PixlBit

Heroes of Might and Magic has always been.  a game i have played on the PC for a long time and i must admit its addicting and a great game but how does it stack up as a PS2 game, we will find out.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff is a 2001 version of a enhanced remake of Kings Bounty well at least thats how it was advertised upon release, and although it has very little relation to the Heroes of Might and Magic series it is and plays like the series, and heres a bit of history on the series that alot of you may not know, Kings Bounty ( 1990 ) an earlier game from New World Computing, largly precipitated the designs of Heroes and is included in some Heroes anthologies. It was later remade and branded as a Heroes title for the ps2 game, Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff . A sequel to Kings Bounty was released in 2008 as Kings Bounty The Legend

So on with the reveiw, Heroes of might and magic is essentially a turn based strategy game. You choose one of four heroes and your hero is on a horse galloping around four continents in an effort to discover an artifact called the dragon bone staff and you have a set number of days to find it, its a race against the clock. The gameplay is basicly a dumbed down version of Heroes of might and magic for the PC which like Sid Miers 360 version of Civilization is not always a bad thing. You only have one hero, and you spend most of your time roaming around the map finding chest, and other locations and usually they are guarded by creatures you have to fight and there are 17villians in various castles. If you successfully nab a castle you capture the villian and get a peice to a map that shows the location of the artifact as well as plenty extra gold. The crux of the game lies in recruiting armies in various places and taking them into battle, while roaming around the world map is in real time the battles are turn based and the clock onky ticks away when moving on the world map each battle takes place on a 5 x 6 playing grid. The different units have different movements points and attack, and knowing how to use them is where the strategy comes into play. Your hero gains stats like leadership which determines how big a army you can have abd spellcasting which you can use both in battle and on the world map depending on what spells you have, alit of your time is spent revisiting spawn areas to recruit more creatures troops etc. One of the problems i had with the game is when i fought villians sure they had a big army but unlike the pc title the villian does absolutely nothing no spells nothing which was disappointing to say the least.

GRAPHICS- are very dated and not very good but for a turned based strategy game they really dont have to be as long as the gamplay is solid.

SOUND- is really nothing to discuss yes you hear birds chirping your horse galloping and nature sounds the music is la de da laid back but is different and not repetitive.

CONTROLS- is done easy to play, everything is complete no camera issues or anything to hurt the game.

The game is solid the story is done well, but the bottom line is its a dumbed down version of a really good series, and i would have liked them to do away with the clock counting down this is what killed the game, because instead of taking your time and exploring you have to rush and hurry up hoping that time doesnt run out before you find the dragon bone staff. I would recommend it if you can find it cheap but i wouldnt waste my money on it if its over $10.

My Score: 3 out of 5 alright