My version of HOMM3 is still on the old optical media. Yet I felt compelled to tell others contemplating this game on GOG at the current price of £3.59 - to go ahead and buy it. I missed the original title back in 1995, but managed to pickup a demo of HOMM2 in 1996, which quickly turned into a purchase soon after. There was a definitive crossover here that I first witnessed in Master of Magic - a hybrid of turn-based strategy in battle, paired with exploring a larger world map. Along came HOMM3 in 1999 and arguably, it's the best game of the series - certainly the most memorable. The game excelled in being easy to learn, yet very difficult to get the best out of. Complacency was your worst enemy. You could amass what you thought was a potent army - only to get it decimated by the ranged units of the enemy. Your army might have a default Evil slant towards their make-up - for example if you chose the Necropolis faction and the various death-biased units that it commands. This helps in attacking the factions that have an inherent Good alignment such as the Castle faction - but that philosophy cuts both ways. When the Good guys are on the attack, those of the Evil bias can have a tough time indeed. HOMM3 does a great job of making you want to explore, to amass more resources and take on more difficult encounters. Those monsters that destroyed your low level units are soon mere causalities of the map, once your armies get up to spec. The risk versus reward vibe is strong throughout this game, which invariably makes the compulsion to have 'just one more go' really quite addictive. Other aspects of HOMM3 must be mentioned too. This was created when the series was still under the helm of New World Computing - one of the great legacy software houses along with the likes of Looking Glass, that have unfortunately be absorbed into the annals of history. The music is beautiful - that of the Rampart faction is worth listening to, alone. A worthy purchase for any gamer.
