JDR13 said:
It's pretty basic (eg just 4 factions, no creature upgrades) but the simplicity does mean that it is a decent introduction to the mechanics of the series. I have to say I was a bit of a masochist in playing through all four campaigns, as IIRC the maps in the campaigns are pretty much identical bar one.
HoMM1's graphics are also, if anything, even more cartoony than HoMM2's so YMMV depending on whether you like that. I quite liked the distinctive style, will take a while to adjust to the greater realism of HoMM3.
The campaign difficulty is similar to HoMM2 main campaigns - ie. the game can be quite challenging in places. As usual with HoMM, turtling is not a good strategy, build up 1 or 2 superheroes with big armies, and recruit a bunch of others with minimal fast moving units to go gathering resources.
