Mighty Magical Power Heroes: Oldies But Goldies

The story follows the end of the events of Heroes 3 directly. With Gelu and Kilgor exchanging fisticuffs as to who will conquer the world hardest. Unfortunately those two idiots forgot that they had each legendary artifact swords of immense power, and when their swords clashed, the world blew up.

I am not joking

It actually blew the -fuck- up, look it up at the intro cinematic.

With the world now going tits up, magical portals opened in random locations and those lucky enough to be close to one, managed to evacuate into the new world. Welcome to Heroes Of Might and Magic IV folks, in which we do not have to care about the games that came before, because we blew up the world.

The story in of itself is quite interesting. Like with Heroes 3, the game is a mesh of random, independent stories that focus around a specific faction, each of them unique and interesting. From a Romeo and Juliet love story (*vomits*) for the Nature faction, to an epic tale of conquest and might for the Might faction, the game has something for every taste.

The two expansions the game offered however, have a different approach, as they have a more linear connected story to them.

All and all, story-wise at least, we have the good ol Heroes charm!

The game's graphics are an interesting subject for me.
Are they the high quality animations with amazing detail we have today?
Hell. No
Are they that, bad clunky pixel of the old school retro games?
Again. No

They are somewhere in between. You can -tell- they are old, but their colors, animations and detail are good enough to make this a charming and good looking game even for today.
What is more is the added detail the developers had to the terrain, with your city's terrain matching the one it is currently built, meaning that if you have a Nature town build in a volcanic area, then say goodbye to your lush forests in favor of lava rivers and volcanic terrain.

Another thing they managed to do, is to have each faction have their own separate ship, which may seem like a minor detail, but only adds to the immersion the game offers. With the 3D combat system in play here as well, it offers more variety into the tactical way you approach combat

The gameplay is similar to Heroes in the core concept. You control a city with a starting army, and the goal is to raise an army, level up your hero(es) and fulfill the objectives. Or just be like me and:.

The game approaches factions in an interesting way, similar to another game called Lords Of Magic.
This time, you have them split not into races, but instead factions with similar "approaches" to life. You have
Nature: with elves, animals and beings that tend to the natural habitate
Life: With Knights, Angels and priests, who defend the living and all that is good and holy (DEUS VULT)
Order: With wizards, genies, nagas, dwarves and halflings, creatures that study the practice of magic and the "order" of things (get it?).
Death: Devils, Undead, Necromancers and Death knights. If it likes to kill things and helps expand Death into the world, you have them here
Chaos: Your black dragons, orcs, thieves and sorcerers. The Chaos faction is for those who like to cause wanton destruction and mischief.
Might: Conan.

In addition, your heroes are no longer just some guy watching over the battle, giving stats to your units and doing the occasional spell, now they are units in on themselves, and you can either make them a support for your army, with various skills and spells that will boost its effectiveness, or you can have them become a force of nature, and lead the charge alongside your units.
This however may be disastrous, as your heroes, now units, are also susceptible to everything your units are exposed to, which includes violent, brutal and unceremonious -death-. This adds a very interesting dynamic to combat, as you will have to make sure that awesome spellcaster you have remains alive in order to cast those awesome spells.

Finally, the thing that is the most controversial of them all: Branching unit trees. Instead of having every faction have a set of units that you can upgrade to better versions of themselves, Heroes IV gives you the option to branch out and select between two different units every time you go up the military build tree. Although this offers flexibility, as you can mix and match the tiers to suit your needs/playstyle, the lack of an upgrade system gives you a bad taste initially. Considering that each faction in heroes 3 had 7 units, each with their upgrade, leading to a 14 unit per faction, here you only have 8 in total.

However, one can argue that your heroes are now units, and that balances things out in some way. With fewer factions and units to chose from, that is a significant downgrade, one way or the other.

Overall however, the new gameplay elements give out a more positive vibe making this game well worth the time

You cannot talk about Heroes Of Might And Magic without talking about the music.

With one of the best soundtracks in video game history, hands down, this version of the game, in my opinion is the one that made it happen.

With amazing orchestral pieces, paired with opera like vocals, each composed piece of music is amazing!

In addition, aside from the city music that always plays the same track in repeat, the other tracks would shift and switch depending on the terrain you are in so it is never repetitive.

Simply put: this is a game which you will -want- to always play with music on, regardless of the hours binged as you just play "one more turn and then you quit"