Review of Might and Magic Heroes VI. Heroes don't die
GAME FORMULA
Heroes of Might and Magic is one of those conservative and self-sufficient series, from the continuation of which only one thing is expected: a repetition of the old. Like chess. Is the board a different color? Yes, sure. More figures? Well, let it be. But only so that there must be sixty-four squares, and the knights move in the letter “G”. And so that no one dares to call the rook a tour! The fans won't forgive.
One thing follows another, like the little rhyme about the house that Jack built. Here is the castle, here are the creatures that are born in this castle every week, here is the hero-commander who leads these creatures, here are the resources for which this hero fights, and here is the field lined with cells on which he fights. Take out one brick and the whole pyramid will crumble. Therefore, sequels are of no interest to anyone on their own. For twelve years now, everyone has been worried about only one question - how close is it to the original?
Compared to the classics, the game has become simpler in certain components: before the battle, the exact number of creatures in the enemy squad is shown, and an unsuccessful battle is offered to be replayed without loading a save.
To the guillotine of these impudents
Short - and superficial! - description Might and Magic: Heroes 6 fits into two words: “Very far.” At first, you don’t play as much as you kill yourself, just like the publishers and developers abused the game. Everything alien to “Heroes”, everything outrageous and incomprehensible, which angered fans even in the beta version, ended up in the final game.
There were seven resources - now there are four. Mines can no longer be occupied simply by a hero running there - you need to capture the nearest city or fort. The towers of magic have disappeared - now spells are learned on the same basis as ordinary skills: when gaining a new level, you have to choose between, say, leadership and a fire arrow. Instead of city screens, there were still pathetic, shaking pictures, which the developers themselves called stubs at the last gamescom. All the buildings on the map were redrawn, all the icons were redone, all the units were rethought, throwing half of the creatures out of the game.
A mandatory performance when storming a castle is the destruction of the fortress walls. And not so much with a catapult, but with units. For two or three turns, they usually line up along the wall and gnaw at it little by little (just like in the fourth part).
Everything takes its course
And then suddenly insight comes. It’s like with a foreign language: I struggled, crammed, didn’t understand - and suddenly I spoke. You learn the new logic of the gameplay somewhere in the third hour, and all that is needed is to stop perceiving “Heroes 6” as a single whole. No matter how you put it together, the sixth part falls into three components - tactical, role-playing and strategic.
Tactical - these are good old battles on a checkered field. Here, fortunately, almost nothing has changed since the fifth part: units move once per turn, the order is determined by morale, the heroes do not directly participate in the battle. Each unit is rendered with academic care, and each is doing something different. While waiting for their turn, crossbowmen, clanking their armor, leisurely clean the grooves for bolts, Cerberus heads talk to one another, and wanizame, upright sharks from the new faction, play jazz on a shell-covered oar. The bestiary is wonderful - all creatures are living, they breathe, itch, get bored, you can simply put them opposite each other and study them with pleasure.
The cities of the enemy faction can be rebuilt, and not many resources are spent on this. Be afraid! Now hundreds and thousands of creatures of the same type in the army are neither a rarity nor a luxury.
The role-playing component is, of course, the development of the hero. In Heroes 6, the role-playing system has become more complex and now looks like skill trees. There are many of them - as many as ten! - and they are divided into specializations: the character’s personal qualities (charisma, physical strength), tactical skills, schools of magic. Skills and spells are mostly moved from the classics, but there are also discoveries. For example, heroes can suspend the operation of other people's mines for a week or speed up the development of a city - so that two buildings can be built per turn, rather than one.
Well, strategy is about conquering the world. It is like a patchwork quilt, stitched together from zones of influence with mines and creature dwellings. They cannot be captured without conquering the nearest fort or city (the first is different in that you cannot build anything or hire creatures in it), and the struggle to expand the empire turns into redrawing the global map, rather than the petty capture of individual buildings. The activity is fascinating, but quite painful, because there is simply no point in traveling for a hero without a large army: he will not win anything on foreign territory. Moreover, now you can redeem all creatures from all cities at once in one place, and the enemy is always ready to meet you with his entire army.
Once you get used to it and learn to deal with all this, you’ll stick for a long time. The game allows you to feel your rapid, excited pulse; you fall in love with her and play greedily and furiously. The heroes turn into heroin, the gameplay flies along, and you can exhale: everything has grown together. Revived the series.
To make it clearer where someone else’s territory ends and where your own begins, there are even special obelisks installed on the maps, painted in the player’s color.
The shortest profession in the world
And then it all ends.
