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Heroes
of Might and Magic 4
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...continued
As
in the previous games, your armies will do battle
with both wandering monsters and the armies of
enemy heroes. Heroes IV's combat system has a
number of minor changes that are intended mainly to
make combat a bit more balanced. Previous games in
the Heroes series had been criticized for allowing
too much momentum; that is, if you could create a
powerful enough army, nothing could stand in your
way. Heroes IV's system of simultaneous attacks (in
which most creatures attack and take damage from
each other simultaneously) and its new line-of-fire
aiming for ranged units mean that you can't
continuously blunder forward and pummel your
enemies to death. Fortunately, your forces can call
upon their own special abilities in combat,
including the ability to cast some magic spells,
just like a spell-casting hero. Heroes IV retains
Heroes III's basic system of magic (both in combat
and out of it) and improves upon it by slightly
rearranging some older spells and also letting
heroes become grandmasters in a specific school of
magic. Through your many fights and raids, your
heroes will accrue great numbers of experience
points that will in turn lead to new skills. There
are lots of old and new skills in Heroes IV--more
than enough to help you create distinctive heroes.
While
your heroes will definitely seem more distinctive,
Heroes IV's graphics unfortunately aren't. The
series was previously well known for its colorful,
storybooklike portraits and units, which often had
humorous animations and funny sound samples.
Unfortunately, most of Heroes IV's characters and
units are represented by the same kind of
generic-looking rendered sprites that appeared in
Might and Magic VII and VIII. Heroes IV's creatures
don't look horrible; each is represented well
enough to distinguish them at a glance, but they
simply aren't the memorable and occasionally goofy
denizens of Heroes I and II. Instead, Heroes IV
features stiffly animated 3D-rendered sprites that
seem less like fantastic mythical creatures and
more like stop-motion movie monsters. Outside of
battle, Heroes IV's town and overland graphics are
clearly intended to paint a picture of a brightly
colored, otherworldly realm, but the same sort of
density that makes exploring Heroes IV such a joy
also makes it occasionally difficult to look at.
Heroes IV's overland areas sometimes seem too
bright and colorful--there's too much going on at
one time on the screen. This can make
distinguishing important objects from background
scenery needlessly difficult, and, along with the
game's equally busy-looking interface menus, may
make the game seem overly complex to new players.
But
just about anyone--Heroes veterans or
newcomers--will be able to appreciate Heroes IV's
sound, especially its music. Heroes IV's sound
effects aren't the least bit noteworthy, and many
were recycled directly from the previous game, but
the soundtrack is another matter entirely.
Developer New World decided to split the difference
between the synth instrumental soundtrack of Heroes
III and the operatic soundtrack of Heroes II and
include elements of both. While you're in battle,
you'll hear the same sort of stirring, yet subdued,
background music as in Heroes III--percussion- and
string-heavy instrumental arrangements that suit
battles well. And while you're exploring the
overland map or developing your town, you'll be
treated to the same sort of lush opera music that
graced the Heroes II soundtrack.
Heroes
IV has a lot of new additions, but ultimately, it
still plays like a Heroes game. That's definitely a
good thing, as the Heroes formula clearly stands
the test of time in Heroes IV and is every bit as
enjoyable as it's ever been in previous games. An
overly cynical (and not entirely accurate) way to
assess the game would be to call it a revamped
version of Heroes III with a new coat of paint--or
many, many layers of paint. However, it's really to
New World Computing's credit that the developer was
able to incorporate so many new and interesting
features into this sequel while still making sure
it kept all the core elements that made all the
previous games so great. Heroes IV is clearly a
worthy successor to the series and has very clearly
been worth the wait.
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