Reviews of Heroes of Might and Magic II


A world of magic and fantasy, creatures created out of dreams. A unique game with fantastic graphics and sounds. The atmosphere of it is filled with sensation; the soundtracks are perfect if you just record them on a tape. I've seen very, very many games and there are not much like this. Command and Conquer, Warcraft II and Civilisation II aren't better! A game like this should be played by everyone!
Wrote by René from Holland. mrsjbult@worldonline.nl
What can I say about Heroes-2 ? Coolest strategic game, I have ever seen !!! 67 monsters ; 65 spells ; 80 artifacts !!! Heroes-2 is mix of strategic game (heroes) and PRG : heroes now can have 2-nd skills. In first part knowledge was number of spels of each kind, so, it was strange: how hero can forget spell if he has a book. In second part knowledge is x10 mana and different spells needs 1-30 units of mana and hero never forget any spell. And 2 new types of heroes and castles : wizard and necromancer ! wizard got best shooters and necromancer's troops are undead. extended battlefield ; upgraded troops - Heroes-2 is better at all! And, of course, MAP EDITOR ! Now there is 4 sizes of maps, 2 new terain types, you can edit events and lots of other things. You can make what you want! I like original maps. If you make one, please send it to kvny@ww.co.nz thanks. Valera Koltsov.
A HOMM II review by Sebastien Patenaude I hope there are not too many spelling mistakes :) (English is not my first language)

I just bought the Dos version of Heroes of Might and Magic 2 after playing a lot of Homm 1 and thought I would share my first impressions of the game with you (better late than never :) I have a generic 486dx/75 Mhz PC clone with 8 megs of ram, a soundblaster 16 and a Roland Sound Canvas.

First of all this is not a complete review, because I only completed 2 scenarios, 2 multiplayer games with my brother (hot-seat) and the first 2 scenarios of the good campaign. From what I have seen so far, Homm 2 is a much better and more complex game than Homm 1. In my first game, I was a little overwhelmed by all the new structures but I soon adapted. The graphics are extremely beautiful and I especially love the shadows. I was dissapointed at the monster graphics at first glance because of their small size compared to the original game, but when I made my first combat I thought that the better animation compensated this loss quite nicely. The cinematics were not as good as I hoped for. They mostly consisted of static screens with voice-overs. I was sure there would be more animation. Anyway, this is a minor point.

I won't go into all the different new features, because everybody here knows about them already. Let's just say that the magic system is a lot more involved and complex. The special effects for the spells are a sight to behold. I haven't seen them all yet ! There is a definite advantage to spellcasting characters. Also the castles are much harder to take. I got thrashed on my first sieges. In counterpoint, it's now really easy to fly the big creatures directly in the castle and the ballistas seem a lot weaker than in the first game. Anybody care to confirm this ? The combat screens are a lot larger and it has good and bad points. On the good side, you can maneuver your troops more and you have to use more different tactics to win. On the negative side, the range-strikers are practically impossible to protect and the 2-square attacks are much less useful than before.

The artificial intelligence seems tougher than before, but I have not played enough yet to really make sure. I also wonder if the AI cheats like in the first game. In my eyes this was a really aggravating point. I always played the original HOMM on normal settings because of this.

Concerning the sound and music issues, New World has created a great CD music soundtrack with some opera. It is very good for background music and I don't think I will tire of them very soon (I will post something about the differences between midi and CD music another time). The sound effects also seem better. When you travel on the map, it is very atmospheric because of the dynamic sound effects changing depending on where you are. There is no hissing or hanging notes, a very frequent problem with other games. Could somebody tell me if the sound effects come from the soundblaster 16 or from the CD ? The designers of HOMM 2 have solved my number one gripe with the original version of HOMM, the digitized soundtrack which made your CD drive constantly work. Great work there ! This is much appreciated :)

As for gameplay, it is more complex but not as much as I feared. One of the joys of Homm was its simplicity and intuitive rules. New World could have really dropped the ball there but they didn't. The additions to the rules like secondary skills are very enjoyable. The gameplay is very addictive and I absolutely love exploring the new maps and discovering the new artifacts.

