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What a Joke

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: April 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've been a DIE HARD HoMM fan since day one. I have them all. I even bought Complete, when I already had Blade AND Shadow! This is how much money I've invested into this series. Needless to say, 4 was THE BIGGEST LET DOWN SINCE FINDING OUT SANTA WAS FAKE! Where's my random map generator!?! Where's my tile grid for combat!?! Where's my specialties on my Heroes!?! THAT is what you call a Campaign Editor!?! Where's this so called IMPROVED AI!?! 3do you have struck out in every way. The graphics aren't even that damn great! WASTE OF MONEY! WASTE OF TIME! Do yourself a favor, and save that {$$$]. This game isn't worth the shrinkwrap it came in.

What Happened? If it ain't broke don't fix it . . .

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Whereas I have been enthralled by the series up to this point and was seriously excited about the new 3-D screen and other updates, I find myself sorely disappointed by the final product.

Gripes:

-New adventure screen is a bit hard to see as the objects are all a pastel and tend to blend in a little with the pastel backgrounds. Also the adventure screen seems cluttered and tight, and opening up to the highest resolution makes everything too small to see, so you need to stay on about 800 X 600.
-The combat engine is in need of a boot to the head! What used to be cool animations in 2D has turned into some lame unit drawings who lumber around the field and take swings at each other. The spell animations have also lost something in the translation, as they seem very cheesy and amateurish.
-The pace of the game seems to have gone way down. Either the maps are too big, or there isn't enough to do, but sad as it is, the game is a little BORING in comparison to prior versions (III especially, which was great.)

Go back to the drawing board and put back what was taken out for the principle of progress. Instead of the next generation, we got the retro-Atari interface version . . .

Too bad . . .

This game...SAY NO

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, I bought this game about the day it was released. My brother moved away, and we used to have a lot of fun playing head-to-head Heroes III over the net. As you can imagine, we were pretty stoked when Heroes IV was released, because we were getting so good at III, it was becoming boring. When I looked at the box, it never occurred to me to check to see if it said "multi-player." I mean, after all, it was *Heroes*. I installed, it, and clicked "Multiplayer." Oh, gee! "We're sorry, this feature is not yet implemented, please check our website for updates." I was incensed! I do still check the site occasionally. They released an expansion. Before they even finished the core game! As far as I know, there *still* isn't a multiplayer update, over a year later, meaning there won't ever be...

HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC IS THE BEST VIDEO GAME EVER

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 18
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have literally 100's and 100's of video games. I am a video game fanatic and very picky. Ever since Heroes of Might and Magic (#1) has come out, nary a day has gone by where I don't give at least 1 or 2 hours to the platform. I have played Heroes of Might and Magic 3, 1000's of times, and find it to be the best game I have ever played. Heroes of Might and Magic 4 goes a step further. I am proud to have been able to have an advanced copy, and GET READY FOR A MIND BLOWER. This game (like the platform), literally takes the gamer and puts him in a different world. I personally forget I am human and live on Earth when I play this blockbuster. A must for the Fantasy Role Playing person, or RPG fanatic, and it blows, BALDER'S GATE 2 away, in that it is user friendly, has easy tutorials, right clicking assists in commands, total fun, never boring, EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE, and I predict 3DO will sells millions of this game. ... and I feel this game should give 3DO the boost and recognition it needs. WOW, I'm so stoked. I'm going back to play again. (I haven't slept since I got this game)
IT'S THE BEST GAME EVER MADE, I promise.

A whole lot of grapical garbage

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

...I sure don't think it is the greatest game ever.

The heroes and creatures (especially the portraits) don't look near as good as they used to. In Heroes IV, the Griffins look like vultures, the Thunderbirds look like pterodactyls, and Behemoths look like refugees from the Planet of the Apes. The Archangels and Titans don't look nearly as menacing as they used to, and the "talking head" Elementals are just goofy. The Dragons, Hydras, and infantry-types are OK, and the Devils look good, but the only clear improvement is the Vampire. I never liked the switch to the "Nosferatu" style. the Bela Lugosi look is much better.

The hero portraits are downright awful! They are small and flat compared to the Heroes III portraits. The castle graphics are small and generic and a fully built up castle looks like a random pile of buildings, nothing that looks like it really belongs together like the Heroes III castles did.

The adventure map is covered with graphic junk, everything brightly colored, moving, and making noise, so nothing stands out. The battle screen is probably worse with all the miscellaneous trees, rocks, bones, brush, and other garbage. Every stack has a number over their head and when you attack, damage and death numbers with little symbols appear and just kinda float around for a while. The message lines at the bottom of the battle screen in Heroes III was MUCH better. There is just too much visual litter for your army to really stand out.

