The story reads like an earnest fanfiction. While that is a backhanded compliment, there's are plenty of themes to mull over through the base game. I remember swooning as I read the walls of text as a teenager. As a 40 year old, I find it amusing and insightful as a sort of time capsule for the 90's era 3DO writers. The music is perfect. I find myself ululating the "Dirt Theme" while doing housework. Paul Romero's talents are superlative, and they're on strong display in this game. The gameplay is really interesting. I find the changes they made from HoMM3 to HoMM4 to be generally good. Heroes 3 is a distinct and very good game, but I myself prefer many of the changes they made for Heroes 4.
