My childhood. This is what games should be. Its magic to the soul. The style, the music, the feel, the in-dept feel to it. These were the glory golden beautiful days of gaming.
HOMM2 was one of the first "real" PC games I ever got to play. Right after Civilization 2 - that was the first one for me. I spent so many days and nights of my preteen and teenage years playing this game, it will forever be part of my more pleasant memories of that time :D And here's a more detailed version of my opinions on the game -> ruclips.net/video/4qmIdmL1TbY/видео.html
"You saw an elf in that game it looked like a cute elf and I mean cute as in with pointy hat...." lmao for some reason I didn't see this guy going there, but yeah this game and the first one really were just fairy tale come to life. Extremely pleasant to look at.
Lovely presentation of your favourite game. I've grown up with the Heroes series as well and hold them close to my heart. My favourite has been number three, but my all time favourite soundtrack has been the Heroes 2 Grassland theme. I think it as a child became the definition of how a mystical fairytale should feel. One small detail I strongly disliked about the ubisoft games when they started coming out was also related to presentation. In the early Heroes games you were shown some text based exposition when you for example come across an obelisk, choose between gold and XP, or when you found a dancing imp. A few lines, like taken from the page of a story book, to describe what is happening and why you get XP. In the newer games you simply get a popup informing you you've gained some XP or something else, without you having a clue as to why or how. The adventurous feeling isn't there.
Thank you Sir, now I don't feel alone. I also love al the sounds and graphics, along with the basic simplicity of it so much more then the 3rd, or any so far in the series. Might and magic II is my favorite. It stands alone.
@Ben The Goose the expansions are retarded But Im replaying the Base game right now. The pirate campaign has suprisingly good writing! I was suprised to see such depth of characters in a strategy game
I'd personally have to say that Heroes Chronicles was the best in the series but that's just splitting hairs as it was based off of the HOMM3 engine. But HOMM2 was what got me into the entire series (M&M included) and it will always have a special place in my heart, next to M&M6 as being the entry point for me. Same with AOE1 being the entry point for AOE2 and beyond.
What I like about HoMM2 is that the overland map feels less cluttered. It felt more natural, when compared to HoMM3. In that game (which I also like a lot) there are so many buildings, lootables and creatures it makes it feel so crowded! In HoMM3 your hero almost feels like a garbage collector. ;) Also agreed that HoMM2 looks and feels more whimsical. More fantastical. It still has a nice charm.
I must agree. This is by far the best game ever conceived. I have been playing it for my entire life, that's how good it is. I don't like three or four quite as much as I probably should, but maybe it's that I'm not as good at them as I am at two.
Narcoleptic Axolotl Yes, this. Heroes III has its own charm, but it isn’t nearly as magnetic as Heroes II. I first played the Broken Alliance demo from a PCGamer disc in ‘96 when I was 6, and must’ve gotten the Compendium (bundled with the first Heroes, as well as King’s Bounty) for Christmas in probably ‘98, and always come back to it in a way I don’t with any others in the series. It really doesn’t get any better than this game to this day. Sure, it doesn’t have as many features as III, but I feel like it doesn’t really need them. It’s balanced and paced beautifully. I can just sit back after a long day and just immerse myself in the game.
I've passed down my love for this game to my oldest son. He's 14 and has been playing it for 5 years now. He plays broken alliance ALL. THE. TIME. your reference to it made me chuckle. Great video!
I have always been a fan of number 2. And mostly mainly for the same reasons as yours. But I do like the variety of number 3 lol. And I recently started 5, after 12 years when I first played and hated. While some of the character designs suck so hard and them shifting to War hammer/Warcraft style is annoying but the game really grew on me. I love it. But I'm just playing the campaign atm.
I'm 100% with you - HOMM3 is the objectively best GAME, but HOMM2 will forever be my favorite. I remember going over to my friend's house when I was a kid and playing this game hotseat. His mom used to make maps for fun and they were actually genuinely awesome. Great memories... I still play HOMM2 all the time.
Never owned this one as a kid, only the third. I had the demo though and I played it at least 30 times as the knights before I realised you could change starting faction, mind blown!
aaah the golden age, good old times. Age of empires, doom, warcraft 2, lords of realm 2, red alert and heroes 2 on an old pentium 133 :) We didnt have much games on disk back then, probably about 5 to 10 the most, since free space was about 1GB and half of it went into windows 95. So we gave ourselfs completely to these games, and it was glorious. Here, to put it into perspective, imagine ur eating pizza like every day, and u can eat like 15 different types of pizza. After like 120 pizzas it would start to feel bland and kinda meh,and satisfaction would be gone. But imagine u were on deserted isle for 4years and u get rescued and eat pizza then for the first time in so long. It would feel soo damn good. Well thats how those games felt for us back then when we didn't had much around to compare, to distract us, or to spoil us, so our focus was on point. Mind that there was no internet back then, there were only some game magazines to buy so u can know what going on and which games are currently in. Its hard to put it words for someone who got introduced into series with some of later installments but those 2-3 years of having heroes 2 only and nothing else, shaped the feeling of what heroes is for us, and trough that feel we measured other heroes games that came after it, as if wer trying to relive some of that old glory lol. Though, i love them all, well except after 5th. Those derailed totally^^
For the Combat Theme 3 alone this game deserves multiple awards! But I prefer 3 over 2, I consider Homm 3 one of the very few almost perfect games out there.
