I dumped more hours into this game than I will admit considering it is widely regarded as inferior to HoMMII and HoMMIII. When I saw the opportunity to pick up the complete edition here for $10, I jumped on the deal. The game is unchanged. However, the file here on gog DOES NOT RUN correctly in windows 8.1 despite all the technical fixes the support team requested I try. They had me jumping through hoops downloading zip files and reinstalling things just to run a game. My time spent on that alone was not worth the $10. To clarify, the game runs, IF you are willing to tolerate framerate issues and game lag galore. The only fix to this issue that I found is to change the in-game settings to 600x800, lose the fullscreen functionality, disable gameplay animations, and lose a chunk of the viewable map. Who would be willing? The technical support specialist, while very kind, could not provide a fix for the framerate and lag issues in fullscreen mode. For those who are considering this game in the series and purchasing from gog.com: Game itself: 4/5* - Good. Different from II and III, but not all bad. There is a lot of unwarranted negativity surrounding this game because it was not a carbon copy of III. Necro is still the most OP class, but I welcomed the overall variation. gog.com support: 2.5/5* - While very kind and responsive, the support specialist assigned to my case sent me a laundry list of things to try just to run the game. It's a $10 game. That's not worth the headache. Either it runs or it does not. gog, take note. gog.com game file for windows 8.1 ONLY: 1/5* - To gog's credit, the game does run, albeit without full functionality. Not acceptable. I should not have to sacrifice features to play the game. Final summary: if you like HoMM, try this game at this price, but NOT on windows 8.1. You will surely be disappointed with the performance. gog.com stands behind their money back guarantee.
