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Heroes III: the greatest PC game in history (?)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 21
Date: April 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I've been pretty much addicted to this game since it came out the better part of a year ago. Some gaming sites and mags (e.g., PC GAMER) gave this game very good--but not superior--reviews. But unlike these reviewers, I don't buy the view that just because Heroes III is in principle very much like Heroes II it is not a superior game. This may be fallacious reasoning, but I know Heroes III is a great, great game because I do not get addicted to anything less than great, great games (i.e., StarCraft, WarCraft II, Alpha Centauri, Duke Nukem 3D, and a few others). I could go on and on about how fun this game is to play, how enjoyable the different spells and monsters are. And with the add-on (well, there are two of them now), Heroes III has infinite replayability. From the p.o.v. of a strategy gamer, this is one of the top ten best games of all time. (My big stack of Ancient Behemoths will kick the butts of a million of your wimpy Quake monsters!) Seriously, any fan of strategy games should check this one out, pronto, esp. since the price has dropped so low.

Top calibre turn-based strategy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: February 03, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I first played Heros of Might and Magic (the very first one), I was unimpressed. I had played Warlords, one of its contemporaries, and Heroes I lacked the depth of its competitor.

Fast forward to Heroes of Might and Magic III. What a phenomenal improvement over its predecessors! The art is breathtaking. The music is worth listening to even while you're not playing. The number of units available is staggering. The gameplay is balanced and addictive. In no other game do I succumb to the "just one one turn" syndrome so easily. In addition, the relaxed pace of a turn-based strategy game is welcome, especially after all the real-time strategy games that cover the aisles, walls, and floors of software stores.

And if the maps and campaigns that ship with the game aren't enough to satisfy you, New World Computing has included their map editor to allow you to make your own maps. There are several sites on the net dedicated to archiving other people's creations.

I've been a fan of Might and Magic for 10 years now and this game is easily worthy of acting as the franchise's flagship strategy offering.

Take up the gauntlet and win!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: January 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I watched a friend of mine play the demo version of this game and within an hour I was totally hooked. After completing the demo for myself I rushed out and bought the full version. Until I played HMM3 I used to ridicule turn based combat, I thought that it was totally unrealistic and that it slowed down the flow of events. Well this game changed all that for me, battle becomes an intellectual challenge, a sort of graphically superior Battle Chess. The fights often end up being better than the disorganised melee that Warcraft II battles can degenerate into. Many was the time I started a fight with an enemy only to be shocked by size of the forces aligned against me. To be able to claw your way back from almost certain defeat to a glorious victory is a major buzz!

There's a lot of pleasure to be had from selecting a hero and slowly building up their experience, knowledge and magical powers. Likewise you become almost sad when you have to sacrifice some of these heroes to save the others.

The cut scenes are truly cinematic in quality and set the scene really well. The main map graphics are clear pleasant but nothing outstanding, about the same quality and viewing angle as Warcraft II and no 3D graphics card is required. During the battle scenes the character graphics and animation is excellent, see your foes reel in agony and collapse!

HMM3 sound is the best I have ever heard from any game with superb spot effects, beautiful orchestrated music that occasionally stirs the blood and draws you deeper into the game. You'll probably need a decent sound card to appreciate it fully.

The only minor irritation I could find was the slight feeling of being hemmed in. With Warcraft and Command & Conquer you are free to build structures anywhere on the main map and you can adapt your defences to the terrain. In this game additional structures are provided for you depending on your levels of cash and other resources. These new structures never appear on the main map and can only be seen by entering a castle.

I take my hat off to the designers, artists and programmers who created HMM3, it is a highly recommended experience.

Excellent game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: June 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Overall Play - [*****]5 Stars. I found that playing in single-player mode after a while became dull, but, playing with 4-8 ppl in "Hotseat" mode was one of the best times I've had on a computer game. The numerous races, heros, spells, skills, creatures, artifacts, and maps make this game one of the best I've ever seen.

Artwork - [*****]5 Stars. The artwork is astonishing as they incorporate real artwork and great drawings [look at the Elven race's dragon cliff, that is a real photo of a cliff with drawn in caves and dragon animations]. The hero designs are sometimes amusing and are well done. The spells and symbols inside the spellbook are very very well done and add a level of realism.

Graphics - [***]3 Stars. The spell graphics in battle suck. Take the spell Armeggedon...you expect a big "boom" from the symbol and description in the spellbook, but it just throws red meteors across your screen =[. They could have made the battle graphics better...but...the graphics while running on the "map" are pretty good. Overall play outmatches graphics so much though, it's almost irrelevent to talk about them.

Sound - [*****]5 Stars. The music inside your town is actually pleasent to listen to. And your race determains what music will be played which I thought was pretty cool [i.e. Celtic music is played inside Elven towns etc etc.] Battle music is Okay, the normal "thrilling" music in most RPGs.

