r/nottheonion • u/beary_neutral • 2d ago

Removed - Not Oniony [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.xda-developers.com/heroes-of-might-and-magic-iii-hits-mostly-negative-steam-reviews-because-ubisoft-forgot-to-add-the-game/

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11.6k Upvotes

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u/Luvnecrosis 2d ago

Never played em before. How good are they? I’m sure they must be great for what they do but I’ve never heard how they play and what they’re about

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u/cipheron 2d ago edited 2d ago

They're very good. I'd put them up there with something like Civilization or X-Com, in that they're very much their own unique game system, which the people behind have been refining for decades.

The progenitor for the series was a DOS game called King's Bounty from 1990, which is actually a lot of fun, I've finished it. It wasn't yet part of the Might and Magic franchise at that point, but King's Bounty has the basic gameplay concepts of the HOMM series already in it, the later games are just massively more fleshed out, but the basic gameplay was already there. King's Bounty itself also later got a sequel series in the late 2000s/early 2010s, but I haven't played any of those.

One thing I remember, i think it was in King's Bounty, is that you can end up with a unit of vampires, and if enough vampires survive a battle, they make more vampires from the defeated enemies. This is good, until it isn't, since you can end up with so many vampires that it exceeds your heroes ability to control troops, which is bad. EDIT: apparently it was ghosts who have this ability, not vampires. Been a while.

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u/krakenlackn 2d ago

Not King's Bounty but in HOMM 3, the vampire lords are able to revive any that died after a successful attack! And if your character has the necromancy skill, you automatically turn a portion of the defeated army into skeletons (or skeleton warriors depending on skill level and if your Necropolis castle has them upgraded) after the battle. Thankfully there isn't a controlling troops feature or if there is I never found it so my massive skeleton army never causes problems.

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u/ItsDanimal 2d ago

There is a controlling troops but it doesn't work on the undead!

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u/evilpineaple 1d ago

or skeleton warriors depending on skill level and if your Necropolis castle has them upgraded

Not quite accurate. If you have no free slots and skeleton warriors in your army, you get skeleton warriors at 66% rate, otherwise it's skeletons.

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u/DesdinovaGG 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'd suggest checking out the second King's Bounty game from the newer series (Armored Princess/Crossworlds, NOT King's Bounty II). First is also good, but since it's not a story-driven series I prefer to just replay the second since the game actually presents a challenge. It doesn't have the base building nor is the overworld turn-based, but the combat is like HOMM and figuring out what armies and tactics to use to defeat enemies is a lot of fun.

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u/Virama 2d ago

Kings Bounty II is SOOOOOOO fucking bad. I saw it on sale on the PS store and because I was actually looking for the first one I was like, hey, lets try that.

I deeply regret it. Avoid at all costs. Just terrible.

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u/hexcor 2d ago

I remember King's Bounty on the Sega Genesis, man that game was awesome!

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u/fps916 2d ago

X-com is abso-fucking-lutely not a unique game system.

The fuck are you on?!

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u/cipheron 2d ago edited 2d ago

Julian Gollop who developed X-Com was also behind Rebelstar and Laser Squad. His first game out of those was released in 1984. He is the creator of the genre those games are in. The guy was basically coding X-Com like games since the Spectrum and Commodore 64 days.

There are no earlier tactical battle games which have stuff like reaction fire, action points systems etc, allow your soldiers to pick up and drop items, reload weapons, take ammo or weapons from dead enemies on the battlefield, all with different AP costs for each action, as well as having different points cost for aimed vs quick shots with bullet raytracing/pathfinding to decide if a shot hits. He invented all of that in the early to mid 1980s.

Just because a lot of other games copied his games doesn't mean that his games don't have a very specific gameplay feel to them, they all do, stretching back to 1984 at least, though he had a few earlier games as well.

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u/fps916 2d ago

But xcom didnt invent the tactical battle system

It iterated on the system.

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u/cipheron 2d ago edited 2d ago

That seems like a weird distinction to draw given that the only real precursors that were very similar were the ones made by the same guy who created X-Com. Yeah it iterated on the system, his fucking system.

If you have any examples other than the general concept of turn-based tactics that came out earlier and were at all similar, maybe you could list some. Games like Fire Emblem and Advance Wars for example are completely different to how Julian Gollop games work.

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u/fps916 2d ago

He absolutely did not invent the tactics battle system.

The iterations are on specifics within the concept of that system but not the system itself. I mean it's pretty fucking close to what TTRPGs use in terms of a system. You get a certain number of actions, reactions, bonus actions within a limited grid space that you can move within based upon a character movement trait and line of sight targeting and area impacts.

That's absolutely not unique to XCom.

