Might & Magic Heroes Online

If you consider yourself a serious gamer with a bit of background in the field, then the Heroes of Might & Magic franchise should be familiar to you, especially the first four parts. They played a huge role in the evolution of the fantasy TBS genre, and they are still regarded as some of the best out there. Naturally, the old developers have gone extinct in the meantime, which means that the franchise rights have been purchased by someone else.

Might & Magic Heroes Online started its life as a browser game, which is obvious from the first few seconds you start playing. You can choose to render the graphics using a Chrome plugin or Adobe Flash, so the game’s roots are certainly not a secret. While this wouldn’t be a problem under normal circumstances, there are just too many issues and inconveniences in this case, especially when it comes to gameplay.

You are allowed to create a hero and build a town in the beginning, much like in the classic franchise. There are two factions to choose from and a couple of different hero classes, depending on whether you want to be a mage or focused on melee combat instead. Speaking of which, the combat system is still turn-based, although the actual mechanics are heavily simplified and way less exciting.

The game’s biggest problem is the fact that it asks you to wait a very long time for things like unit recruiting, resource gathering and city building. It takes hours for special units to be trained, but you can easily bypass all this by paying actual money. In fact, everything can and almost has to be paid if you want to have a pleasant experience, which is a big no-no nowadays, especially when there are so many truly free alternatives out there.

The graphics are not exactly bad, because it is obvious that quite a bit of effort went into the artwork and the environments. The units and the heroes are quite detailed as well, but the interface is the same as in every other browser game out there. Nothing too exciting in the sound department either, with barely a few tracks to keep you company while you have to wait for hours doing nothing.

Might & Magic Heroes Online could have done so much more with the material at its disposal. The HoMM universe has a lot to offer, yet the developers turned their sights on profits rather than making the game fun and exciting. Hence, you might be better off sticking with any other browser game instead.