Some games know what they are and who they’re for and Songs of Conquest is one of them. It leaves you with no doubt about its inspirations, with the most obvious being the earlier Heroes of Might and Magic games sprinkled with a bit of city building and a dab or two of 4X games like Civilization 6. It’s a true melange of classic titles and it’s just launched out of early access into a full release.
This turn-based strategy game has several things going for it. The most compelling is that Songs of Conquest pays homage to the first three Heroes of Might and Magic games. It puts you in control of magicians you move around its glorious pixel art fantasy maps, recruiting troops, and taking on challenges through hex-based tactical combat. By combining RPG and strategy systems it accurately recreates the feeling of playing the original Heroes of Might and Magic games, albeit with a few updates along the way as concessions to this more modern era.
You’ll also look after your cities, building them to reflect the style of warfare you want to excel in. This is one of the areas where Songs of Conquest differs from the classics, offering a welcome opportunity to customize your army. In the older titles you would have a pretty set-in-stone upgrade path but here you have more choice over buildings, giving you more flexibility in your army composition.
The version 1.0 launch expands the game with a brand new campaign, making four in total for players to dive into and explore, all with an interconnected overarching narrative. There’s a ton of challenge maps for you to test your mettle against, ranging from the impish to the outright fiendish. Recent updates from developer Lavapotion have also focused on improving the game’s AI, giving players far more varied opponents to take on with several new difficulty levels.
Today’s launch came along with the announcement that Songs of Conquest is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, though there is no timeframe for this just yet. You can also grab the game’s soundtrack, which launched on Steam at the same time.
If you’d like to grab this gorgeous pixel art fantasy strategy game for yourself, you can save 20% on Songs of Conquest until Monday, May 27, head over to the Steam page to find out more.
Should you want to dive into something else, our guide to the best strategy games you can play will get you bringing your forces to muster, or you can take a peek at our best classic games guide, for a taste of yesteryear.
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