Welcome to the climax, peak, apogee (or whatever else you may call it) of the HOMM post series. I'm fairly certain (now try to figure out whether this is a sarcasm) that all of you have been through the earlier ones and absolutely adored them, but still I'm just going to drop the links here:
We can be heroes just for one day, even for more than that, possibly...
"That's It For The Other One" and now lets look at the "Original"
Taking a more serious turn and and we're almost at the peak!
Yes, I do know that there are more HOMM games after the third one and please note that, this is only my opinion and I will be grateful beyond words if you manage to make me change my mind. Any other game after HOMM3 hasn't brought anything worth while to the franchise and any attempts which were taken, while being ambitious - still failed quite hard. I do appreciate that some may say HOMM4 was also good and that is fair enough, however anything that came after HOMM4 causes terminal illness and is responsible for at least 90% of all depression ever, period!
If you ever "actually" played HOMM3, you would know why I am so enthusiastic about it, if you haven't and just happened to stumble on this post, please do try it by all means! It would be absolutely amazing to see you people sharing your thoughts and anything else you have to say here in the comments. My personal suggestion for HOMM3 is the phrase you can see in the title, enjoy it together with friends!
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Hard to tell where exactly to start! Well, similar to the older posts I will be comparing HOMM3 to the 4th one even though I am not planning a post about that one.
Anything that you may have loved in the game's predecessors can be found here but bigger and brighter. Hero developing is taken to a new level, giving you a huge skill and spell selection to work with. I will not outline any of them specifically myself, but if you have any builds/strategies in mind, let's have a chat about them!
Now about the factions you can play with, there are 9 official ones (counting all expansions).
There are several more, from fan-made expansions, some of which are quite well made to be fair, these fan-made expansions is what I want to make my HOMM bonus post about. If you know any cool expansions that you feel passionate about, please drop a line in the comments!
The artwork and design have actually taken the series to a whole new level, while previous games were less serious in terms of the feeling they gave, which partially is explained by the technical limitations of the time - HOMM3 truly stands out. Here's an example of how one of the cities looks like, which is actually a work of art on its own!
Same can be said about the soundtrack which is, umm, well, music to my ears?!?! In any case if you played the game you know exactly what I'm on about, the soundtrack is solid and features music that sounds good in general, not only in the context of the game.
The maps now are bigger than ever, you can have friends over to play an XXL map that will take all day, if not more. XXL isn't even the limit, some expansions may allow even bigger maps. Exploring such big maps brings a unique sense of discovering something truly secret and unexpected, not to mention that there may be an equally big underground part!
If you look to the right - this is an example of an XXL map - considering the same game might feature an underground part of the same size, you can get the idea of how much exploring opportunities can a single map offer.
I haven't yet got into the combat section, yet you can already see that compared to the older games, HOMM3 has it all and on a scale that makes it satisfying as hell. Know what? I did mention that I was going to compare it to HOMM4 in this post, but I think I will drop this idea, since that comparison wouldn't just make any sense at this point.
With all the improvements and new additions, you now have to think a lot more and think well about what kind of play style you want to adapt and what goal you want to achieve. The map, despite being a lot more detailed still has a similar layout and general idea behind it. Moving on the map also has some new "things" to it - you would need to plan a good route, as moving on roads allows you to go further while taking your turn. You can always go off the road of course to explore the unknown and try to find an artifact or any other point of interest, which there are hundreds of. Certain skills would also be there to aid you in moving on longer distances on or off the roads.
As in HOMM2, buildings can also be upgraded to supply better units, but it's not only unit dwellings, but cities in general. The more you invest into your city, the more the city provides you with gold and various other resources, which makes the investment potential of cities even bigger and makes them a more valuable strategic point to defend.
Looking at the combat system - you would also find it quite similar to the previous game, yet here it has (as a lot of other things) a much larger scale, with some smaller nuances that you need to consider, like for example unit placement.
I would also like to touch the campaign subject a bit - it is a well written story that references and is referenced in some "Might and Magic" games of the same time, which fits the game into this universe as good as ever.
HOMM3 to this day has a huge follower-base, with people playing it all around the world. I personally see this game as a timeless thing, you know? Like chess - nobody says "ah, chess is such an outdated game!", HOMM3 gives me the same feeling, as there is an infinite number of ways how a single map can play out and I feel that this game isn't going anywhere!
This is the last "main" entry in this post series, although I will post some more about noteworthy fan-made expansions that, unlike in most other cases, only made the game better!
As always, it will be amazing to have all of you share your thoughts/opinions about this or any other HOMM game. So please, if you have anything to say, do share with all of us! I am really hoping that after reading this at least one person will get some friends over and will have a good old HOMM session and my goal would be completely fulfilled if at least one person who never before played any HOMM games will pick them up now, hopefully HOMM3 :)
Oh, and be sure to check out this super long gameplay video.
Thanks for your time, peace out!