(And where they will actually end up when you send them out to attack is anyone's guess because they left out the battle grid and indicators from Heroes III.)

And then there's the interface itself. What a giant step backward that is! Looks like something from the 80's! The Heroes III interface was clean and simple, all the icons compactly lined up on the left, easily playable at 800X600. No more. Now you get about half a screen to look at the world through at 800X600. The new interface is a big glop of graphic gibberish that takes up the rest. Like they went out of their way to make as bad a use of screen space as they could. I play at 1024X768 and even then there is a lot of space wasted in the interface. Every control and icon is oversized and surrounded by empty space! The interface is OK at 1280X1024 but the heroes and creatures get really tiny...

It just makes me mad that they took a game that looked and played as good as Heroes III and twisted it into this monster. Heroes III had a charm to it. The new one is cold, lifeless, and mechanical. They could have added the new features of Heroes IV and kept the look! What a waste.

as a first time player of the series...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been shopping for a game for the last several months to fill the void that the Baldurs Gate series left in me after I finished it. After much searching, I narrowed down my choices, and bought Heroes IV. I have not been dissapointed.

To a newb strategy player, the interface and tutorial are excellent, and provide ample amount of time for you to learn how to play, my hat goes off to NWC for making a game that can has a great "right click" interface (meaning that almost anything can be right clicked and a description will pop up of the object)
The graphics seem good from my point of view, although they are not as highly animated or dark as Disciples II.
I found the sound excellent, but choppy at times, it fit the mood of the game, and for the most part was not overly annoying.
Again I am new to this genre, as RPG's are more my forte, but it seemed easy to battle with enemies, and the battle scenes are well animated, and easy to follow and even include a "auto combat" feature for those who want to sit back and enjoy the action.
Although I have read reviews on the games waning difficulty, that can differ from person to person, and a veteran strategy gamer may find the games AI easy, i found it challenging at some points, and not so much at others, which seems like a fair balance.
The game is a RAM hog though, and I have needed to restart my computer to run my other programs, though I have never really minded doing this, and again this is personal preference as to whether that bothers you or not.
Though Heroes IV may have been released a little prematurely, with some bugs presenting themselves here and there, 3DO seems faithful with their patches, so we need not worry about the multiplayer issue or these bugs for long.
Overall, I am happy with my purchase, and time seems to fly when I am playing. The game gets 4 starts because of great game play, and the ability to keep you at the screen and want more even after you have quit for the night, but until patches and multiplay become available, that last star wont be filled.
Heroes IV, is a def time filler until Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights come out, and even then it will be competitng for my screen time. For anyone wondering whether to buy the game, I hope my review does help you.

heroes 3 much better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: April 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

in this version homm, all the creatures and heroes looks like little gi joe action figures so i don't like its graphics. but there are many improvements and additions to gameplay. you can fight with your hero! new skills, spells, artifacts and abilities added too.

Just to sum it all up...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: April 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

A couple of years back I stambled on HoMM2 and was instantly charmed by the idea of having RPG and chess-like strategy in one game.
After playing HoMM3 beginning to end a few times I wanted to buy the fourth part, and so I browsed the net for reviews and these are my findings:
The big gaming sites gave HoMM4 very high scores - about 9/10.
The reviews here however draw a different picture.
The things I like most on H3 were these:
- The effect the heroes had on the abilities of their armies.

- The spell system with the four elements and three levels of effectivness.
- Upgrading creatures.
- The "theme" of each town and each hero.
- The spells: hometown, dimantion door and fly.

None of these are in HoMM4. If by any chance someone from New World Computing is reading this:
It is "HEROES of m&m" not "heroes that occasionally join the battle of m&m".
Furthermore I read many complaints about the AI which was pretty OK in H3. Graphics and sound are subjective taste so just look at some screen shots - I like it.

After careful consideration I decided not to buy the game.
NWC spoiled a wonderfull game and that's a real disappointment.

The War & Peace of Games. BEWARE!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: July 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I am by no means a gaming expert, but I have had a mild addiction to Heroes 3 for a couple of years now. I was borderline "giddy" while driving home from the local came store with my new prize - Heroes 4.
6 weeks later, and I finally gave the thing away. It's not a bad or even mediocre game by far, but the problem for me is that I have a job. Meaning to say that any normal human with half a schedule cannot devote the time needed in order to get their hands around this goliath. It is so complicated and intensive and well, frankly too thorough. I'll stick to my old version. WHO NEEDS THE HEADACHE.
Bottom line - If you have your PhD in Gaming - this one's for you. If you're just a regular gal who likes to play a good, robust game a few times a week - get Heroes 3 - you'll love it.

