Rating: 
Summary: A lot of nice improvements but still not revolutionary
Review: Heros of Might And Magic is probably one of the most hyped and delayed games in the past couple years. The wait is finally over. After playing with it for the past few days, I found a lot of nice improvements and new features, but still won't consider it a revolutionary sequal to HOMM3.
1) The graphics is surely nicer and have a good 3d look although it is still just 2d, perfect for slower computers.
2) The heros are more useful these days, you can actually using them in battle. But be very careful since they are easy to get killed in battle, especially in early levels.
3) The map grow much larger, even the first level will take a while to finish.
4) Most creatures are the same, following the same level system. One interesting fact is that level 1 creatures are usually very effective on on level 4 creaters: )
5) Now creatures growth are calculated daily or longer(depending on the creature level).
6) Quick combat will automatically calculate the battle results when you face far inferier opponents.
7) Creatures may not walk to you and attack, so be careful when walking around the map.Overall, the game become harder. You really need to think about strategy when building up the army and exploring the map.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened to the uniqueness of this game?
Review: Well I must admit that I was VERY dissapointed in this game. (And to show you I NEVER write a review I usually leave that up to my husband --- who also wrote one) but I just couldn't leave out my voice of dissapointment on this one. I was so excited for this game to come out I pestered and pestered my husband to get it for my birthday (March 30th) that he had to give it to me a day early. So I recieved it the day it came out and I must admit that I will be returning it I was that disapointed in it!! First of all it has removed all the qualities that set it apart from all the other RP games out there except maybe one or two. The battles don't make sense anymore. You can't tell who you are attacking and the personal attact has been removed so they are just attacking air and when they retaliate you have no way of knowing what they did because the dialogue box has been removed. The army no longer reflects the strengths that you build upon the hero so they are only as strong as the sheer numbers go up. And the hero isn't personable any more. They don't have thier own specialities. The magic is VERY confusing to deal with.... The statistic box is to big and doesn't make sense at a glance any more (what ever happened to being able to read - why must we rely so heavily on pictures now?) Overall I must admit that it put quite a damper on my birthday happiness and plans (I had planed to play the game all weekend but ended up just disapointed instead!) Although to be fair the caravans are pretty neat and I liked the white tigers and the idea that once you captured a water wheel you didn't have to go to it every week was nice.
Rating: 
Summary: Fresh look for an old kick'in classic
Review: I pre-ordered this game a while ago. I was very anxious to see if they could improve on an already cool game. I was not disappointed! Some of the pro's were, improved graphics( They Rock!), higher resolution as well, instead of waiting for seven days to get the next weeks critters you get them incrementally. If, say, you get 24 archers a week and you've already cleared out what you had, the next day there will be a few more, and the next a few more, etc... This is a good feature so that you always have at least a few troops available to defend against an annoying hero with a tiny army who just happens to show up right after you left with all your garrison with you. Another neat feature is the roaming monsters. If you are close to a monster(s) who is,for example, guarding a gold mine, the monster may well charge after you. This adds excitement and unpredictability to the game. Another nice feature is that the "life" towns hero's, with the ressurection magic can automaticly raise dead after a battle the same as Necromancers, but unlike the necromancer who raises enemy dead, the priest raises their own dead. Speaking of the Necromancers, they start by raising skeletons, then it goes to ghosts, then vampires! Maybe more but I'm still learning this version. Anyway, there are a few downsides. First They don't have a random map maker like they had in Heroes III. They have a campaign editor that works like the editor in Starcraft, which is painfully slow and cumbersome. I hope if they do any upgrades that they will include a map generator. This gives the game inexhaustive replayability. Secondly, this may just be me, but I wish that there was some way to limit the amount of towns. In Civ III you could choose to raze an unwanted town or keep it. This may be too problematic, but I hate running too many towns. In an eight player game there may be a dozen or more towns! Well, I think this game is really good. If you liked Heroes III then you will really dig this one. Without the random map maker I rate this a 4.5 stars. Since I couldn't choose that, I put 5 stars
Rating:
Summary: Good game But....
Review: Ok now i played this game in my 3rd hour class at school.. the game is pure prefection and I am most likely going to buy it.. but why not just wait 2 monthes for Warcraft 3 to come out? But back to Hero 4 the graphics are great, and the hero is much more active the game play is smooth and it runs like a dream, the only confusing part might be how to buy buildings and a few other things, one of my friends was looking on behind me and reallt couldn't figure out what was going on..so my over all rating is a 5 but if you don't have the money for this game RIGHT now..Just wait until June/July and buy WARCRAFT 3 which is also a dream and will be god like
Rating: 
Summary: Bugs undermine an otherwise well constructed game
Review: HOMMIV continues and improves upon the HOMM franchise. The new additions to the game (hero participation in battles, more individual hero development, army building trees with mutually exclusive choices)substantially enhance the hypnotic effect of the game upon players. The graphics have improved and the music is wonderful. HOWEVER - the current edition has a serious bug which almost inevitably leads to deterioration of speed and eventual freezes at the conclusion of battles, requiring a reboot of the system before you can return to the game. The game appears to freeze after an average of four battles. This bug and the frustration it causes detracts from what would otherwise be a thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience. Hopefully 3do will come out with a patch to repair this problem before long. In the interim, this game can only be recommended to those with sufficient patience to weather the reboots (and the frequent saves you must make to protect your progress).
