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| #1 | Heroes of Might and Magic III |
|---|---|
| guessed by | The_Liquid_Laser |
| platform | Windows |
| release year | 1999 |
| developer/publisher | New World Computing/3DO |
| genre | turn based strategy |
| links | Wikipedia |
| past years | 2018: #1 |
| 2017: #1 |
With Katamari Damacy and Dragon Quest Builders 2 as contenders this year, I wasn't so sure if HoMM 3 would keep it's first place. But in the end, Heroes got the first pplace again. But it was close.
So this game is a great combination. You manage your resources, build your cities and send your heroes into the world, exploring, claiming artifacts, resources and troops and battling the enemy. Battle is a good tactical hexfield fight. This game gives a pretty good impression of you being an emperor controlling your lands in a fantasy world with magic. The different factions have so many mythical creatures battling on their side.
It is no problem, even these days, to pick up the game and create a random map to battle it out with a few CPU-players. Or to play the great single player campaigns again. It just still works.
The game is from the legendary strategy specialist dev New World Computing. They invented the whole sub-series of Heroes (apparently based on an earlier game by them, King's Bounty, which I probably should play one of these days). Sadly, as the mother company 3DO got into financial trouble it also meant the end of 3DO.
This works well under Linux with the Windows-emulator Wine, but there is also a project called VCMI that modernizes the engine and allow for modding. Ubisoft also released a HD remaster of the game. So plenty of options to play it today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdJRKWfzpuA
