2023 Archive
There is one word which will sum up this spiritual successor's homage to the pre-Ubisoft days of Heroes of Might and Magic. Happiness. This is my game of the year. If you've played HoMM entries beyond the third, you've found an unequivocally mixed bag. Songs of Conquest takes a great many things the series did well around the y2k, and creates a lovely new canvas for the next generation. This is one of those glimmers of hope that indeed, the best is yet to come! Starting off I found the SoC tutorials overwhelming, but it didn't take long for me to realize the best way to understand this game is simply to play it. After a few hours of sponging, it occurred to me I had not been this excited for a new game in a long, long time. There's some impeccable work here. At the time of this review, there are four factions in this beautiful turn-based strategy game. Each has their own way of breaking the rules, along with a wealth of creatures to choose from, and many different ways to play. There are some very fun units on each faction; the massive blobs of bone come to mind, which can splinter off into extra groups of skeletons for an easy distraction and clutch body blocking. Another of my favorites are the tunneling worms, which can appear on any hex to surprise someone nearby. This isn't Warcraft III though, don't worry - not every unit has a skill. Many will apply simple, stacking passive effects to adjacent creatures, thereby ensuring the slower, heavier units never lose their utility. The creatures work together in unexpectedly deep ways, and the balance feels just right to me. One of SoC's defining features is the way it handles spells. Magic is not "learned" perse, but rather accumulated as a battle progresses. SoC's five magic elements manifest through "Essence" charges, which feels sort of like a card game. Four of one Essence type might give you access to a certain spellcast, whereas four of two Essence types will unlock an additional spell which utilizes both of them at once. Essence can be generated by literally anything - artifacts, hero skills, creature abilities, interactive map objects, or creatures themselves. Much as I am here to give a basic overview, I've got to say - finding ways to exploit this is extremely satisfying. But perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this system is the ability to cast multiple spells per round. Once you've tried it, you can't go back. As a player, SoC lets you feel very much in control of your destiny. Essences allow you to synergize all sorts of magic effects, and the town system is no different. Unlike the linear design in early HoMM games, SoC's approach is more open-ended. You can have multiple of the same type of structure - especially smaller ones - allowing you to focus or diversify your economy, military or defense to any degree. The small, medium and large building slots are limited, however, and so you will be making some tough choices. This is especially true when deciding whether to build research structures or skip ahead to the most powerful creatures. If you want it all, you'll have to expand to other settlements, which means capturing them from other players. You can either occupy them, raze or convert them. The first option is instant, but enables the enemy to reclaim the settlement instantly if left undefended. Razing and conversion require you to stay in the settlement until the job is complete, but afterwards the town will be all yours. It's a nice little extra dimension to town capturing and can affect the whole game over time. Wielders (heroes) can defer picking levelup bonuses, which alleviates other games' pressure to choose immediately. Speaking of, you get three choices at levelup instead of the usual two. I've found that all the possibilities are compelling - there's even an adaptation of HoMM3's horrible Scholar ability! One skill all wielders need is Command, which increases the number of creature stacks you can take with you. This is counter-balanced by the absence of a "slowest unit" movement penalty on the adventure map, which I'm eternally grateful for. Another aspect I noticed right away is that I don't feel penalized for having multiple heroes - all non-combat experience sources can be claimed once per hero! This is heavenly for my OCD, and motivates me to scout more often without the "fear of finding something good" which I must leave behind. These are just a few of the elegant solutions SoC provides to smooth gameplay. You also won't find crazy, binary spells like Slow, Blind or Town Portal anywhere...though you might just forget which badass spell you were looking for in the sea of awesome stuff. As I said already, the art is beautiful. Every single aspect of this game's appearance is tastefully done. The music is just as good, and I can't get it out of my head. There are two more factions on the way, and I'm eager to learn more about them. My current favorite would have to be the swamp dwellers of Rana (surprise). There's definitely room for more, but what we have is a good start. If I discover more noteworthy material within the campaign or from DLC, I shall note it here. Overall, Songs of Conquest is certified badass. Any HoMM lover will have to crack a smile at the effort put into this project. I can't wait to see it go even further.
