I'm astounded by how much enjoyment this game still brings me. I've sunk so many hours and will probably sink a ton more as time goes on. This review is with the expectation that you're already familiar with the game or the series as a whole. With that being said, I greatly insist on installing the HD Mod and Horn of the Abyss fan expansion. The HD Mod is a necessity in order to play on modern resolutions, while Horn of the Abyss offers tons of improvements, reasonable balance adjustments, new items, units, tons of new map objectives and a brand new faction with its own story mode. A lot of people struggle with HoMM or the genre in general, because you have to control multiple heroes. However, there is now a very well refined single hero map template, called Duel, which brings all the fun of the series and compacts it into a very replayable, 1-2hour long session, based on how loosely you follow the rules.