Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia

aka: HOMM 3, Heroes 3, Heroes of Might and Magic III: A Restauração de Erathia, HoMM3:RoE
Moby ID: 1494
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia takes place long after the ending of Heroes of Might and Magic II: Price of Loyalty and partially concurrently with Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven. Receiving news of her father's death, Catherine Ironfist, Queen of Enroth, sails for Erathia to attend her father's funeral. Fearing the worst, she assembles a military fleet as her escort. Arriving on the coast of Erathia, Catherine finds an allied wizard's tower, devastated from battle and abandoned. There she learns Erathia is falling to its enemies. Mustering local armies, Catherine marches to Erathia's capitol, restoring lost land along the way.

The Restoration of Erathia retains the bulk of the gameplay from its predecessors, with significant additions and modifications. It features 8 entirely distinct towns with 7 creature levels each, but this time all creature levels (save for neutral-only ones) can be upgraded. Also new are war machines, a total of 122 artifacts, overhauled spell list, new and edited map locations, an alignment mechanic which affects interaction with some of the map locations and spells, and 7 single-player campaigns with a vast set of single scenarios which can be played against the AI or other human players.

Spellings

  • Герои Меча и Магии III: Возрождение Эрафии - Russian spelling
  • 魔法門英雄無敵3 (主程式) - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 魔法门之英雄无敌III:埃拉西亚的光复 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Linux version)

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Linux Version
  • Loki Entertainment Software
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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 169 ratings with 11 reviews)

Fun for a short while

The Good
Audiovisuals are the best bet of HoMM3. Graphically is pleasant, and creatures are well designed and animated (and it's a TBS game). Music is also excellent, and sound effects don't fall from the standard.

The Bad
Replayability suffers greatly from repetitive gameplay. Although there are many campaigns to choose from, every game quickly becomes the same as the previous. It's a matter of improving your cities as soon as possible, therefore improving your creatures. Then, raise as many creatures as you can: in battle, your best chance is outnumber the enemy, even with weaker units. But most important is to find the best hero/monster/spell combination (like regenerating vampires under command of a hero with Vampire specialty). Once found, the game becomes easy even at the King level.

I don't understand also why forests and hills block travel completely: It's a poor way of simplifying and I think shows the designers paid more attention to visual aspects than to game itself. The list of spells is far from being large, and creatures are actually half of the total, as "minor" versions quickly become obsolete.

Supposedly, the Map Editor expands replayability, but making your own scenario needs patience, too much patience. And what's the fun of exploring a world you already know from head to toes? Perhaps playing maps created by others... but as I said every game is the same.

The Bottom Line
Nothing more to say... I think HoMM3 may appeal more to RPG gamers than Strategy ones, as it focus on Heroes (curiously), and has a strong Fantasy paper-and-pencil RPG feeling.

Windows · by Technocrat (193) · 2002

This game has taken up many hours of my life.

The Good
The different varieties of monsters, castles, and magic spells. The map editor was one of my favorite parts of the game.

The Bad
The Inferno group only has one shooter. If it had one more it would have been my favorite group.

The Bottom Line
You start with a castle and you build it up. You can buy buildings to create men and then recruit them, and you can build your mage guild (place where you learn your spells). When you have acquired an adequete army you can try to take over the world!

Windows · by Attila (553) · 2004

Very, very, VERY addictive.

The Good
It's very addictive. I'm not sure exactly WHY it has such high replay value, but even repeating the same scenarios over and over again is a lot of fun. The graphics are good, in my opinion. A turn-based strategy game doesn't NEED top-of-the-line graphics. The backgrounds and creatures are actually beautifully rendered. The only graphics that probably should have been a little more intricate are spell animations. Compared to Heroes II, the AI seems to be more on a level with what is possible for a human player to do. In the previous game, it seemed as though the AI had access to more resources than I did, and that my creatures could therefore never compare. In Heroes III, the AI is more equally matched, and sometimes your computer opponents will fail to take advantage of blatantly obvious opportunities... it's nice to be given a fighting chance. It's a fun multiplayer game for two or three people, although many more than that and it starts to take huge amounts of time to finish. The map builder is a fun feature too--makes you appreciate how difficult it is to create a challenging but win-able scenario.

The Bad
The campaigns are terrible. Each one gives you three scenarios. Without exception, the first two are so easy that they are not any fun--the sole purpose of the first two scenarios is to build up your heroes for the third one. Kind of akin to walking around purposelessly in an RPG to try to get your characters up to level 99... and I HATE doing that. And then, once you finally trudge through to the third scenerio, it is way too hard. The AI has overwhelmingly superior forces from the start. The scenarios are nice moderate levels of difficulty, it would be so nice if the campaigns had been similarly designed.

The Bottom Line
Very fun, very addictive. I didn't exactly lose any sleep over this game, but it is a great way to run out a dull afternoon.

Windows · by hikari_no_tsubasa (9) · 2002

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

Mythology

Heroes of Might and Magic III made a complete major screw-up in Greek Mythology. This refers particularly to: the Gorgon and the Medusa.

In Heroes, the Gorgon is a fire breathing/death staring Bull from the swamps. In Greek mythology, the only creatures that closely fits this description are the Khalkotauroi. The Khalkotauroi were a pair of fire-breathing bulls forged from bronze by the Smith God Hephaistos as a gift for Aeetes, King of Kolkhis. These bulls were later killed by famous Greek hero Jason, in his quest for the Golden Fleece.

Now the Gorgon in Greek Mythology actually refered to a race known in Heroes as the Medusa. Gorgons are a race of vile creatures that had hair of live snakes, necks covered with scales, they have tusks similiar to of a boar, golden hands and bronze wings. Oh, and they're famous trade mark: anyone looking at them would be turned to stone (due to their extreme ugliness).

Initially there are 3 known Gorgons (other sources say there were more): Stheno, Euryale and their most famous sister: Medusa. Medusa was later killed by the Greek hero - Perseus.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MAT.

Macintosh added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Indra was here, tarmo888, Xoleras, Silverblade, DarkDante, Stratege, Paulus18950, Shu Nin, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

Game added May 27, 2000. Last modified March 28, 2024.