While I truly love all the HoMMs (except 6-7, gross) I'm actually a part of the small but very vocal minority that thinks HoMM 2 actually IS the best game in the series... and with FHeroes2, this opinion is now a borderline fact :)
I so agree with you about Heroes 2 being magical by its graphics and sounds. You should check the Succession war mod of heroes 3. its basically a mix of both game so you get the magical feel of heroes 2 with the gameplay of heroes 3. Still in development but very promising !
This was the first Heroes of Might and Magic game I completed though I had owned the original for more then a year before it came out. My first girlfriend bought me Heroes I as a late birthday present (For some reason I thought it would be more romantic if we just exchanged gifts on her birthday instead of her getting me one on mine and me getting her one on hers) But she dumped me via answering machine while I was out of state for grandad's funeral a few weeks later so I didn't want to play a game that reminded me so much of her for a long time. I played the Gameboy Color remake of Heroes I in high school but didn't actually the PC version of Heroes I again for more then seventeen years and had played most the series except VI and VII in the gap.
I still remember, when trotting around one time I ran into a Sphinx (!!) asking me who is the True King... bonkers and beautiful, like only American Fantasy can be. Somewhat rough and not exactly fit-like-a-glove comparison, but Heroes 2 is the Hobbit to 3's Lord of the Rings. No doubt simpler and less ambitious in scope and reach, but more charming for those exact reasons.
My fave title of this sort os "Disciples 2" (Mostly for its music) but HoMM2 is also up there. Really unbalanced but that gives it more variety. M&M6/7 and HoMM3 had their own [campy/silly/goofy] charm.
Great review. This game will always have a special place in my heart. In spite of it was very fucking hard. Very very hard. And unforgiving. Call it a love-hate-relationship. I guess we humans have a special kind of loyalty to bittersweet things. Greetings from Germany!
Old video, but its strange that you're so focused on heroes 3 not having the fairytale look, where as I've always thought the complete opposite. To me heroes 3 is such a perfect blend of fantasy and fairtytale, its beautifully made
"Heroes 3 is not good looking" hahaha you are insane, heroes 3 doesn't stop selling copies to this day because also of it's graphics that aged well because it isn't a 3d graphics style 2d graphics and pixel art age well despite of 3d that changes constantly
Hi there! I appreciate your overview - yet I think you missed something very profound that backs up your points even more; and I can see why you missed it, because during your video you are playing all the combats on the quickest speed. Here's a tip: slow the combats down to normal speed, and listen. More than any other game in the series, the sounds of the units' moving, attacking, being hit, and dying are very distinctive and have lots of character. Give yourself time to listen to the very classic and awesome sound of the Vampires crying, "Blah!" when they attack; listen to the Zombies go "Ugh!" when they get hit; let every clang of a Crusader's walk ring out; and listen to how satisfying it is to hear Boars die. Nearly every unit has its own scream, and if you hear those sounds without looking at the game, you can clearly identify every single unit and picture what's going on, because everything is so clear in precise. Heroes 3 has this too, but it's not as refined. In Heroes 5, the units have sounds that are very realistic - you mostly hear what it sounds like for a Minotaur to get hit there - but in Heroes 2, you hear a Minotaur's *scream*. This level of detail makes taking time with Heroes 2 worth doing, and you can cherish every moment: moreover, it's *memorable* - you'll carry those sounds with you everywhere and the memories you invoke. If you hear the same sounds from Heroes 5, you'll barely be able to identify them and won't remember them, either. ENJOY this detail - games don't have this level of *character* and charm anymore - turn DOWN the speed.
Agreed 100% To me, the pinnacle of that simplistic design comes from the wolf. The light pattering of its footsteps across the battlefield, that deliciously sharp sounding bite as it attacked, and its whimper when it got hit. All iconic representation that really sold the feel of the unit, and it was visually, a very simple looking wolf. It didn't need an excessive growling looking face, blood, or a bunch of accessories to show its strength. It was just a wolf, done simply, and done well. Also hard to ignore that every creature "looked" its power. There weren't any super strong units that "looked" weak, each tier had a great progression of perceivable strength just by looking at them. When you came across a new unit, you just "knew" how strong it was at first glance. It just all felt.. right
Hundreds possibly thousands hour in front of Heroes games 1, 2, 3, 5.Was ok 7 but buggy and crash on my computer about half into the game. I had the original.
