This is, hands down the only Lovecraftian rpg out there which plays like an oldschool crpg, good sides and bad. But you won't go mad, you'll just fizzle out of enthusiasm after too many frustrations. I won't repeat what has already been said, yes the writting and story are great, but the combat is unresponsive and buggy, it's just completely frustrating. Example 1: You're gonna win the battle, you only need to hit this enemy who is standing on top of a dead enemy. You click on the enemy, but your character uses his action points to take items off the body instead of attacking, you died. Example 2: You try to click on smb, everybody is on a hex, but clicking on the hex has no corelation with the target, the target is some weird hit box based on the flash animated character standing on the hex under your target. You missed, you died. Example 3: There is a front and rear attacks mechanic, but you can't change where your character is facing...why... you got backstabbed? Example 4: You just restarted the combat for the 3 time because of that last mechanic stupidity, you think to yourself, do these people ever play video games? Why not just play HOMM 3 instead and read Lovecraftian books? But honestly, it's quite unique, hand drawn and everything, tons of passion went into the making, but at a certain point somebody on top started making stupid decisions, and everybody on the team was either too stoned or couldn't bother to tell him it ain't fun.
It would have been five stars if HOMM 3 didn't exist. It is better, if you haven't played it go do that instead. But do you want a similar, yet challenging game with good writting, opera singing ost and a solid tactical and strategic system. A fantasy setting that's far from generic. Most of the bad press this game has is for being a bad successor to HOMM 3. It's very bad at that. But it didn't have Dungeon or Fortress as castles, so it missed the mark on that for me. Still a nice ride, if you want to make a lean mean killing machine out of your heroes. Today it's one of the best tactical strategy games out there. Do yourself a favour, and get it and run it on any machine. P.S. It looked stunning when it came out, it was absolutely beutiful then, and it hasen't aged as badly as later full 3D games.
A very unique game that sadly falls short the more you play it. While playing smartly and taking your time will save your band from certain death, this is not a rule. Mostly, you will die because of rng. Losing level 1 characters might not hurt, but loosing your best one that took a month to make just because he decides to miss three times in a row is just boring. That being said, it's a fun game with great graphics. Get it on sale.
