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| Thread: best HoMM storyline.. |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · NEXT» |
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DarkLord
Supreme Hero
Fear me..
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posted January 18, 2013 10:22 AM |
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Poll Question:
best HoMM storyline..
which Heroes in your opinion
was the best in terms of campaign story and plot?
if you vote for expansion please specify..
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yasmiel
Supreme Hero
Former Chessmaster
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posted January 18, 2013 10:30 AM |
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While the grand plot wasn't as interesting or great, the writing itself was superior in Heroes 4 vanilla in my opinion.
Original campaigns are probably the pinnacle of Heroes writing as of now. It got worse in the expansions though.
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watcher83
Supreme Hero
Child of Malassa
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posted January 18, 2013 10:33 AM |
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Homm4 best storyline and characters by far.
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted January 18, 2013 10:36 AM |
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Since H4 never made it into my hearth, I did not know it's story.
So for me. Heroes II takes the place.
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I'm just a Mirror of your self.
We see, we look, we gather, we store, we teach.
We are many, and you can be one of us.
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IbnWaliBarad
Hired Hero
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posted January 18, 2013 10:39 AM |
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I've yet to see some characters on the same level as gauldoth. Or an original and tense take on mage drama such as price of peace campaign (and their town theme rocks).
So yeah, Heroes 4 Vanilla story rocks.
(PS : was I the only one to find gavin magnus more than than anything? )
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted January 18, 2013 10:56 AM |
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I am torn between H3 armageddon's blade, shadow of death and original H4. H4 campaigns were masterfully written with compelling characters for the most part. Gauldoth, Emila and Tawny Balfour were incredible, the rest were fine and Lysander was plain boring. There were a few decent ones in gathering storm but didn't leave a lasting impression. H3 however certainly did, oh yes. Armageddon's blade was easily my favourite campaign in gameplay and story with Sandro, Gem, Gelu, Yog, Adrienne, Mutare and Dracon's campaigns being both challenging and enjoyable. H3 had a very appealing mix between gameplay and character/story feel that has not faded in time. I remember it all so very vivid, I had a blast playing them  Or the fall of Steadwick, man that was a tricky one!
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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War-overlord
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Presidente of Isla del Tropico
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posted January 18, 2013 11:27 AM |
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I've been in dubio on this and I'll explain why.
I voted Heroes 4. That had, by far, the best story, the writing was mature and varied, characters developed, sympathetic and believable. Even more boring characters like Lysander were made more intersting by telling the story through his servant.
What Heroes 4 lacked though was integration. Not by ways of how the campaigns mixed, by way of gameplay. The stories were great, but completely disconnected from the gameplay. For me it always came down to: Go there, do that, go x weeks further, conquer that town, kill that monster; if you do, you will be rewarded with more text. Playing the game was a chore, but a chore with a reward at the end. With factions I liked, it was doable, but I never did get through the whole Emilia Nighthaven Campaign, among others, because the chore of playing was not worth the reward. This is something I feel all Heroes of the NWC/3DO era suffer from.
Which is why my second choice would have been Danse Macabre. (PoSS would be 3rd) No, that story isn't as good as was that of Heroes 4. But it is the best of the Ubisoft era to this day. What Ubisoft lacks in writing talent, it makes up in managing to integrate the story and the gameplay. There the story is the gameplay, with dialog and some cutscenes to tell what the gameplay has a hard time conveying or cannot. That makes play not a chore, but the story I tell myself.
In the end, for me:
NWC/3DO told a great story badly, by making me do chores to get bookpages.
Ubisoft tells a bad story well.
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Vote El Presidente! Or Else!
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted January 18, 2013 11:36 AM |
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Voted H3.
I will never forget AB and SoD campaigns, so great 
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watcher83
Supreme Hero
Child of Malassa
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posted January 18, 2013 11:51 AM |
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To be honest regarding Ubisoft campaigns the dlcs>>h6>>h5. The only campaign which is really weak is Irina's. The rest are modest to bad. The h5 campaign's were awful, some ok characters but awful campaigns and stupid mottoes. I still can't get over the end of h6 campaign where Isabel basically tells Raelag Oh you killed my husband which was the love of my life but since you've done it out of love it's all good and Biara swaps places with her without anybody noticing ( I mean she went off with Raelag while the other 3 went home with Biara). Genius I tell you.
