# Heroes of Might and Magic III

16 Hacker News commenters recommended Heroes of Might and Magic III and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for hours of sticky turn-based play, balanced factions, strong AI and fan mods; the common caveat is missing sound from an old sound API.

## Why people recommend it

- Very absorbing, hundreds of hours (4 comments): "I was spending more hours with Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic games than Wolfenstein and DOOM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49229976)) "I've spent hundreds of hours on the GOG version of Heroes of Might and Magic 3." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46423176)) "a well-executed game like HOMM 3 for example has such a high stickiness factor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50232333))
- Active fan mods and expansions (2 comments): "they've been integrated into the official board game" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50234945)) "I still prefer the original + HD/HOTA." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46227429))
- Fond memories, hot-seat play with friends (2 comments): "I have such fond memories of HOMAM3 and playing it in hot seat mode as a kid." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50230812)) "Friends and I loved Heroes 3" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46233795))

## What people warn about

- Sound fails due to old API (1 comments): "didn't get any sound, because it relied on some ancient sound API" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46837644))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Battle for Wesnoth](https://hackerapproved.com/p/battle-for-wesnoth.md): 39 recommend
- [Sid Meier's Civilization](https://hackerapproved.com/p/civilization.md): 25 recommend
- [Sid Meier's Civilization III](https://hackerapproved.com/p/civilization-iii.md): 20 recommend
- [Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri](https://hackerapproved.com/p/alpha-centauri.md): 16 recommend
- [Civilization IV](https://hackerapproved.com/p/civilization-iv.md): 15 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Heroes of Might and Magic III", https://hackerapproved.com/p/heroes-of-might-and-magic-iii/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).