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Heroes of Might and Magic (sometimes called simply Heroes or HoMM) is a series of turn-based computer games developed by New World Computing, a division of The 3DO Company. The games are fantasy-themed strategy conflicts in which characters called heroes have pivotal roles as leaders of armies of mythical creatures such as harpies, unicorns, vampires, and dragons. There are currently five games in the series. All of the games are set in the same fictional universe as the Might and Magic series - except for Heroes of Might and Magic V, which is set in Ashan, an entirely new world.
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King's Bounty was the first game in the series, and is often referred to by collectors as "Heroes Zero". Although occasionally referred to as a "prequel", it is actually the original that all the others were based upon. The story of each installment in the series is different and they take place one after another chronologically. Heroes and some units can cast spells and gather armies. Through conquest, visitation to special areas, gaining experience or gathering magical artifacts, heroes become more powerful and useful to the controlling player. The way the series approached the strategic map, using generals (heroes) as the conveyor of armies, is considered its most significant contribution to the genre. Whilst the combat system once armies met was relatively simplistic, the strategic imperatives created by the generals system was unique to this series. Moreover, later games such as Rome: Total War clearly owe their more sophisticated strategic/combat dynamic to the groundwork laid by this series. Fans also point out that the game's spell system is the pre-cursor to the magic systems utilized by heroes in games such as Warcraft III. Further popular additions include map editors for extended playability, which greatly lengthened their life over the Internet with user-created scenarios and campaigns. Each successive game featured improved graphics in higher resolutions than the previous version. The series seemed to lose focus after Heroes of Might and Magic III and received a poorer critical reception. According to the Game Rankings website, the second and third installments of the series averaged reviews of 85.3% and 87.7%, respectively, while the fourth and fifth installments averaged reviews of only 79.6% and 78.0%, respectively. Heroes of Might and Magic V was developed by a new team at Nival Interactive and published by Ubisoft. On December 13, 2007, Ubisoft announced an online, browser-based, persistent version of HoMM V called Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms.
GameplayWhile many details of the gameplay of the HoMM series ave varied between the installments, especially with HoMM IV, the general formula has remained very intact. While overall Heroes of Might and Magic is a strategy game, it contains RPG elements.
Armies and HeroesThe player controls several armies which use movement points move about the Adventure Map as a unit. With the exception of HoMM IV, every hero has an army and vice versa; in HoMM IV, armies may contain from zero to seven heroes. Army can perform a variety of tasks on the adventure map, such as exchanging troops with other armies and castles, entering battles with neutral armies and opponents, and seizing resources. Armies have a certain number of slots, each of which can hold any number of a given type of creature. Creatures, which serve the player in battle, can be obtained in a variety of ways, although by far the primary way is being purchased at a castle. As they lead armies in battle, heroes gain levels, which allow them to give greater bonuses to their creatures and use more powerful magic. They can also acquire artifacts on the adventure map, which give additional bonuses. In all the games except HoMM IV, heroes had four primary skills. The attack skill boosts the attack skill of creatures in their army, which gives a bonus to damage based on the defense skill of enemy creatures. Defense skill boosts the defense skill of creatures in their army, which makes them more resistant to damage from attacks. Spell power increases the strength and duration of spells. Knowledge allows heroes to cast more spells, either through a spell memorization (HoMM I) or spell point (II-V) system. Heroes II introduced secondary skills. Heroes have can learn a limited variety of secondary skills with several levels of proficiency. Secondary skills give specific, miscellaneous bonuses to heroes and their armies. For example, skill in logistics increases the distance a hero's army can travel, while skill in leadership gives their army a morale bonus.
EconomyEconomic development centers around castles. Players may build a variety of buildings in the castles the control. Generally, these buildings can be classified as dwellings, which make an amount of creatures available for recruitment weekly (daily in HoMM IV); mage guilds, which allow heroes to learn spells; and defense buildings, to help protect the castle against enemy conquest. Hiring creatures and building buildings requires resources which come in seven types. Gold, the primary resource, is required to build all buildings and recruit all creatures. Wood and ore, second most common, are needed by most buildings. The secondary resources gems, crystal, sulfur, and mercury are rarer and needed to build many of the more expensive buildings and recruit some of the more powerful creatures. Resources may be found lying loose on the adventure map, but are primarily acquired by controlling mines, which grant the player a set amount of a given resource every turn. Efficiently acquiring resources and defeating the neutral armies that guard them is the primary focus of the early parts of Heroes games.