By inertia, continuing to play and admire, you suddenly realize with despair: yes, these are normal “Heroes”, not the experimental fourth part, but... why are they needed? Everyone is satisfied with either the third series or the fifth. The sixth is also not bad, but everything old was transferred here without a soul, and everything new was added without a purpose.
Creatures? They are very nice, and the sea castle was a pleasant surprise, but half of the “old men” have disappeared, the units are unbalanced and overloaded with skills. You forget about them, confuse them, and it starts to irritate. Deprived of the talents of New World Computing, Black Hole employees simply do not know any sense of proportion.
Where the old magic of “Heroes” is felt is on the battlefields. If the whole game was made with such care, it would not be worth it. Alas, the reality of the new “Heroes” is death screens, freezes, missing units and offspring of minus 34,000 creatures.
Heroes? Well, the developers have achieved their goal: all skills are open immediately, you can see where you need to invest points to gain access to the next ability. This makes leveling more predictable, but does not save you from the same type. There are still many fewer points than the skills themselves, so you inevitably have to choose. You memorize the best skills very quickly - and, as before, you learn them from card to card. As for spells, they are now filtered out of the game by a teaspoon a day. And since they have a cooldown, on the battlefield you have to think hard about which of the three damage-dealing skills to use now and which later. The head is swelling again, and the irritation is growing.
World map? In comparison with the third "Heroes" it is confused and empty. There are few interactive objects on it - only beautiful, but stupid bushes and trees, behind which you can’t even see the road. Of the buildings, the most common ones are mines and forts, then - buildings of experience and skills, and occasionally - some chat spheres and markets. But the map still looks as if someone had already plundered it before you. Everything around is so colorful and at the same time bare, there is no spirit of exploration.
The sixth “Heroes” are making full use of the Internet. For example, every now and then there are chat spheres on the map through which you can send messages to other players. The Russians say: “Vote, don’t vote, you’ll still get a penis.”
Castles? You can't look at them without tears. After the city screens of the threequel - priceless exhibits of meticulous handcraft - and after the breathtaking screensavers of the fifth part, these framed pictures are simply a mockery. And the reduced amount of resources, designed to make construction more thoughtful, only slows it down and again irritates it.
Everything else is nothing more than frills sewn onto the remains of phenomenal mechanics. The magic is lost, the fairy tale has run away. You can play the sixth “Heroes”, even for hours, but you can’t fall in love with them.
Opinion
Alexander Trifonov, site manager
“The creation of the new part of the series was entrusted to guest workers - the result is predictable”
To be honest, I initially didn’t expect anything good from the sixth “Heroes”. When the development of the fifth part was entrusted to the domestic Nival, I rejoiced along with all the fans of the series - after all, its revival was entrusted to a world-class studio, already famous for creating high-quality strategies. With the sixth part, it's the other way around. To “construct” the sequel, instead of a reputable company, Ubisoft hired migrant workers from Black Hole, who have not made a single decent game in their lifetime. The result is predictable. Of course, the Hungarians tried, but the lack of experience and budget affects literally everything - from the terrible interface to the same city screens that they promised to implement in full form for the release, and even postponed the release for this, but never did. The saddest thing in this whole story is that in the current economic realities it could not have turned out any other way. Only Free2Play projects bring any decent income in today's PC market, and there was no point in Ubisoft investing a lot of money in the development of a niche hardcore strategy that everyone would download from torrents anyway. Have you noticed that the turn-based strategy genre has quietly died on PC over the past few years? "Heroes 6" is a clear example of why.
As sad as it may sound, major publishers today do not believe in the success of turn-based strategies on PC. The once popular genre on personal computers has migrated to phones and other mobile devices. In our area, only three-kopeck crafts and a couple of mastodons like Civilization And Heroes. And even those are born in pain, because it’s oh so difficult to attract new fans without scaring off the veterans.
Heroes for simpletons
Honestly, the games in the series Heroes of Might and Magic We've never been very smart. Unlike the creators of other fantasy TBS, be it ancient Birthright or young Elemental, straining their navels in attempts to embrace the immensity, the developers of “Heroes” knew where to stop. Attractive, moderately smart and affordable projects under a well-known license Might & Magic have become cult-like, and competitors... What's wrong with them now?However, to a modern audience, accustomed to dumplings jumping into their mouths, even the classic one would seem complicated, so the Hungarians from Black Hole Entertainment decided to simplify everything. They did it at the same time Heroes 6 very beautiful - the artists of Nival Interactive never dreamed of such a stylish picture. The only bad thing is the city screen, but these are minor things, because the buildings are now visible directly on the global map.
