HoMM (or I guess MMH) 6

[bentheman939]

I know there was a thread about this game, but I can't seem to find it. I'm dl'ing it while at work but I was wondering if anyone has picked it up yet, and what their impressions were. I still play 3 on occasion, loved 2 as well, hated 4, and semi-liked 5. How does this one compare?!?!?!?

 

[Elcs]

I like it. Played the Demo, played several hours of the campaign so far and having fun. Animations and various unit abilities/synergies are making this installment very fun indeed.

Runs perfectly fine on my new machine and ran acceptably well at highest settings on my old machine too.

Can't wait to get more hours behind it. Sad to think that people are scared off by the fact that it's published by Ubisoft.

 

[bentheman939]

Can't wait to get more hours behind it. Sad to think that people are scared off by the fact that it's published by Ubisoft.

I've had some bad experiences with them - not just DRM related. Buying from them again was a serious consideration for me. But after playing every heroes game going back to Kings Bounty, and after thoroughly enjoying Anno 1404, I finally caved. Glad to hear you like it. Just out of curiosity, what was your favourite game in the series? Also, are there more than just ore, wood, and crystal in the full game?

 

[theb144]

ya if we could get a review of the campaign i would really appreciate it because im wanting to pick it up in two weeks. loved all the homm never played 5 though

 

[Elcs]

They stripped the resources down to basics. I think it is just Wood, Ore and Crystal. Not much of a loss imo, and probably a gain making that side of things a little simpler.

Favourite game in the series was 5. Just felt like 3 but with modern graphics and a wider variety of monsters with different abilities. Story? I've heard it was pretty naff but I never really played HoMM for the story, I played it for the tactical fights. The reason I think KB is better than HoMM, is that it strips away the whole Town turn-based part which distracts me from the fighting.

I'm really enjoying the square-grid battles as opposed to the hexagonal battlefield we used to have. I can't say which one is superior but it's "different" and I'm enjoying the change.

 

[theb144]

wow no more merc or anything cool change but in a way a lot of the fun for me in 1-3 was keeping up with my ore's and defending my area's that had them but i guess overall it would make it a lot more easier to keep up wiht

 

[Elcs]

Another nice feature is that you cannot capture and hold mines. If you want to deprive your enemy of resources, your Hero has to camp on the mine or building. As soon as he moves away, control is passed back to your enemy.

To take permanent control of a mine you have to capture the town that it's linked to (ie. the one nearby).

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Another nice feature is that you cannot capture and hold mines. If you want to deprive your enemy of resources, your Hero has to camp on the mine or building. As soon as he moves away, control is passed back to your enemy.

To take permanent control of a mine you have to capture the town that it's linked to (ie. the one nearby).

Hmmm... interesting. That's good and bad as the constant flip flopping can get annoying but also might make attacking resources too hard. Does the hero have to hold it or can you cap it and leave a small contingent of just troops there?

 

[Elcs]

Hmmm... interesting. That's good and bad as the constant flip flopping can get annoying but also might make attacking resources too hard. Does the hero have to hold it or can you cap it and leave a small contingent of just troops there?

Hero has to stay and hold as far as I can tell.

With 'keeps' or 'forts', you can take and hold leaving a contingent of monsters behind. Will double check with mines for you.

 

[boozie]

Favourite game in the series was 5. Just felt like 3 but with modern graphics and a wider variety of monsters with different abilities.

I didn't like 5 at all. First one of the series I didn't buy. 3 is commonly regarded as the best, but I actually like 2 the most. The problem with 2 is it didn't age well whereas 3 plays exceptionally well with the high resolution mod.

6 gives me the same vibe as 5 with dumbed down empire management but potentially better troop/hero customization. I might pick up 6 down the road in a steam sale or something but I'm holding out for now.

 

[Ika]

Another nice feature is that you cannot capture and hold mines. If you want to deprive your enemy of resources, your Hero has to camp on the mine or building. As soon as he moves away, control is passed back to your enemy.

