Heroes of Might and Magic II

Description

From the Manufacturer The Succession Wars is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning 1995 release Heroes of Might and Magic. Having crushed his enemies, consolidated his power base, and eliminated dissent at the end of Heroes of Might and Magic, Lord Ironfist settled down to rule the land of Enroth. After 25 years of peace, the land is again thrust into turmoil. Lord Ironfist is dead, and the ensuing battle for power between his sons, Archibald and Roland, has led to a state of war. Players must choose sides and summon their armies as they use all of their strategic wit and tactics in the battle for domination of the lands. Review In our March '97 issue (p79), we warned you against Heroes of Might and Magic, not because of the game, but because of the port quality. With the sequel, Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Prince of Loyalty, we can skip right to gameplay, because there's nothing wrong with this version technically. The game mechanics haven't changed much from the original: You still control castles and heroes, and your goal is to take over the other castles and defeat all other heroes on the gameboard. There are six different types of heroes and castles - barbarian, sorceress, wizard, warlock, necromancer, and knight - which control different species of fantastic creatures - goblins, druids, golems, rocs, mummies, and calvary, to name just a few. Castles provide troops and the funding needed to hire them. To improve both troops and income, a hero needs to claim control of a variety of building materials scattered throughout the countryside. Improving the fortifications requires wood and stone and leads to better defense, whereas mercury, gold, and sulfur allow you to upgrade the mage tower which gives a hero more spells to cast. Opposing heroes vie for control of these resources. The sequel adds more hero types (necromancer, wizard) and their associated monsters (vampires, halflings). There are more buildings on the playing field, and you can climb a tower to get a glimpse of the surrounding countryside, even of places you can't physically reach yet. The castles have been upgraded, with more options: You can build a captain's quarters, turrets and a moat for defense. If a hero isn't in the castle when it's attacked, the captain leads the defense. You can also upgrade the creature habitats: cavalry become champions, giants become titans, and liches become power liches. Battle mechanics are slightly different from the original. Your hero gets a number of spell points, and once he or she runs out, no more spells may be cast. There are also some new battle spells: the "death ripple" is amusing to watch as it ripples along the screen, wounding all living creatures in its path. The death ripple can be countered with a "holy word" spell, which clouds the video and wounds undead creatures, such as vampires and liches. If your hero runs out of points, you can take him or her to a castle to recharge (but not during battle). Completely new in the sequel are campaign intros which introduce the opposing forces. You can choose to play the good (outcast and honorable) or evil (in power but oppressive) side. We found the campaign scenarios difficult after the first few levels. If you get stuck, play a standard game, and work up to beating the expert levels at the highest difficulty rating, and then go back to the campaigns. The game is zippy on a standard Power Mac. However, if you're running on a 68040, turn off ambient animations and computer opponent animation. Our only nit to pick with Heroes II is that we wish that ports would use the standard file dialog for saving and opening games, and that the light source for shadows was in the Mac-standard upper left corner. Still, if you're a role-playing or strategy fan, you'll have tons of fun with Heroes of Might and Magic II. - Kathy Tafel Good News: Completely upgraded. Runs well on '040s. Better port than original. Fun for weeks, not hours. Bad News: Nonstandard saving mechanism. RAM-hungry. Rating:4/4 ©1999 MacAddict -- From MacAddict -- Subscribe now!