Heroes of Might and Magic®

I think HoMM doesn't need an introduction - its 3rd installment is considered to be a masterpiece, beloved by fans all around the world, still as alive as ever, and ever growing thanks to their projects, like Horn of the Abyss and HD Mod. It all began here... well, technically, it did with King's Bounty in 1990, but this particular game is the official chapter one of the franchise, setting the groundwork for everything that came later. The game, mechanically, resembles its successors, albeit it's more barebones, primitive, which shouldn't really surprise anybody. It's where HoMM started, and because that, I would highly recommend you buying it, if you're a fan of the latter installments, and are curious how the series looked before Restoration of Erathia made it a worldwide phenomenon. It's quite surprising how little the core gameplay evolved throughout all the years, and even Ubisoft HoMM (V onwards) were all built on what we can see here. Truth is, Heroes were never completely reinvented - just successively improved and experimented with (which usually didn't do any favours - look at reception of IV and VI). Few tweaks here, few there, a couple of additions and fixes, and a once primitive game has become its way more engaging, playable and diverse sequel. No big shake-ups turned out very well for HoMM - fans love it for what it is, for and what it always was. Should you buy the game, if you're not familiar with the franchise, though? I honestly have no clue what to advice you here. Maybe. But in this day and age, I could see a solid portion of the playerbase being discouraged with overall simplicity of the experience you get from it. It can be fun, be there's no denying NWC learned their lessons and improved next entries in the series. While H3 is one of the games you should very much be ashamed for not knowing, H1 feels more like a trait for dedicated fans, who want a quick history lesson, or to kicked in the head by nostalgia. And then return to H3.

Build up the strongest hero you can imagine, manage a full supporting network to grant him the best army and artifacts you can find, make him learn powerful spells and conquer your enemies! The original HoMM is the first and predecessor to the fantastic Heroes games that would come later and entertain us for many, many hours. Still, it's loads of fun on its own! About the art: Graphics might be one of the most striking differences, even having a quite different style I find them very likeable and unique. Music is *excellent*, sound is great too considering the age of this title. About the gameplay: Way simpler but in no way easier. Original HoMM has 4 factions (Town, Plains, Forest, Mountains) and 4 different hero types (Barbarian, Knight, Warlock, Sorceress), all of them very interesting and offering lots of possibilities. On the battlefield you control 5 stacks of units, again, lots of possible strategies! Battles can have so many outcomes I recommend saving A LOT. Give it a try!!

Proud to say I won the most difficult mission for Lord Ironfist. After around 25th tries, through savescumming and hell RNG. Perfect execution was needed. For the story to be canonical for Lord Ironfist to win. I gotta say, it was brutal yet epic. We win through action, give applause to the dev. Man that was satisfying. Thx to Gamer Walkthough for the playthough just so I can win this.

I can't add much that other reviews haven't already, but I will side with the (relatively) low-voted ones that state that this game is ROUGH. Almost all the elements that would make Heroes 3 what it is, are present, but in a very basic state. Different towns are there, but not many of them; the army size is severely limited with only 5 slots; heroes are there, but only a few of them. Magic (which is my least favorite aspect of HoMM games) is terribly unbalanced and you are almost forced to use it to win. I do recommend the game to collectors or people interested in game design and who want to see how the series evolved over time, but I also highly recommend using cheats to play through, or playing for a bit and then watching the rest online. It's pretty, but it's not friendly.

even though compared to the future titles it's really basic it's still really fun to play