Dozens of great, goofy creatures and near-limitless replay value make Heroes of Might and Magic II as endearing and enduring as they come.

Talk About a Rabid Fan Base

Way before it was the "in thing" for a game to have an incredibly active and dedicated player community, Heroes of Might and Magic II had that base covered. It's a testament to the quality of Heroes II (and the Heroes of Might and Magic series, in general) that the game commanded such a huge and loyal following of fans. However, this game's fan base was something else--some people's dedication to the game seemed to border on being cultlike. It got so out of hand that the developers even got a death threat or two from some particularly hardcore "fans" when they announced some changes to subsequent games in the series, which those players apparently did not approve of. Ironically, you couldn't find a development team that was more sensitive to its audience's wishes than the developers of the Heroes series. For example, Heroes II featured a truly stunning operatic musical score--yet, as a concession to those who maybe didn't like operatic vocals, Heroes II allowed you to listen to just the music without the singing. Give people an inch, and they'll take a whole mile, right?

Excellent graphics, incredible music, and funny sound effects don't hurt the game's case, either.

For years, the Heroes of Might and Magic series of turn-based strategy games has been very popular among PC gamers, who've been drawn to the game's unique and colorful visuals and deep, strategic gameplay. In particular, Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars was the groundbreaking title for the series--it made numerous important improvements to its predecessor and laid the foundation for its sequels. It stands the test of time as the definitive fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game--filled with personality, depth, and limitless replay value. Despite being released way back in 1996, this is one of those games that you could easily go back to and enjoy just as much today as ever before.

Heroes of Might and Magic II features six different factions, based on their respective commanders: the warlock, the sorceress, the barbarian, and the knight, as well as the wizard and the necromancer, who were newly added to Heroes II. You'd start out as one of these six sides, typically with a single castle and a single hero. From these relatively humble beginnings, you'd take turns with your opponents scouring the map for new resources, claiming new towns and castles, and eventually defeating any opposing armies. Your heroes wouldn't actively fight in the game; they were commanders who would influence their armies of powerful creatures and who could cast spells from the sidelines.

The strategy in the game revolved around balancing offense and defense. You needed to maintain a strong army for your main hero on the front line to push back the enemy and get items, but you also needed heroes with good armies to protect your territory. Otherwise, an enemy hero would march in and take over your mines and send your economy crashing. You would find yourself saving resources and hovering near your town at the end of each week (in game time), because more creatures would become available for purchase at the start of every week.

Heroes II really appealed to our innate mentality to hoard stuff. Heroes would gain experience levels as they fought, becoming exceptionally powerful and gaining new and better skills and magic. Your castles' coffers would overflow with various exotic resources like gems and gold. You would field armies of hundreds of creatures (though groups of creatures were represented by a single, often highly amusing character). You'd claim countless towns and castles in your name over the course of Heroes II's numerous campaigns. Some maps were so vast, and offered so much to explore, that they featured both an overworld and an underworld layer--these maps could keep you busy for hours.

Few games have made hours seem to simply vanish like Heroes of Might and Magic II did. The game was highly accessible and inherently appealing because of its colorful graphics and great audio, but it offered so many richly detailed strategic layers that there were always lots of interesting things to do. The turn-based structure of the game kept all of this manageable and let you play at your own pace, enjoying this extraordinary game for as many hours at a time as you had to spare (or maybe a few more than that). The map editor that shipped with the game also spurred on a huge fan community to create countless, original new scenarios, which helped keep Heroes II popular for years.

I can't imagine how much time I spent with this game. It was just so satisfying to have a superpowerful hero that could smash anything to bits. The necromancer was my favorite. Necromancer heroes could raise killed enemies into skeletons for their armies. I remember that I had more than 32,000 skeletons built up. The game couldn't handle such a high number, so it kept giving weird errors, which gave me a good laugh. I couldn't count how many similar turn-based strategy games have come out since Heroes II, but none since have ever drawn me in like that game did.