I’m back!
It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?
Before I talk about the future, let’s take a trip back to 1996.
When I was a little boy, some of my fondest memories were spent at my Nana’s house at Coff’s Harbour (technically slightly inland, at Boambee). And of those memories, there is a subset of memories spent playing a turn-based high fantasy strategy game with my father an uncle, in my grandfather’s office, which smelt of printer ink, paper, and musty carpet.
God, I loved it.
The name of that game? Heroes of Might and Magic 2.
Eventually, my family lost the CD and the game was lost to me – until I found it on Good old Games for an almighty $10, and never looked back.
Heroes 2 (or HoMM 2 as I will use interchangeably through this piece) is often forgotten as its sequel, Heroes 3, is considered a masterpiece the likes of which we will never see again in our lifetimes.
I disagree. But I will certainly concede that New World Computing produced a series of games the likes of which we hadn’t seen before, and largely haven’t seen since.
Set in the fictional kingdom of Enroth, the plot can be entirely disregarded as window dressing. There’s a campaign, which puts you at the center of a power struggle between Roland, the rightful heir to the throne, and Archibald, a complete bastard – according to the introductory video, which lasts a minute and a half.
There are some terrible CGI videos to keep you engaged, but I played with the sound off during my lunch break whilst working from home, and barely noticed them – your mileage may vary.
The real draw card of Heroes 2 is its audio-visual design – and why Heroes 2 is the better total experience than Heroes 3. As Josh Strife Hayes is fond of telling us, graphics don’t last, but style endures – and Heroes 2 is dripping with style.
From the hand-drawn creature sprites, to the gorgeous overworld, to the immaculate castle infrastructure screen, and the beautiful chess-inspired user interfaces, there’s not a single ugly pixel in HoMM 2. Its visuals are a feast for the eyes – and whilst Heroes 3 might have more castles and more content, it cannot hold a candle to 2’s stunning visual design, complete with bright, sparkly colour palette – which evoked a lot of joy in my child self, and still does today.
But that’s not all – the game’s soundtrack gives the entire game a real high fantasy edge. You move from tense, to mysterious, to euphoric, and back again as you move between biomes in the overworld. Not just that, but each of the castle tracks feature a real McCoy opera singer, which gives each theme just a little bit of extra oomph. And whilst I’m not an audiophile, I have caught myself staying in certain areas of the map, and in particular castles, just listening to the sounds of the game.
I cannot say it enough – Heroes 2’s audiovisuals are phenomenal.
But it wouldn’t be a game without gameplay, so let’s talk about that.
Heroes 2 is a high fantasy strategy game. What does that mean? Well, it means you recruit heroes, manage castles, and command a wide array of fantasy creatures in your quest to defeat your enemies.
There are six different castles – three good, and three evil – who are led either heroes of might, or heroes of magic. Geddit?
Each castle has access to six tiers of creatures – one being the lowest and most useless, and six being the highest. These creatures are produced from dwellings, which cost resources to build. You get resources from having your heroes capture strategic locations on the campaign map, so you’ve got to be out there, pounding the pavement.
It is important to understand that Heroes 2 is as much a game of resource management as it is of clever strategy. It is easy to learn, but far harder to master.
Now, to be clear, there is not a lot of balance to be had in Heroes 2. Warlocks clearly sit on top of the pile once they get access their tier six creature, Dragons, and game-breaking spells like Dimension Door, and Armageddon. But that doesn’t mean all the other castles are useless.
As an example, Knights and Barbarians love small maps which don’t have a lot of resources, because whilst your greedy Warlock opponent is fumbling around for enough sulfur to feed their monstrous appetite, you’ve already built your tier five dwelling, and your veteran pikeman, master swordsmen, and champions are more than a match for whatever your opponent can throw at them.
Make no mistake however, a Black Dragon will defeat a Titan any day of the week, and no amount of Wizard propaganda will change that.
What really makes Heroes as a series stand out is its depth. Whilst the game isn’t complicated, there’s layers here. The attack and defence skill of your creatures. What spells you have access to. The morale and luck of your army, and the skills your heroes have learned – it's like a thousand tiny knobs that you tweak, one at a time, to gain a series of incremental advantages to defeat your opponent. And it’s so satisfying when you get everything just right.
Ultimately, whilst Heroes 3 might be a better game mechanically, Heroes 2 is a superior experience. It looks better, and it sounds better, which, in my humble opinion, is worth the trade – and you owe it to yourself to give it a go.
But Heroes of Might and Magic 2 was released in 1996 – so why, now, in the year of our lord 2024, have I brought you this morsel?
Well, that’s simple – fHeroes2.
Developed by a group of crazed eastern Europeans, fHeroes2 is a complete roots-and-all rebuild of Heroes of Might and Magic 2. I’m not kidding, they completely rebuilt the game engine.
There’s a million and one quality of life improvements contained within fHeroes that make the game much easier to play on modern systems – upscaled resolutions, hotkeys, window-in-window castle displays, and much more.
I particularly enjoy the feature which allows you to see how many enemy monsters will perish when you attack them.
There’s also a difficulty setting, so if you’re a wet willy like me, you can play on an easier difficulty – which, considering the AI has been vastly improved, probably feels closer to the original difficulty than normal. But if you’re a strategy guru, you will relish the challenge.
Maybe.
Catch you next time,
Vulkan
Critical Information Summary:
Review Platform: PC
Developer: New World Computing
Publisher: New World Computing
Cost (At Time of Publish): $15
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