First of all, we went through the resource system with scissors. Farewell precious stones, mercury and sulfur! And to mine wood, ore, crystals and gold, you no longer need to hang flags on the mines. After capturing a settlement, neighboring sources of raw materials automatically begin to work for you. As a result, the cuts were beneficial - the war turned into a struggle for territory, and the battles for key castles became even more intense.
Other experiments are sad. Having hoisted a banner over someone else's fortress, you don't have to think about where to place its inhabitants. Sprinkle some coins, and the tents of stinking savages will be transformed into ominous ziggurats of necromancers. There is also no need to transport reinforcements to the front line with the help of minor heroes or caravans. By clicking the "buy all" button you will actually recruit everyone soldiers in the kingdom, and they will instantly get to the chosen stronghold. With a light hand Black Hole from Heroes an entire strategic layer has disappeared.
Step back
The number of participants in the conflict was reduced to five (there were fewer only in the first HoMM): the familiar imperials, demons, undead and orcs were joined by nagas - snake people with a Japanese squint. Alas, apart from a collection of Asian stamps, the new race has nothing to boast of, and wizards and elves will appear no earlier than in the add-on.
The set of units has been redesigned more radically. The developers abandoned the usual division into seven levels, in which the next type of troops is always stronger than the previous one. Like Clash of Heroes, fighters belong to one of three classes: basic, advanced and elite. For example, spearmen, crossbowmen and healers are initially available to people. It is impossible to determine which of them is better - they are used simultaneously.
To prevent clashes between armies with similar parameters from turning into a stupid exchange of blows, the authors endowed them with a bunch of special techniques and unique features (which King's Bounty still more). But the complex mechanics of the “initiative” were abolished - they say, there is no need to confuse fragile minds. IN Heroes 6 The traditional change of moves has returned, and only the order scale remains from Active Time Battle. Of course, such subtleties concern only the most hardened fans. The main thing is that the battles are still interesting and make you rack your brain.
You can’t say that about “pumping”. Despite the abundance of skills, it is impossible to develop bright personalities from the wards. We freely walk through the skill tree, and the bonuses are ridiculous (what is “+3% ranged damage” worth!). But either side again gives two types of characters - a warrior and a sorcerer. Not like in the fifth part.
Young griffins
The campaign was also controversial. The missions, no doubt, are good: they often drag you in with non-standard tasks, and even pose a serious challenge (though due to cheating scripts and manipulations with free resources for the AI). The plot let us down - it's not bad for a prequel (fans will be happy to see what happened several centuries before Heroes 5 And Clash of Heroes), but is not suitable for getting to know the universe.
The Griffin dynasty, which will rule in the era Heroes 5, does not yet dream of the imperial throne - she has become a pawn in the confrontation between angels and faceless ones. The creators are in no hurry to explain what’s what, and the confusing presentation makes it difficult to understand the essence of the struggle of higher powers. The heroes, mired in family troubles, just want peace. Meanwhile, somewhere in the background, a demonic invasion has unfolded again - it is only mentioned briefly. Narration Heroes 5, albeit more banal, is much more fascinating than the local tangle of intrigue.
The prologue dedicated to Duke Slava Pavlovich is followed by five campaigns dedicated to his offspring. After the tragic death of his father, the heirs were scattered throughout Eshan. Having led someone's troops, each descendant acts according to a proven scheme: 2-3 scenarios eliminate the dissatisfied in his camp, gather an army and take revenge on the offenders in a dashing attack.
Growing up, the children of Slava determine their life path. The two reputation meters, "tears" and "blood", grow independently of each other. The first way to fill them is to frequently use suitable spells (for example, healing allies or frying enemies). The second is a merciful or cruel attitude towards neutral units fleeing the battlefield. Although the most points are earned by “moral” forks in quests.
A couple of additional talents and a change of appearance are tied to alignment. In addition, “good people” and “tyrants” have different versions of the epilogue. Not God knows what, but still this is rare in turn-based strategies.
Network merger
Of course, simplifications are not the only method of fitting Heroes according to modern trends. To fully experience the sixth part, you cannot do without a constant Internet connection. The Conflux online system offers exciting prospects, but imposes draconian copy protection measures. Crashes in the menu due to connection interruptions for a second and synchronization of saves for 3-5 minutes are a common occurrence.
The man-hours wasted on this paranoid crap would be worth spending on thorough testing. Heroes 6“falls” regularly, items disappear from the backpack, the skills of some units do not work at all. But you can complain about problems or get advice on how to complete the game right in the game. There are magic spheres on the maps for comments a la Demon's Souls. Ratings help highlight the most useful notes.
