You knew it was coming... favorite Heroes game

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Yeah somebody made one long ago. Let's make a new one.

Mine's H3 closely followed by H2.

H1 will always have a special place in my gaming heart because of its unique graphics... but I don't play it anymore though.

[Chai26]

HOMM 3 surely, i still remember the cheats even to this day!
played it a lot when i was younger

[asandir]

how long was the poll length on this poll? cause I don't remember voting and I think the poll is closed? unless I'm going crazy of course

[ThunderTitan]

unless I'm going crazy of course

Seems to be the case...

I vote H2... only played it 2 or 3 times before getting H3, and never more then a week or two coz i sucked, but it forever impressed me. H3 lost some of the spirit while gaining features, and H4 was just never polished properly.

[gravyluvr]

When Heroes of Might and Magic came out, it was the greatest "one more turn" game I thought I had ever played. But The Succession Wars and the new features that were added into HOMM2 created the eternal love affair with the series. HOMM was the fairy tale but HOMM2 was the Epic Adventure. Since then I've enjoyed playing all of the games (still working on HOMM5) but none of them quite replace that "lost" feeling of playing HOMM2.

[Pol]

HOMM 3 surely, i still remember the cheats even to this day!
played it a lot when i was younger

OK, let test it

What is "nwcthereisnospoon" "nwcagents" and "gosolo"?

And what about

"nwcgrail" or "wogeyeofsauron"? Hmm....

*Mine favourite is Homm3. - Still.

[Ya5MieL]

ATM H3.
If ToE fulfills my expectations, H5 will have my vote.

nwcbluepill.

[Omega_Destroyer]

Heroes 2 by far.

[HodgePodge]

Voted Heroes II

I loved that game so much, I couldn't stop playing. I was a total addict. Heroes III is wonderful too but even though Heroes II wasn't my very first Heroes game, it is the one that most enchanted my imagination.

I really love Heroes III & Heroes IV too!

[Sir William S Titan]

H3 would have to be my favorite. It's the one that got me into Heroes of Might and Magic.

[Alamar]

I've got to go with HoMM 2 without much reservation. The improvements over HoMM1 were dramatic ; the art was very nice ; and the story was more compelling than anything that I've seen in any HoMM before or since.

HoMM 2 simply wins by a huge margin. H3 is next ; H1 is next. I'm still undecided about H4 & H5 but I'll give H5 next with H4 bringing up the rear.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I've got to go with HoMM 2 without much reservation. The improvements over HoMM1 were dramatic ; the art was very nice ; and the story was more compelling than anything that I've seen in any HoMM before or since.

While the H2 story was simple, it was the two main characters that made it interesting. Roland and Archibald are still, to this day, the coolest and most interesting characters ever made in the M&M universe (IMHO). Sandro comes close.

Who didn't love to read Roland's letters in MM6 (the ones in the manual and the "lost" one in a dungeon) , and their large roles in MM7?

[Darmani]

Roland and Archibald are still, to this day, the coolest and most interesting characters ever made in the M&M universe (IMHO).

I haven't played M&M 6 or 7, but I definitely don't get that impression from just playing HoMM II. As portrayed in the cutscenes, Roland is really just a stereotypical valorous knight. Luckily, Archibald is several steps above the stereotypical cartoon villain, as shown by the line "You'll find I can be a very generous lord, if you are loyal."

Anyway, despite any problems with the story, HoMM II is still easily the best in the series.

HoMM III's driving philosophies were "more is better" and "Bring in the mainstream." They traded 6 interesting and unique factions for 8 bland and similar factions, each with a fairly-weak level 1 and and extremely-powerful level 7 and absolutely no variety in upgrades, making it a worthless feature. They traded the artifact system of the first two games and the tough strategic decisions (e.g.: If I take this artifact, any artifacts I capture will be lost) that must be made for the current system and the easy tactical decisions that must be made (It's the end of the day and I'm fairly safe, so I'll put this Sulfur-generating artifact in active position). They absolutely made the upgrade system worthless by making a manually-upgraded Giant cost the exact same as a Titan. They added more skills and more spells, at net loss. In return, HoMM II's charm was lost with H3's inferior music and art. Still, it's probably second best.

