Heroes of Might and Magic
Review of Heroes of Might and Magic
The Dragon Bone Staff is a most powerful weapon. This staff alone has the power to defeat dragons handily. As a protector of the realm, you must set out to find this long lost artifact to save your Liege Lord, King Argus III.
For many years ago King Argus great ancestor had defeated the powerful and evil dragon known as Wyrm-Father. Now, generations later, one of the offspring has vowed to seek revenge on the King and all mankind. Malazak, the great and powerful Fire Wyrm Dragon, is plotting his revenge as he broods in his lair. Its up to you to stop him.
As if this wasnt a feat in and of itself, the King has been stricken with a fatal poison, and time, along with the forces of darkness, is doing its best to end your quest. Godspeed young champion!
Heroes has straightforward gameplay, and simple controls, which is a blessing for those yet uninitiated in the genre of strategy titles. From the beginning you can choose your hero. After that, the player has to assemble a group of armies, which can be acquired at the castle or recruited from locations on the field, to take with them on the journey. The goal is to find the Dragon Bone Staff and defeat Malazak before the king dies of his poison. Depending on the difficulty level, the time limit will vary. Finding the staff is done by capturing criminals, and discovering ancient artifacts. With each criminal and artifact found more of the location will be revealed.
Travel is done on a world map. The viewpoint can be zoomed in or out, but no camera rotation. I would have liked to have been able to rotate the world map; sometimes it helps out in discerning where to go next. There is a map overview which can be accessed by the R1 button. This overview is fairly detailed and helps tremendously. Monsters, treasure, castles, and other goodies dot the landscape. Battles are not random, but often forced. Passageways will often be tight, so that a battle is inevitable. This can be bothersome sometimes, but the experience and gold gained is very much needed if Malazak is to be vanquished.
When a battle ensues, a loading bar follows. Yeah, lots of loading, although it is not too long of a load time. Now, both enemy troops and the players troops are faced off on a grid of death. Taking turns by moving and attacking with simple button commands your armies fight to the death. Magic can also be used, but I often found a good old sword whacking to be quite effective. This process is repeated over and over until enough of the location of the Staff is revealed. Once the Staff is obtained, its party time with Malazak. You best be ready.
The world map is very detailed. Bright and vibrant use of colors, and great modeling of towns and roaming creatures, gives a boost to the games appeal. The best graphical feature of Heroes is the over-world map. Close ups of the creatures when recruiting them is also well done. When in the battle mode the splendor goes down a notch or two. Monsters and troops move with some quirky-ness, but are still fairly well built with average texturing. The fully maneuverable camera brings some extra life to the scene. Everything flows smoothly with the exception of a collision issue here and there while in battle. All in all the game is decent enough, but still could use a little more refinement in the visual department.
The soundtrack is as bland as you can get. Dont get me wrong here, the music is fitting to the period, but you can only hear the same two songs over and over so many times. The sound effects are a little better. Galloping horses, swishing water and other effects compliment the world map visuals. In battle, grunts, footfalls and other effects do lend an ambiance that brings the action to life, but sometimes they seem a bit too random and misplaced.
OUR PLEDGE: We promise that we have fully played 'Heroes of Might and Magic' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.
This review was written by Robert Gibson © Absolute PlayStation
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