Rating:
Summary: Very well done
Review: I have been a huge HOMM fan for since HOMM1, and wow, The series is still pulling it off. It has an amazing new magic system, well balanced towns, cool spells, artifacts, skills and other aspects of game play, great graphics, and some of the best music ive heard in games lately, its only flaw is it gets a bit repetitive, and I was a bit dissapointed with online play, but otherwise, exellent. It also has a great storyline. overall, it would be a good investment for all fans, or people new two the series.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the MultiPlayer feature?
Review: Once again scammed by another software company, have been playing Heroes for many years buying all the latest games and enjoying play with my fellow Hero players. My new computer came with Windows XP which heroes does not support and claims that on their site. They cannot offer you an update or grade to the games you have to make it compatible with XP because coding is too involved. So instead they force you to buy a new copy Heroes 4 that is compatible with XP but at the same time they take away Mutiplayer capabilities. Whats with that? Now I cannot not enjoy playing the game with friends on-line (Peer to Peer). Oh, Oh I get it. The upgrade for Multiplayer use will be available in Heroes 5 at [price] a pop? Reminds me of a operating system they forced on me with my new system..............Thanks?
Rating:
Summary: Heroes 4 is Awsome
Review: I just got it on Satuday. It's monday now and I've invested about 8 hours in it (it was Easter weekend and I had family over). I wasn't sure whether to trust the reviews I had seen since the game was just released on 3/29/02, and some were months old, but this installment is exactly what I wanted, greatly improved graphics and gameplay, but the basic game is still the same. It's the best strategy game I've played, with the possible exception of Starcraft (I've played Civ, Age of Empires, C&C, and many more).
If I were to complain at all about these games, it's about the pricing for the expansions. They sold the later H3 expansions with the complete game engine..., and hardly dropped the prices at all over time. All I wanted was the new levels and characters, and [the money] for that was a rip-off.
Rating:
Summary: Having actually played the game....
Review: I bought the game this weekend and while I have only put in about 2 hours of playing time I am EXTREMELY impressed and can't wait for the hours to whither away at work so I can go home and play some more. If you've played Heroes II or Heroes III get ready for a VERY different game. Although they have lessened the number of monsters available in the game they have significantly raised the quality of the monster in the game. Almost all of the monster's have special abilities or some unique trait, even the lowly peseants. The playing controls all still seem to be there from the older games however they are moved around the screen some to give more screen to informational things and maps. Overall it's a VERY cool game and I'm glad I paid the price to play it now instead of waiting 6 months for the price to drop like I usually do.
Rating:
Summary: Very pretty, but...
Review: The new look of Heroes 4 is very impressive. The graphics are sharp and the spell effects are terrific. However, Heroes has strayed from the essence of what set it apart from the rest. "Improvements" that are just the opposite: 1. You now have to choose which creature generators you are going to build in your castle. You cannot have all of what is available for the particular castle. 2. Creature generators are one-level only. No upgraded creatures. 3. All of the heroes of a particular type are all the same. (ie: all the druid heroes are exactly alike except for their portrait) There are no unique hero abilities. 4. The hero actually now is much less a factor than in previous games. In HOMM 3, a powerful hero could make an army of mediocre creatures very effective. Now, the hero's scores have NO effect on the creatures in the army. Each creature goes on it's own scores only, no modifiers. Granted, there are some items that have an effect on all creatures, but improving the hero generally only affects the attacks the HERO makes, not the attacks of the creatures in the army. 5. Schizophrenia. HOMM 4 can's seem to decide what it is. It has many of the strategic elements from the older versions, yet the addition of the attacking hero and the feature of buying armor, weapons, and potions for the hero make it more like a D&D role playing game. For example, look at the combat screen. It's Baldurs Gate! (only not as well done) Put your ranged-attack creatures in the back, melee fighters in the front, turn-based combat, use a potion... 6. Minor quibbles:
"What just happened?" In HOMM3, the status messages at the bottom of the combat screen could be scrolled back if you missed something. In 4, the messages are off in the bottom-right corner, and cannot be reviewed. "One hero per week" You cannot recruit more than one hero per week from any given tavern. I captured a castle, but because the enemy had just recruited a hero, I couldn't recruit one for a week. "Interface Bloating" The interface takes up too much room on the screen. Just for laughs, knock the resolution back to 800x600. The interface takes up half the screen! Even at 1024x768, the adventure window seems small. "Label Overkill" Floating the mouse pointer in any spot for more than a second or two will reward with a popup label that says something useful like "dirt" or "water, shallow" or "road, stone". Thats dumb! Put it on the right mouse button so if I want to know what it is, I can click to find out. I don't constantly need reminding that I am standing on "grass". A few pluses: The caravan option is nice, having the windmills automatically cough up tribute is convenient, but on the whole, the "more" in HOMM4 adds up to "less".
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