HIV had AI issues, and some changes (flaggable windmills, heroes on the battlefield) were just bad ideas. Remove the AI problems, and this would be third.

HV was buggy, unbalanced, and was far removed the feel of H2 and H. I'm not quite sure how to describe all it's problems, or the what makes its feel different, but one cause/effect is shown by how castles, rather than being often found in clusters of several, are always standalone and far between. The slowness of the game (even on this beast of a PC), far from superficial, also greatly contributes to the problems with feel. I had no desire to get HoF as a result.


HI: I don't remember it. Haven't played since my PC ran Windows 95.

[AngelEyes]

H2...it just had that special 'magic' to it. Superb game.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Ok, sorry folks but there's a bit too much H2 praise here and as much as I liked playing it in '96 and '97, I have to be the devil's advocate here and point out some of H2's flaws that make it inferior to H3.

H2 has crap balance - Warlocks castles dominate everything. Don't tell me that "early build" excuse, Warlock creatures are good at all levels. Warlock creatures led by a might hero > everything. Case closed.

H2 has crap AI - I've seen opponents drop stacks of powerful L6's to pick up a few rogues. In combat the AI CONSTANTLY feels the need to attack my shooter stack no matter how weak, and prefers to cast Disrupting Ray over better spells like Blind, Slow, Haste or Meteor Shower.

H3 factions and upgrades are NOT all boring and pointless. Since all creatures can be upgraded, it's bound to happen that some of them are generic, but many of them add interesting abilities to make them quite different units. Cerberi, Master Genies, Efreet, Harpy Hags, Master Gremlins, Wraiths, Magogs, Arch Angels to name a few. And all factions have something unique and interesting. Some of H2's upgrades are generic as well (many just add HP and speed!).

Saying H3's factions are generic compared to H2 is an opinion, not a fact. Despite being closer to each other in power (compared to H2's Knight town vs Warlock town), each town plays quite differently. And H3 is the only game to date to have a Swamp faction.

H3 is MUCH easier to balance/modify than H2. H3 has extractable data files. H2's data is all hard coded. It's doable (thanks to hex editing) but it's awkward and not as complete as the data files. I made my own balance patch (that took years to refine) and H3 is as a smooth as it's ever been.

H3 is not just "more of the same". It added genuinely interesting new features, like:
- Heroes keep their Exp, Skills and Spells through campaigns (one of H3's best feature over H2, IMHO)
- Underground.
- Magic schools (ok, some did not like this feature, but I do, since I balanced it using data files, fire magic is better (town portal is now a fire&earth spell) and mass spells much more expensive now)
- Much, much better map editor.
- Custom campaigns.
- Much better designed town building cost/dependency overall . (No more stupid wells, town halls increase income, all growth is increased by a percentage = much better).

Anyway. I agree that H3 music is garbage though. That's why I replaced it with MP3s ripped from H2 and MM6 music CDs!! MM6 has a few grass themes, dungeon themes, desert themes, wasteland themes etc

[PhoenixReborn]

I agree with Undead Half Orc.

And anyway all the heroes games have crap AI.

_____

I prefer the style and art of heroes 2 to any of the other 3 3do games. However, I am the lone vote for heroes v. Logical reasoning about quality etc. aside I haven't played any other heroes game as intensively over such a long period of time. Heck I even play multiplayer online, something I haven't done with any other heroes game.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

And anyway all the heroes games have crap AI.

Heroes 1 and Heroes 3 have decent AI.

(I have yet to play a turn based strategy game with what I'd rate excellent AI... though M.A.X. come close (1997 strategy game with huge militaty complexes­ and tons of units)

[ThunderTitan]

though M.A.X. come close (1997 strategy game with huge militaty complexes­ and tons of units)

I think i played it once... but never found it again after. So many cool games from back then that i only played briefly...

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Well, the problem with M.A.X. is that after you've played 2-3 full games, that's it, there's not much reason to play again after that (except against some friends, good luck finding them); you've seen anything the game can offer.
- All units and buidings are available right off the bat
- All 8 factions can build exactly the same units (a few stat changes is all)
- No matter what map, all games play the same exact way every time.

[ThunderTitan]

And i'd have like the chance to find that out for myself.