On a technical standpoint, the game installed without any problem. I had a little problem with my creatures freezing a fraction of a second before hitting their opponents but I found a way to solve this. I loaded the game with a little smartdrive of 512k and with that the animation was fluid once again. My only other gripe was with the loading time of the castle screens which seem a little slow to me (2 to 3 seconds depending). This is probably a problem with my system who is not strong enough.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this is now one of my favorite games of all times. This is a truly a masterpiece of good programming and fun gameplay. I give it 96 %.

 


 

Heroes of Might& Magic 2: The Succession Wars Review:
By: Eric Arevalo
What can I say that has not already been said about this magnificent and beautiful sequel. It blows anything that there is out there. The gorgeous and beautiful artwork of the land of Enroth comes to life like never before. The programmers at New World Computing should be complemented on the fine job they have done as their painstaking work shows quite remarkably throughout the whole game. More than just a sequel, it is a new experience to be able to enjoy such a marvelous game as HOMM2. From new invigorating music to gorgeous artwork of the castles, HOMM2 has it all and more. More creatures, more artifacts, spells, events, scenarios,secondary skills, and much more. If you have not gotten the game, GET IT NOW!! Heroes of Might & Magic 2 is an experience not to be forgotten!!

This great game has the following:

*dual campaigns, to play as either Roland the good son , or Archibald the bad son, campaigns where decisions in one may affect decisions in another
*The campaign has gorgeous cutscenes with voices of Roland and Archibald guiding you along your separate paths
*2 new classes- Necromancer and Wizard
*secondary skills such as archery and pathfinding
*larger combat maps and adventure maps, maps can be twice the size of HOMM1
*beautiful graphics
*beautiful music with operatic quality
*close to 40 standard scenarios
*better map editor
*many more things to do on the adventure map now
*more artifacts- about 80, spells- about 70, creatures -about 66, and much much more............

 


Carl Chavez' Quickie HOMM2 review

Good:
* huge maps, up to 144x144
* more character classes and multiple skills for each such as Diplomacy (hire wilderness monsters) and Necromancy (create undead from defeated monsters)
* mana-based spell system
* lots more artifacts like Tax Lien (-250 gold per turn) or Serenity Pendant (resist berzerk spells)
* many more special locations such as Cities of the Dead (recruit power liches) and Xanadu (+1 to all stats)
* opera music (?!)
* up to 6 players on each map
* different-sized paint brushes for the Map Editor

Bad:
* DOS version crashes when heroes try to swap monsters and artifacts (stable otherwise, as far as I can tell)
* Win95 version crashes often, usually on scenario 6-Evil (Dragon Master)
* no random map generator in the Map Editor
* HOMM1 wrecked my right arm because I used the mouse for too many hours, now HOMM2 is wrecking my left arm :)


Cee Cee's Review

HOMM 2 will RUN Under DOS or WIN95 FOLKS (It comes with both HOMM & 2 games for a limited time) & at Best Buy in Wichita, Ks the price I paid was $34.95, HOMM 2 is truely the ULTIMATE! It is Breathtaking! Be ready to Build your Towns up Beyond your Expectations! HOMM 2 makes HOMM look like child's play. Very additive, you may not want to go to school or work, Oops, should I have said that? Comes with the famous World Builder Editor which I have not tried out yet! Can't wait for a Map editor, hurry someone!! Many wonderful changes ; New Spells and you now use spell points; Battlefields are larger with new creatures; 2 New Heroes, the Wizard and the Necromancer, boy that Necromancer is awesome! Heroes can now learn secondary skills and you can choose between 2 new ones at each experience stations. It is a complete new game folks, everything is different: Am I playing Might & Magic, or HOMM 1 & 2, or a little of it all? This game is just awesome, mere words cannot describe it! Watch out for the BLACK Dragons!!! BLACK Dragons??? Cee Cee Combs


Good game ...worth the price Even though the basics are the same..the game is different, I think you have to be more patient in the version #2. All in all a very good game
-panther

 


HOMM II is awesome and very addicting. Why complicate things by adding more text.
-Ken Lewen


I'm sure you have seen so many glowing reviews of this most excellent game!

