For some reason, 3DO, the developers of Heroes, never managed to hire some decent graphics artists. The game looks far older than its ten years. You never see the individual creatures, only their overall representation. The fights are fought in a Master of Magic style, with creatures stacked in groups to fight. Towns contain buildings that produce creatures. In combat, you control armies that explore the map and do battle with other armies in a separate semi-3D environment. I soon found myself going back to the single maps. The campaign in itself is too difficult for the casual player and I had no fun playing it. There is a story interwoven between the maps by short texts, but it has little relation to the game. The campaign itself is nothing but a prearranged series of single maps, which is disappointing. You can choose from among the four species again but that is all. This makes it all the more strange that the campaign lacks any difficulty settings. The difficulty rating is adjustable, and the maps are listed with a difficulty rating as well. The replay factor is high since you can choose from four different species of creatures to play with. No fewer than eighteen shipped with the game, promising to keep you playing for hour upon hour. The single maps are much more interesting. In Heroes, you have the choice to play either a single map or a campaign.

However, I don’t expect anyone to start creating new maps for such an old game, so this area will not be analysed. The version discussed here is the Windows version, which includes the world-editing tool that the DOS version lacks. Heroes stormed onto the scene in 1995 for both DOS and Windows.

Everything that is typically found in HoMM games is here: Heroes, creatures, spells, towns to control and expand, and a world to discover with plenty of monsters and opposing armies to fight. If some of you, like me, have become familiar with Heroes of Might and Magic through one of the later titles in the series, then the resemblance between them will be quite clear.

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