The PC Gaming Show is often seen as a drowsy conference, with too many games and not enough big titles to generate interest. But in 2019 and 2021, ONE game managed to catch the eye of the vigilant. Songs of Conquest and its beautiful pixel art environments presented themselves as a worthy heir to the Heroes of Might and Magic saga. Today the game is available in Early Access. Does it keep its promises?
Graphics, scenario… A beautiful song
The game has convinced the players through the eyes, so let’s start with that! Songs of Conquest is great. The zoom level allows you to enjoy both large, harmonious maps, if a little too linear at times, and delightful details. It’s teeming with little animations, like those cute pigs hopping around your farms. Each of the 4 factions has their own paw, both for their cities and for their units. Thus, under the influence of necromancers, severe corruption spreads on the ground, while walking in a forest inhabited by spirits will enchant you and create the acute discomfort of not feeling where you should be. The skeletons are freaky, the frogs are funny… In short, there are seals of approval.
The visual is enhanced by the soundtrack. The music works for both quiet times and fights, and the title’s “songs” take on their full meaning when a cutscene in the form of a song comes between two scenarios to narrate the ongoing adventure. The idea of including everything the player does in this narrative justifies a verbose language of the adventure’s protagonists, with nice twists or rhymes. Everything is translated into French, and The adventure is deeper than it seems. You have no choice here: you are being told a story and must therefore face the consequences. And sometimes we wonder if we’re really playing the good guys…
The first campaign follows Cecilia Strongheart, a heroine… Pragmatic!
There are two campaigns available that can take you a significant number of hours, easily ten depending on whether you want to loot the entire map. Skirmish modes and online multiplayer allow you to play with 4 factions while customizing your gameplay. We are promised more content later, without further details, but we can expect new factions and campaigns in particular. Finally, a level editor is present, but it’s still very much a matter of perfection, and the developers are aware of that and are working on it. When a community aspect strengthens, we don’t get bored!
Combat, management… Beautiful conquests, sometimes difficult
If you knew the first Heroes of Might and Magic, this game will delight you, the expected leitmotifs are there! The game takes place in two phases. On the one hand, the main map, on which you explore the environment round by round. Your thaumaturge carries his batteries of soldiers with him and accumulates riches or conquers cities. Also, there is no dedicated screen to manage these cities. it happens right on the motherboard. Your constructions have predefined locations and therefore your actions have a visual impact. A way to recite the scales of the genre while adding a refreshing melody. Your village becomes a fortress and each building can be looted individually. So there has to be a fair balance between defensive buildings, recruitment buildings and buildings that generate resources, it’s fun! Another originality: a research system that improves your economy or your units.
The second phase are the battles, more classic for those who have already touched on a tactical role-playing game. We are surprised by the fast pace of the battles at the beginning. Weak enemies are dispatched… And vice versa, our beautiful army can be crushed in minutes without really understanding what it’s about. So we feel a bit like we’re in early access. The first scenarios of the campaign will leave you with a sense of calm, and after a while in the following scenarios, a super-powered enemy will appear out of nowhere and crush you. It’s surprising and a bit frustrating, the game can slip out of your hands when you find you have to start your ranges from scratch to be able to compete by setting aside more secondary areas, a bit like a dice, and try again. Especially when this famous great hero arrives after several hours of gameplay and tells us that we have to start all over again or go into hiding to slowly build a new army…
The end of fight animation is awesome!
There is no doubt that the developers will be rebalancing soon. But let’s not sulk our enjoyment, the battles introduce original systems that work well. The magic is subtle: each unit gives you specific magic points at the start of their turn. For example, soldiers give order points and ghosts give chaos points. This system forces you to think more about how you build your army. Do you prefer to rally his troops to get stronger, or separate them to create more magic? You can cast as many spells on an already created book as you have available points. It’s a shame to have everything from the start, it takes away the joy of discovering a new magic.
Finally, kudos to the initiative system, well done and that requires playing the conductors. Unit placement is crucial, you must anticipate your opponents’ moves like in a game of chess. Ditto for ranged weapon range system on multiple tiers. All in all, these are fast-paced, nervous fights with many things to consider. Exhilarating!
Interfaces a little “earlier” than “access”
Aside from the rebalancing issue, which will no doubt be fixed in the future, the interfaces also have some issues. The desire to incorporate them into gameplay rather than putting menus everywhere is a great idea. However, this must not be at the expense of visibility. Perhaps we lacked vigilance, but it is possible to find the unit’s special ability button only after hours of play, if it was next to their life bar from the start… The tutorial, a sequence of texts to read, is not very responsive and doesn’t even tell us that the alt key on the keyboard allows you to view the clickable items on the main map, although it’s very handy!
Finally, the player could probably be made more aware of what’s going on, especially in relation to the city administration. There’s a notification system that’s not very visible in a corner of the screen. A visual cue that an upgrade can be bought would be nice because now you should remember to check the buildings so you don’t forget anything. After all, keeping troops on duty in a city and organizing defense is still troublesome. These very small points of criticism shouldn’t cloud the good idea of the gamebut c’mon, even if it’s exhausting, when the loading times between the combat phase and the main map could be a bit shorter… Thanks in advance!
Points cont
- Beautiful pixel art
- Captivating music
- Well written campaigns
- Great ideas for battles
- City administration integrated into the map
weak points
- Need a realignment
- Interfaces not always clear
- Information that is difficult to access
Songs of Conquest is as beautiful and enchanting as it suggests, a worthy successor to the old Heroes of Might and Magic. It brings notable and welcome improvements to the old formula and will keep you busy from its early access. A few rebalances and some tweaks to the interfaces, and it could well become a staple of the genre!
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