strategic board where combat takes place. Top-level and combat-level maps are tiled, which brings this boardgame feel. Before picture the average lame boardgame in your mind, remember, Heroes *feels right* that way. It just works. That said, one must note Heroes never pretends to even resemble a realistic military strategy. In combat-level, your units are stacked in groups that always fill the same limited space (depending on unit type) no matter how many dragons or goblins you brought to the fight. That brings certain particularities -- at first it might look simplistic, but the sheer amount of units and heroes and their skills asures Heroes games do take a lot of strategic thinking, only in a different way from games like Lords of the Realm, Warcraft, Medieval: Total War and others. CAMPAIGN, SINGLE PLAYER AND MULTIPLAYER SCENARIOS Game comes in three flavors, equally fun to me. In campaign mode you follow the story of the restoration of Erathia by Catherine Ironfist, daughter of the late king, from the point of view of each and every faction involved. In scenarios, you can play alone or multiplayer (over the internets or hot-seat). The game comes with scenarios of all sizes and tastes, and the map editor makes this type of game nearly limitless, as further commented below. Ah, and me, not being a fan of multiplayer, let me add that playing Heroes hot-seat against friends is FUN, REAL FUN. EXPANSIONS They add great value to an already great game. Dozens of new missions, several new campaigns and units (some overpowered too, if that's your drill), hours and hours of added fun and replayability. QUALITIES Replayability is one of my favorite qualities in any game, and Heroes start a different trend in that department. The first replay booster is the number of different factions, which suggests at least half a dozen different styles of play, with their unique units, heroes, spells, powers etc. The designers made a great work here. Each single unit can be expected to have a different combination of powers, and there's about 80 different hireable unit types counting upgrades. The map editor works great too, meaning fans all over the world produce very fine new maps for your gaming greatness which can be downloaded freely from the internet. That's probably my main source of Heroes of Might and Magic fun ever. SHORTCOMINGS I can think of two. First, yeah, the campaign plot is pretty shallow, or at least its presentation is. The cutscenes don't play great thanks to poor 3D design, characters are forgettable, you might not feel pushed towards the end of the story. Many single-player scenarios have more unique and interesting plots and twists, including those designed by fans, which is both hard to explain and true in all installments of the series (in my opinion). Second, although the graphics were largely updated from Heroes 2, monster design relied on the same poor 3D skills of cutscenes, although it's not really 3D, it's still sprites on a tiled board. I wish they had stuck to the old style of before like they did with the rest of the game, or at least tried harder on that department. BOTTOMLINE Believe me, any shortcomings don't steal the charm of this game. Not this game. It might not be for those looking for "certain" types of strategies (ie. real-time, realistic), but it's still a tried and true five-star classic. It hardly aged at all, and now at 10 bucks a piece it's a package of immense value.

W Heroes III zagrałem po raz pierwszy w czasach systemu operacyjnego Windows98. Zakochałem się wówczas w tej grze i bardzo się cieszę, że mogę w nią grać (dzięki GOG.com) na Windows10. Gra jest wyjątkowa pod każdym względem, mnogość jednostek, rozmaitych zmiennych, statystyk sprawia, że mozna ją porównać z szachami. Jest to zdecydowanie pozycja, która poszerza choryzonty i rozwija gracza lepiej niż niejedna partia szachów i powieść fantasy :)

Many older games are subject to accusations of being 'objectively obsolete'. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is one older game I can confidently say is straight up addictive. It's easy to learn and fun to play. Herores of Might and Magic 3 is unique because it combines 'questing' mechanics with turn-based strategy. Armies are all led by 'generals' who you will direct around the map looking for treasure, creatures, and hopefully an unclaimed city or two. Battles can automated or directed turn-by-turn at your leisure - every section of your army will be represented by one moving unit. The numbers of your army act like HP and cumulative damage increases. The battles themselves are simple. The real meat of the game is in directing your heroes to treasure, battles, rival generals, and improving and protecting your cities. You will level up your heroes as well, help them learn spells and carefully choose units that work well with the improvements of the general. You have nine 'factions' to pick from which all have their own music and themes, with each feeling very different from the other. If you like playing the 'Evil' side, there's three distinct options. I look forward to seeing different factions on the map, and I always want to collect 'city types' under my banner. Unless you're interested in gaming history for its own sake, the first two titles are just curiosities. Very playable curiosities, mind you. If you're familiar with strategy games, you won't be frustrated with Heroes 1 and 2 at all, and I highly recommend them for people who are casually interested in retro gaming. If you're just looking for a fun strategy game with unique mechanics, get the third.

I've first played this game on my friends PC soon after release. Now its almost 20 years after and I'm still playing it with my fiancée every few weeks. We are spending like whole evenings playing od random maps, listening to rock music from the internet radio, drinking beer and eating pizza. This game haven't aged one bit.

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