I’ve always been open to new ideas across all aspects of the game—whether it’s graphics, lore, or mechanics. But it seems that the developers haven’t learned from past mistakes, despite having had plenty of opportunities to do so. At this point, there’s no excuse.
While the graphic style does appeal to me, the concepts do not.
Let's start with the enormous Grim Reaper atop the Necropolis town. Simply put, no! I've never had an issue with anything in the Might and Magic lore before. In fact, I've defended the shortcomings in previous installments. But this? This is too much—too cartoony. How is anyone supposed to take the game seriously with a giant Halloween decoration looming over it? Who, realistically, would build something like that, and why? Are we supposed to believe it’s just a massive Grim Reaper God sitting there for eternity?
I’m not a fan of the Templar's architecture either. The slender white decorations, meant to symbolize the presence of angels, come off as overly kitschy.
As for Dungeon and Sylvan, I don't have much to say. Dungeon lacks innovation, and Sylvan hasn’t been fully revealed yet.
I believe the sixth faction is Stronghold, which is a complete letdown. We’re essentially getting an old game with a new skin. That’s why I don’t think it’s going to succeed. With only six factions at launch, each offering similar mechanics with different aesthetics, we’re looking at the same story, the same mistakes. We were hoping for an upgrade from Heroes 3, with at least nine factions.
How can they expect to satisfy the old fanbase if they keep repeating the same errors when recreating the game?
I’m sorry to say, but the series won’t survive by catering solely to the old fanbase. The previous installments have already proven this. Plus, the old fanbase is notoriously hard to satisfy, so there's a risk of alienating them as well.
And how do you plan to attract new players if the gameplay feels outdated because it’s too similar to the older versions?
We’ve seen the Redwood Observatory a few times in the trailer. We get it—you’re playing the nostalgia card. It’s been there for 25 years. Make it different! Improve it! Make it flaggable so players can fight over it! Think outside the box! Innovate on old elements to appeal to both old and new players.
Now, as for the ‘new novelties’, the lore set as a prequel to Heroes 1 on the Jadame continent, and Inferno being a faction of insect-like swarms, it’s an interesting twist. I like it, though it’s not entirely original (a bit too reminiscent of Zerg), but I’m open to it.
What excites me, however, is the flexibility in hero development and the battleground. It’s not entirely clear yet, but it shows promise.
Overall, I remain pessimistic… open-minded, but pessimistic. The reason is simple: they haven't learned from their mistakes, and it's already evident that they’re still struggling with this.
Finally, no more 3d nonsense with excessive zooming and rotating. I am excited to see how it turns out. It does look a tiny bit too cartoonish, but that might still look good. The mega important thing is that it does look clear, i.e. that ore heap is actually clearly visible on the ground and doesn't have to glow or something to achieve that. Units in battle are a bit too small to my liking. Effects look good. Town screens look okayish, but it's not the most important thing. If they can finally make RNG great... fingers crossed.
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Looks promising! One thing I’m curious about is the lack of unit stacks. But hopefully all the numbers were just omitted to make the gameplay more noticeable.
Yup looks like this is not their usual mobile pay to win shovelware and surprisingly even uses the original HoMM title instead of their usual Ubi style 'Might & Magic: Heroes' name system.
It's probably kinda low budget so they haven't dared put an 8 on the end of the game title and are making it a spin off however it does actually look pretty good.
I thought the town screens were simple frozen artworks again however judging by the video they're using a Songs of Conquest and Silence of the Siren like 2D within a 3D plane diorama kind of trick to give it more life so while in the screenshots they look pretty simple they don't look too bad in the video trailer with a moving camera. I could be wrong and they may actually even be full 3D towns, it's kinda hard to tell, if full 3D then that's kind of funny considering the excuses made for HoMM6&7 that 3D town screens are too expensive lol.
oooooh nope.. judging by this animation the town screens are indeed full 3D.. I think I can even see people walking around in the Knight one! The classic old man HoMM1 fan in me that always complains about lifeless town screens in nearly all the sequels is pleased lol.
Graphics look indeed somehow bland specially in the video in german, but for the rest is looking good.
. Death to Ubisoft universe and back to Enroth/Jadame. Check.
. Hexes are back! Check.
. Heavily inspired in H3 with well known classic creatures. Check.
Note that the name is Heroes of Might and Magic and not the Might and Magic Heroes.
It seems to be going in a more classical direction for real this time. I remain cautiously optimistic this time.
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I'm not getting my hopes up - Ubi is Ubi - but at least I haven't seen anything disappointing yet. I'm particularly interested in
Quote:One-hero mode: a blitz-like system, but you have only one hero, so their demise will become yours as well!
Finally, Hero of Might and Magic! No scouts, just main.
FirePaladin said:The lore, errrr, it takes place on Jadame, and you must fight the Kreegans. Considering that it's made very clear that Kreegans never, ever set foot on Jadame, you can deduct my opinion on this matter.
