Heroes of Might and Magic® 2: Gold

The game came out when men were men and boys had 100's of hours to sink into each game. As such, the game is brutally unforgiving. I found that out when I lost the friggin' tutorial the first time I played it. Now I'm in the campaign, and it's kicking my butt. The first mission, I started over twice before I won the third time. The second mission, I lost 5 times in a row until finally winning the 6th time. I still give it 5 stars as it's an excellent game, as you will see when you read the other reviews (which I agree with). Still, the difficulty is something I think needed to be brought to the forefront. If your frustration tolerance is low, the campaign may require the purchase of a new keyboard, as it is tempting to break it across your knee following yet another defeat. Having said that, the scenarios do have a difficulty setting.

Heroes of Might and Magic has always been one of my favorite series of all time. Heroes of Might and Magic through to Heroes of Might and Magic V have definitely changed the gaming landscape in terms of RPG/Turn-Based Strategy/Army movement games. Although already owning the original HoMM (Heroes of Might and Magic) II in CD format, it did not come with the expansion. The expansion introduced some new concepts that came into HoMM III (which, at time of writing, is coming soon to gog.com) and its expansions. For example, the system of allowing artifacts to stack and become an even more powerful artifact is but one of many changes. If any more are stated here, then all the surprise is ruined. The game system, of turn by turn movement of heroes, the concept of creature generation, resource gathering, castle building to access the more powerful creatures, these concepts served HoMM very well, and the transferral to HoMM II is brilliant, albeit with 2D imaging. The images may not be as cartoony as the original heroes, but some of the creatures do make a comeback, and upgrading your creatures to become even more powerful is a great aspect of the game. The classic Dragon is the main creature that comes to mind. Keep your eyes out for being able to get Green, then Red and finally, the dragon of all dragons, the Black Dragon to make appearances. Keep in mind, though, that not everything will go to plan, and that resource management is very important, especially to keep your resources safe from your enemies. Overall, HoMM II is a standard that the rest of the HoMM series revolves around after the success of the first. If you want a fantasy-based, turn-based strategy game that allows mass creatures (non-graphically) causing absolute carnage on the battlefield while casting very powerful spells, then this game is highly recommended. Replay value is quite high, for after the campaigns comes the single- and multiplayer-maps, which will have timeless playability. If you do decide to purchase the game, then welcome to the world of HoMM, and enjoy your gaming experience.

I’ve spent hundreds and possible over a thousand hours on this game. What brings back after all of these years is the Chess like elements to the game play. Some of decisions you make in the early, mid, and late game are super important. Also, the music and sound effects are without question 10/10. If this is a game you have been thinking about playing, I highly recommend it.

I remember begging a classmate in junior high to borrow the PC Gamer demo disk that included a free map of HOMM II. While the third game in the series had drastically improved graphics and a host of new features, there's something timeless about this game. In some ways, I actually prefer it over the third.

fheroes2 is a recreation of the Heroes of Might and Magic II game engine. This open source multiplatform project, written from scratch, is designed to reproduce the original game with significant improvements in gameplay, graphics and logic (including support for high-resolution graphics, improved AI, numerous fixes and user interface improvements), breathing new life into one of the most addictive turn-based strategy games.