There are six town types, and this time each has an ideological alignment: Life (Haven), Nature (Preserve), Chaos (Asylum), Death (Necropolis), Order (Academy), and Might (Stronghold).

Each individual troop unit was given its own movement allowance on the adventure map, with units possessing the ability to split off independently of the main army; however, the troops can no longer be "shuttled" from hero to hero to move an army large distances in a single turn.

This, in turn, was partially compensated for by the elimination of the need to revisit resource-producing structures each week, and the introduction of caravans, which can quickly and safely transport heroes and remotely recruit troops from external dwellings.

[7] Unlike previous games, even unit types that can only be found on the adventure map and not in towns are all still associated with one of the six faction alignments.

As foretold by a prophecy, when Armageddon's Blade and the Sword of Frost clash in battle, the result is a massive explosion known as the Reckoning, which destroys the world of Enroth.

Many of the inhabitants of the planet, however, escape through mysterious portals that appear during the Reckoning leading to another world, called Axeoth – also the setting for Might and Magic IX.

[8] Included among the refugees are many of the heroes of previous installments of the series, and many return to their old ways shortly after arriving on their new home.

The Gathering Storm also features an upgraded editor, which allows full access to new heroes, adventure objects, artifacts and creatures.

[11] Winds of War was the last installment of the entire Heroes of Might and Magic series to be developed by New World Computing.

[13] GameSpot wrote that "Heroes IV is clearly a worthy successor to the series and has very clearly been worth the wait", praising New World Computing for being "able to incorporate so many new and interesting features into this sequel while still making sure it kept all the core elements that made all the previous games so great.