HoMM2 was always my favourite. I'd love to see game as complex as HoMM3 but with nice hand drawn pixel graphics of HoMM2 (because, let's be honest, third game cut many corners with pseudo-3D animations). Now, with the release of fheroes2 1.0.0 it's time to replay second game again.
heroes 5 was the best for me. Heroes 6 had an ok story but was kind of weird at gameplay. Heroes 7 is ok so far, better than 6, it reminds me of homm 3
I'd agree, as I've fist known H3 and then H2 and H2 looks way better. See, monsters in H3 are amazing and all, animation really accurate (Cerberi and HellHounds walk in actually very dog-like manner, the way they should!) but H2 beasties are much more heraldic in style. Their pictures are bigger so I take better look at them. When you compare H2, H3 and H4 beasties you see a graduate deterioration of heraldic pose and look. Sceneries of battlefields are priettier in H2, that forest-like one is my favourite. Just take a look and compare H2 and H3 dragons. Sure, matter of taste, and teh H2 tastes better.
It was like exploring a new place. Finding a new room every time, trying to figure out if you've been there before (couldn't figure out where the building that gave archers went when I played it the next day, not knowing that Wizard and Knight had different units). It was beautiful. There was time back then, because it was over 20 years ago. Fewer responsibilities. More time to enjoy a game.
still have the old CD-ROM back at 1997. i have to say the expansion pack Price of Loyalty's opera soundtrack is not good as the Succesion Wars and it's too bad that the latest GOG version had the PoL sountrack installed instead SW.
Heroes 3 for the gameplay is superior to Heroes 2 but specially due to sound, music and graphics i always find Heroes 2 is more attractive and my wet dream is someone to take Heroes 3 gameplay and use Heroes 2 graphics and sound. That would be perfect game for me.
This game is not "dark fantasy enough", don't have many units as 3rd one, and the most important part -> IT DOESN'T HAVE RANDOM MAP(s) GENERATOR(which BTW you din't even mention in your vid). I would say: Don't even bother to make a Strategy cRPG if you not gonna include that option.
Yes, everything looks plastic and souless, designers nowadays have the pressure to "like" everyone so they dont involve too much feeling on what they do anymore. And 3D kind of killed the magic aswell for this type of games.
Oh god yes. This game's presentation is magical. Anyone who knows anything about aesthetics and design will see this game as a work of art. It's the only entry in the whole series where the game is both pretty too look at but also clear and not cluttered with rubbish details that just get in the way all the time. Other entries are a mixed bag of these properties - first one is clear but ugly. third one is clear and... well it's not exacty ugly, but the 3D renders look cheap and artificial in spite of details and animations. and the graphics are not exactly consistent. Some of them feel like they belong in a different game.. 4's visuals are absolute garbage for the most part. It really shows that they had almost zero budget and time for visuals. 5 is where the game got really pretty but the abundance of details made the screen very busy and it was often difficult to tell interactive elements from the background. It was the first game where you couldn't tell what buildings you have in your town just by looking at the town screen. It was so useless. And the building selection screen was ugly as hell. It's a shame becuase the visuals were very nice overall if not for the detail level that made everything merge into noise. This game at least had some artistic directon, because 6 and 7 were textbook examples of bland, generic and boring. Not mentioning the online spinoff..
It's so sad the game doesn't have a proper remake. Even gog version with fheroes mod hurts my eyes. Literally. It looks great, but every time I play it - my eyes become sore and fill with blood. That's a problem for me with many old games actually. I don't know what causes it, but my guess is framerate and saturation.
Wau - Nice presentation! Heroes III is always gonne be the best heroes game in my book but however - you surely naled it that moving to fake 3d graphics in Heroes 3 some magical thing was lost and same happened with the music Cheers!
Earthworm Jim Son, you again? What graphics? We don’t take about graphics here when it comes to old games. At the time of release each of these games had the best graphics. HOMM 2-3 are the best in the series, and with 3DO this series died for me, which is why I never cared for Heroes 5 or up.
I’ve grown up with 2 and 3 when they came out and still I absolutely ADORE 7!! Played more than 200 hours of it! In fact, to me 7 and 3 (with hd mod giving lots of quality of life features) are the best Homm games! Followed by 2-5 and last 6 because of all the bugs but it had the possibility of being a good game. I never really played 1 because I play for the campaigns and story so not so much of that in the forst one ;)
Used to had similar impressions when the 3rd came out. It took me some time to get used to its "feel". But now, the 3 with its expansions is almost exclusively the only one I am willing to play even today after 2 decades. I have tried to come back to the 2nd one recently and game play felt kind of meh. Still I like its aesthetic, music and overall feeling most, I think. The 4th just disappointed me despite it brought some interesting new ideas. Maybe I havent give it enough time. In the 5th I went through one campaign aka invested enough time but I still dont liked it at all. It felt so boring audiovisually and game play wise even more. And the 7th looks like standard modern generic game aka it is much more fun just to look at than playing it.
Storeslem The biggest issue it has. Really effects the replay value. What's really annoying is it had one in the map editor, but it couldn't be used on the senerio screen like in HoMM3.
