Recent reviews by Adm

Heroes of Might and Magic is so back.

This game is a perfect blend of Heroes 3 and Heroes 5 with some new innovations on the side. In terms of gameplay it's extremely smooth, relatively easy to get into, and offers a fair bit of depth with plenty of room for optimization. The devs also took into account modern Heroes 3 PvP standards, including the increasingly popular single-hero mode and the most popular random map template concepts, which will be very interesting to see once early access hits.
My personal favorite innovations are the Focus system, which makes unit abilities more strategic to use in battle, and the deep spells system with separate spell tiers and levels and neutral control spells.

Visuals are overall hit or miss, though even if you aren't a fan of the art style it's fairly easy to get used to. That said, there's plenty of beauty to be found in it in the battle scenes and certain global map sceneries.
As for unit models, some look great, and some need more work. A lot of this is work in progress though.

Music ranges from great to underwhelming. Grass and desert themes are wonderful, Temple, Hive, and Sylvan town themes are great, while Necropolis town theme is underwhelming and some other terrain themes are a bit too passive for my liking.
Relating to the music from previous instalments, it's impossible to compare in a fair manner. Nostalgia is too strong a factor and it's a highly subjective topic anyway. To me H5 music remains peak, but overall I like Olden Era's soundtrack too (it helps that some of it references H5 tracks too).

Sound design overall could use more work. Some battle sound effects are lacking, which reduces the satisfaction from certain actions. I would also like sound effects for various button clicks.

It's the UI and general UX that needs improvement the most, though the devs have already confirmed they'll be working on those. A visually more fitting UI would be great as the current version is rather generic. I believe a good chunk of negative feedback on the game's visuals comes from this issue too.
In terms of UX, town management very much needs some love, as well as custom hotkeys. I would also like to see more flavor text in popup windows as some of the text is a little bit too factual.

This demo is incredibly generous with the content it offers -- 8 random map templates, 4 full factions, all spells and game mechanics, and Arena mode on top. You could already spend well over a hundred hours with it (playtest included I am at ~200 into it).

TL;DR: Extremely promising demo, the devs are very much on the right track to release a worthy successor to the great old Heroes games, can't wait for early access (and UI rework!). Some issues here and there but none of them are deal-breakers. Good stuff!

An excellent Heroes-like game that's both nostalgic and fresh at the same time, with mechanics that should be familiar to fans of Heroes games and new ones that add unique spins to the gameplay. It's fairly simple to pick up and there's enough complexity to keep you engaged for a while if that's your sort of thing. Should you end up liking the game a lot, single-player content alone offers hundreds of hours of replayability, and then you also have the lobby-based multiplayer in addition.

Visually the game's a treat to look at: the adventure maps' landscapes are nothing short of gorgeous and the special effects in battle look and feel impactful.
The pixel art assets might be a potential issue for some, however they are all high quality and easy to read once you're a few hours into the game. For what it's worth, I personally tend to avoid pixel art games in general, yet the style used in Songs of Conquest won me over.

I will also draw attention to the game's sound effects, which are generally high quality and very satisfying, especially in combat. It greatly helps the immersion when your Knight ripping through the local fauna actually sounds like it. Sound design is often underappreciated, but it's crucial for immersion and this game nails it. And a bonus fun fact in relation to this: when a unit stack kills another, an extra punchy variant of their regular attack SFX is used, which is a neat little detail.

The game comes with 4 campaigns, one for each of the 4 base factions, which are generally well done and are maturely written. These also include a few musical cutscenes where songs of conquest are sung. The Arleon campaign serves as a tutorial of sorts, so it's recommended to start with that one, especially if you're new to the genre.
Still, the meat of the game is the Conquest mode, which is where the modular design of the factions really shines as it allows you to experiment with various unit combinations in each playthrough.

Without going into too much detail about the gameplay, the standout unique feature is the spell system, where the various types of essences (mana, basically) for spells are primarily generated by your army. There's no restriction on how many spells you can cast in a single turn, so if you gather a bunch of essence and spend it all in one go, you can pull off some rather wild moves.

SoC is, of course, not without faults. To name a few: there are some long-standing balance issues, the base factions are too similar to each other, combat spells are too few, and the game's randomly generated maps could stand to be better. Yet, the good stuff very much outshines the lacking aspects, so none of this should be a deal-breaker, especially when taking into account that the team behind the game has always been small.

The one thing I cannot recommend doing in the game is competitive multiplayer as some key features/aspects are missing/lacking for a proper experience. However, there's a fan-made mod for the game under the name Revortex that aims to alleviate some of these issues, so if you do want to give it a go, I would recommend looking that up.

The game's strongest aspect is its stellar atmosphere — the muted sound effects, stylish visuals, and fitting soundtrack make for a gripping experience.

Combat is extremely solid: the semi-realistic physics make flying challenging and fun at the same time, and the tactical aspect is a nice addition that allows for multiple different approaches to each encounter, though it is a bit lacking in options.
Fighter weapon choices are extremely limited, though there are several different upgrades which enable different playstyles, so there is some variety if one looks for it.

Storywise the game has little to offer: it features a rather barebones and cryptic storyline without any sort of cutscenes or voice narration. Basically it's just there so there is something in terms of a story.

In terms of controls, there's no explicit need for anything beyond mouse + keyboard as this setup works well enough for the game's purposes.

Completing all missions on normal difficulty takes 3-4 hours at most. Even with the multiple difficulty levels there's very little replayability value here.

I'd recommend getting this game when it's on sale. Unfortunately, there's not enough content to justify the full price (20€ at the time of writing).

The perfect Rollcage successor.