Heroes of Might & Magic III Complete, Windows, Mac and Linux, 3DO, 1999
When my parents bought my sister Emily and I the Heroes of Might and Magic Compendium in 1996, we were both hooked for life. When in doubt, we’d inevitably return to Heroes for guaranteed challenge and fun. This July, she purchased Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete, and though it’s her game, I play it just as much, if not more.
Heroes III Complete consists of the original game and two expansions, which means tons of campaigns and single-scenario maps. Everything is superior to its predecessor, chasing away any doubts that a sequel couldn’t possibly improve on Heroes II.
Graphics and Story
The Complete version of the game includes the original game and its two expansion sets, with the graphics and story remaining consistent across all three titles. Though made in 1999, the graphics still hold up almost a decade later, with the terrain, objects, units and character portraits showcasing an impressive amount of detail. Creature, terrain, and spell animations run smoothly, with the terrain animation in particular helping the maps to feel alive.
The story of Heroes III features multiple campaigns, each with their own protagonists. Each chapter begins with a brief introductory movie, with the remainder of the story and character development done through pop-up text boxes. The story is, however, only really there to justify and explain the game’s victory criteria, so I found it difficult to care about. But Heroes III isn’t meant to be story-driven; everything is about the gameplay.
Gameplay
Heroes III focuses on strategy though a combination of map exploration, resource management and the use of Hero, Castle and Troop units. Hero units command Troop units and wander the map, battling neutral groups of creatures, obtaining resources and collecting treasure. Enemy Heroes roam the maps as well, competing with players. Maps are often “won” by defeating all enemy heroes and capturing all enemy Castles.
Players typically begin with (or must obtain) a town, which generates creatures, gold, and a small amount of resources. They are also capable of defending themselves, with walls, turrets, and bonuses for defending heroes. Building structures or habitats that generate creatures requires the player to expend gold, along with other resources like mercury, sulfur, gems, crystal, wood, and ore. These resources are scattered throughout maps for Heroes to capture, and can also be obtained at a fixed rate by capturing and controlling mines.
Some actions are limited by turn-based days. Each day, players can move their heroes and build one town structure. Creature growth is also limited by days; each week, town structures and map objects produce a fresh batch. After moving, building, recruiting creatures, and managing their forces, control is given over to the opposing player. This is fine in single player, but it can cause online games to take an inordinate amount of time as you wait for your human opponent to finish their turn. I’ve had great success playing with my sister via LAN, but late-game battles get pretty darn long.
Heroes, Towns, and Creatures
The units in the game are broken into eight classes, which include different creature types, movement types and innate special abilities. The speed at which a unit is created is proportional to its strength, with weaker units being easily generated in great numbers and stronger units appearing less frequently. Different structures are capable of creating different kinds of units; A Castle, for example, creates medieval human warriors, griffins, angels, knights and clerics, while a Tower creates magical creatures like genies, golems, giants and wizards. Other structures include elven Ramparts, demonic Infernos, monster-filled Dungeons and barbarian Strongholds, among others, providing a huge number of units.
These structures can also create special Hero units, of which there are two per class: one focusing on “might” and the other on “magic”. Hero units can gain experience points and become more powerful, as well as being able to learn a series of skills and magic spells which allow the player to build whatever kind of character they want, whether a warrior, a leader or a diplomat. The physical diversity of heroes has also greatly increased over the previous game. Combat-oriented classes now have an equal number of female and male heroes. Non-human races also appear more frequently in heroes (goblins, genies, demonics, undead and more). However, humans are all Caucasian. Still, the game offers a great variety.
Enemy Tactics
Perhaps the greatest improvement is the enemy AI. The AI levels and builds creatures much, much faster, forcing players to develop a strategy for similar leveling early on. The “One Powerful Hero” technique I used to rely on longer works as well; enemy heroes are more daring and will attack even if the odds are against them. Pinpointing all the improvements seems impossible, but overall victory cannot be obtained easily or quickly. This doesn’t mean the game is unbelievably difficult (though some of the campaigns drove me crazy), but you may still wish to kick the difficulty down a notch until you’re more familiar with the game.
During battle in Heroes II, the AI targeted ranged units first, then those with the most HP. In Heroes III, I often found my ranged units ignored (or disabled with magic) and my weakest units attacked first. This strategy seemed especially common in an enemy hero facing great odds; opting as I do to destroy the most units, regardless of strength. This is a refreshing change for me; I hate losing even one ranged unit.
Because the game auto-saves after each round, I often take risks, and then if the outcome is horrific I’ll simply reload (Yes, this sounds like cheating, but why not make use of yet another feature?). However, unlike the previous installments, Heroes III enemies do not perform the exact same actions when you reload, so even playing it this way results in a decent amount of variety and challenge.
Artifacts
Artifacts in Heroes III are more diverse than Heroes II, but their potential for abuse has been limited. Rather than standard slots that allow players to stack ridiculous, imbalanced bonuses, artifacts now use equipment slots, with each hero able hold a sword, shield, wear a helmet and necklace, two rings, a cape, as well as hold four accessories. Heroes can also carry Artifacts that they aren’t presently using, allowing them to mix and match their equipment to suit oncoming challenges.
New types of Artifacts increase the weekly growth rate of creatures, prevent enemies from retreating in battle, grant the ability to cast spells, and increase creature’s movement speed. Other Artifacts belong to sets; once a set is collected, they can be merged into a more powerful Artifact.
When a hero is victorious in battle, they obtain all the enemy’s Artifacts. In longer games, players may have more Artifacts (or less useful ones) than necessary. However, these redundant Artifacts can be traded in at Sacrificial Altars for experience points, a great way to reward the player while keeping their inventory free of junk.
Overall
With all the customization, classes, Hero specializations, Artifacts, creatures, diverse maps and, well, just about everything, Heroes III is worth finding, and proof that old games can survive the ages. The depth of gameplay, even in single-scenario maps, is hugely addictive and always full of new challenges. Even after a month of trying out as many maps, campaigns, and classes as I can, I’m still discovering new things. With all the options available, gameplay possibilities seem infinite. Best of all, it’s completely affordable on Ebay!
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