I recently had a chance to review Armageddon's Blade, the expansion pack for Heroes Of Might & Magic III. I thought that it might be a good idea to write about the regular game too. This game comes to us from the folks at 3DO and New World Computing.
What is this game about? Heroes is all about the heroes who are trying to take back a world that is being over ran by an evil presence. Each hero has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. The skills that a hero must have include the ability to attack, gain knowledge, defend themselves and others and be able to harness inner power. Capture a castle to enrich your resources. Then you can recruit more heroes for your forces.
A fellow reviewer compared this game to a round of chess. I guess that might be a good comparison except that a good computer chess game will have a few thousand more moves available.
The game has its roots in the earlier versions of Heroes Of Might & Magic. But it is a much different, and better, game than its predecessors. The game maps have been redone. The warriors all have restricted movement during battle. If your Hero doesn't have the skill for the weapon being used, the default action happens. Get your Hero to cast a spell that is if they've got any in their inventory.
Battles are won if you can destroy all of your enemies and capture a town or castle. When you start a level you only have control over one hero and one castle. Move around your map and explore things. Get into skirmishes to gain power and troops for your armies. Watch out for the monsters guarding gates or pathways. They will try to stop you at any cost, even fighting to the death. As you advance, your hero will gain strength, power and knowledge.
Your choices for gameplay are not limited. You can do a single scenario, a full campaign or play using the tutorial. You can also play over the Internet using Mplayer or Heat.net.
If you want to be your own world maker, use the built in map editor. This allows you to set up unique maps for your battles. Share the maps with your friends and see if they can win using them.
If you like strategy and role-playing games, then Heroes Of Might & Magic III will be a game you'll want to put on your shopping list.
The system requirements are as follows: Pentium 133 PC, 32 MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM drive, 200 MB free hard drive space, DirectX compatible sound card. You will also need a keyboard and a mouse. And if you want to play over the net, you?ll need a 28.8 modem.
For more information about the game, or to check out other 3DO titles, check out their web site at www.3do.com.