Further - more. Every bit of experience earned by a player in any mode raises the level of his dynasty. The higher it is, the richer the assortment of the virtual store: from purely cosmetic things like portraits and titles, to bonuses that you can choose at the start of the game. Currency for the purchase of goods is given out for achievements such as “25 wins in a row” and “finished the boss in three rounds.”
You also need to “pump up” your family’s weapons—special artifacts that wander from mission to mission. Experienced owners also have more powerful superweapons. And most importantly, the legendary blades and staves are also used in multiplayer. After all, whatever one may say, fights with living opponents are the soul of " Heroes" All the reforms of the sixth part, which are ambiguously perceived by adherents of the “single”, are appropriate in friendly gatherings. With faster mechanics, a superior interface, and streamlined netcode, Heroes 6 is even better suited for them than its predecessors.
However, there is room for growth here too. Unlike Nival, Black Hole did not come up with any activities for players during those 2-3 minutes while they wait for their turn. You can’t even study the situation in the castles, let alone the walks of ghosts and synchronized moves from the “five”! And the tactical duels were worse for the Hungarians - too monotonous.
* * *
Heroes 6 still worthy to bear a glorious name. By exchanging depth for unprecedented friendliness to newcomers, the authors preserved the spirit of the series and signature gameplay. When familiar sounds come from the speakers Heroes of Might and Magic 2 harpsichord sounds, it’s as if we are opening the door to a fairy tale again...
A change of developers, and even more so the name of the next game in a popular series, is an alarming sign for its fans. This time the reason for excitement was the renaming of the sixth part Heroes of Might and Magic V . By and large, a slight rearrangement of words, and the fans are already sleeping with valerian. As it turned out, there was no need to worry - the continuation turned out to be quite interesting and exciting. However, the new brand name was chosen for a reason - players were hinted from the very beginning that the new "Heroes" will be a slightly different game.
A hero is needed to fight
Nominally, everything is, in general, in its place. The player is given a tactical map, his own castle and a hero on horseback. There are many abandoned resources, mines and sawmills around that can be captured for profit. And a dozen neutral units are languishing in place, waiting for a good knightly kick in the ass. Moves are spent while moving around the map, and after they are completed, the baton is passed on to the enemy. The size of the locations will certainly please those who like to “hang” in front of the monitor - in order to go around the entire area on a medium-sized map, it will take more than one hour. But galloping towards the enemy is, of course, also an option.
Developers from Budapest have moved the series even further away from strategy, bringing it closer to an RPG. Now hero classes have a conditional meaning. One way or another, the player can upgrade his character by choosing from dozens of skills. Those, in turn, are divided into the elements of air, fire, light, earth and others. These include both combat and passive skills. Treatment, for example, will help you last longer on the battlefield, fire arrows will relieve the enemy of unnecessary forces, and raising morale will spur your troops to fight better.
Dynasty Advantage is also an interesting way to differentiate your hero from others. Before starting the game, the user can choose an additional bonus, although not very significant, but influencing the outcome of the battle. For example, this could be an increase in gold, +2 to luck, or a certain number of free units. During the battles themselves, racial skills will help - a unique ability of each hero. Now people can protect their soldier from any type of attack for one turn, demons can call for reinforcements, and necromancers can revive fallen comrades.
IN Might & Magic Heroes VI a conventional scale of good and evil appeared - tears and blood. Often, during the course of a campaign, the hero will be faced with a choice: let go of fleeing enemies or finish off deserters; negotiate or attack; help those in need or spit on the wimps. In addition, the scales overflow due to combat/non-combat skills. For example, if a user chooses to heal a friendly unit instead of killing an enemy, he gets tears. Unfortunately, the pacifists, as always, got the lesser of the evils - passing on the “tears” side is much more difficult, because it does not give as many experience points as blood. In the end, the thermometer tilted in a certain direction before the credits will determine the appropriate plot fork.
Fight to the last
At high settings, Might & Magic Heroes VI is capable of demonstrating
nice picture.
Black Hole removed the game from strategy and at the expense of resources - now instead of seven, there are only four left. But they also lost their value. New units and some upgrades for the building are purchased for gold. The problem is that even after just a few minutes of playing, there is an uncountable amount of gold, and there is absolutely nowhere to spend it. Stones, wood and ore are also in constant abundance, since they are used mainly for the construction of structures.