To take permanent control of a mine you have to capture the town that it's linked to (ie. the one nearby).

There's a skill that lets you "plunder" the mine, taking 3 days of resources in a visit. That's nice for a secondary hero to have. You can also destroy resources for a week, depriving everyone of it, which is useful for hit-and-run siege type situations.

I'm still on the fence about the new systems in 6. I half-like the tiers idea, where units are differentiated more by their abilities than by their "level". However it can make some units useless (like Spring Spirits... blech). Also a single Tier 2 unit can wreck house early-game.

Not sure I like how easy it is to heal stuff...

Hero customization is nice, but it makes for some very boring heroes. Random skills could be frustrating but it basically ensured you never got the same hero twice.

I kind of like the zones of control - if you're strong enough it makes it easier to take control of an entire area rather than deal with unitless heroes coming and stealing your mines for a day. I tend to play with one very strong hero and a bunch of secondaries for exploration and resource-grabbing so this helps my style a bit.

I don't like the resource simplification. Before, each town could be defined by a type of resource (inferno = sulfur, tower = gem, haven = crystal, etc). Now with just three types macromanagement is a little meh.

I do like the changes to the battle system, with half-movement/attack morale and hero attacks/spells whenever. It's a nice combo of the HoMM3 and HoMM5 battle systems, but doesn't make morale too powerful like it used to be.

These impressions are all based on playing the demo. I've yet to pick up the full game, and I don't think I will for some time. I got 4 and 5 on release and both of them were buggy messes for the first few months, and the beta wasn't much better only a month ago. I hope the delay let them fix a lot of bugs but I don't count on it.

 

[Elcs]

There's a skill that lets you "plunder" the mine, taking 3 days of resources in a visit. That's nice for a secondary hero to have. You can also destroy resources for a week, depriving everyone of it, which is useful for hit-and-run siege type situations.

I'm still on the fence about the new systems in 6. I half-like the tiers idea, where units are differentiated more by their abilities than by their "level". However it can make some units useless (like Spring Spirits... blech). Also a single Tier 2 unit can wreck house early-game.

Not sure I like how easy it is to heal stuff...

Hero customization is nice, but it makes for some very boring heroes. Random skills could be frustrating but it basically ensured you never got the same hero twice.

I kind of like the zones of control - if you're strong enough it makes it easier to take control of an entire area rather than deal with unitless heroes coming and stealing your mines for a day. I tend to play with one very strong hero and a bunch of secondaries for exploration and resource-grabbing so this helps my style a bit.

I don't like the resource simplification. Before, each town could be defined by a type of resource (inferno = sulfur, tower = gem, haven = crystal, etc). Now with just three types macromanagement is a little meh.

I do like the changes to the battle system, with half-movement/attack morale and hero attacks/spells whenever. It's a nice combo of the HoMM3 and HoMM5 battle systems, but doesn't make morale too powerful like it used to be.

These impressions are all based on playing the demo. I've yet to pick up the full game, and I don't think I will for some time. I got 4 and 5 on release and both of them were buggy messes for the first few months, and the beta wasn't much better only a month ago. I hope the delay let them fix a lot of bugs but I don't count on it.

Biggest bug I've found has been a flickering mouse cursor when moving it around the screen. So far I'm quite impressed with the stability and bug-free experience.

 

[Iron Wolf]

Biggest bug I've found has been a flickering mouse cursor when moving it around the screen. So far I'm quite impressed with the stability and bug-free experience.

There are a fair number of other bugs reported on the official forums, including some game-breaking ones. I'm still early in the game, so I've only encountered the flickering mouse one you mention. Any bugs are unforgiveable though. Exactly what was the game delayed a month for?

I'm not real impressed with the graphics. I've got an i7-950 and GTX470, and everything is on high and plays smoothly, but the game itself just doesn't look that great to me. The conematics and cut scenes look great (especially the opening one which is one of the better I've seen), but the campaign map and battle graphics look kind of meh, and not up to 2011 standards, at least to my eyes.

