Only managed to replay the Empire campaign of this oldie-but-goldie, but 20 years ago I remember playing it quite a bit. One of the few, or potentially the only one, games to manage a unique and interesting spin on the HOMM game design.

The gameplay is still as solid as I remembered it, though to be fair it was with its sequel that I spent the most time. An addicting crawl and conquering of each campaign map, with one main hero and other auxiliaries.

The hero and unit progressions feel satisfying and reward, once you're able to build a unit setup that allows for a balance of damage dealing and mitigation to allow you to take over the map.

The music and character voices is also nostalgic as hell for me. Love them a lot. But the pinnacle of it has to be the 2D art. In this original, but especially in its sequels. Just gorgeous 2D artwork.

While nostalgia has probably impacted this review a lot, I still feel the mechanics are probably still very good. Too bad the series kind of died out. It was a great one.

An 8/10 from me.