You talk about graphics and presentation, yet your video doesn't even have the right aspect ratio, so it looks objectively bad. By the way, I'm a huge fan of Heroes 1, 2, and 3. All 3 games are amazing and the games after have been awful.
+unacomn No, you can provide a video file with the correct aspect ratio flag in the video stream header flags or the container-level flags. Also, this is obviously upscaled. It wouldn't have 1080p or 720p if it wasn't.
It was recorded full screen from a 1080p monitor through Shadowplay. For a correct aspect ration I would have been stuck with the default resolution and worse upscaling. I would have tried the windows version of the game, but that one screwed with the pixels.
+unacomn You actually played it like this, and it wasn't stretched in post? Why not just use the setting in your nvidia driver settings that maintains the correct aspect ratio in full-screen? Also, why use shadowplay and not OBS with NVENC so you have more control over the recording? I'm sorry, but I know too much about this for your excuses. Also, I'm just trying to help. If you want to record a beautiful game, please do so beautifully.
I'm playing thru homm3 complete + hd mod + hota and HChronicles.. got to say.. i thought the game i liked was homm3 in childhood, but it actually was homm2.. how come homm2 literally looks better than homm3? the artstyle is better imho
I would say that H3 has better aesthetics but H2 is prettier (as it is more cheerful and colorful). It is kind of a taste thing, the guy from the video prefers it prettier, we prefer it a little bit darker. But both of them are melancholic & kind of touch your soul. To me H2 is a 9 but H3 is a big 10.
HoMM 3 more aesthetic, HoMM 2 more worm atmosphere. And HoMM has its own balance. No matter how mutch army in town for recruit. All you need is fight for gold to win.
H3 had embraced 90s gritty realism art style, whereas H2 went with fairytale book art style with stark contrast and vibrant colours rather than muted colours with harsh lighting.
The best thing in the entire series is in this one... the “bleh” sound from the vampires 🧛♀️😛
I can’t even tell, which one is better, 3rd one or the 2nd one…To this day my though regarding this changes from the one to the another one.
My childhood. This is what games should be. Its magic to the soul. The style, the music, the feel, the in-dept feel to it. These were the glory golden beautiful days of gaming.
Those sweet memories! I think I was 10 or 12 years old when I played it the first time.
what a fantastic game. this game is my childhood on a disc. I miss tge old days :\
This game was insanely good, it's music aswell was really well done.
HOMM2 was one of the first "real" PC games I ever got to play. Right after Civilization 2 - that was the first one for me. I spent so many days and nights of my preteen and teenage years playing this game, it will forever be part of my more pleasant memories of that time :D And here's a more detailed version of my opinions on the game -> ruclips.net/video/4qmIdmL1TbY/видео.html
"You saw an elf in that game it looked like a cute elf and I mean cute as in with pointy hat...." lmao for some reason I didn't see this guy going there, but yeah this game and the first one really were just fairy tale come to life. Extremely pleasant to look at.
Lovely presentation of your favourite game. I've grown up with the Heroes series as well and hold them close to my heart. My favourite has been number three, but my all time favourite soundtrack has been the Heroes 2 Grassland theme. I think it as a child became the definition of how a mystical fairytale should feel.
One small detail I strongly disliked about the ubisoft games when they started coming out was also related to presentation. In the early Heroes games you were shown some text based exposition when you for example come across an obelisk, choose between gold and XP, or when you found a dancing imp. A few lines, like taken from the page of a story book, to describe what is happening and why you get XP. In the newer games you simply get a popup informing you you've gained some XP or something else, without you having a clue as to why or how. The adventurous feeling isn't there.
And that's the least of the problems with ubisoft heroes.... I don't even consider them Heroes games anymore (6 and 7 are disgraceful)
Thank you Sir, now I don't feel alone. I also love al the sounds and graphics, along with the basic simplicity of it so much more then the 3rd, or any so far in the series.
Might and magic II is my favorite. It stands alone.
Glad you enjoy it!
2, 3 and 5 are very good. Each look very different but have their unique charm.
The disrespect for 4 is real :(
I love that game tho
@Ben The Goose the expansions are retarded
But Im replaying the Base game right now. The pirate campaign has suprisingly good writing! I was suprised to see such depth of characters in a strategy game
I agree with what You said about the graphics and feel of this game! Its also my favorite! Great feel game!
I'd personally have to say that Heroes Chronicles was the best in the series but that's just splitting hairs as it was based off of the HOMM3 engine. But HOMM2 was what got me into the entire series (M&M included) and it will always have a special place in my heart, next to M&M6 as being the entry point for me. Same with AOE1 being the entry point for AOE2 and beyond.
Still have the big box version of this, and combined with world of xeen these games provided years of entertainment for me.
Awesome review!!! Lots of nostalgia listening and watching this video.
What I like about HoMM2 is that the overland map feels less cluttered. It felt more natural, when compared to HoMM3. In that game (which I also like a lot) there are so many buildings, lootables and creatures it makes it feel so crowded! In HoMM3 your hero almost feels like a garbage collector. ;)
Also agreed that HoMM2 looks and feels more whimsical. More fantastical. It still has a nice charm.
