Might & Magic Heroes VII

I was surprised to see no HOMM/MMH thread, since I thought it was a rather popular series...

But when I read most comments both on the website or the trailer, that may be for the best. Most of it is people complaining that Ubisoft is not redoing HOMM 3 over and over and over again. Gets old fast.

Anyway, it seems that they abandoned the "Necropolis is Evil" thing once and for all, which was what I preferred in MMH 6 (Anastasya ♥).

On another note, you may vote for the next faction to be included : Haven, Tower/Mages, Necropolis and Orcs are already here, and for the next 3 days, you can choose between Wood Elves and Dwarves, and if I read correctly another vote should happen later. I guess that we will have to pick either Demons or Dark Elves next.

So, voting on boring vs. dull?

I liked Heroes V (with the expansion) Heros VI wasn't as good though.

I just hope they take the series back to the way it was with Heroes III. That game was the best.

Heroes of Might and Magic 6 forces you to install U Play, Ubisoft's version of Steam, even if you buy it on steam

Their business practices are poor. I doubt 7 will show any change.

@Another Guy

To be fair the Elves are pretty sure to win, as is the case with any "faction that was here in #3" vs. "faction that was not here in #3". But I guess this means a DLC will later allow the losing factions. Which would make a grand total of 8 - the number of factions in 3 before the polarizing Conflux was added.

@randomdude

So far, we had #4 that was original, then #5 that came back to #3, then #6 that was original. Following that logic, #7 could be back to #3. But honestly, I am not sure it is even possible to improve #3, if only isometric 3D is something that makes a map so much easier to read. Aside from a few balance issues, there is almost nothing to change - a simple HD remake with new maps and campaigns would make many people incredibly happy.

Because (now it is a personal opinion) I do think #5 and especially #6 showed a lot of progress in the narration of the campaigns, despite the derpy cutscenes (in #5 that was quite obvious). In #3, those were mostly standalones with bland heroes until Shadow of Death introduced both some humor and personality to the campaign heroes (there was the last campaign from Armageddon's Blade too, but that one was Nintendo Hard), and even then it wasn't the case for everyone - the humor mostly came from Sandro interacting with them, especially Crag Hack.

@Stephan Reiken

Agreed on that. I tried replaying #6 yesterday, I had to reinstall the game...and then reinstall uPlay, because it kept crashing before it even started. It was my fault though, it was installed on an almost-full hard-drive, but that is something uPlay should be able to detect (I moved it on an empty hard-drive and now it works very well).

Plus the necessity to go through Steam AND uPlay is completely stupid. That is by far the problem I think has the lesser chances to be fixed in this game...

edited 7th Sep '14 11:31:49 PM by Julep

Vote is over, the Wood Elves/Sylvans enjoyed an easy win.

Now you may vote for their line-up if you wish to.

I just checked the entire lineups. There is good and bad, but mostly good in my opinion - aside from the stupid fact that there is no Inferno that bothers me to no end, alas, it's a Ubi game and DLC have to be included.

• I never was a big fan of the Haven, so not much to say aside that the Guardian looks cool, and it's nice to have a female sprite for a soldier, while M&M girls beforehand were only able to use ranged weapons and magic. The Seraphs look very...military.
• V's Academy is back, awesome. I'd have taken gremlins over the little lizardmen, but they look great otherwise. The new thunderbird fits the quota of "the monster you'll never use because its alternate is much cooler". That's what happens when you have to choose between him and a Colossus.
• Necropolis, ever my favorite. No zombies this time, which is great. The Dark Knight comes back, absolutely awesome. But the Bone Dragon too, and it replaces the completely amazing Fate Spinners, which is my one big regret. I loved them, they were the single coolest creature in VI (and pretty powerful too), and they completely fitted the lore.
• The Stronghold creatures look great. There aren't too many orcs and goblins, and instead we get a lot of cool creatures or semi-humans. Considering the lizard they are riding, I doubt anyone will mock the goblins now, and the gorilla-like look of the Behemoths is intimidating. Thumbs up.
• Sylvan has too many elves. Two would be alright, but three is too much. They should have removed the Blade Dancer, obvious Warhammer ripoff, and added another forest creature instead. Or a Phoenix. Or something. But elf overload is bad.
• Dungeon meanwhile looks like it did during its most glorious hours. The greatest monsters are here (Medusas, Minotaurs, Black Dragons, plus the Hydra who fits rather well), there are two dark elves to accompany them which is the right number, the Troglodyte comes back to act as meatshield, and they get a newcomer that looks straight out of Spirited Away. Neat.

