Customer Reviews

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Expansion Pack: Armageddon's Blade

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The original Hereos III lacked something vital that the new version possesses -- challanging campaigns. Believe me, if you thought the original campaigns were tough, you are in for a big suprise. The new units are OK, and not really anything special, although they do provide a few interesting twists. The random map generator, like all random map generators, creates a totally random map. If you want an all-out battle challange, start yourself at a high difficulty and have the computer ally with its self. Used correctly, the random maps can provide hours of gameplay, AND make creating scenarios and campaigns a whole lot easier.

Ths game itself is great. I like the conflux town very much.... If I play a single scenario, my top choice will be it!... But one thing... The campaigns are really hard... Harder than I would imagine.. By the way, if you download the patch from 3DO, remember that the cost of angel and archangel slightly increased by 1 gem and 3 gems each.

Armageddon's Blade plays almost identical to HOMM 3. However, there are some new twists. For instance, there is a new castle called the Conflux. This castle is ingenious, and very creative. Furthermore, there are new heroes that were not found in HOMM 3. There are also some interesting new armies, such as the sharpshooter. Overall, the new creatures and heroes make for an improvement than HOMM 3. BUT, the campaigns are very difficult at some spots. Some of the campaigns have time restraints on them that are very challenging to meet. Or, on some campaigns you may not lose any of your heroes. Of all the campaigns, "Dragon's Blood" and "Armageddon's Blade" were the most enjoyable and entertaining. There are a few minor problems with the game, but for the most part there are patches that exist to eliminate those problems. ENJOY!

Heroes of Might & Magic III: Armageddon's Blade brings more to an already fun & easy to play game of strategy. New campaign scenarios and lots single play scenarios are included, but the capper is the conflux, a source of new creaures(and old, depending if you have seen any of the earlier versions of the HOMM game).

Some hints for playing: 1)put the grail in a conflux and you'll have a one stop shop for all the spells available in the game. 2) have one leader of your armies learn expert wisdom and expert earth magic, then give it the spell town portal. Give it a big muckin' army, and you have a force that can defend any threatened town. A plus for holding together those far flung empires....

For those of you who have played Heroes 2 and 3, you may have noticed that a few cool creatures from 2 had been lost when 3 was made. Now, you have the chance to see them again, in the world of Heroes 3! Everything from 2 has been brought back, save Druids because Druid is now a type of Hero, including Phoenixes, Mummies, Halflings, and Rogues. We also get brand new creatures, such as the lethal Azure Dragon! A new town appears, complete with two new hero classes, new spells, new structures, including my favorite, a password gate that doesn't disappear after the password has been read, and new artifacts, including the awesome Armageddon's Blade! This is an expansion pack, so you must have Heroes 3 to use this. However, this does not erase anything you have done, and nothing major about the gameplay is changed or removed, there are only additions and improvements.

Very much a case of more of the same, but this is most certainly NOT a complaint. The computer AI has been vastly improved, there are more creature types, new heroes and heaps of new maps. The new campaigns are excellent, although the later stages are quite difficult and time consuming.

My only critiscm is that a few new spells would have been great, but overall the new levels and campaign make this a very worthwhile purchase.

*WARNING* as with the original - this game is addictive in the extreme!

A real expansion pack, adding new items, heroes, and campaigns, but most of all a new town to play with. The Conflux town adds brand new troop types to work with, as well as bringing back a few "lost favorites" from the Heroes II troop types. If you can't get enough of the original Heroes III, then this is exactly what you're looking for. More of all the good stuff.

HOMM3 Armageddon's Blade includes a campaign called "Dragon Slayer", which is easily one of the nastiest, most diabolical campaigns I've ever seen. You have to fight 3500 Naga Queens at 2 occasions, kill throngs of dragons of all kinds, including a throng of Azure Dragons that has 1000 hit points each! I had a lot of fun playing it, especially when my hero got up to 40+ attack and power skills carrying swarms of titans and giants in order to slay those dragons. Also, in the final scenario, there were no mage guilds or wells to refill your mana! Any self-respecting HOMM fan should challenge him or herself with the Dragon Slayer campaign in this outstanding HOMM3 sequel.

Enhancements in this sequel include a new town type, Conflux, which is home to elementals, sprites, and phoenixes. You can guard your mines by dumping creatures in them, just like dumping them in garrisons. New wandering creatures include the aforementioned Azure Dragon and 3 other dragons, Sharpshooter (ranger with no distance penalty), Enchanter (ranger who casts group spells), and creatures seen in HOMM2 such as Peasant, Rogue, and Nomad. There is also a super-artifact called "Armageddon's Blade"; in one campaign you help necromancers build it, and in another you help Queen Catherine take it from the necromancers.

Great fun!

Armageddon's Blade is a great expansion to HOMM3. It combines all the creatures from HOMM2, except the extremely powerful ghost, as well as exciting new creatures such as enchanters and sharpshooters. The new campaigns are very difficult, but the continuation of the Erathian saga is intriguing. However, the difficulty of the campaigns is more for the die hard fan, rather than a person new to the game. Never boring, it will leave you contimplating one last turn that will last for hours.

As someone who is prone to the wonderfully addictive power of this series, I loved this expansion. The new maps, troops and town were excellent additions. Implementation of the new features into maps was surprisingly limited - although anyone who is sufficiently devoted to the series to buy this game will no doubt want to try their hand at creating some maps of their own. Heroes III is an excellent party game and the new option of random maps can also help speed the process of choosing a map to compete over with your friends.

The real meat of the expansion - the new challenge campaigns - was much more mixed. Each and every one certainly was a challenge (especially Dragon Slayer!) but the work put into the game's story was either very good or very bad. The eponymous Armageddon's Blade campaign was loaded with well-thought-out story intermissions and world-building; the mapmakers took care to develop and explore each and every character well beyond their role on the battle map. Similarly, the Dragon's Blood campaign was full of surprisingly thoughtful observations about how the Dungeon faction works (or doesn't!), no less fun for their delivery through a deviously unreliable narrator. The other three non-unlockable campaigns were very lacking in plot - what little writing went into them was very simple and riddled with inconsistencies and plot holes. After running campaigns that felt like the designers had put love and care into every little detail, these felt disappointing. But even if you're as much a stickler about plot as I am, there's still enough of it in this box to satisfy. And if you're not, none of the challenge campaigns will fail to challenge.