Good mornin-afternoo-vening, dear readers and welcome to a super special retro review type article, dedicated to Heroes of Might and Magic 2.
If you’ve been following my channel you know that I’ve recently reviewed a game called Fort Triumph. A very good tactical turn based combat game that contained a bit of a surprise for me. A very Heroes-like world map. And playing it reminded me of how absolutely awesome and important the Heroes titles have been for me, especially Heroes of Might and Magic 2.
So what is one to do when gaming nostalgia suddenly strikes? Well, one goes to his or her GOG library and installs said old game which he or she already purchased a couple of years ago when it was on sale, of course.
Oh, and before I dive into the subject at hand any further, I’ve recently recorded a podcast with my friend @unacomn from @GamingHD about this very subject - the importance of the Heroes series in our lives - so if you’re interesting in hearing more context as well as a different perspective, and you also happen to have an hour to burn, here's a link to the GameTales Episode 1 But for now, let us begin.
It is a bit odd talking about Heroes 2 now, considering that it’s been out for 22 years. The length of time isn’t the issue, I’ve reviewed even older games on my channel, but none of those games has had the number of further sequel entries that the Heroes series has, and as a result they haven’t had that long-lasting of a continued footprint in the gaming industry.
Played during a very formative and generally carefree period of my life, Heroes 2 has managed to become on of those few cherished memories that form a sort of time capsule within your heart and mind, and whenever you think back to it, whenever you open it up, you’re instantly transported to that time and place and you can relive it, even if it is for only a fraction of a moment.
And that’s what Heroes of Might and Magic 2 means for me in a nutshell, but let’s get to what the game is and how it stands up, if at all, with a little bit of background for those who do not know.
The initial title, Heroes of Might and Magic 2: The Succession Wars was released in 1996, with its expansion, The Price of Loyalty, being released the following year. The Gold edition, which bundles the two, being released in 1998, and that’s the version available right now on GOG so ok, I’m not playing a 22-year old game. I’m playing a 20-year old bundled version of the game.
Much like its predecessor and sequels, Heroes 2 is a turn-based strategy game which has you taking over one of the several, very thematic, factions present in the game, and basically going on a variety of campaigns, or playing stand-alone scenarios.
Gameplay and mechanics
Each faction is quite unique, having a wide variety of creatures that you can recruit for your hero’s army, and while there are lots of similarities between the basics of each faction - for instance, each faction has at least one ranged creature and one ultimate-type creature, they are all very differently approached in terms of power level, cost and creature numbers.
And that’s about it in terms of what the game is, I’m pretty sure, most if not all of you watching this are pretty aware of how a Heroes game works. Let’s get to what makes Heroes 2 stand out.
Graphics
And the first thing that stands out is how it looks.
There’s something endearing and thoroughly old-school about the pixel art style of the game. It looks very ‘90s fantasy illustration, something that could only come from that period of time. This not-exactly realistic but close-enough style of fantasy illustrations appears to have been a thing in the gaming industry at the time, seeing as how Magic: The Gathering’s first several years featured a somewhat comparable style. And that one was launched in 1994 while the first Heroes game was released in 1995. I’m pretty sure there was either some inspiration being taken or that was simply the style of the era, in the industry.
The pixel art and stylistic choices of Heroes of Might and Magic 2 can only live and exist in that period of time because if you were to compare them to the modern standard of fantasy art, present even in most indie games, Heroes 2 looks almost child-like in its use of color and overall art direction, hell, even compared with its sequel, it is a totally different type of visual experience.
But I don’t see that as dating it - although it definitely does - I see it more as giving it a particular place within the Heroes franchise, because nobody even mentions the first one, as far as collective memory is concerned, everything started with two.
And that’s something that you used to get back then as well, sequels to games would usually not only feature larger scopes but also extra dimensions and whole new engines. Due to processing power and the development of the technology overall. Until at a certain point, when things pretty much started looking the same and going in a different sort of direction once Ubisoft took over.
But I’m not talking about the series as a whole, let’s get back to Heroes 2.
So the graphics are iconic, as far as I’m concerned, representing the era that the game was made in and being the jumping off point for the rest of the series, and it’s definitely the thing that stands out first, closely followed by the sound and the absolutely crazy awesome opera-like soundtrack that the game has. Now to be honest, I didn’t played the game with its full soundtrack originally - due to the vicissitudes of time and my geographical situation, more about that in the podcast I mentioned earlier - but the GOG version does feature it and it is quite surprising and astounding.
