Preview
| Conversion masters R-Comp Interactive have announced that their next game, which should be available in time for the Acorn World 98 show, will be Heroes of Might and Magic II - a turn-based strategy game/RPG set in a mediaeval-style world in which you battle, cast spells and generally kick butt in a struggle for domination over the land of Enroth. |
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| Hailing from 3DO/New World Computing, this game comes with excellent references. The sequel to multi-award winning game Heroes of Might and Magic and spin off from the highly successful Might and Magic series, HMM2 is generally accepted as a prime example of a sequel that improves upon the original with most reviews giving it scores well into 90%. Although being turn based it doesn't rely upon quick reflexes to succeed it does require a high level of ruthlessness and cunning, and has been called "as addictive as nicotine" in one review (GamesMania). |
| High-quality graphics are much in evidence throughout the game; the demo version for the PC is a massive 26.7MB, and the full version required over 60MB of free disc space. There are over 50 types of monster, 60 spells and hero types, and 70 artifacts; some characters have around 150 frames of animation and there are numerous cut sequences. Optimisations by RCI and a relatively low PC spec for a game which only really reached our shores in 1997 mean that the game should work on all RiscPCs, although at the time of writing an ARM710 is recommended; other tweaks have all but eliminated the excessive hard disc accessing that the PC version was prone to, and made the computer AI much faster (so fast the CD play routines had to be modified to cope with such small amounts of time to play the AI theme!). |
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| Multiplayer gaming is definitely on the cards, although to what extent is currently in the balance; the game can already be played by up to 6 people on one machine, but network play may or may not be written in time for the inital release - but with RCI being quite active in adding networking as an upgrade to other games at the moment this might not mean it will never be networked. However, some have said that, like Syndicate, the lack of a network option may not be too great a loss as the networking isn't particularly breathtaking. Whatever options there will be for multiplayer gaming, there will at least be plenty to occupy the lone player - the game has 2 multi-mission single player campaigns, a large assortment of individual maps, a map editor, and random map generator so it should keep you busy for many a month to come. |
| If that's not enough then the pack should include at least one set of extra levels, and hopefully a whole extra CD; as ever there are plenty of levels available to download over the Internet too. In a move which should silence critics who have pointed to the MIDI-only music in previous games, RCI have created a special CD playing routine so people without MIDI hardware or software can instead take advantage of the 42 CD tracks (ordinary or full operatic); this bodes well for another forthcoming release, Descent, which should now have similar music options. |
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| It's an open secret that Andrew Rawnsley, head of R-Comp, is a big fan of this type of game, and that this project was partly undertaken so that he didn't have to keep using a PC to play one of his favourite games; but being in the business of converting games from other platforms this could be said, without detriment, of most of RCI's output. However it found its way here, it looks like another top flight game is on its way to the Acorn range. |
Further Information:
| RCI (R-Comp Interactive): | http://www.rcomp.co.uk/leisure/ |
| 3DO/New World Computing: | http://www.3do.com/ |
| Official info: | http://www.3do.com/corporate/moregames/heroes2.html |
| Advanced user guide: | http://www.misborne.demon.co.uk/HOMM2.htm |
| PC Review (GamesMania) | http://www.gamesmania.com/english/reviews/new/hmm2/hmm2.htm |
Richard Goodwin (12/8/98)