Homm

[coanda]

The graphics were far worse. The audio was far worse. The game mechanics were... a mixed bag. Some improvements (e.g., caravan letting heroes move between towns; units allowed to move without a hero leading them), some mistakes (e.g., a much more discrete combat grid which unnecessarily complicates predicting pathfinding), some changes that are just different (heroes are actual units on the battlefield). A lot of changes overall, probably too many to list.

Pair that with a moderately buggy release and a god-awful AI, plus being the sequel to a truly superb game, and it got hammered by fans.

 

[civvver]

I found a really old ign review and it was mostly positive, but the biggest differences did seem to be a ton more focus on heroes and having them fight as well, plus fog of war (huge tactical considerations imo) and armies moving without heroes.

As far as graphics, that's odd because homm3 graphics aren't exactly good. I'm torn on them actually. They're not bad but everything is so small. I tried the hd mod and I had to downsize from full hd to 1280-720 resolution because I literally couldn't tell the difference between units when they were smaller.

 

[Yeekim]

units allowed to move without a hero leading them

That, and heroes could be move and fight without monsters as well.
Actually, I quite liked buffing up my heroes to ridiculous levels and soloing hordes of monsters.

But that wasn't really HOMM any more.

I never thought graphics or audio were bad, though.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

That, and heroes could be move and fight without monsters as well.
Actually, I quite liked buffing up my heroes to ridiculous levels and soloing hordes of monsters.

But that wasn't really HOMM any more.

I never thought graphics or audio were bad, though.

Yea, having a main army composed of 4+ upgraded heroes with no units was fun. But it was no longer HoMM.
I like the HoMM5 middleground they chose in regards to hero implication on the battlefield.

 

[sherbz]

I think HOMM 5, despite some horrendous voice acting and sub standard level designs, is actually a very good game. It was certainly much better than 4 ever was, which I didn’t like particularly (I used to hate having to choose between different level creature types). Most of what they changed was for the best IMO and the addition of racial skills was a fundamentally good idea, if rather patchy in its implementation. I think if you are coming to the series now (or came to it much later than its release), all the patches and stuff have ironed out the bugs and make it a good game.

I think a similar case can be made for 6. I got fed up with the sheer awfulness of Uplay and the constant bugs and crashes and stopped playing it after release. However, since then, I watched a random lets play and thought id give it another shot. I was mildly surprised actually. It runs a lot better now, there are town screens (not in vanilla), the story is ok and the graphics are good. I still think 5 is better, but its enough to keep me playing.

I think the series has pretty much had its day though. I would be somewhat surprised if they made a HOMM7. It needs a breath of fresh air from somewhere IMO. I read an article somewhere that suggested either multiplayer only or IOS was the way to go. I could possibly see it working on the IOS. If you removed nearly all of the story elements and made it pure strategy I think that could prove popular. HOMM3 had next to no story and is the most popular of the series.

 

[civvver]

I don't think you really need story, just enough to tie campaign missions together. What you need is interesting maps and campaign missions. Maybe have more and varied objectives. I obviously can't say for sure whether I feel the series has dried up or not having not played past 3 yet, but it wouldn't surprise me as turn based games outside of civ and some indie titles have pretty much gone silent. Although we'll see with the new age of wonders 3. It that hits big maybe another homm could work. The thing is, how much different and better can you keep making a game? Homm 3 is pretty much perfect as is. Maybe someone should just try to re-release homm 3 but with modern graphics?

I do think porting homm2 or homm3 to ios would be extremely popular too. Just make sure the interfaces are big enough to click with a finger. The game runs just fine with mouse only and no hotkeys.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Although we'll see with the new age of wonders 3. It that hits big maybe another homm could work.

I thought the same with Disciples 3. I was playing and crying ... how could everything go so wrong ...
Same with HoMM6 but the disappointment wasn't so immense. At least it didn't bring me to tears !

AoW3, you are my only hope.

 

[Jarrema]

The thing is, how much different and better can you keep making a game? Homm 3 is pretty much perfect as is.

I loved Homm 3 the most from entire saga. But mostly because it was first, and I was young then.
But IMO Homm 5 is better in almost every aspect.
Homm 6... there is no possibility to make it better for me, even with dozens of patches. I just hate some mechanic - especially that you have to choose one primary hero. I also dont like hero development, and I hate 'online' elements - 'legacy' stuff.

Maybe someone likes such things. But it is different game. Homm 4 also was different game. At the same moment I feel that Homm 5 is just better version of Homm 3, not so different to call it another kind of game.

 

[sherbz]

I do think porting homm2 or homm3 to ios would be extremely popular too. Just make sure the interfaces are big enough to click with a finger. The game runs just fine with mouse only and no hotkeys.

