The problem is, when it comes to HoMM clones, "decent" kind of doesn't cut it, as it ends up feeling like a dumbed down version of HoMM 3, with worse graphics, worse music, smaller scale, and less intuitive interface.

While the graphics are impressive at first, as they employ pixel 2D sprites and textures overlaid on 3D landscapes, the overall presentation is just kind of dull, compared to the HoMM games. For some reason it really tries to come off all dark and bleak, but in this style and setting, that simply reduces visual variety and gets old very quick.

Also, I feel like the sprites in the exploration mode have way few pixels. Like, it's not even nostalgic because video games have never really looked like that. Sure, 8-bit games may have had less pixels, but they also had simpler sprites, and the TV's interlacing made them come together in a more coherent image. These days, when I play old 8-bit or 16-bit games, I use filters for that shit. But here the sprites only look nice from a distance, when you can't really tell what exactly you're looking at. When you zoom-in, it's a mess. The first 3 HoMM games that have pixelated graphics all look better than this, and the first game came out in 1995. In the combat mode, the sprites are more detailed, but still much inferior to HoMM's combat mode, so it's worse across the board.

The music is okay, but is just kinda generic. Though I did enjoy the overall sound design. It doesn't bother me, but it's also completely incomparable to HoMM 2 and 3's absolute godlike music. Even Disciples 2 and 3 had better music, and better visuals, so idk why I should play this game instead.

When it comes to the gameplay, there are a few differences from HoMM. For example, you no longer have the castle overview mode, instead it's kinda placed right on the map in the exploration mode. It's a cool idea, but you're given a limited number of slots for buildings, which, although adds some strategic depth, makes your first castle less valuable. The amount of available slots is so minuscule that you can't really develop a powerful economic and military base, forcing you to treat your castle as merely a camp to venture on a journey from. With castles feeling less special, it makes all your achievements in the game feel less rewarding. Because conquering an enemy castle was one of the biggest achievements in HoMM, and an even bigger one in Disciples 2 (as it was a near-impossible task there). Here, it feels more like capturing resources and production bases.

Unit management is much simpler too, and the regular mobs are much weaker. You can get a relatively large army early on, and it's like you don't have to fight anyone anymore. In HoMM there was a diplomacy skill that allowed you to negotiate with the enemies, and then only after like a couple of hours of development you could get a massive enough army to scare off the mobs, but here you can achieve that in like 20 minutes. Also the campaign is super linear, kinda like HoMM 5, which I'm not a fan of. I abandoned it after 2 missions and went into the skirmish mode, which is much closer to HoMM 1-4.

Ultimately, I feel like this is the kind of game that, after you play it for a couple hours, you've seen pretty much everything it has to show. Sure, there are more units and buildings to explore, I guess, but nothing that'll change the underwhelming core gameplay, which is really the most flawed apsect of this game. The problem is that HoMM 2 is a massive game in terms of scale and depth, and HoMM 3 is even larger. For example, there are 8 factions in the original HoMM 3, another one added with expansions, and several more can be added with mods. Songs of Conquest has 4. Some of the mods for HoMM 3 have been in continuous development for like 20+ years. There are thousands of different maps that are on average much larger than anything SoC can offer. You can basically just play HoMM 3 all your life and never run out of content. And I just don't believe that SoC, despite being a competent game, is original enough to provide any reason to play it over HoMM 3 or any other HoMM clone for that matter.