The GRAPHICS! Everything about it just blows away the original HOMM. Towns, maps, buildings, monsters, and even heroes! (I cannot stop dreaming of Gwennyth the Knight. That is one seriously beautiful babe!)

The MONSTERS! Two new races, plus upgrades of old and new monsters which greatly adds to their usefulness, and ensures that all monsters (well, almost all) will be used by everyone from time to time.

The MAPS! More diversity in sizes, artifacts, treasures, camps, special buildings, and terrains, which all mean that this game will consume more of our hours for months to come, and we won't complain even one bit! (But our beloved ones will take care of that! ;))

The HEROES! New heroes in addition to the beloved oldies, (Have I mentioned Gwennyth?) new abilities and a new training features gets that mixture of comfortable familiarity and exciting novelity just right in this game. You also get to see them in the battle nonverbally expressing their dismay from time to time when things don't go well for their side.

The SCENARIOS! Varied winning/losing conditions such as amount of money, killing/losinga specific hero, time limits, capturing/losing a specific town/castle, finding a certain artifact, and establishing alliances can only mean more fun!

Now, we come to the ...

Campaign! The non-linearity and outcomes affecting the susequent scenarios makes this a great one, but there was one MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT, that most people wouldn't normally see, but really made me mad! And fearful for the future, also.

I'm talking about those "movies" describing how the sons came to this war of succession, and the prologue to each scenario/battle. The problem is this: it was entirely in speech mode, i.e. no text at all! This may be no big deal with you, seeing that every computer nowsdays has a sound card but it is to me. I am profoundly deaf, and has been since birth. I have played computer games since the early 1980s, and I'm sure there are several deaf and hard-of-hearing gamers like me, having been weaned on the old games like Zork, Eternal Dagger, Phantasie I-III, Ultima I-IV, Might & Magic I-III, etc., that used text only, or offered both options. We're a small but loyal and fanatic group of gamers, and lately there has been more and more games that have included at least one portion that was full speech mode with no texts so we don't get the same experience and enjoyment that others do, and some new games have been produced that left us out altogether, such as the 7th Guest, Heaven and Earth, and most especially, Myst! The campaign movies had the feeling of Myst to it and though the graphics were terrific, the speech mode drove me crazy!

Put yourself in my shoes, and all you see is that pretty clear crystal necklace blinking bluish white in a seemingly random pattern with no information coming across to you. Exciting, eh? I tried all sort of things to get it in text mode, but no luck. The rep for NWC was most apologetic, but could only offer me the transcript for the set-up movie about the two sons becoming enemies. That's only 1 out of at least 21 different movies in the game.

If someone would be so kind to put a transcript of all scenario movies in their page, I would be most obligated to that person, and nominate him as the patron saint of deaf gamers. ;)

I am fearful for the future, as I see more games trying to emulate Myst in their special effects, both sound and graphics. That HOMM2 easter egg advertising the forthcoming MM6 made me apprehensive because you cannot miss the resemblance to Myst in those scenes. May the designers of Myst who decided not to use texts be imprisoned in a sound-proof transparent box for all eternity!

Please help us out and demand a text option for all new games!

- John Paul Phillips


One of the best new features of Heroes of Might and Magic II is the addition of opera music played off the CD. This isn't some stuffed shirt opera, but a real mood setter with gothic chants and melodies.

Anyone familiar with Carl Orff's works will notice some striking similarities (if your not familiar, his greatest opera, Carmina Burana, was used in the movie Excalibur). It also has a feature to play the music without singing in the music or to play the music from midi.

-Jason Winslow