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted January 18, 2013 11:54 AM |
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I have a question
Should we take in considerance the orignal games, Individal parts of it (Expansions) or the "books" as a whole (vanila+all expansions)
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I'm just a Mirror of your self.
We see, we look, we gather, we store, we teach.
We are many, and you can be one of us.
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DarkLord
Supreme Hero
Fear me..
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posted January 18, 2013 11:54 AM |
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Edited by DarkLord at 11:57, 18 Jan 2013.
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Quote:
Since H4 never made it into my hearth, I did not know it's story.
So for me. Heroes II takes the place.
knowing that u are interested in plot of HoMM and M&M series
would strongly advice you to try it!
well if u dislike the HoMM4 that much ,
at least u can read the campaign story
(have seen in somewhere in web)
its totally worth it! campaign story is a one of the best for HOMM
I have a question
Quote:
Should we take in considerance the orignal games, Individal parts of it (Expansions) or the "books" as a whole (vanila+all expansions)
individual parts!
consider every expansion or vanilla as a standalone
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted January 18, 2013 11:56 AM |
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Quote:
knowing that u are interested in plot of HoMM and M&M series
would strongly advice you to try it!
well if u dislike the HoMM4 that much ,
at least u can read the campaign story
(have seen in somewhere in web)
its totally worth it! campaign story is a one of the best for HOMM
I belive that the stories are good, or even great, but the Axeoth part of the saga never got my attention due to game mechanics, Both H IV and MaM IX were hard for me to enjoy. I started MaM IX several times, never got to far in them.
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I'm just a Mirror of your self.
We see, we look, we gather, we store, we teach.
We are many, and you can be one of us.
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted January 18, 2013 12:03 PM |
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Edited by blob2 at 12:06, 18 Jan 2013.
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Heroes 3 will always be in my heart but truth be told, as I was quite young when I played the game, at that time it was amazing for me, but I wasn't so experienced in fantasy and only after a while, (at least in Heroes 3 vanilla) I discovered some more engaging fantasy settings. Dracon (ahh the epicness, 4000 Naga Queens attack!) and Mutare campaigns were my favorite (from obvious reasons, Dragons!), but I must say that that AB and especially SoD campaigns were quite good.
But I voted for H4, as it is the pinnacle of writing in the Heroes franchise imo. Characters like Guldoth or Tawni were deep, memorable. Although the power of their stories lied in the writing itself, I can't quite agree with War-overlord that the gameplay was dull. Well, it was your standard Heroes gameplay, but the maps were varied. I actually felt like a pirate while playing Tawni's campaigns mostly water covered maps, or sympathized with Guldoth while playing his dark, sad and depressing campaign maps (deserts, skeletons, undead, lava etc). The only backdrop was their legendary and irritating portal placement ;P Yet, those were probably the best, in terms of design, campaign maps in the Heroes franchise. The climate was incredible. It's worth mentioning that Heroes 4 had quite a powerful editor, and I played some community maps that were amazing (for instance one, which name I don't remember sadly, a labyrinth full of triggered events, that transformed your "hero", which was usually a single unit one time a peasant, another time a vampire, where decision making and strategic gameplay was crucial), so if not for 3DO problems we could get some more interesting campaigns, not cheap ones like GS or WoW...
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DarkLord
Supreme Hero
Fear me..
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posted January 18, 2013 12:03 PM |
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Quote:
Quote:
knowing that u are interested in plot of HoMM and M&M series
would strongly advice you to try it!
well if u dislike the HoMM4 that much ,
at least u can read the campaign story
(have seen in somewhere in web)
its totally worth it! campaign story is a one of the best for HOMM
I belive that the stories are good, or even great, but the Axeoth part of the saga never got my attention due to game mechanics, Both H IV and MaM IX were hard for me to enjoy. I started MaM IX several times, never got to far in them.
i for instance never played M&M games
but i am familiar with the story and plot
was interested so read it out in internet!
for HoMM series played every single game with every single expansion..
so in comparison i enjoyed a lot the M&M but i am not sure
that will fit into HoMM series, would be interesting for me
personally, but vast majority wouldnt like sci-fi in fantasy
i guess thats why Forge faction never made it to HoMM3
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted January 18, 2013 12:08 PM |
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Quote:
i for instance never played M&M games
but i am familiar with the story and plot
was interested so read it out in internet!
Reading a plot summary is not the same as experiencing H4 writing first hand...
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted January 18, 2013 12:08 PM |
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Heroes IV, particularly the Death campaign. Putting aside some naive plot devices, it's sort of a short novel.