But it has become much more convenient to erect the buildings themselves. The minimum menu is “ok”, “cancel” and the price per purchase. It's a pity that the castle itself now evokes associations with some cheap browser game. After the breathtakingly beautiful fortresses in, which visually displayed all the player’s purchases, local castles look faded, and you can only see them through a small window. Thus, the developers wanted to distract the player from boring micromanagement.
This makes sense, but tactics have also come under the knife. In today's "Heroes" in battles you rarely have to think about the placement of units (especially since this option is now pumped up separately) and their types - everything is decided by quantity. Of course, giants like Griffins or Earth Elementals (walking blocks of stone) will bury your soldiers in no time, even if they are outnumbered. And on the maps during the battle there are special places that help you adjust your tactics. For example, you can hide behind a log or stone, thereby imposing a penalty on the enemy archer's attack, and magic cells will heal or protect. But otherwise, it’s enough to estimate the number of enemy units to determine the outcome of the battle.
Heroes of magic or sword?
Even now, a few weeks after its release Might & Magic Heroes VI big imbalances. In the single-player campaign, for example, the enemies do not sit still and build up an army along with the player. This is good until you understand that the process is not going in the opposite direction. That is, if the user lost a decent number of units in battle, the next enemy will have as many as they had. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a hero, along with a small group of archers and spearmen, to survive against hundreds of ghouls and demons. Moreover, switching to easy mode changes the situation little - the enemy is almost equally stupid at all difficulty levels. In multiplayer, official cheating is considered to be the choice of a race of necromancers, which has the ability to almost endlessly resurrect their soldiers.
Those who downloaded the pirates were seriously screwed this time. Despite the fact that the game almost immediately appeared on torrents, fans of freebies did not receive dynastic items. From the plot it becomes clear that these are special family artifacts that the hero finds while traveling through all sorts of burials and tombs. Honest buyers also got it - Ubisoft requires a constant connection to the Internet, and in return offers only insufficient service Conflux and integration with Skype.
A rare player will launch the next part Heroes of Might and Magic for the sake of the plot - the story has long been twisted into a tight spiral, accessible only to real fans. The rest will just scratch their heads in thought and quickly skip the videos. Or, as an option, listen to the story of yet another betrayal, witchcraft and attempts to seize power in half an ear. The main thing here is the process.
However, no matter how sad it is to admit it, it is unlikely that the world will soon see those familiar to us "Heroes". The new game has retained an interesting process, a nice atmosphere, remained beautiful and addictive, but has been simplified and, if you may, has become much more casual. Moving forward is good, but the old school is already indignant.
P.S.: On the maps Might & Magic Heroes VI Conflux specific objects can be found. Feel free to click - a dialog box will open right in the game where you can ask a question to the developers or players. True, the Russians, as usual, distinguished themselves and arranged a real chat there with greetings and wishes. Just like in SMS chats on night TV channels.
Single player: 3.6
Graphics: 4.0
Multiplayer: 3.8
Sound and music: 4.0
Plot: 3.5
By the standards of the Heroes of Might & Magic game series, he is a dinosaur. He reached 2011, having outlived many relatives and, by and large, should have turned into a fossil long ago. The first part turned sixteen this year. It took XCOM about the same amount of time to mutate into a shooter.
Might & Magic Heroes VI
Platform PC
Genre turn-based strategy
Developer Black Hole Entertainment
Publisher Ubisoft
Game formula
Heroes of Might & Magic III + 20 years of evolution = Might & Magic Heroes VI
Grade
Bright picture; new ideas; monsters; spells and role system
The voice acting is at parody level; imbalance; technical errors
An outdated but charming game more for die-hard fans than newcomers
Graphics
Sound
Playability
Verdict
The release of the sixth episode is a good reason to check your pulse. How's the classic? Can old mechanics still keep you glued to your computer all night? Or is Ubisoft, like the characters in Weekend at Bernie's, trying to make money by hanging around with a pomaded corpse?
First impressions rather hint at "Weekend". After the superbly drawn elves of Heroes of Might & Magic V from the sixth part, for some reason they were removed altogether. The whole nation seemed to have fallen into a hole in the budget, and it seems that this gap was not the only one. The beautiful screens of cities, which traditionally appeared in “Heroes” as something between an art gallery and an animated screensaver, have been reduced in size several times. Now they resemble tight embrasures. It is noticeable that the developers saved money. For example, the actors voicing the main characters sometimes sound like random passers-by taken from the street.
But to hell with it, the main thing here is the gameplay. Apparently, this is the component that Black Hole spent most of its time on. Several new gears were screwed into the old mechanics of the game, with them “Heroes” seemed to shake up and come to life.