I must agree. This is by far the best game ever conceived. I have been playing it for my entire life, that's how good it is. I don't like three or four quite as much as I probably should, but maybe it's that I'm not as good at them as I am at two.
Narcoleptic Axolotl Yes, this. Heroes III has its own charm, but it isn’t nearly as magnetic as Heroes II. I first played the Broken Alliance demo from a PCGamer disc in ‘96 when I was 6, and must’ve gotten the Compendium (bundled with the first Heroes, as well as King’s Bounty) for Christmas in probably ‘98, and always come back to it in a way I don’t with any others in the series. It really doesn’t get any better than this game to this day. Sure, it doesn’t have as many features as III, but I feel like it doesn’t really need them. It’s balanced and paced beautifully. I can just sit back after a long day and just immerse myself in the game.
他のシリーズはした事ないのですが
モンスターの絵柄は1番好きですね。
ドット絵の最高峰だと思います。
I've passed down my love for this game to my oldest son. He's 14 and has been playing it for 5 years now.
He plays broken alliance ALL. THE. TIME. your reference to it made me chuckle. Great video!
Still have an old CD with the game from LEVEL magazine :D Great game!
I have always been a fan of number 2. And mostly mainly for the same reasons as yours. But I do like the variety of number 3 lol. And I recently started 5, after 12 years when I first played and hated. While some of the character designs suck so hard and them shifting to War hammer/Warcraft style is annoying but the game really grew on me. I love it. But I'm just playing the campaign atm.
I'm 100% with you - HOMM3 is the objectively best GAME, but HOMM2 will forever be my favorite. I remember going over to my friend's house when I was a kid and playing this game hotseat. His mom used to make maps for fun and they were actually genuinely awesome. Great memories... I still play HOMM2 all the time.
I played a ton out of HoMaM2 without ever owning it - the demo version was like a complete game, except it only had one (huge) map :)
Never owned this one as a kid, only the third. I had the demo though and I played it at least 30 times as the knights before I realised you could change starting faction, mind blown!
haha nice anecdote
I agree and also that the Game won‘t end after one month ^^
Heroes 2 is a piece of art
I could have that title screen and music running all day and be perfectly content. I love the 3rd game the most but the 2nd game is what I grew up on
This game is absolutely fantastic there is a special kind of magic in it
aaah the golden age, good old times. Age of empires, doom, warcraft 2, lords of realm 2, red alert and heroes 2 on an old pentium 133 :)
We didnt have much games on disk back then, probably about 5 to 10 the most, since free space was about 1GB and half of it went into windows 95. So we gave ourselfs completely to these games, and it was glorious. Here, to put it into perspective, imagine ur eating pizza like every day, and u can eat like 15 different types of pizza. After like 120 pizzas it would start to feel bland and kinda meh,and satisfaction would be gone. But imagine u were on deserted isle for 4years and u get rescued and eat pizza then for the first time in so long. It would feel soo damn good. Well thats how those games felt for us back then when we didn't had much around to compare, to distract us, or to spoil us, so our focus was on point. Mind that there was no internet back then, there were only some game magazines to buy so u can know what going on and which games are currently in.
Its hard to put it words for someone who got introduced into series with some of later installments but those 2-3 years of having heroes 2 only and nothing else, shaped the feeling of what heroes is for us, and trough that feel we measured other heroes games that came after it, as if wer trying to relive some of that old glory lol. Though, i love them all, well except after 5th. Those derailed totally^^
I agree that homm2 just had the vibe, 3 was better buuut…. Loved the seconds style
For the Combat Theme 3 alone this game deserves multiple awards! But I prefer 3 over 2, I consider Homm 3 one of the very few almost perfect games out there.
Ah Broken Isles... Beat purple and hope he doesn't have dimension door.
Thank you for such an excellent review! I subscribed. For me Heroes are only having 5 parts and 6 and 7 are heresy and Apocrypha.
While I truly love all the HoMMs (except 6-7, gross) I'm actually a part of the small but very vocal minority that thinks HoMM 2 actually IS the best game in the series... and with FHeroes2, this opinion is now a borderline fact :)
H2 is obviously the best... I dunno who'd even argue....
I so agree with you about Heroes 2 being magical by its graphics and sounds. You should check the Succession war mod of heroes 3. its basically a mix of both game so you get the magical feel of heroes 2 with the gameplay of heroes 3. Still in development but very promising !
This was the first Heroes of Might and Magic game I completed though I had owned the original for more then a year before it came out. My first girlfriend bought me Heroes I as a late birthday present (For some reason I thought it would be more romantic if we just exchanged gifts on her birthday instead of her getting me one on mine and me getting her one on hers) But she dumped me via answering machine while I was out of state for grandad's funeral a few weeks later so I didn't want to play a game that reminded me so much of her for a long time. I played the Gameboy Color remake of Heroes I in high school but didn't actually the PC version of Heroes I again for more then seventeen years and had played most the series except VI and VII in the gap.
