Heroes of Might and Magic VI

Heroes of Might and Magic VI (HMM6) is a fantasy turned based strategy game, which is amongst my favourite genres. You command heroes and their warrior unit subordinates across a map capturing territory and smiting your foes.

The main focus of gameplay for a turn based strategy really has to be tactics. It comes at a surprise that HMM6 lacks this, with most fights being about who has the biggest army. Most units can just move across the map freely with enemy units not creating a zone of control to stop you. Any terrain features that make it onto a battle map seem to have little influence and in the end you feel like you have fought the same battle over and over again.

There are loads of abilities your heroes can gain, from directly benefiting a battle to helping build your empire. There are also plenty of cool magic items out there for them to find. Whilst a hero does make a difference to the outcome of a battle, it seems to matter little compared to how big your overall army is. You see the biggest influence of your hero when you are fighting against lower level characters.

The graphics are great for this type of game with a rich amount of detail spread across large maps. When you zoom in on the world map you see the tiniest of details such as mushrooms and lily pads. The animations of your warriors fighting and dying are solid too. 

The game also suffers from poor dialogue and clichéd story lines, in fact the story of the first campaign reminded me a lot of Warcraft III. From time to time someone delivers a solid line and they even sound like they mean it but it can't replace the overall cheesiness of the rest of the story.

The game does have some bright points and there are plenty of reasons to play. However there are a tonne of other games out there that are begging for your attention and I just can't see Heroes of Might and Magic being at the top of that play list. I'd recommend Battle of Wesnoth instead, it is less pretty but it does a better take on turn based strategy and it's free. Heroes of Might and Magic VI gets 6.5/10.