Remember how it happened in previous episodes? A huge map, ten generals, one of whom, the strongest, clears enemy territory, fighting in hexagonal battles, and the rest work as errand boys. At these levels, did the game literally begin to drown in micromanagement? In previous projects, sometimes it was necessary to drive in droves many low-level heroes who existed solely to move troops from distant fortresses. Each part of the series tried to solve this problem in different ways. In one they came up with portal spells, and in Heroes of Might & Magic IV, armies were even allowed to run around the map without being accompanied by commanders.
Black Hole cut the Gordian knot in its own way. Now soldiers from all castles can be bought in any of them. No courier locomotives - just go as the main military leader to the nearest fortress and there, as if on shelves, a full assortment of royal troops will be waiting for him.
At the same time, the studio dealt with the problem of resource theft. You can still invade enemy territory, like the Mongols did in China, and seize other people's sawmills and mines. But as soon as your general steps outside the gates of the enterprise, it will go back to the enemy. The map in the sixth "Heroes" is controlled by zones - in order to recapture all the houses at once, you need to take possession of the castle in the center.
These seemingly simple changes led to a whole chain of consequences. Most importantly, perhaps, the secondary characters turned into lines of useless portraits. There’s simply no need to hang around with them, and now “Heroes” resembles King’s Bounty even more. 99% of the problems here are solved by just one general.
So could Black Hole bring this fossil back to life? More likely yes than no. Although, despite their efforts, the studio was not able to completely eliminate all the problems.
To make running around the levels alone not boring, the authors have redesigned the role-playing system, the number of options of which is literally dizzying. The game offers ten branches to level up each character. Half of them were intended for knights, the second contains spells from different schools. There, your counterpart can become an expert in dark magic and a defense specialist. In addition, like in some Mass Effect, the morality of military leaders is taken into account. By making appropriate decisions in a number of plot branches, you can turn the hero into a stern tyrant or a patient nun. Each path will provide certain bonuses in battle. Because of this, the sixth “Heroes” resembles an RPG more than other projects in the series. This also applies to additional quests - on each map you will meet several characters who will ask you for a favor, and there are unexpectedly many of them. The heroes have a traditional quest log, where they usually have between four and six quests written down.
So could Black Hole bring this fossil back to life? More likely yes than no. Although, despite their efforts, the studio was not able to completely eliminate all the problems. So, Heroes VI can sometimes be terribly boring, especially when the game drags on. Random monsters on the map constantly multiply, and after a hundred moves the gamer may discover that there are too many enemies. Newbies won't like these little things. But the sixth part will certainly please old fans.
The game has become more accessible and at the same time deeper. Despite the amateurish voice acting, there is a good, sometimes almost “George Martin” plot, and many of Black Hole’s ideas made “Heroes” more interesting. In the rating of sequels, this part will most likely be placed above Heroes of Might & Magic V (although below Heroes of Might & Magic III).
Another thing is that she just had a strong competitor. In September, Ubisoft finally ported the console Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes to PC. It's a 2D strategy game, and the easiest way to describe it is as a cross between Heroes and Bejeweled. There is also a large map and tactical battles, sometimes quite hardcore, despite the casual gameplay, but there are no tedious clearing of the territory and no need to run after the army to the castle. I advise you to watch it.
Fans are a fastidious bunch. And the army of fans of the world-favorite game series is an even more demanding, violent and often self-contradictory people. Give some innovations, while others shout “Hands off the shrine!” ready to burn any innovator at the stake of the Inquisition. And it’s a shame when developers, trying to please everyone, end up making a game for no one. This is exactly what happened with “Heroes of Might and Magic 4” - few people perceived the project adequately.
Fortunately, the flag that had been shaken was picked up by the flagship of the Russian gaming industry Nival, ushering in the fifth part of the series the triumph of “classics 2.0” - with three-dimensional graphics, but the principles familiar to everyone. And still there were dissatisfied people, for whom “hexagons are dearer to their hearts.” Needless to say, the announcement of the sixth episode, given to the authors of the mediocre strategy Armies of Exigo and the wargame Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, aroused wariness among adherents of sword and sorcery? As it turned out, not in vain.
⇡ Counter-Reformation
The main problem of Might and Magic: Heroes VI is the general course towards simplifying the game. Following the words of the project’s producer, Erwan le Breton, that “Heroes” was too overloaded, the Hungarian executives from Black Hole Entertainment began to cut and rework the sixth part in every possible way. And these changes are evident from the very first frames.
