Heroes of Might & Magic III TSOD

‘Heroes of Might & Magic III The Shadow of Death’ is not really a new game, anyone who has played Heroes of Might & Magic III will not find anything drastically different in this game. The game differs by adding more scenarios and four extra campaigns to the original features. For those who have not played the game before though (and those who can’t get enough of the original) and like the challenge of turn based strategy this game is a must.

The setting for the game is a fantasy world (yes we are in golem and dwarf territory) and you will control and oppose all manner of creatures. The game basically revolves around your heroes and the quests that are laid out for them. The Heroes are recruited from taverns in towns that you control whilst the rest of your armies are trained in specialist buildings inside these towns. The town’s facilities can be upgraded and new ones introduced in order to provide you with more resources in order to improve your heroes chances against the enemies that lurk around the map.

Click on the pictures below for a full size screen shot.

The variety in this game is fantastic the scenarios range from hunting the holy grail to completely destroying the enemies that are on the map and whilst we are on the subject of scenarios it has to be said that there are a huge number of them over ‘100’ and 12 campaigns in total. Probably the only thing you could say against this game is that the battles could have been presented better and have actually taken part on something that represented a landscape with strategic advantages such as trees and hills etc. and not just a postcard.

This game is easily worth the asking price and will take an age to complete. If however you do manage to complete the game then there are all types of editors to enable you to create your own scenarios and campaigns. It also must be said that the editors are very easy to use.

The deaf gamer is well catered for by this game; the graphics are very colourful, clear and easy on the eye. Video clips are automatically subtitled but these are rolling subtitles (as can be seen above in the first screen shot) and may be too quick for some people to read all the dialogue on the screen. However, this only applies to the video clips, and not the whole game. All information is textually presented and appears in a box, with a tick in the corner to continue the dialogue. This gives deaf gamers the chance to read all the information being presented and continuing when ready! Further information about buttons, etc can be obtained by placing the mouse cursor over a button, for example and right clicking.

Overall Game Rating: 9/10

Quality of text: 9/10 Great. Scrolling text on the campaign intro's should have been able to be paused though.

Graphics: 8/10 While not state of the art they are clear and comfortable on the eyes.

Interface: 9/10 Great everything is clear and understandable.

Gameplay: 9/10 Turn based strategy at its finest. It is easy to get into for beginners and doesn't cause any confusion. A Great Strategy game that does everything a deaf person could wish for .