Few titles deserve immortality badge in gaming industry. Games that are being actively played 20 years after their release are very rare. HoMM3 was developed by 3do/new world computing in 1999. Game has 2D graphics, subpar even for that age, but everything else is great. Turn base strategy game, supporting up to 8 human or computer players, pitted against each other on two layer map, fighting for supremacy and control. This legendary game had two expansion packs. Vanilla game is named Restoration of Erathia, and expansion packs are Armageddons blade and Shadow of death, forming Heroes 3 Complete, pinnacle of its genre.
Town and Hero types
Every player picks one of 9 fractions, and every fraction has its native town type. Towns are divided by their alignment: Castle, Rampart, and Tower represent forces of good, Inferno, Dungeon and Necropolis forces of evil, and Stronghold, Fortress and Conflux are neutral. Every town has two hero classes, might and magic, for example Necropolis has Death Knights and Necromancers. We have 18 hero classes in game, and every class has at least 8 individual unique heroes with specialties. Heroes have their primary numerical statistics for attack, defense, spell power and knowledge, and up to 8 secondary skills which they gain with levels. Towns have creature dwellings, economy buildings, fortifications, mage guild, and special fraction unique wonder. Wonder is built with grail, and provides huge bonuses, in terms of additional gold, troops, and hero enhancement.
Terrain and movement
Towns have their native terrains, which means faster exploration. For example Tower's natural habitat is snow, and if hero has exclusively Tower's troops, he or she won't suffer movement penalties. Fortress creatures are beasts and lizards, and their native terrain is swamp, which they conquer much faster. Roads on the other hand help heroes travel further each turn. Visiting special map locations, like stables and ponds, provide extra movement. Movement system is one of great aspects in the game, every individual unit has its own speed, which can slow entire army down, using zombies and dendroid soldiers on distant missions can prove to be fatal mistake. H3 is popular for travel chaining. Game is designed to track heroes movement fatigue, but not unit fatigue, which means that properly positioned heroes can exchange troops like a relay in a race. This rule made game extremely skilled, where players who have multiplayer experience, can beat single player veterans every single time, even if they have years and years of single player experience.
Turns and weekly events
Turn for every player is actually 1 ingame day, and when every player finishes his turn, next day begins and every hero has his movement points restored. At end of every week, towns have new units available to be purchased, with possibility of special astrological events, bonus available troops or PLAGUE! Yes, dreaded plague would not only stop growth of creatures, but also halve all available creatures. Months of specific creatures, usually beasts, double their count, and place groups of wandering monsters around the map.
Units and combat
Diversity is trademark of heroes, with hundreds of available units and their upgrades. They all have their unique statistics, and most of them have unique abilities. Every town has unique mix of unit types, which work well together. Fliers, walkers and shooters have their specific role in combat. When hero meets hostile entity, combat takes place on hexagonal matrix, similar to chessboard, and is also turn based. Single hero leads the army, improving basic unit statistics in various ways. Hero can also cast spells, divided by elemental school of air, earth, water and fire. Air is good for speeding units up, occasional lighting bolt, and best adventure map spells. Earth is good for defensive buffs, and slowing enemies, with few heavy hitting damaging spells. Water has great utility and situational spells, along with good buffs. Fire relies mainly on offensive area of effect spells.
Campaign
Game has a great story line. Erathia is filled with conflicts, events and twists. Heroes have their independent lives and agendas, their paths interlace from time to time, and player has chance to lead both antagonists and protagonists. It just sometimes feel like they made few too many expansion campaigns that revolve around newly introduced artifact combinations.
Music
Heroes 3 music is just spectacular. Town themes suit their respective towns and even cause shivers.
Composed by Paul Anthony Romero & Rob King. Uploaded by youtube user Corkes, thank you for that buddy!
Themes for terrains are authentic and soothing, listening them for hours wouldn't bring any discomfort.
Tournaments and multiplayer
Best games have simple basic rules, so even a child can play it, but infinite skill cap. Heroes are among them. Its still very popular in Russia and Eastern Europe, with tournaments still taking place. They have 20-30 participants, single tournament is played for months, and single game takes several hours to finish. Game is ancient, but still better than every sequel after it. It is not perfectly balanced, few additional rules are added over time and enthusiasts implemented those with custom unofficial patches along with support for higher resolutions. Balancing issues are mostly banning diplomacy, necromancy amplifier, reduced number of dimension door casts per turn, and red rush. Game stayed in hearts of gamers forever, defying all reason, proving that graphics isn't everything that matters. For all people who want to revive their memories H3 HD edition on steam is on -66% sale until July 5th, costing 5.1 euro.
non-affiliate link : http://store.steampowered.com/app/297000/Heroes_of_Might__Magic_III__HD_Edition/
Trivia
Cheat codes for this game start with nwc (new world computing) and end with The Matrix movie reference. Both game and movie were made in 1999. You shouldn't use them, i mention them only because i like the movie:
nwcredpill - instant win
nwcbluepill - instant defeat
nwcagents - gives blackknights
nwcthereisnospoon - gives spells
nwctrinity - gives archangels
nwcneo - level up
nwcmorpheus gives moral
nwcfollowthewhiterabbit gives luck
nwcoracle - reveals map
nwczion - all buildings
nwcnebuchadnezzar - ship from matrix, heroes become tireless.
Thanks for reading, and expect more gaming articles from me in the future. Until then, GL&HF