With Heroes III and Horn of the Abyss finally getting proper Steam releases, I want to recommend this game to people who may have completely missed it because of its age.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5061200/Heroes_of_Might_and_Magic_III_Horn_of_the_Abyss/
Heroes of Might & Magic III is from 1999, but I genuinely think it is still one of the best strategy games you can play today.
It has one of those extremely rare gameplay loops where a simple idea creates ridiculous depth:
Explore the map → collect resources → develop your towns → recruit armies → build heroes → learn spells → hunt artifacts → fight increasingly dangerous battles → eventually collide with the other players.
It combines turn-based tactical combat, RPG-style hero development, exploration, economy, army building and grand strategy in a way I've never really found replicated anywhere else.
But the biggest reason I'm recommending it now is Horn of the Abyss.
HotA is a fan-made expansion that has been developed for years with an almost absurd respect for the original game. Rather than turning Heroes III into something completely different, it feels like discovering expansions that New World Computing somehow forgot to release.
You now have three additional factions, five campaigns, new creatures, heroes, artifacts, map objects and mechanics, plus a huge number of balance and QoL improvements.
And the game is still evolving 27 years after release.
That's the part I find extraordinary.
Heroes III isn't simply an old game that people occasionally replay because of nostalgia. It has a living community producing campaigns, enormous hand-crafted adventure maps, random-map templates, tournaments, balance updates and entirely new content.
If you're competitive, things like Jebus Cross, Jebus Outcast and Duel can turn it into an incredibly deep PvP strategy game.
If you're like me and prefer adventure and single-player, you can disappear into giant custom maps for days. Some maps almost feel like their own RPG campaigns, where exploration, puzzles, story, hero development and huge battles gradually build over dozens of hours.
One of my personal favorites is The Devil Is in the Details.
And if you eventually exhaust HotA, there is another rabbit hole called VCMI, an open-source reimplementation of Heroes III designed around extensibility and modding.
That's why I find Heroes III so difficult to replace.
New strategy games obviously have prettier graphics and modern interfaces, but HoMM3 has something most of them cannot manufacture: 27 years of accumulated maps, mods, strategies, competitive formats, community knowledge and refinement built around an already exceptional game.
It's a little like recommending a classic novel instead of whatever book happens to be trending this year. Age isn't really the disadvantage anymore... the decades of refinement are part of the appeal.
And the barrier to entry just became much smaller:
Heroes III is now properly available on Steam with Armageddon's Blade + Shadow of Death, and Horn of the Abyss is a free Steam expansion for owners of the game.
If you enjoy turn-based strategy, tactical combat, exploration, RPG progression or games with ridiculous replayability, give it a chance.
Don't let 1999 scare you away.
There is a reason people are still playing this thing.