What has always been a kind of calling card, the “face” of any warring party in “Heroes”? Of course, her city. Partly, it was the appearance of cities that formed the first impression of newcomers about a particular race. At one time, Nival, having given the fifth part of the series full three-dimensionality, turned the demonstration of castles into a breathtaking spectacle. Accompanied by gorgeous music, the camera slowly flew around the majestic temples and powerful forts against the backdrop of a sweet pastoral (or not so dear) landscape. You could rotate your citadel as you wish, zoom in/out, and generally meditate on it for a long time.
Alas, we are not destined to see all this beauty in the new game. It’s unclear what the developers were guided by and completely destroyed one of the most aesthetically pleasing moments. From now on, the city screen is a small window with a flawed picture and a set of tabs for construction, recruiting troops, trade and other business matters. Large icons climb on top of each other, there is no trace of clarity, as in the fifth part, and the constructed buildings, with the exception of specific ones like the fort and the town hall, are not displayed visually anywhere. It is clear that this is, rather, only a cosmetic flaw, but those who are accustomed to the pomp and beauty of the fifth and even third “Heroes” will find it difficult to come to terms with such asceticism.
There are now five castles themselves. However, no one has canceled the additions, so their number may soon increase. But initially there are five sides to choose from - the Alliance of Light (people), Inferno (demons), Necropolis (undead), Defiant Tribes (orcs) and Sanctuary. The latter is an abode of Japanese fantasy culture, inhabited by aquatic naga creatures.
All creatures, including those from previous parts, have undergone significant processing and redesign, and the troops have been replenished with previously unseen creatures with their own distinctive features. The development of cities itself has become significantly simplified for two reasons. The first is the absence in the construction tree of some buildings like the Tower of Magic, which, taking into account the new role-playing system (more about it below), were simply no longer necessary. The second is reducing the number of resources to four. Sulfur, mercury and precious metals disappeared into oblivion, which automatically lowered the requirements for buildings and high-level fighters. So hundreds of angels are no longer the ultimate dream, but an entirely achievable reality.
Another very controversial innovation is connected with the resources in the sixth “Heroes”, the legs of which seem to come from the Disciples series. From now on, cities and forts create a zone of influence around themselves, which makes it impossible to intercept the mines and dwellings of creatures located in it. That is, you can leave the hero stuck in the mine and rake in the proceeds for yourself, but as soon as you leave the enterprise, the resources will again flow to your opponent. The only way out is to storm the castle, and if successful, its territory with all adjacent buildings (except neutral ones) will go to you.
Finishing the topic of cities, it is also worth mentioning the possibility of rebuilding captured castles to suit your faction. For a symbolic sum, the orc shacks will be turned into the crypts of Necropolis, and Inferno will be repurposed for the benefit of Elrath and his Alliance of Light. Thus, now there is no need to monitor the compatibility of creatures and the morale of the composite army - you can, without distraction, methodically assemble a huge army of your race.
One can debate for a long time on the topic of the above-mentioned perturbations and their expediency, but what the developers are definitely worth thanking for is the redesigned character leveling system. Spontaneity and random selection of skills are a thing of the past, giving way to a full-fledged role model. When a hero receives a new level, in addition to the standard increase in parameters such as strength or magical defense, he receives one point to develop his skills. All of them are divided into two large categories: “Physical skills” and “Magical skills”. There are also “Hero Skills”, but they develop automatically. Each category, in turn, is divided into several subgroups.
The pumping model is the same for everyone, but race imposes some restrictions on it. For example, a necromancer, by definition, cannot study light magic. This also includes the hero’s worldview. Depending on the decisions made during the game (whether the cowardly enemy unit was released or not, whether the traitor was executed or pardoned, etc.), the Tears and Blood scales grow. As one of them is filled, it becomes possible to increase its level and thereby receive certain bonuses from the adopted orientation. The second line in this case predictably loses its meaning: points will still be gained, but it is no longer possible to shake it up.
⇡ Five at a crossroads
“Heroes-6” deepens the mythology of the fairy-tale world of Ashan, discovered by Nival chroniclers, and the action of the new part takes place five centuries before Queen Isabel and the events associated with her. But if earlier we witnessed the gradual fall of the Griffin Empire, now everything is exactly the opposite. The humanity of Ashan is united under the rule of the Falcon Empire, and the Griffins have yet to become the magnificent dynasty that they will appear in the future.