The opera music, if you could get it to work for this game, is awesome. I miss it, honestly.
I still remember, when trotting around one time I ran into a Sphinx (!!) asking me who is the True King... bonkers and beautiful, like only American Fantasy can be. Somewhat rough and not exactly fit-like-a-glove comparison, but Heroes 2 is the Hobbit to 3's Lord of the Rings. No doubt simpler and less ambitious in scope and reach, but more charming for those exact reasons.
all HoMM games & most Army Men games from 3DO were great lol they made some nice stuff
I've stsrted with the 3, recently I've played this 2 and it is totally enjoyable. The 4th also is great, maybe the best in the entire series.
My fave title of this sort os "Disciples 2" (Mostly for its music) but HoMM2 is also up there. Really unbalanced but that gives it more variety. M&M6/7 and HoMM3 had their own [campy/silly/goofy] charm.
This is amazing. Ah, the nostalgia!
Great review. This game will always have a special place in my heart. In spite of it was very fucking hard. Very very hard. And unforgiving. Call it a love-hate-relationship. I guess we humans have a special kind of loyalty to bittersweet things. Greetings from Germany!
Old video, but its strange that you're so focused on heroes 3 not having the fairytale look, where as I've always thought the complete opposite. To me heroes 3 is such a perfect blend of fantasy and fairtytale, its beautifully made
"Heroes 3 is not good looking" hahaha you are insane, heroes 3 doesn't stop selling copies to this day because also of it's graphics that aged well because it isn't a 3d graphics style 2d graphics and pixel art age well despite of 3d that changes constantly
It's a good game. For me I'd say it's the third best HoMM game. Nothing beats HoMM 3 and 5 tho.
Although 3 is a masterpiece... Heroes 2 was the first Heroes game I've played, so this puts it a number one for me.
Hi there! I appreciate your overview - yet I think you missed something very profound that backs up your points even more; and I can see why you missed it, because during your video you are playing all the combats on the quickest speed.
Here's a tip: slow the combats down to normal speed, and listen.
More than any other game in the series, the sounds of the units' moving, attacking, being hit, and dying are very distinctive and have lots of character. Give yourself time to listen to the very classic and awesome sound of the Vampires crying, "Blah!" when they attack; listen to the Zombies go "Ugh!" when they get hit; let every clang of a Crusader's walk ring out; and listen to how satisfying it is to hear Boars die. Nearly every unit has its own scream, and if you hear those sounds without looking at the game, you can clearly identify every single unit and picture what's going on, because everything is so clear in precise. Heroes 3 has this too, but it's not as refined. In Heroes 5, the units have sounds that are very realistic - you mostly hear what it sounds like for a Minotaur to get hit there - but in Heroes 2, you hear a Minotaur's *scream*.
This level of detail makes taking time with Heroes 2 worth doing, and you can cherish every moment: moreover, it's *memorable* - you'll carry those sounds with you everywhere and the memories you invoke. If you hear the same sounds from Heroes 5, you'll barely be able to identify them and won't remember them, either.
ENJOY this detail - games don't have this level of *character* and charm anymore - turn DOWN the speed.
Agreed 100%
To me, the pinnacle of that simplistic design comes from the wolf. The light pattering of its footsteps across the battlefield, that deliciously sharp sounding bite as it attacked, and its whimper when it got hit. All iconic representation that really sold the feel of the unit, and it was visually, a very simple looking wolf. It didn't need an excessive growling looking face, blood, or a bunch of accessories to show its strength. It was just a wolf, done simply, and done well.
Also hard to ignore that every creature "looked" its power. There weren't any super strong units that "looked" weak, each tier had a great progression of perceivable strength just by looking at them. When you came across a new unit, you just "knew" how strong it was at first glance. It just all felt.. right
I completely agree! homm2 It’s not the best one, but it is my favorite!
Hundreds possibly thousands hour in front of Heroes games 1, 2, 3, 5.Was ok 7 but buggy and crash on my computer about half into the game. I had the original.
Completely summed up how i feel about this game!!!!
From 1996. 25 years old.... I feel old
HoMM2 was always my favourite. I'd love to see game as complex as HoMM3 but with nice hand drawn pixel graphics of HoMM2 (because, let's be honest, third game cut many corners with pseudo-3D animations).
Now, with the release of fheroes2 1.0.0 it's time to replay second game again.
I agree 100%.
Im so much your opinion!!!
heroes 5 was the best for me. Heroes 6 had an ok story but was kind of weird at gameplay. Heroes 7 is ok so far, better than 6, it reminds me of homm 3
Ook! [To me Heroes II coupled with Might & Magic VI are the best duo i gaming history.]
The first time I played this, I was a todlder.
I played it inside my mum's womb.
I always found it hilarious that the heroes you could recruit when playing for Roland, all looked like they should be in jail for aggrevated rape lol
best game evah
This game had the best music of the series, hands down.
