Heroes of Might and Magic IV

3DO’s Heroes of Might and Magic series has always been one of the best Turn-Based Strategy games. It’s first 3 games have been terrific and you can expect that same experience from the 4^th game in the series, Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

The new game begins with the destruction of the old world and the creation of a new one. There have been lots of changes made to the 8 towns from the earlier series. First off, there are 6 new towns to choose from-haven, necropolis, asylum, preserve and stronghold. Some of the towns from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 have been mixed together (like the Undead and Inferno). Another change is the way you make structures to recruit new units. When you buy 1 unit structure, it closes another. For example, you can recruit either Monks or Crusaders from 1 town. You can’t recruit both of them. Though this lets you make lots of different combinations of units there’s a downside to it. You only get to recruit 5 types of units from 1 town which is a disappointment to lots of us. The upgrading feature has also been eliminated. The earlier series let you upgrade all your basic units to a higher level like the Arch Angel which is an upgraded version of the Angel. This feature is missing from the 4^th series.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic changes in the game is the way heroes are used. In the new game, the heroes fight with their troops instead of just standing at the back and casting magic. This system works perfectly. A few arrows easily dispatch an inexperienced hero while a high level hero can fight hundreds of enemy units at the same time. Your hero also advances differently in the game. There are 37 advanced classes that you can take your hero into from cardinal to assassin. What your hero becomes depends on what skills you choose as you advance in levels.

The 6 campaigns in Heroes of Might and Magic 4 are extremely long and puts more focus on the story. Long bits of information appear from time to time telling you more about the story and giving you details of what’s happening. The stories are well written and the new campaigns are more than just a group of scenarios put together.

Though there are lots of improvements and additions to the new game, there are also some changes that create a negative effect on the game. The new combat engine is one of them. The new view removes you from the battlefield and puts you behind your troops. All the nice animations from the earlier games are missing and have been replaced with quick jerky movements. The old grid that allowed you to see the possible movement area for your troops is totally gone, creating some confusion when moving your unit.

The only Multiplayer option is a hot-seat mode. If you click on the multiplayer button, it tells you that an update will be available shortly that allows LAN and Internet game. There is a very small number of individual scenarios. Only 31 maps but more than half of those support 1-2 players only. There’s only 1 extra large map in the game.