BattleBattle occurs between a hero and a neutral army, a hero and an enemy hero, or a hero and an enemy or neutral castle which may or may not have a hero in its garrison. Creatures in both armies are represented as "stacks," which act as an individual and take turns moving around the grid; the order of the turns depends on the speed or initiative of the creatures. Creatures may attack enemy creatures if they move adjacent. When attacked, creatures will retaliate with an attack of their own; however, they generally can only retaliate once per round. While creatures have various special abilities such as magic resistance or the ability to cast harmful spells upon attack, they can generally be classified into three types. Shooters may attack at a distance, but cannot fire if an enemy creature is adjacent to them; they will only be able to move or perform a melee attack for half damage. Flyers can fly over the random obstacles that litter the battlefield and can generally move far, making them good for getting close to shooters. Walkers must move around obstacles in order attack something in hand to hand combat, making them vulnerable to shooters, but are generally stronger than flyers. Thus, the game has a rock-paper-scissors system between walkers, shooters, and flyers, although it is weak, as creatures vary greatly in strength. Heroes participate in battle by granting bonuses to their creatures and by casting spells. Spells can be generally classified into four types: those they provide further bonuses to their own creatures or remove negative effects, spells that create negative effects in enemy creatures, spells that directly damage enemy creatures, and spells that summon additional friendly creatures. There is also a luck and morale system. A variety of effects, such as secondary skills, artifacts, and how many factions the creatures in an army come combine to give creatures an overall morale level, which determines their chance of receiving positive and negative morale and luck effects. Positive morale allows creatures to take an additional turn; negative morale causes them to lose a turn. Luck can double the damage a creature gives (or, in HoMM IV, halve the damage it takes).
PlatformsMost games in the series are available for Windows and Mac OS, only the third game is available for GNU/Linux. It was ported by Loki Software. The first two installments of the series were for DOS but later ported to Windows. The original game, King's Bounty, was released for the Commodore Amiga, Sega Genesis and DOS. Gametap began offering the first four games in the series over its pay service in 2006. The first and second games were also ported for Game Boy Color and are now somewhat rare. One unique version, made for the Playstation 2, had real-time movement and turn-based battles.
Heroes ChroniclesA spinoff series, Heroes Chronicles, was released for Microsoft Windows, featuring the same world and gameplay as Heroes of Might and Magic III. The story centers on a hero named Tarnum. Games in the Heroes Chronicles include: - Heroes Chronicles: Warlords of the Wastelands (2000)
- Heroes Chronicles: Conquest of the Underworld (2000)
- Heroes Chronicles: Masters of the Elements (2000)
- Heroes Chronicles: Clash of the Dragons (2000)
- Heroes Chronicles: The World Tree (free download when you buy any two chronicles, USA only)
- Heroes Chronicles: The Fiery Moon (free download when you buy any three chronicles, USA only)
- Heroes Chronicles: Revolt of the Beastmasters (2001)
- Heroes Chronicles: The Sword of Frost (2001)
Note: The last two were released in the USA and the UK together in one bundle called Heroes Chronicles, the Final Chapters (2001).
External links- Ubisoft Might and Magic website
- The Heroes of Might and Magic series at MobyGames
- The Heroes Chronicles series at MobyGames
- Freeverse Might and Magic (Mac port) website
- Age of Heroes - a fan site with over 400 pages of information about Heroes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the Heroes 4 card game
- Celestial Heavens - news, features and discussions about the Heroes of Might and Magic series (see Celestial Heavens)
| Might and Magic video games |
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| | Main series | Might and Magic · II · III · IV · V · VI · VII · VIII · IX | | | Heroes of Might and Magic | Heroes of Might and Magic · II (The Price of Loyalty) · III (Armageddon's Blade · The Shadow of Death) · Heroes Chronicles · IV (The Gathering Storm · Winds of War) · V (Hammers of Fate · Tribes of the East) | | | Spin-offs | King's Bounty · Arcomage · Crusaders · Warriors · Quest for the DragonBone Staff · Legends · Dragon Rage · Mobile · Dark Messiah · Heroes of Might and Magic Online · Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms | | | Universe | Ashan · Kreegan | | | List of Might and Magic titles |
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