What i have to say on the music? Am making mod versions of those tunes, did it on and off the last six years and - darn - those are hard to redo...
Did he really say that HoMM 3 was not good looking?
My explanation would be, that he just came from hitting up some nice crack-pipes.
I'd agree, as I've fist known H3 and then H2 and H2 looks way better. See, monsters in H3 are amazing and all, animation really accurate (Cerberi and HellHounds walk in actually very dog-like manner, the way they should!) but H2 beasties are much more heraldic in style. Their pictures are bigger so I take better look at them. When you compare H2, H3 and H4 beasties you see a graduate deterioration of heraldic pose and look. Sceneries of battlefields are priettier in H2, that forest-like one is my favourite. Just take a look and compare H2 and H3 dragons. Sure, matter of taste, and teh H2 tastes better.
Νο.
that it hes going down
To me heroes 3 looked hideous, i still cant play it. I prefer the sprite style in 1 and 2. Heros 1 is my go to now later in life.
Back in the olden days, what was the feeling one had experienced when played the game?
It was like exploring a new place. Finding a new room every time, trying to figure out if you've been there before (couldn't figure out where the building that gave archers went when I played it the next day, not knowing that Wizard and Knight had different units). It was beautiful.
There was time back then, because it was over 20 years ago. Fewer responsibilities. More time to enjoy a game.
ya know, I still got the CD and I will re download it Right now >:P
still have the old CD-ROM back at 1997. i have to say the expansion pack Price of Loyalty's opera soundtrack is not good as the Succesion Wars and it's too bad that the latest GOG version had the PoL sountrack installed instead SW.
I think the year was 1997, not 1998.
I remember playing this game years ago. I have the GOG version, but I can't find the map dry years. Anyone know where I can get it?
Heroes 3 for the gameplay is superior to Heroes 2 but specially due to sound, music and graphics i always find Heroes 2 is more attractive and my wet dream is someone to take Heroes 3 gameplay and use Heroes 2 graphics and sound. That would be perfect game for me.
Holy hell, why did you not use aspect ratio correction for the game? It looks horrific in widescreen.
This game is not "dark fantasy enough", don't have many units as 3rd one, and the most important part -> IT DOESN'T HAVE RANDOM MAP(s) GENERATOR(which BTW you din't even mention in your vid). I would say: Don't even bother to make a Strategy cRPG if you not gonna include that option.
Great video! i agree the way it looks is nice but i prefer homm3 in my opinion.
i agree heartfully, everything fantasy nowadays looks like world of warcrap nowadays
Yes, everything looks plastic and souless, designers nowadays have the pressure to "like" everyone so they dont involve too much feeling on what they do anymore. And 3D kind of killed the magic aswell for this type of games.
Oh god yes. This game's presentation is magical. Anyone who knows anything about aesthetics and design will see this game as a work of art. It's the only entry in the whole series where the game is both pretty too look at but also clear and not cluttered with rubbish details that just get in the way all the time. Other entries are a mixed bag of these properties - first one is clear but ugly. third one is clear and... well it's not exacty ugly, but the 3D renders look cheap and artificial in spite of details and animations. and the graphics are not exactly consistent. Some of them feel like they belong in a different game.. 4's visuals are absolute garbage for the most part. It really shows that they had almost zero budget and time for visuals. 5 is where the game got really pretty but the abundance of details made the screen very busy and it was often difficult to tell interactive elements from the background. It was the first game where you couldn't tell what buildings you have in your town just by looking at the town screen. It was so useless. And the building selection screen was ugly as hell. It's a shame becuase the visuals were very nice overall if not for the detail level that made everything merge into noise. This game at least had some artistic directon, because 6 and 7 were textbook examples of bland, generic and boring. Not mentioning the online spinoff..
> "What fairytale should look like"
And then butchers game visuals by showing it in a stretched 16:9 aspect ratio
It's so sad the game doesn't have a proper remake. Even gog version with fheroes mod hurts my eyes. Literally.
It looks great, but every time I play it - my eyes become sore and fill with blood.
That's a problem for me with many old games actually. I don't know what causes it, but my guess is framerate and saturation.
Heroes 2 soundtrack was so good, Ubisuck recycled it for their worst heroes game ever made
Best version of HoMM
Wau - Nice presentation! Heroes III is always gonne be the best heroes game in my book but however - you surely naled it that moving to fake 3d graphics in Heroes 3 some magical thing was lost and same happened with the music Cheers!
Yeah but at least the fake 3D (like in Diablo 2) still looks waaay better than polygon 3D of nowadays for this kind of games.
I love the sprites and sounds of HOMM2 the most, but HOMM3 got the best gameplay, and HOMM5 got the best graphics.
Earthworm Jim Son, you again? What graphics? We don’t take about graphics here when it comes to old games. At the time of release each of these games had the best graphics. HOMM 2-3 are the best in the series, and with 3DO this series died for me, which is why I never cared for Heroes 5 or up.
