Heroes of Might and Magic® 4: Complete

I will skip game advantages, and focus on shortcomings / unpopular design decisions. Top unpopular design decision is battlefield and how movement is handled, so it's basically impossible to perfectly control it. Also with some game knowledge heroes can fairly easily get extremely powerful so army tends to be less important than in previous titles. One of biggest shortcomings for singleplayer is fairly dumb AI - it can be challenging on properly designed map, or when you try to give AI better vision via extra objects near AI, tune AI priorites of some objects in map editor etc. General shortcoming for both singleplayer and multiplayer is no random map generator and no legacy modding scene so there is no advanced "HD mod" for H4 like it was done for H3. That means lack of QoL fixes and multiplayer extra features like simultaneous turns. One upside is that very recently (miracle happened wow) H4 got some modding attention, and patch to Albyx mod just got released. I did not try it yet but it apparently drastically improves AI. And it's possible to run that AI overhaul without rest of mod content if somebody doesn't like custom balance fixes etc.

This game is personally my favourite of the series, although I get the complaints about it's balance problems. Heroes actively participating in combat is one of the things it does right when it comes to gameplay, but the economy system and some of the factions are just outright better than others. The music and story are top-notch in the basegame.

I'm going to disagree with most of the other reviews. Like most other reviewers, I did start out with an earlier game in the series -- I had HOMM3 in a jewel case over ten years ago, and I spent many hours playing it. I purchased all of the separate Heroes Chronicles games and played them, and finally, later on, I purchased Heroes III Complete. Sure, it's perhaps a more polished game, and the unofficial WoG expansion makes it even better, but the ability of the hero to take part in combat just boosts the fun factor right past the previous entry. It might not be "pure HOMM" gameplay since sufficiently high-level heroes can single-handedly defeat several black dragons, but blasting through a full army of creatures with a single heavy hitter melee character and a single magic user is supremely satisfying. Magic that summons/raises/creates illusions of creature stacks can easily turn the tide of battle. It's always amusing to win when the high-level scouting skill claims you'll be handily defeated. As a result Chaos magic is probably weaker in this game compared to other games, but it still contains the always-enjoyable direct damage spells.

probably i'm going to buy this just for the soundtrack, i love the game best one in the series in my opinion but the soundtrack, 1 word: incredible.

My background: Started with a demo of HoMM2. Bought everything. I am playing 2 - 4 quite regularly. I don´t play 5, it is a soulless disaster. Bad Userinterface, long waiting times and a ""story"" that is not worth being named that way. I even sometimes go back to HoMM 1! It has it´s flair. HoMM4: Ok, let´s start with the 3 more or less big problems: 1. The very worst AI I´ve ever seen in the series. The computer is just not intelligent enough to put a good hero into a good army. He scouts with big hero-less armies and attacks with 2 high-level heroes without any army °_° Best AI of the series: HoMM 3 (even better in Homm3 complete) 2. The artifacts: The problem already existed in part3. You got to admit it. On a map without an altar you had to carry your 1036 artifacts with you and couldn´t do much about it. So to say I am only missing the altar in HoMM 4. But you could say: In part 4 you always have to handle HUNDREDS of artifacts. Most of them being no use whatsoever. 3. The potions: in your castingmenu you can see the potions nicely stacked. So if you have 100 resurrection-potions... there is a "100". Great. But in your inventory.... omg this must be a bad joke. It is almost unbearable. Point 2 and 3 are caused by the rushing of the publisher to bring the game out. Point 1.... well... the AI wasn´t that good in any part of the series either. Still I gave 5 stars... what the heck? 3DO... there are not many fans out there... And I understand pretty well. You start with weak heroes and they die. But later on they become very strong. And when you discover the resurrection-potions... you can play! I started without an idea into part 4 and had the same frustration like most of the veterans. HoMM4 tries a lot of new things. Of course the balance is difficult with heroes being in the battle themselfs now. But they did quite well with that! Respect for that!!! And no more annyoing gatheringclicks from fairyrings and creaturedwellings! HERE you can become the mightiest hero in all HoMM-Games!! That´s why I give 5 stars!