I myself have been a big fan for this strategy game series for years. The sixth game has now been released. <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wEBGPcRBnQU?version=3&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wEBGPcRBnQU?version=3&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-PKxXdSUl3Q?version=3&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-PKxXdSUl3Q?version=3&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CaLdvYQSqNE?version=3&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CaLdvYQSqNE?version=3&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> Some of the key changes from previous games include: - Graphics. Creatures look a lot more detailed now. Though town view now sux ass. - 5 factions, including a brand new one, Sanctuary (Nagas). Though old races like the Elves are missing. - Resources have been reduced to 4, gold, ore, wood and blood crystal. This has reduced the overall complexity of the game. - Heroes can now choose specific skills to learn instead of being given random options after levelling up. - Heroes now have reputation. Performing certain actions will cause your reputation to move towards Tears (good), or Blood (evil). Different skills are available for different reputations. - In combat, heroes no longer queue together with creatures. Instead every hero can take 1 action any time in each turn. T - In combat, hero skills now have cool-down. Excellent. Have played a bit in the past a couple of days and I can see there is definitely hundreds of hours of fun ahead. Anyone else plays this?
I'm a HUGE HOMM fan. I still play HOMM3....I've dumped literal months of my life into that game and this series. That said, I played the demo for this game and didn't like it at all. I was hoping they would build on HOMM5, which had the potential to be a true sequel to HOMM3 (It just wasn't deep enough). The town screen is ugh, I don't like that there are 4 resources, and the inability to rotate the screen view is weird, since it was available in HOMM5. I do like that the heroes don't queue with the troops, like in HOMM3. I didn't really explore the skill trees or the good/evil alignment. I haven't given up on this game, but it didn't feel like a true HOMM game to me. I'll give it another chance. On the same general topic, I found the new Kings Bounty games to be awesome. I wish they would adopt these into a new HOMM game (I know, different companies, probably won't happen).
I am a big fan of the series and have played every single game in it. I bought latest one and I STRONGLY STRONGLY urge people to stay away from it. This game has more bugs than a Volkswagen factory. A lot in-game things are broken, things are very poorly documented, your hard earned items disappear, Dynasty weapon vanishes and.... ...the incredible blinking cursor which lags the entire game. TO give you an idea, this game had a patch on the release day and it still hasnt covered 9/10th of the glitches. After having played 10+ frustrattion filled hours and having realized that this game is actually a $50 Beta game, I decided to hang it up. I should have waited for couple of patches and by then the game would have come down to $20-30 anyways.
This game does feel rushed. For one thing adjusting the game speed also changes the speed of the dialogue voices in the game. You wouldn't expect to see such obvious mistakes. However, 5 was also released with a huge amount of problems and Ubisoft did a great job fixing them. I do believe after they fix those bugs and add more content (like new factions and maybe a new town view), this game will be above 4 and 5.
Critical patches seem like par for the course for post-HOMM3 games in the series. I remember that HOMM4 needed patches badly right around launch as well. I'll give it some time...I don't really have time to get sucked into a great strategy game anyway.