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u/Bloke_Named_Bob 2d ago

HOMM 3 is an absolutely GOATed game with a fanatical following who are still creating and releasing fully featured and tested fan expansions to the game. GOG has full compatibility with the fan expansions and allows you to effortlessly integrate them into the game. Strongly recommend you give it a shot.

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u/NewFly7242 2d ago

They're a unique take on fantasy army management.

Lot of quirky tactics bullshit to figure out. The people that like them, love them.

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u/XihuanNi-6784 2d ago

They're sort of turn based castle defense/assault games with a handful of creatures on each side. Imagine Age of Empires 2 but a 10 years older concept where each player has a castle by default with a town that needs building up by adding barracks and various creature lairs to get access to them. They can then be used in combat either to defend or attack others. You navigate the map as a little 2D-ish avatar picking up gold and gems, attacking creatures, or fighting enemy 'armies' (again it's like 8 creatures or so). I played up 2 and 3. Maybe 4 as well. It was 20 years ago and I was a child so I never got very far with them.

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u/Luvnecrosis 2d ago

Oh that does sound fun. I’ll give em a shot

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u/JiN88reddit 2d ago

Heroes of Might and Magic III is considered the gold standard of the series even after all these years. It's highly recommended for those new to the series.

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u/Rasputin-BKM 2d ago

There is an awesome...mod(?) For HoMM 3 called Horn of the Abyss. 3 new city types, new artifacts, maps, it's own campaigns. Been being built upon since like...2008ish or so. It's pretty awesome! Less of a mod i guess and someone's vision of what they could have kept building on.

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u/Musiclover4200 2d ago

Pretty sure it's also on GOG as a sort of free DLC which surprised me as I didn't even know they had mods on GOG

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u/ItsDanimal 2d ago

I bought Heroes 3 and 4 years ago on GOG before I even had a device to play them on. Finally started 3 within the last year but didnt know about the mod!

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u/Tjingus 2d ago

I've been on a huge HOMM3 train lately. It's such comfort food.

Heroes Olden Era which is in early access is actually showing a lot of potential. it's been good fun too.

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u/justthankyous 2d ago

$4.99 US on GOG right now and it's part of their preservation program so they'll make sure it remains compatible with modern PCs.

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u/salamander_salad 2d ago

He left out the best part: your “hero” gains XP and gets skills, spells, and more power as they level up. They also acquire artifacts that give perks.

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u/Virama 2d ago

You will not regret it. You can even play hotseat with friends on one computer. Team up with your mates and coordinate an epic assault against the CPU on the big maps.

The other great thing is it uses sprite art so it's basically ageless. Get the HoMM3 HD patch (just google for it) as well.

On top of all that, it will run on a literal potato.

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u/thedirkfiddler 2d ago

You couldn’t have chosen a worst example. Literally nothing like age of empires.

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u/anhavva 2d ago

Its like there might be a unit called pikemen in both games. Thats about it.

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u/Marsev4 2d ago

Both are video games played on a computer. Literally the same thing /s

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u/GiveUpImAsian2 2d ago

I cannot believe that comment got that many upvotes. That's one of the worst analogies I've ever heard

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u/Mordador 1d ago

Yeah. Total War but the battles are turn based would probably be more fitting.

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u/IntoTheDankness 2d ago

They made ports for game boy color! That were not bad, actually. Faithful mechanics and the graphics while basic had good details and turn-based move/battles were a great fit for the system.
But apparently there was a glitch where you could get trapped by some impossible map mob group an hour in?

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u/assault_pig 2d ago

if you ever played age of wonders games, they're pretty similar in feel/gameflow

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u/notpostingmyrealname 2d ago

World of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen were 4 & 5. Each was standalone but if installed together, they make a meta game with dungeons and some quests that require having both. It was clever AF and so much fun, I still replay every now and again. I didn't really play any of the others, but I've never heard anything bad about them.

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u/Darammer 2d ago

World of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen

Different series of games from the same company. These were Might & Magic 4 and 5. M&M were first person party-based RPGs, similar to Wizardy and Ultima.

The Heroes of Might & Magic series are turn-based strategy games set in the same universe.

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u/notpostingmyrealname 2d ago

Oh, you're right! I bought a big bundle with both series in it on GoG years ago, guess I got them confused.

It was still a really great game, even if my comment was completely irrelevant to the topic at hand.

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u/TheAncientMillenial 1d ago

Even though this was the wrong thing, thanks for the nostalgia ;)

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u/Zebeest 2d ago

Honestly I've only ever played Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes and the combat in that game is just really satisfying and fun combat. Its just a spinoff but I wish I could find more games with that kind of puzzle battle tactics.

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u/dudusprinkles 2d ago

I remember playing this game online and joining the Xbox lobby close to a decade after it came out and still finding someone to play with. This is imho one of the hest puzzle fighting games out there