The story begins with the hooligan antics of the willful Duke Vyacheslav (almost all people here are of Slavic roots, so don’t be surprised), who on a voluntary basis establishes good neighborly relations with the orcs of the leader of Kraal, which greatly irritates his comrades from the neighboring duchies. And everything, it would seem, is good and rosy, there is peace in the whole world, and the prophecy about the coming invasion of demons from the fiery prison world of Shio is just looming somewhere on the horizon. But no - the short introductory campaign ends, and Vyacheslav himself is killed in front of everyone by his own daughter Nastenka. The girl is summarily executed by brother Anton, even though she swore that she did not do everything of her own free will. The large Griffin family is naturally falling apart, and the player will have to take a direct part in these fraternal squabbles.
Actually, after the end of the prologue, the developers offer a choice of five independent campaigns, one for each existing race and, as a result, for each of Vyacheslav’s offspring, plus an epilogue. Moreover, the fact that five human children ended up being assigned to different, often completely “anthropophagous” races is explained very superficially, which only enhances the feeling of delusion. And okay, Anton, who after the death of his father headed the Griffin dynasty, but the rest...
One is resurrected by a necromancer aunt, the other, out of despair, let a demon into herself and went on a joyride around Shio, the third ran away from her brutal husband to the nagas, and the fourth is an illegitimate son who found refuge with the orcs. Each has its own character and motives, but the goals are similar - to find and punish the true killers of Vyacheslav, and at the same time save Ashan.
At first, the plot is seriously unsettling with its crumpled and chaotic presentation. “Where am I? Who are all these people? - No one is in a hurry to answer thoroughly. Bang! Here Slava is friends with the orcs. Bang! Here he is at war with another duke. Bang! The griffin is already dead, the kids have fled, there are five campaigns, the choice is yours. In the campaigns themselves, the situation is initially little better. And the main engine of the plot - the interlude videos - are executed so badly that there is no desire to follow them.
Against the background of the overall graphic splendor and riot of bright colors, these inserts (with the exception of CGI videos, with them everything is traditionally in the openwork) are striking on the spot with poor animation and certainly close-ups of the characters’ clumsy faces. But if you come to terms with them and make your way through the first missions of the campaigns, the narrative gradually begins to gain momentum and throw up interesting situations. For example, in one of the tasks, Anastasia will have to travel through the labyrinths of her own mind, putting together scattered memories. It looks quite fresh and interesting. And towards the end, when the plot gives out all the trump cards, you understand that the writers did not waste their time... Like the rest of the developers, who, unfortunately, still failed to please all groups of fans.
⇡ Advantages:
- interesting plot after a dull beginning,
- excellent design and nice graphics,
- mature role system,
- great music.
⇡ Disadvantages:
- “dead” city screen,
- mediocre castle balance,
- chaotic presentation of the story,
- impossibility of simultaneous moves in multiplayer,
- general course to simplify the game,
- occasional glitches.
| Graphics | If you close your eyes to the nightmarish inserts on the engine, then “Heroes 6” seems like a very beautiful game indeed. The surrounding world is filled with bright colors, special effects are organically woven into the overall style, and the creature models delight with very “live” animation and exemplary attention to detail. Except that loading times and rare disappearances of textures slightly overshadow the overall favorable picture. | 8 |
| Sound | In this regard, the game is traditionally good, although it does not offer anything new. The fighters are shouting menacing battle cries, birds are chirping in the world - pleasant, but not new. But the music is worthy of admiration. And even though the soundtrack from the series' permanent composers Paul Romero and Rob King partly consists of recycled tunes from previous parts, it is still epic and damn beautiful. Although some variety would be nice. | 8 |
| Single player | Traditionally, players are given five large campaigns to choose from - one for each race, as well as a set of single-player scenarios. The missions are interesting and varied, the battles are complicated by various additional conditions, and closer to the middle a normal plot appears. But in some places the sharply jumping difficulty associated with the uncontrolled proliferation of neutral armies is seriously annoying. | 8 |
| Group game | The game offers the standard set of multiplayer entertainment familiar to all fans of past “Heroes”: scenarios, duels and, of course, the “Hot seat” mode. Unless there was no place for LAN servers. The dynasty development system, which is practically unclaimed in single-player games, coupled with the connection to the Conflux network, works in multiplayer, allowing you to choose a unique style and a worthy company. However, the lack of the possibility of simultaneous moves greatly slows down already drawn-out games. | 7 |
| General impression | “Heroes-6” largely follows the fate of the fourth part and a little of Disciples III, when thoughtless “innovations” made the project lost in the eyes of old-school players. Fortunately, Black Hole did not cross the dangerous line, maintaining at least some minimum standards of decency. The main problem with Might and Magic: Heroes VI is that the game is overly simplistic. But this is still a very good strategy that can captivate you for more than one evening. | 7 |