1995 was more than a little while ago, but that august year also signaled the birth of the Heroes Of Might and Magic series. The game was first developed as a turn based spin off to accompany the then popular Might and Magic games. Might and Magic was great, but over successive iterations Heroes would go on to be game that kicked more posterior in the playability stakes.

That said, at first Heroes was a bit of a misfire. The original didn't quite stink, but it also failed to deliver the balanced and compelling gameplay we have come to expect. Thankfully developer John Van Caneghem, CEO of New World Computing at the time (and now working for EA on the next Command and Conquer!), thought the idea was worth a second outing. Indeed, he had published a similar game on the C64 called King's Bounty, which even saw a limited release of its own on the MegaDrive.

So given his success with Bounty, Van Caneghem was keen to develop Heroes further. As a result the sequel, titled Heroes II: The Succession Wars, stamped itself indelibly on the landscape. Heroes II was both an absolute cinch to pick up, while also having the depth and long term playability to see more than a few of us questing away into the wee small hours.

The formula was simple. The game was turn-based and you played against several other CPU-controlled fantasy realm warlords, or online against other humans. There were six types of heroes, each with a different castle and army of creatures at their disposal. The heroes also had different abilities and specialisations, so the RPG feel was very much a part of the game. Your lords earned experience in various ways and could develop more skills as they gained levels, by engaging in turn based combat in huge battles and other quests.

Adding even more incentive was the fact that castles, each with their own unique defenses, appearance and theme music, could also be developed. You could build extra structures within these compounds: turrets and other magical defenses you could set up as well as buildings that gave you access to better spells and some killer monsters. Heroes II delivered the perfect 'carrot - stick' combination of winnable battles and decent rewards that helped you level up your characters.


The visuals were colourful, but far from groundbreaking. There wasn't even a whiff of 3D and the animation was minimal. The game world was presented using menu screens for the castles and your heroes, augmented by an overall map view, where your heroes were represented as a lone horse exploring the land. None of this was breathtaking to look at, but it simply didn't matter. At its core Heroes II had a real sense of charm and the game is surprisingly pleasant to look at and play even today. Each of the monsters has goofy 'death throes' animations and the soundtrack is still one of the best fantasy RPG scores going.

The turn based formula was centered on the seven day cycle, with your castle being replenished with freshly recruited monsters weekly. The trick was to develop your castle fast, so you could command some of the higher level monsters, as these would dominate most encounters. Playing out the week so you could afford to build a Dragon's Tower or the giant-spawning Cloud Castle was almost impossible to resist, to the point where you’d constantly be surprised to find the sun coming up! This is one game that's hard to put down, ranking right up there with contemporary sleep-sappers like Civilization and UFO Enemy Unknown.

Dusting off the disc and firing up Heroes II off after a break of many years confirmed what I suspected: a loooong night was ahead again (several of them, as it has turned out). This is still a seriously addictive game with a reasonable degree of resource management depth and satisfyingly tough turn based combat.

In combat mode you must balance your judicious use of magic, while protecting your missile troops and effectively using your melee troops to inflict maximum damage. There are some really cool critters to play with too: we have already mentioned dragons and cloud giants, but there are also vampires, golems, liches, gargoyles, wizards, orcs, hydras, sprites, medusae and dopey slow ogres too. Some units fly and others have special attack types that can paralyse enemies.

The combat sees you controlling stacks of monsters at a time: a simple, yet clever approach that helps weaker monsters like halflings become devastating, if you can recruit enough of them. You'll need around two to three hundred of the little bare footed ankle biters to take down one weaker green dragon, but it can be done!

The game challenges you to become good at resource management and gather the right resources to keep your armies strong and growing. If you are the wizard type of hero you'll want cloud giants, and these massive wrecking machines consume a lot of gems. Dragons are different, requiring you to capture every sulfur mine you can find. Phoenixes are gluttons for mercury, the humble cyclops lives for crystal and so the menu goes on.

Despite this Heroes II remains an easy game to pick up and play, with the first few missions a doddle. Before long though you'll be trying to secure enemy castles in siege attacks, while also protecting your mines located on the fringe of the frontier and keeping your monster breeding fortresses in the rear safe too. This can be really tricky as you can't be everywhere. You really have to pick your battles.

If you like the idea of some fantastical RPG nonsense that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is rock hard when it comes to difficulty, few games can bring it like Heroes still can.