Hope this review was helpfull. Thx for reading =]

My favorite game of all time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 05, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This is simply the best turn based fantasy game ever. The races each have their own strenghts and weaknesses but balance very well. Worth getting for any fans of strategy games.

This game rocks

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 15, 1999
Author: Amazon User

In heros 3 you can play on many maps and go through fights of might and magic. with more city types to choose from, and 7 types of creatures with an upgrade uniqe in each one, its perfect for multiplayer! (Network Hot Seat Etc.)

Gift From The Angels... And Devils, And Dragons

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: May 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Heroes of Might and Magic III is the best Heroes game yet! #1 was okay, but it lacked upgrades, and #2 was great, but this leaves it way behind. With eight castle types, each with fourteen different creatures (seven normal and seven upgraded), sixteen types of heroes (two from each town), and three sides (good, evil, neutral), you'll have hours of strategic fun. The battle engine remains the same, where you and the army you form attacks other armies, towns, or just wandering monsters, in a turn-based fight. Now, though, certain soldiers have special powers over others. For example, Angels and Devils have hatred toward each other, so when one attacks the other, they inflict almost triple damage! Other hatreds include Giants/Titans and Red/Black Dragons, and Genies/Master Genies and Efreeti/Efreeti Sultans. The way you form armies is you build your towns, and you recruit creatures from their dwellings (Note: not all creatures are generated from towns, some you must find elsewhere). You build your town by finding resources and gold, then buying structures. You can recruit many different kinds of soldiers for your army, including Dragons, Giants, Griffins, Minotaurs, Vampires, Cyclopes, and Hydras! Some of the ways to play are 1) doing a normal stand-alone mission where you are given objectives, 2) doing a campaign, where you do many missions that tell a story, 3) creating your own mission in the map generator (a very cool touch), or 4) playing either 1 or 3 in multiplayer mode. The depth, graphics, and fun of this game are endless.

Watta Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: March 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I found this game to be very excellent.Howeveer, I must warn you that it is very addictave and will kep you up until the wee hours of the morning. Considering how fast the game movves on computers, I find that its graphics are very sophisticated an dthroughly enjoy every aspect of the game! I love the turn-based part because it allows you to multi-task and to play as a familly. I highly reccomend it!

The ultimate turn-based strategy game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got the demo for HOMM3 before it was released, and I played the same small scenario over and over again, waiting for the real game to come out. I agree with what another reviewer said, that we turn-based fans don't get a lot of good games to enjoy in a RTS world.

But this is definitely one of them. One of the best features of this games is the multitude of different creatures. And they are all actually different from each other, not just the same creature with different graphics. Most of the creatures have special characteristics that actually affect the tactics of combat. You'll still discover new strategies every now and then after you've been playing for months.

Also, look forward to some great character development. You'll be able to hire several heroes to lead your armies, each one unique, and you'll be able to customize them by chosing which skills they will acquire or how you'll distribute your precious artifacts among them.

The chess-like combat system is also a strong plus that has fortunately been inherited from the previous HOMM's.

Sadly the same can't be said about the sequel, HOMM4. I bought it as soon as it came out, but sold it shortly after, going back to my good old HOMM3. The new one just doesn't have the same "magic".

One weakness of HOMM3 is the excess of spells. If you're the type of player that likes more spells than you can count, you'll have a ball. But there are so many useless spells in this game! I am a definite veteran, and there are still some spells that I've never used. Seriously, who ever uses "Remove Obstacle"?? How about "Quicksand"?

But this shouldn't give you second thoughts about buying this game. It's like Star Wars, episodes 4, 5 and 6: several years later, it's still the best there is.

Improvement on a classic.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Each game in the HoMM series is remarkable for adding to the gameplay, the complexity and the richness of the original idea while preserving the basic playability and worthwhile strategy elements found nearly a decade ago (in the games' ancestor "King's Bounty"). It's extremely rare to find a sequel that improves on the original =without= rendering them obsolete. (HoMM I and HoMM II are today almost as playable as this game, lacking only the polish and convenience that comes from so many years of refinement.) This is only achieved by making the game different enough so that you have to change or refine your thinking about it.

HoMM III features more of everything that made the first two good, adds the necessary new twists to the basic gameplay (such as a tactics skill with allows you to reorganize your troops before battle, and an underground map) and brings the level of graphics up to modern standards. (Graphics have never been the hallmark of this chess-like game, though they've always had a unique flair to them. The graphics in this game are more modern but somewhat less uniquely stylized as a result.) As always, the music is both epic and catchy.

The campaigns are a little better fleshed out as well, though the game itself is still primarily a standalone chess/stratego-like experience. The "game is a unit" experience is somewhat offset by being able to use heroes from one game in the next game. (This feature, unique to this sequel, has a distinct impact on how one plays the campaigns.)

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