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Heroes of Might and Magic IVReviewed By: Erica Marceau Review Computer: 400MHz G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) with 768MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro 128, Mac OS X (v10.2.4) Review Date: March 27, 2003
HoMM4 is divided into campaigns which are a series of connected maps that involve one or more heroes with an overriding story. In HoMM4, each of the six towns has its own campaign which introduces you to Chaos, Order, Life, Death, Nature, and Might. They are interesting, for the most part, and do a good job of showing how the towns evolved and the magic school associated with each. For example, the Order campaign has Emilia Nighthaven as the main hero and follows her as she creates a new nation of order and justice from essentially nothing. While the main characters are interesting, the stories are too similar to each other in that they all feature an unknown person becoming king or queen. I would have liked a bit more variety.
The other area where you will spend a lot of your time is in the town screen since this is where you will select the buildings that produce troops and teach your heroes spells. All troops are divided into levels 1, 2, 3 or 4 based on how powerful they are. In HoMM4, each town has two level 1 troops and you can have both of them. There are also two level 2, 3 and 4 troops, but you can only pick one or the other. For example, the Chaos town has the Hydra and Black Dragon as their level 4 troops and you have to pick which one you want based on either your personal preferences, the enemy you're going up against, or maybe even what resource you have the most of since many troops require resources (in addition to gold) to be hired. While you can exchange one kind of resource for another, sometimes you don't even have enough for that. For the most part, the troops at each level are balanced pretty well, which is pretty impressive considering how many troops there are.
You can also play maps that aren't part of the included campaigns, and HoMM4 comes with 37 of them with the ability to play custom maps and campaigns made by you or other fans. What is unusual for Macintosh users is that the map editor was actually ported and it seems to be very powerful in what you can do. This would explain the excellent maps that have already been developed. HoMM4 also supports multiplayer using GameRanger, TCP/IP, and direct connection. When I tried TCP/IP, I couldn't host a game with someone successfully joining or join a game myself. While it's possible I was doing something wrong since there are no instructions, I find the difficulties I had to be unacceptable. Overall, Heroes of Might and Magic IV is a fine example of a game which combines the best features of turn-based strategy with role-playing to create a fine contribution to the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Even though the performance (especially in battles against the computer) could be a lot better, I can find little else negative to say. If you like strategy games or know someone who does, HoMM4 (and Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete as well) is an excellent game to buy.  [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
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In a nutshell Heroes of Might and Magic IV (HoMM4) is a turn-based strategy game which combines exploring an adventure map, managing seven resources (gold, wood, ore, sulfur, mercury, crystals, gems) in order to develop towns, the hiring of heroes and troops used to battle wandering monsters and enemy heroes to achieve the victory conditions of each map. These conditions vary, but they usually involved finding an artifact, defeating all enemies, or getting to a location. Heroes gain experience and learn skills that range from making themselves stronger to learning magic to the ability to sway enemy troops to their side.
I think the heroes are what really sets HoMM4 apart from other turn-based strategy games. They can wear artifacts which increase their effectiveness in combat, the effectiveness of their troops, or increase a skill. Heroes can even use a wide variety of potions such as the all-important Immortality Potion which brings the hero back after getting killed. Heroes can take an active role in battles and learn skills from gaining levels or from locations on the adventure map. The nine main skills are Combat (makes the hero a better fighter), Tactics (makes the troops better fighters), Nobility (provides more troops to hire in a town as well as more gold and resources), Scouting (lets the hero see more of the adventure map, travel further, and sneak around), Life Magic (lets the hero cast healing spells), Death Magic (lets the hero cast magical curses and raise undead), Order Magic (lets the hero cast protective spells and to control the enemy), Chaos Magic (lets the hero cast fire and lightning attack spells), and Nature Magic (lets the hero summon beasts from nature). Each skill has three supporting skills with five levels of competency. At which two skills a hero becomes proficient determine what advanced class he/she becomes. For example, if a hero specializes in both Tactics and Scouting then he/she will become a Field Marshall, which gives a 10% increase in Ranged and Melee Attack to all of the troops in the hero's army. Not all of the advanced classes are worthwhile, but they add spice.
Battling against enemy heroes or wandering stacks of troops is a vital and important part of HoMM4. All battles happen in a turn-based fashion with the fastest creature going first and being able to either wait, defend, move, attack with a long-distance attack (if possible), use a spell (if possible), or use a melee attack. You can also retreat or surrender if you face an overwhelming force. When you move your cursor over an enemy you see how much damage you are going to do and how far you'd go if you were to walk so you can best determine which enemy to attack to do the most damage. You can also see, if you want, how much damage you actually will do and how many troops you've killed right after you've attacked. If you don't want to control every battle, you can turn on auto-combat in the preferences. This can also be turned on in the middle of a battle if you want to see what the computer does. I usually turn auto-battle on for the easy battles and turn it off when I'm facing an enemy hero and before I have sizable forces. This can save a lot of time.
The graphics are very colorful and detailed with an excellent combination between artistic creativity and realism. There are lots of animations everywhere from a hero running a hand in her hair on the battlefield to water running in streams to flags rippling in the wind. It's very impressive overall, and only surpassed by the beautiful music which includes operatic themes, something not often heard in computer games. Each town has its own theme, and there are six battle songs in addition to several more based on whether you're on snow, grass or mud, or if you're underground. It's hard for me to describe the quality of music, but I'll say I like the music so much I listen to it in iTunes when I'm busy working.