I did however grow up playing it with all the rest of the sounds and those special sound effects will stay with me for as long as I live. Very well-suited to what they were supposed to be, I’ve only recently remembered how hitting the slingshot wielding halflings of the Wizards faction results in what can only be described as a burping sound, or the weird trepidation sensation that hearing that “good morale” sound brings to my ears.
There are some issues with the music though, in terms of it cutting off abruptly whenever it was supposed to cut off. I guess transitioning with a crossfade was a bit beyond the capabilities of the time but then again, I played the game whilst listening to music anyway so that wasn’t an issue.
Heroes 2 did come with quite a few, very useful, customization options, allowing you to not only change the speed that combat was taking place at, but also the amount of stat info you’d get as well as illustrate your creatures’ range. You could even change your overall interface look or skin, something that doesn’t really happen anymore nowadays.
But let’s get to the nitty gritty, and namely the gameplay.
It is still as interesting and fun as it was twenty years ago. Glad to report that playing through several iterations of this formula has not dulled the effect of the original concept. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have been properly replicated recently either, with Fort Triumph being the first title in a long time that I saw trying to use it and make it their own, to a certain extent. Map exploration is always exciting and filled with potential for both great gain as well as great loss. It is one of the purest examples of turn-based combat tactics ever created, well, besides things like GO or Chess, I mean. It’s definitely the purest example of video game turn-based combat tactics ever made. It’s simple but elegant. Having more dudes will generally win the day but using them properly will more likely win the day.
Now when it comes to the titular heroes, things are left a bit more to luck. I don’t mean in terms of combat but in terms of how you get to develop them. See, all heroes basically start as almost-blank slates. They have some basic starting stats and a couple of creatures depending on the type of hero. It’s up to you whether you focus them on being powerful fighters or powerful spellcasters. Whether they go towards the might or the magic. Thing is, this choice isn’t really completely within your control. Some factions have a clear leaning either towards Might or Magic, which doesn’t mean that those respective faction-aligned heroes can’t do the other, just that they won’t really excel at it. On the other hand, you can always check your tavern each week to see which heroes are available for hire, because you can hire heroes from other factions as well. So if you’re looking to have a Magic hero in a Might faction, it can be done, you just have to wait awhile for the opportunity.
When it comes to the primary skills of Attack, Defense, Spellpower and Knowledge, their development is out of your hands. Once they gain a level, they’ll gain one uptick in any of the four - the choice of which one goes up at any given level depends on the type of hero you have. Those chances shift a bit after a hero reaches level 10.
A similar thing happens to the hero’s secondary skills. There’s a large pool of secondary skills that each type of hero has certain chances of getting once they reach a new level of experience. The type of hero will influence which skills he or she has access to, to begin with, for instance Barbarians can’t learn Necromancy and Necromancers can’t learn Leadership.
This semi-random element to developing your heroes makes sometimes for some pretty weird heroes galloping around the countryside, but I think it helps with avoiding min-maxing your characters, because I remember at least a few times when the statistics were in my favor and I build some heroes that steamrolled everything. Though I have to say, I would have prefered to have a much larger role in developing my heroes.
Another important part of the game is the artifact hunting and collecting. Heroes 2 has a very primitive and limited way of storing artifacts. You can only have a set number of them with you, if you’re a spellcaster one of the slots is already taken up by your spell book, and that’s it. There are no real limits to how many swords, axes, shields or anything really, you can have at you at any one time, besides the overall limit of artifact numbers in general. Now from a mechanical standpoint, all of these act like permanent buffs, until you either die, give them to a different hero of yours or lose them in a fights where you surrender. And that’s fine, but from a gameworld and flavor perspective it make absolutely no sense to be lugging around you more weapons, armor and trinkets that you can possibly wield or wear, and still have them bestow their benefits upon you. It just doesn’t make sense.
So I don’t remember the title through rose-tinted glasses, and my feelings towards it don’t stop me from being objective - it isn’t the best game of the series, it’s only the best game in the series for me, but I’m also glad to see that it still holds up to objective scrutiny, 20-something years later.
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 is an iconic title - for me and for many more gaming enthusiasts who have been playing games for more than two decades - it’s the first thing I think about when the series is brought up and while its successor is objectively a better game, it cannot surpass Heroes 2 in my book.
Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy playing the sequels, I do, very much actually and depending on the response to this video, I might jump into the third one and do a retro review video for it as well. Make sure to let me know in the comments if you’d like to see that.
But yeah, Heroes 2, at the end of the day, is one of the first major computer video game titles I played, and alongside Warcraft I and Civilization 2, it will always have a special place in my heart and mind.
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Gold on GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_2_gold_edition?pp=a74846639071d43091d814937584cb8fe7963192
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