Songs of Conquest

While its battles can be surprisingly punishing and occasionally uneven, there's a lot of heart in this gorgeous turn-based tactics anthology, and the scale of its ambition just about sings through.

A colourful army building and smushing strategy game with clear rules and a heap of RPG levelling-powered possibilities.

Songs of Conquest, contrary to first impressions, is not a modernized version of Heroes, despite many similarities. This game aims to carve out its own path and isn't afraid of innovative solutions. It's one of the few titles from this year that I will continue playing even after writing this review, as the game is incredibly engaging. Even when your eyelids are closing because of fatigue, the syndrome of "just one more turn" keeps circling in your head, asking you sneakily to play even more.

It's a great game. The campaign is short, but enjoyable. It's unnecessarily challenging in places, but it's a turn-based strategy game, so what else would I expect? The interesting race of frogs is sure to win everyone’s heart. A high-quality combat system, simple controls, and above all, those skits between missions—that’s something amazing. Unfortunately, the game is still let down by the unfinished wait times between turns and minor details on the map. At first, you tell yourself it doesn’t matter, but it’s something that never stops bothering you.

An exceptional strategy game that will give you hundreds of hours of pure strategic feast

Songs of Conquest manages to both satiate your Heroes of Might & Magic hunger and be its own unique game. Although the small number of classes and the restrictions on the number of soldiers are a bit annoying, it is at least as good as its predecessor in creating "let's have another round" addiction.

With a welcoming difficulty curve and paced introduction of mechanics, various modes to practice and play with friends, and an extensive world of interesting characters and factions, Songs of Conquest is a golden example of turn-based strategy games done right, with everything you could want included.

In a year that's slowly being dominated by indie releases, Songs of Conquest from Lavapotion is a stand-out hit.

Songs of Conquest is a respectful and heartfelt tribute to Heroes of Might and Magic, but it shouldn't be considered a simple copy and paste. In fact, Lavapotion has masterfully added some personal touches to that solid turn-based gameplay which, together with the splendid contemporary pixel art, make it modern and nostalgic, romantic and exciting. We eagerly await further content: could this be the beginning of a new legend?

Songs of Conquest is a turn-based strategy game that fits into the mold of Heroes of Might and Magic, trying to fill the void left by the latter, now missing from our screens for almost a decade. Despite a few flaws in the single-player campaign, Lavapotion's video game features a near-perfect balance of the four playable factions, all of which are well characterized, as well as a huge amount of content, including full support for community-made stuff.