Second place is shared between Heroes III SoD and Heroes II. Frankly Heroes II has a clichéd plot (or classic, if you prefer) but the fight between Roland and Archibald just had some charm that none of the next Heroes games managed to capture. SoD on the other hand is what cemented Sandro's cult reputation as the best villain in the series and generally had very good story-telling style.
Never really liked the placeholder Armageddon's Blade campaign. The boring fight of Catherine & Co vs. the Kreegans took the rightful place of The Forge, the continuation of the M&M VII storyline and ultimately the unification of the two parts of the old universe. A missed opportunity substituted by a poor plot.
Way, waaaaaay behind them is Heroes VI. Despite all promises, its story does nothing to make Ashan even remotely attractive and its only "success" is that it's better than the Heroes V abomination (like that's hard).
Heroes V... you know my opinion about it.
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DarkLord
Supreme Hero
Fear me..
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posted January 18, 2013 12:14 PM |
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Quote:
Quote:
i for instance never played M&M games
but i am familiar with the story and plot
was interested so read it out in internet!
Reading a plot summary is not the same as experiencing H4 writing first hand...
agreed 100%
but i dont really play many computer games
only strategies like HoMM or Disciples series and few other exceptions
so had no chance to play rpg games , particularry M&M
as for HoMM 4 finished campaign twice
really loved it!
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted January 18, 2013 12:16 PM |
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Quote:
Never really liked the placeholder Armageddon's Blade campaign. The boring fight of Catherine & Co vs. the Kreegans took the rightful place of The Forge, the continuation of the M&M VII storyline and ultimately the unification of the two parts of the old universe. A missed opportunity substituted by a poor plot.
I have a feeling, that if Forge was introduced in Heroes III vanilla, it wouldn't build the games success. Heroes 3 had a perfect, stellar fantasy setting, and most of the players, except fans, didn't know of the franchise sci-fi and fantasy duality. I remember how I reacted when I saw first concepts of H3 addon with Forge screens. I asked myself "what the f*ck is that!. Only after a while I read about the franchise setting. So plot-wise it would be maybe more interesting, but imo the game would suffer from it (I don't know if I would pick up the game then, Heroes 3 was my first contact with the franchise)...
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Maurice
Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
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posted January 18, 2013 12:24 PM |
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Edited by Maurice at 12:28, 18 Jan 2013.
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I didn't vote, because I don't have a clear recollection of Heroes 1, 2 and 4. For what I remember, 2 had a great story with the two brothers, one of whom was good, the other who was ... not so good  . The fact that you could switch over from one faction to the other during either campaign was a nice trick. I had real troubles with adapting to Heroes 4, both graphically (different map view and I considered the battlefield to be absolutely horrendous, both in layout and in graphics), so I never got hooked to it. I vaguely remember a campaign of a Pirate woman who was succeeding her father and exceeding him in his reign, that was really nice.
Lacking proper memory of those three games, my vote would end up with Heroes 3. My all time favorite campaign is the Festival of Life, even though I'm a Magic player by heart in Heroes 3. What I like in Heroes 3 and Heroes 5 as opposed to for instance the storyline in Heroes 6 is that you have multiple protagonists, each with a different background and storyline, but they all have to deal with the global events at hand. And they each do it in their own, special way. Heroes 3's expansions added independent campaigns (although SoD's ones are interrelated), but they were all interesting nonetheless.
I also really liked the Tarnum stand-alone expansion campaigns. The overall story was interesting, especially because later on, Tarnum started to come across the remains of his earlier actions, centuries before.
Edit: Ok, I have voted since, on HoMM3, but that's with the info I wrote above.
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JollyJoker
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
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posted January 18, 2013 12:31 PM |
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Heroes II plus Expansion, because that brought the best balance between "story" and "gameplay". Homm II campaigns were interesting to play and the "story" was not very detailed, but it was made with gameplay in mind, not the other way round.
If I want to read a novel, I do. If I want to play a mix between a strategy and and a role playing game, first and foremost I want to PLAY.
H IV is a completely different kind of game and is basically outside of competetion: the game works on a different level, with much more role playing aspects, number of possible level-ups, hero classes, heroes on the BF in a support, magic or fighter/shooter role and so on, so Heroes IV NEEDED much more detailed stories for the campaigns (and if I remember right many maps came with stories as well.
So HoMM IV NECESSARILY MUST have the best campaign stories, that comes with the game.
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