Gameplay is classic HoMM, and is sucking me in (I was late for work today because of it). The interface is functional, and does not detract from the game. I like the skill system, and the implementation of hero and different unit abilities. Besides the healers already mentioned, another example is sentinels protecting every unit adjacent to them, and praetorians (the upgraded version) also gaining a retribution attack when anyone attacks an adjacent unit, so unit placement is important and there is more strategy to battles than simply rushing units forward willy-nilly to attack.

That being said, I wish there were a greater variety of units. More factions has been mentioned as a possibility for future expansions, and if history is any indication, there should be at least two in the next couple of years.

Overall a very good game, perhaps 7 or 8 of 10, but I might advise waiting to purchase it for the bugs to be ironed out and/or it to be offered in one of the famous Steam sales.

 

[JamesV]

What a piece of garbage. You'd think with the thousands of posts out there about how crappy 4 was, that they would stop with this linear route bs. The only redeeming thing about the game is the actual combat, but who cares since the overworld portion is like a Wii game on rails.

HoMM 6 is a dumbed down casual game from my experience in the demo. Take away everything that used to add to the strategy outside of battle (tons of resources and finding/holding one to get specific troops, no need to explore because only one path with minor side paths, etc, etc).

If I ever win the lottery, I'm remaking HoMM 3 the way I wanted 4 to be - just bigger with more of everything, like HoMM 3 had 10 expansion packs.

Sorry for rant. Hate to see my favorite games turn into this casual crap.

 

[Iron Wolf]

Talking about casual. It's a little sad, but in some ways more impressed with Might and Magic Clash of Heroes than with HoMM6.

 

[Rhezuss]

For someone who never played a HOMM game, how would you describe/sell it to a RPG fan?

 

[Elcs]

For someone who never played a HOMM game, how would you describe/sell it to a RPG fan?

It's a two-level TBS.

You have an Adventure map where you contro and developl Towns, explore various ruins, find loot, balance resources and battle other Heroes/Monsters, all turn-based.

You also have a turn-based combat map (hexagonal tiles in older HoMM's, squares in VI) where each unit has it's own Initiative score to decide when it can perform actions, their own special abilities which adds a very nice layer of tactics to the game and the most fun part of the game imo.

Each Hero has a 'skill tree' which can be developed as they level up. This is split up between Might / Magic (Combat) and Adventure Map skills. Adding a different level of tactics, VI made the full tree visible and customisable whereas previous incarnations gave you a choice of two skills each level and made it very difficult to get a certain skill without prior planning.

Not sure how I'd sell it. So far, HoMM VI is actually shaping up to be my favourite of the series. It has pared down the Adventure Map stuff, which after coming from King's Bounty, is a real bonus for me and the combat seems to be more tactical and intricate than before.

No matter the naysayers, I'm having a ball with this new version.

 

[bentheman939]

There's a skill that lets you "plunder" the mine, taking 3 days of resources in a visit. That's nice for a secondary hero to have. You can also destroy resources for a week, depriving everyone of it, which is useful for hit-and-run siege type situations.

I'm still on the fence about the new systems in 6. I half-like the tiers idea, where units are differentiated more by their abilities than by their "level". However it can make some units useless (like Spring Spirits... blech). Also a single Tier 2 unit can wreck house early-game.

Not sure I like how easy it is to heal stuff...

Hero customization is nice, but it makes for some very boring heroes. Random skills could be frustrating but it basically ensured you never got the same hero twice.

I kind of like the zones of control - if you're strong enough it makes it easier to take control of an entire area rather than deal with unitless heroes coming and stealing your mines for a day. I tend to play with one very strong hero and a bunch of secondaries for exploration and resource-grabbing so this helps my style a bit.

I don't like the resource simplification. Before, each town could be defined by a type of resource (inferno = sulfur, tower = gem, haven = crystal, etc). Now with just three types macromanagement is a little meh.

I do like the changes to the battle system, with half-movement/attack morale and hero attacks/spells whenever. It's a nice combo of the HoMM3 and HoMM5 battle systems, but doesn't make morale too powerful like it used to be.