@@Igorsov I disagree good sir, Dungeon Keeper 1 has better graphics than Dungeon Keeper 2 or even the new DK clones on steam imo.
I’ve grown up with 2 and 3 when they came out and still I absolutely ADORE 7!! Played more than 200 hours of it! In fact, to me 7 and 3 (with hd mod giving lots of quality of life features) are the best Homm games! Followed by 2-5 and last 6 because of all the bugs but it had the possibility of being a good game. I never really played 1 because I play for the campaigns and story so not so much of that in the forst one ;)
Homm3 is the best.., played both but you must be having that nostalgia at a great point in your life
The pro art style to these games always mystified me.
Agreed. Heroes 3 felt so lifeless to me compared to 2, even 4.
yeah but gameplay and maps are so much better in 3. but yeah give me gameplay of 3 with the sounds, music and sprites of 2 ^^
I think it's about time to organize a big fight to death in order to decide the if the best HoMM is, II or III :D
imho Heroes III Rulez :P
omg my child hood i was so disapointee when i found out that my laptop that i have now cant play this game T~T well atleast i have heroes 3
heard about DosBox?
try GOG version
Used to had similar impressions when the 3rd came out. It took me some time to get used to its "feel". But now, the 3 with its expansions is almost exclusively the only one I am willing to play even today after 2 decades. I have tried to come back to the 2nd one recently and game play felt kind of meh. Still I like its aesthetic, music and overall feeling most, I think. The 4th just disappointed me despite it brought some interesting new ideas. Maybe I havent give it enough time. In the 5th I went through one campaign aka invested enough time but I still dont liked it at all. It felt so boring audiovisually and game play wise even more. And the 7th looks like standard modern generic game aka it is much more fun just to look at than playing it.
2 don't have random map generator
Storeslem The biggest issue it has. Really effects the replay value. What's really annoying is it had one in the map editor, but it couldn't be used on the senerio screen like in HoMM3.
2 is best...3 is wonderful though.
Yay.It only took me 3 months to find you again.Not much
doesn't heroes 1 look pretty much the same as heroes 2?
I hate HMM3. The sylvan faction monsters are far nicer in 2. Too bad they can´t mod 2 instead of 3 because of DOS.
Do you play Stardew Valley?If you do,can you make a video about it?
+Vladimir Dan Haven't played it yet. I'll try to get to it soon.
unacomn I hope you like it if you get it.
ahmen brother
faci livecde 1 mai cu heroes2
You talk about graphics and presentation, yet your video doesn't even have the right aspect ratio, so it looks objectively bad. By the way, I'm a huge fan of Heroes 1, 2, and 3. All 3 games are amazing and the games after have been awful.
+Alex Folland It was either this, or low-res upscaling from the DosBox resolution.
+unacomn No, you can provide a video file with the correct aspect ratio flag in the video stream header flags or the container-level flags. Also, this is obviously upscaled. It wouldn't have 1080p or 720p if it wasn't.
It was recorded full screen from a 1080p monitor through Shadowplay. For a correct aspect ration I would have been stuck with the default resolution and worse upscaling.
I would have tried the windows version of the game, but that one screwed with the pixels.
+unacomn You actually played it like this, and it wasn't stretched in post? Why not just use the setting in your nvidia driver settings that maintains the correct aspect ratio in full-screen? Also, why use shadowplay and not OBS with NVENC so you have more control over the recording? I'm sorry, but I know too much about this for your excuses. Also, I'm just trying to help. If you want to record a beautiful game, please do so beautifully.
Alex, recuse yourself from helping anyone. You think you are in a fight alone.
Why does the main menu look like age of empires 2? 🤣
It was the style at the time.
i play might and magic 3 on my ipad in hd with no bugs^^
I'm playing thru homm3 complete + hd mod + hota and HChronicles.. got to say.. i thought the game i liked was homm3 in childhood, but it actually was homm2..
how come homm2 literally looks better than homm3? the artstyle is better imho
Sadly its your favourite purely because of nostalgia, which is completely fine - but game wise 3 is a straight upgrade.
The GOG has horrible music quality which kinda ruins it for me
Heroes of Might and Magic III had much better music and overall content than any Hmm Game. That was masterpiece, Homm 2 was good testing base.
"not good looking but great" Heroes 3 has a way prettier aesthetic than 2 does.
I would say that H3 has better aesthetics but H2 is prettier (as it is more cheerful and colorful).
It is kind of a taste thing, the guy from the video prefers it prettier, we prefer it a little bit darker. But both of them are melancholic & kind of touch your soul.
To me H2 is a 9 but H3 is a big 10.
HoMM 3 more aesthetic, HoMM 2 more worm atmosphere. And HoMM has its own balance. No matter how mutch army in town for recruit. All you need is fight for gold to win.
H3 had embraced 90s gritty realism art style, whereas H2 went with fairytale book art style with stark contrast and vibrant colours rather than muted colours with harsh lighting.