An enchanting turn based strategy game.
Heroes II is set some time after the original game, and it assumes that Lord Ironfist the Knight Warlord of the original game was the victor in the War for domination of Enroth. Ironfist recently passed on leaving two sons to claim the throne, the noble and heroic Roland, and the ruthless, evil Archibald. After Archibald orchestrates the deaths of the Seers who would choose the successor to the throne, Archibald accuses Roland of the murders, and Roland is forced to flee. As a former Vassal of King Ironfist, you must choose to serve either Roland, or Archibald as the Succession Wars begin.
Heroes II isn't radically different from the original game. The gameplay still mostly consists of hiring heroes, recruiting units for them, and defeating enemy heroes while conquering enemy towns. NWC followed the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" idea, and it really paid off. Heroes II has all of the original factions, the Knights, Sorceresses, Warlocks, and Barbarians, along with two new factions; the Wizards and the Necromancers. Both of the new factions add more replayability to the series, and I thought that both of them were unique and well made.
Heroes II brings back the "standard game" mode, and greatly improved upon it. NWC created some very unique, and interesting story driven scenarios for players to enjoy if they don't like playing campaigns, and can't find any multiplayer games (which would be hard at the present, anyway). Most of the scenarios are well made, and challenging. You can also create your own maps with the included map editor, and like the windows version of the original Heroes the map editor has an embedded Random Map generator, so you once again have infinite replayability.
The graphics are not all that different from the original Heroes since the sequel uses the same engine. Despite the similarities, Heroes II does some things differently. While the cartoony look remains, the creatures look less "fairy tale" like, and have more of a pseudo-serious look. I really liked this change myself, for the game looked less silly, but it still kept some charm.
The audio is excellent. The voice acting for the campaign briefings is solid, and the sound effects are pretty much the same ones from the original game, but the music is a wonderful score. Terrain music is very atmospheric, and fits the type of terrain it is connected to very well. Castle themes have opera, and are well done. Unfortunately the battle music isn't anything special.
Heroes of Might and Magic II is a fine sequel. It has a single campaign with a lot of nice features, a nice collection of scenarios, and beautiful visuals and audio. There's not much that Heroes II doesn't have, and every turn based strategy fan owes it to themselves to play this title.