These impressions are all based on playing the demo. I've yet to pick up the full game, and I don't think I will for some time. I got 4 and 5 on release and both of them were buggy messes for the first few months, and the beta wasn't much better only a month ago. I hope the delay let them fix a lot of bugs but I don't count on it.

My thoughts exactly after playing for a while. Zones of control do make the game less irritating, but at the same time rob you of the strategic option of paying 2500 gold (the cost of a hero), to steal resources from the enemy which they may need.

The resource simplification is boring. Mercury, sulphur, gems, crystal, ore and wood used to characterize the needs of a faction, adding race specific goals to game play.

The battles are fine - I agree. Taking the randomness out of hero levelling tends to make them all identical, which I do not really like.

One part I really liked about 5 was the detailed and gorgeous town graphics. The cop-out in 6 doesn't really detract from the gameplay, but I like seeing my buildings once I make them

Overall, decent game. I still prefer 3, despite its dated graphics. Better effort than I expected, but not what I was hoping for.

 

[snarl]

I'm really liking VI so far, previously III was my favourite closely followed by II then IV. For some reason I never really got into V. I hope to see them add some more Maps down the road and tweak the game a little but overall it has the potential to be the best in the series.

 

[brandonb]

For someone who never played a HOMM game, how would you describe/sell it to a RPG fan?

First of all, even though it has Might and Magic in the name, which have been RPG games in the past, this type of game is not an RPG at all.

Its a strategy game. The closest game that fits the bill is Master of Orion 2... If you have ever seen it or played that game.

To a lesser degree, like Civilization. The only difference between HOMM and those listed, HOMM is smaller in scale (less complicated) and its fantasy based. When your armies clash, its not tanks, and airplanes, but rather Paladins, Wizards, etc.

There are basically two modes to the game play, strategic (taking over mines, moving armies on a larger overland map). When controlling a mine, you get resources and you use those resources to buy units. When you have units to add them to an army and move them around.

When your armies and the enemy armies meet, the game goes from strategic mode, into a tactical mode where it shows just the square you are (from strategic mode) on and places icons on a 32x32 map of the guys in the army. Where you can control each indidual unit in the army. You can tell the wizard to cast a fireball on an area of the map.

View some screenshots and you'll see what I mean.

All in all, HOMM series is not RPG at all. Its a war game, sort of like a star craft, civilization, master of orion, risk. Whatever.

 

[Worthington]

ugh, why did they do away with the Zone of Control?

 

[Martimus]

Sad to think that people are scared off by the fact that it's published by Ubisoft.

I am one of those people who is scared to even try the demo, because I don't trust what Ubisoft might have put into the software. I could research it to make sure it is clean, but I would rather spend my time on something else than researching whether a company I don't trust made a trustworthy product. I did like HOMM5 though.

 

[RandomSanity]

Putting the Ubisoft fact aside, I played the demo and I doubt I will purchase this until it's cheap. I loved 3 and 4, and even played through 5 when it went down to $5 but I see nothing new or innovative about this version. In fact it seems like a step back in the franchise to me.

I think the King's Bounty games were much better and am hoping they come out with another, which would be a day one purchase for me.

 

[BudAshes]

I just started playing heroes 6 and I have to say I'm really impressed. I enjoyed 5 but this one seems like they really nailed it.

 

[biostud]

I've played all HoMM since II. Heroes III was the best, also because of the mods and a working AI. I really liked IV with the twist on fighting, but the AI was broken so it was not really challenging. Heroes V was too close to III IMO. The skill system was nice, but the fighting and resource management too close to III, and the lack of mods made it simple compared to playing III+mods. With VI both leveling, city building, resource management and combat has undergone a reform, making it a new game with same formula. I really enjoy playing it but it has a couple of downsides. It's a bugfest, lots of things not working as supposed to. City screen is pretty boring. Limited spell casting. Hopefully they'll release a patch fixing all the bugs soon.