Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars

"Turn-based Fantasy Strategy at its very best"

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 (Heroes) is a superbly balanced, wonderfully designed turn-based strategy game that never fails to deliver.

While the story to a strategy game is not the most important element, Heroes has a reasonable one. King Ironfist is dead, and there is a war for succession. Archibald is the evil son and if you choose to follow him in the campaign you will command the evil forces of Barbarian, Warlock and Necromancer in your quest for the crown. Roland is the good son, you will command the good forces of Knight, Sorceress and Wizard. The campaign itself is a fairly hard one, definitely recommended after you have familiarised yourself with the game first.

Heroes offers a campaign, quite a few standard maps where you choose your 'race' and penalties/bonuses and fight against the computer. It also has a few multiplayer options, like hotseat, tcp/ip and IPX.

In a standard game the computers difficulty ranges from easy to expert. The problem with this was that if you choose expert you begin the game with zero resources. An option to have computer difficult at expert and resources at standard would have been very nice. Surprisingly, the computer can be quite a challenge at expert.

There are six 'races' to choose from: Knight, Sorceress, Wizard, Barbarian, Warlock and Necromancer. These range from power-houses to absolutely useless. The game begins in a castle, and you must decide what to build and what troops to recruit. Each day you may build another structure in your town, so choose wisely. Certain buildings allow for troop recruitment, for example the swamp allows the Warlock to recruit 2 hydras/week. Some buildings are race-specific, for example the library for the Wizard allows the mage guild one extra spell/level. Lastly there are a few buildings that all players share, except for the pub which the Necromancer does not receive. Some of the 'troop' buildings may be upgraded, which in turn allows the troops to be upgraded. There is a slight tech tree, nothing to heavy though. The highest troop buildings usually need a few other buildings to be created first.

Resource management is rather fun. Each day the castle will provide 1000 gold pieces (1250 if you have built a statue). If you manage to find a gold mine you will earn an extra 1000/day. There are six resources, wood, ore, sulphur, gems, crystals and mercury. Constructing buildings may require some, or all of these resources. Each mine for these resources provides one unit/day,
except for the wood and ore mines which provide two units/day.

The world map has a number of interesting places which may help or hinder your hero. Some increase stats, or allow the hero to recruit low-level troops. Others may cause him to fight or temporarily decrease morale. Wandering monsters are another obstacle and is what sets this game apart from other turn-based games out there. Wandering monsters are completely neutral and all players must destroy them before being able to pass whatever place they may be guarding. Sometimes, if your army is particularly fearsome, the wandering monsters may choose to join your side, or run away in fear.

Every time a hero gains a level he is presented with a stat increase (either Attack, Defence, Spell Power or Mana) and the opportunity to learn a new skill or enhance an existing one. There are 16 skills ranging from pathfinding (negates movement penalties over harsh terrain) to Estates (Hero provides revenue each day) to Necromancy (rate of Necromancy is increased 10%/level). Each skill can be improved from basic to expert. A Hero may only learn 8 of the 16 skills so some planning and strategy must be used here also.

Combat between hero's may take place on land, over water or in a seige situation. In a seige, castles offer protection and if you build turrets can offer a slight amount of offensive help. Building a moat can slow down the other player and sometimes this is the difference between victory and defeat. The attacking player has the use of a ballistae, every turn this is fired towards the castle, hopefully smashing walls so that their troops may enter the castle.

Magic plays an important part in this game. There are a wide variety of offensive, defensive and special spells on offer. Most of the battle spells are fairly straight forward, but the special spells are another thing altogether. With these you may teleport to the nearest town, warp across the map, see where mines or heroes or artifacts lie, determine whether you can beat a wandering monster and more.

Artifacts are quite handy, and are scattered throughout the
land. They offer stat bonuses for the most part, though some have other, more obscure advantages. Also, there are two bad artifacts, so be careful. Around the map the player
may stumble upon an obelisk. Each obelisk reveals part of a
map to the Ultimate Artifact. The Ultimate Artifact can only be reached by digging where the map specifies, and whichever player gets there first wins the prize. These artifacts are usually quite amazing and can turn a losing player into a powerhouse in a matter of turns.

The games graphics are nice little sprites, everything is bright and clear. The music is gentle and soothing, sometimes you may even hear a little bit of opera!

The game controls are wonderful, with hotkeys for almost every function. Everything is very intuitive and easy to learn, most information can be found by simply right-clicking on the item.

This game is a true strategy gamers delight. While it may not seem as 'hardcore' because of its fantasy bend and happy graphics, this game truly is a masterpiece of strategy and should be experienced by any fan of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/01, Updated 07/31/02