Yes, i think there are some games that ought to be ported to IOS. HOMM would be ideal IMO. I also think they should port shining force 1 & 2, final fantasy and chrono trigger, as they ought to work well on ios too (they might already be on there, as i have not looked).

 

[civvver]

Original final fantasy is actually on blackberry. I have it and it's awesome, exact same game but with updated art. Same feel and style they basically look like 16 bit versions of the same sprites. Probably the only person on this forum with a blackberry. Civ would even work fine on ios. I think most slow click based games do, since controls is the mobile device's downside.

 

[Yeekim]

Agreed about HOMM5. It nicely built upon most things which made HOMM3 great.
Negative reviews scared me away from even trying HOMM6.

 

[sherbz]

Agreed about HOMM5. It nicely built upon most things which made HOMM3 great.
Negative reviews scared me away from even trying HOMM6.

HOMM6 came with an utterly dreadful DRM system (Uplay). Because it was always online, and it was buggy as hell, this caused a great deal of resentment. There was something incredibly annoying about fighting your way through a particularly grueling fight, which may have taken you 10-15 minutes, only for your connection to mysteriously disappear at the end which would prompt the game to close down and you lose your progress for that day (which can be quite a long time in realtime). there were also plenty of bugs in the actual game and parts of it werent even finished (like town screens and various other bits).

That said, the graphics are good, the gameplay average to good, and the story average to good. I guess its a bit worse than 5, when i consider 5 to be good to very good. If i was giving it marks out of 10 i would probably say 6.5. I think its main problem is that its a bit too heavy on story and a bit light on actual strategy (like how they removed all but 1 of the special resources).

The game has had a number of patches now and plays quite well. Trouble is most people got fed up and went elsewhere. But if you never experienced the problems the release had, you might actually find it to be pretty good.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

And if, for some reason, you are thinking H3 is H2 with more stuff & H5 is H3 with even more stuff, H6 is just dumbed down on all fronts.

 

[sherbz]

And if, for some reason, you are thinking H3 is H2 with more stuff & H5 is H3 with even more stuff, H6 is just dumbed down on all fronts.

Except on story, where its massively enhanced (if you like that sort of thing)

 

[civvver]

Has anyone played any of the king's bounty remakes? They're all on sale on steam right now. Rated decently enough, if you aren't familiar king's bounty was the precursor to homm by the same designer. Homm is basically the rpg might and magic series meets king's bounty. A few years ago they made a remake called king's bounty the legend and there's a couple other new king's bounty games (not sure if they're sequels or stand alone expansions or what).

 

[coanda]

I've played the KB games (well, KB: TL and KB: AP; not crossworlds).

The good: they really nail the tactical combat that HoMM had. They have good skill trees, fun spells, a decent AI, nice art / audio work.

The bad: They get repetitive. Very, very repetitive. After you've played for 10-20 hours, you've pretty much grasped what it has to offer... and you're nowhere near actually finishing a campaign.

 

[civvver]

Bump!

So I didn't get very far in homm3. I started the normal campaigns and they felt disturbingly easy compared to 1 and 2. 1 and 2 were insanely hard and unbalanced on certain missions. 3 it feels like there is no challenge, sit back and build up angels, it was so easy. Maybe the later campaigns are better? I only did the first one where you are the human guys fighting off the demons and looking for angels and griffins and part of the second where you're the pit lord dudes.

I also loaded up 6 finally. Getting it patched and through uplay was a giant pain in my rear. I only played one mission of the tutorial campaign, which is not skippable and seems to have story line in it. Weird. So far just looks like a 3d version of homm, the acting isn't that good though.

 

[Ailedhoo]

The first trio campaigns of 3 are easy yes, although the other campaigns do up the scale.

The expansions of 3 are quite challanging, especilly Armageddon's Blade which includes the dreaded dragon hunting and Festivel of Live campaigns, the former having one infamous battle against 3500 Naga Queens. Did I mention that the dragon hunting is set on a strict time limit? On the "plus" side the Festivel of Live is supposed to be more difficult.

The Shadow of Death campaigns are far more reasonable in difficulty; no 3500 Nage Queens there and Sandro makes a excellent characture to play as and against.

 

[coanda]

As long as you're playing on the highest difficulty, you will run into difficulty campaigns eventually. Just have to slog through a handful of earlier ones first. If you want to make those ones interesting, try to win them as fast as possible (after all, that is what determines final score).

 

[sherbz]

Shadows of death is harder than Armageddons blade. The worst thing about both the campaigns though is the inability to run away from superior forces. Its quite possible to get your hero stuck so they can get away and you will have to restart the map.