The greatest disapointment. One step forward and two back.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: April 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Well, I have played H3 again and again and again and again ... it has practically been on my computer without stop from it came and till now. And I've been waiting for Heroes 4 the last year, in my mind making up all the wonderful improvements one could make, and then comes ... this. *SIGH*

OK, let me run through the new features, listing what is good (unfortunately short) and what is bad (terribly long) about the new HOMAM. I will often refer to H3, so if you do not know that game, this might not make much sense to you.

To start with an end, one of the central features of H has always been the magic, and the systems have been evolving all the way through. So one of the most important features is the new magic. Unlike H3's elemental system this is based on five alignments: Order, Chaos, Life, Death and Nature. They've removed the wisdom secondary skill, and now you'll only be able to learn spells from a school if you posses the appropriate secondary skill (more on these later). This is no bad idea, and they've done a fair job on dividing the spells, here's a brief overlook (on spell-themes):
Life: Heal, bless, mirth, prayer, guardian angel and the like.
Order: Slow, magic missile, ice bolt, teleport, blind, berserk.
Chaos: Magic missile, lightning bolt, fireball, chain lightn.
Death: Curse, raise div., sorrow etc.
Nature: Summon div. (from sprite to fairy dragon!), haste.
One step back is the removal of improved effects with greater skill (that is, expert slow affecting all opp.), now mass slow is a level four spell (sigh, back to H2!). Even worse, they have removed some of the most important spells: Resurrection, dimension door, fly, water walk and town portal (yes!)! This is really catastrophic, since this was one of the only ways you could manage a difficult map at hart challenge ratings.

OK, with the spell classes come a city: Life = castle, order = tower, nature = rampart, chaos = dungeon (!), death = necropolis AND inferno (more on this later!) and a no-magic town = stronghold. In every town you can build creatures up to level 4 (o my, another step back). You'll get 2 different level 1 creatures and have to choose one of two of the rest (no bad idea, though). The creatures are (listing the best known ones):
Life: Crossbowman + squire, pikeman/ballista, crusader/monk, champion/angel.
Order: Hafling + dwarf, gold golem/mage, gini/naga, dragon golem/titan.
Nature: Wolf + sprite, elf/tiger, unicorn/griffin, phoenix/fairy dragon.
Chaos: Orc + rogue, medusa/minotaur, efreet(!)/nightmare, hydra/black dragon.
Death: Imp + skeleton, cerberus/ghost, vampire/venom spawn, devil/bone dragon.
Might: Berserker + centaur, harpy/nomad, cyclops/ogre mage, behemoth/thunderbird.
In some cases (thunderbird, champion) you get 4/weak to compensate for lower strength, while the hyper potent black dragon only comes as 1/weak.
Several points are obvious. Some are less important, e.g.: Why separate efreet from devils, why not make iron golems level 1 for order (not dwarves.) etc. Some are really grave, though: Why not make the gold dragon a choice for nature (as a hyper potent alternative to the black dragons), why ...put inferno and necropolis into one!? There ought have been another evil alignment (unlife?) for the undead, with the dread knight as alternative level 4, and the power lich and alternative level 3 (both among my H3 favorites, now out of game). The inferno could have had the efreet and nightmare, have their gogs or pit lords back, and perhaps something like the Balrog (from Lord of the Rings) for level 4 (with a long-weapon fire-whip like the spear of the pikeman?). Anyway, this [doesn't work], especially because someone choosing the 'inferno' line will find himself with skeletons (undead) in his army. They ought to have realized, that they simply couldn't make three towns go into two successfully.
Another big minus about the creatures is: No creatures can be upgraded! Really, that's back to H1! That's another of the really bad features of H4; it removes a lot of the game play.

About the combat system and skills. The combat system is another of the major revisions. Your hero is now actively participating in the battle - walks on the battlefield and can attack and be attacked. If your hero is killed, your troops will carry him along, and he will be resurrected in the nearest town (or sanctuary). Also, now you can have your troops exploring the map and collecting resources (but not flagging objects) without a hero. Therefore, the primary skills have been changed, so that your hero has a melee attack and defense, a ranged attack and defense, a combat speed and a combat damage. These will not rise when you gain a level, but by visiting objects and by gaining secondary skills. This all works very well, and makes the 'might' heroes (i.e. knights, archers, barbarians etc.) much more useful. Note also, that you may now have two (or more!) heroes in an army; they will just use a creature slot. The heroes shares all gained experience.

Seems I've written too much, so I have to cut the review in two. See part two below.

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