All in all, it's pretty fine. I am pretty sure that I'll get it during the next Steam sales. Haven and Sylvan, as usual, will be the sides I won't play, but all the others look like great choices when I'm tired of being a Necromancer.

edited 26th Sep '15 9:34:36 AM by Julep

Out today!

Gamewatcher says HOMM7 "keeps it safe".

edited 29th Sep '15 8:23:40 AM by AnotherGuy

I finally took the game due to finding an interesting offer for it. You will not believe it, but uPlay bugged when I tried to relaunch it for the first time since, well, since I played VI.

So, first impressions. Like VI, it is rather pretty but...something is lacking, "charm" maybe. V had a distinctive artstyle, whether you liked it or not, but here it looks like any fantasy setting. At least there seems to be more style consistence within factions - I just say that after the first map of the Haven campaign, maybe I will change my mind later. The maps are sometimes difficult to read, and you might fail to see some items because of the hills. Combat so far looks similar to V and VI, and if the final fight of the first map is any indication, Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards is on full display. Oh, and I want to kill the dude who thought it was a good idea to slooooooooow the movements of the creatures affected by the spell "Slow". Did they even test that? Did they enjoy seeing the turn of a creature take 30 freaking seconds because they move soooo sloooooooowly? I mean, there is "moving slightly slower", and "reenacting the Sloth joke from Zootopia".

Now for the story, because believe it or not but I liked the story of VI. They avoided the "big opening cinematic" that was kinda mandatory since forever. I am pretty sure everyone who played the series remembers Catherine Ironfist seeing the aftermath of a huge battle between Tower and Dungeon, with the petrified mage and the harpies plucking a naga before getting stomped by a Giant. Instead, we get fixed pictures, which becomes a staple of later conversations. It is surprising, but honestly I would rather have this than silly animations that kill the mood of the conversation, so not an issue. I don't buy a HOMM/MMH game to see top of the line facial reconstruction.

The problem is, the lack of a cinematic means that...you don't really know what the hell is going on. There are seven people sitting around a table, with one being apparently some kind of duke and the others being his advisors. He has to take a decision, but the reasons for that are obscure. Don't get me wrong, I think that the writing is rather smart: instead of finding contrived reasons to have a campaign for every alignment like there was in VI (I liked Kiril's Inferno campaign but...well, the "demon within" part was a bit dumb), they just have those being narrated by the advisors.

The towns are rather nice (only seen Haven so far and it is historically the one I like the least). The building tree seems interesting, I think that they balanced things a bit between "you always get the same creatures" (III) or "choose between 2" (IV). For some cases, you are allowed to buy all buildings for creatures of a level, but you can only build either of their "+ creatures per week" improvements. For Haven you can either have more Sentinels or more Abbots, but not both.

I might add that the Sentinels look cool and straight out of the Skyrim's companions. The wolf theme doesn't help I guess.

Advisors who included nice Continuity Nods to the previous game. First, there is Jorgen, who is IIRC a Faceless posing as a trusted Griffin advisor - well, he is a trusted Griffin advisor, he just happens to be a Faceless. Second, there is an Angel, although for obvious reasons it is a different one than in VI. And then, the part that made me squee like a five-years old, there is Anastasya, bestest Genki Girl necromant ever, who seems to have somewhat aged (not as much as you'd expect considering the timeskip - then again, she started VI as an undead so...) but sounds as snarky as ever. I had always been torn between my absolute love for necromancy in HOMM and a tendency to prefer being a good guy in the games I played, and Anastasya reconciled those two aspects by being Ashan's version of a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire along with her aunt Sveltana.

Another Continuity Nod - you start the Haven campaign playing as a member of the duchy of...the Wolf. Yeah, the same ones who were mostly in VI to commit marital rape and get castrated by Irina. Meanwhile, it is the Griffin who behaves like a dick, and the Not So Different vibes are pleasing me (you still play as a Griffin overall, it's just nice to see that all aren't honest goody two-shoes).

So far, the dialogs are pleasing me, they aren't tasteless as they sometimes were during VI. The Haven campaign hero seems to have a personality, which is a very nice change. And the various NPC you encounter also are decently written. I am not far, but I get some Mustang/Hawkeye vibes from Tomas and Ymaril.

It is encouraging, I would say. Far better than I feared.

edited 7th Mar '16 9:58:42 AM by Julep