There weren't any big Kreegan bases that we know of, but MM8 did have gogs in Ironsand, so there's some basis for the concept. Besides, "demonic insectoids" sounds different from a whole-Kreegan faction - maybe some Inferno heroes escaped Antagarich and took over the wasp nest in Alvar.
Anyway, H3 towns didn't match the MM7 factions that closely either. (Dwarves in AvLee's Rampart instead of Stone City.)
____________ Eccentric Opinion
The matter of races is a bit more flexible and fluid, but yes, while there is a (relatively large) population of dwarves in AvLee, the majority of them is presumably found in Stone City.
Heroes OE is a prequel, it happens before HoMM1.
I already stated my (very summarized) opinion on the visuals (which get worse the more I stare at them). Everyone who deals with graphic design and related fields professionally, and I have talked to or seen talking about it, had also expressed a similar opinion. Which sounds a bit concerning, if you'd ask me. There is simply lots that's off, from composition to readability and amount of details. And the moba style. Even if they did well in other regards, right now it looks like those are seemingly due to simply copy-pasting H3 (ie. if they understood that HoMM is a digital boardgame, there would have been little to no readability issues, because the art direction would have kept that fact in mind).
I'm not saying that it can't be good in spite of that, either, but only time will tell.
____________ Enshackling time itself, heralds of the Ancients among their heat-depleted land.... Who could they be, who could rally the beings of the East and the North and control the mortals' fate?
I think readability is the best in the franchise since H3 to be honest. Also better then Song of Conquest where everything looks the same, objects and decoration IMO.
I am also put off by the graphics though and I agree that it has a certain mobile style that I dislike. Some unit models are also not to my taste but the main problem is the general look. I can't put my finger on it to describe why it looks like this but it does. I can see at least that objects seem to have a certain black border that makes them look pasted in the environment instead of blend in, but it is probably much more than just that.
And it is a pity because it feels to me like they are really close to be really good. Anymations are gorgeus, and if you look in detail the videso where there is some gameplay (the german one for instance) you can spot that the map and towns are very much alive with a lot going on wich is great.
Anyway I still think it can be a good game as most I see from gameplay point of view sounds good.
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Best adventure map since Homm3 for sure, though 1 2 and 3 are still better.
But finally an adventure map I can actually read. Even Songs of Conquest couldn't do that.
Town screens I find kind of disappointing, reminds me of Heroes Hour. It doesn't feel like an image that was added to, but more like they painted the entire town and then took the elements away.
But is the unit design which really bothers me. They look very 'modern fantasy' like they are from world of Warcraft or Diablo 4.
I miss the days of creatures looking like they came straight out of a book of fantasy creatures. DND First edition, Diablo 2, Homm 1234, Age of Wonders 1, that kind of thing.
But everything has moved towards this overdesigned weird "I'm so quirky and unique."
That alone wouldn't be a deal breaker as long as I can read the battlefield (Songs of Conquest has neat designs but unreadable battlefields), but it is Ubisoft so I will remain highly skeptical.
Dark elves also concern me. Homm3 is at it's best when working with archetypes "Wizard", "Warlock, "Knight", etc. If a town just a single race as a centralized theme my interest plummets. Homm V already went too far in that direction.
What's your bet? Microtransactions for unit skins? A sign up bonus artifact?
Edit: I will give huge props for at least finally giving up on 3d though.
____________ What are Homm Songs based on?
I already stated my (very summarized) opinion on the visuals (which get worse the more I stare at them). Everyone who deals with graphic design and related fields professionally, and I have talked to or seen talking about it, had also expressed a similar opinion. Which sounds a bit concerning, if you'd ask me. There is simply lots that's off, from composition to readability and amount of details.
I've got nothing against AI art or upscaling, I think it is fun and great boon for smaller game studios provided it is done well.
A lot the textures here all have the same strange angular look you get from certain poorly structured AI images. I wonder if they used AI on 3d models as a base and drew outlines around it or something, because the "brush strokes" are weird.
____________ What are Homm Songs based on?
Blake00 said:oooooh nope.. judging by this animation the town screens are indeed full 3D.. I think I can even see people walking around in the Knight one! The classic old man HoMM1 fan in me that always complains about lifeless town screens in nearly all the sequels is pleased lol.
They're about as 3D as Unfrozen's other game.
No, those are definitely animated 2D townscreens. And they look pretty sick.
About graphics. From the start, I'm not on board with Ubisoft's high fantasy theme, but I guess that's part of this franchise's identity now. The cartoonish/mobile visual style the devs went for, while not exactly my cup of tea, is in my opinion more fun and colorful than that of H6/7. No doubt this was a conscious decision to change direction that almost contrasts the more serious and realistic undertones from the other two games mentioned.
I like the creatures design overall, they went with a good mix of new stuff and old stuff. Not sure if that's a Chtulhu-themed faction we're getting, but I'm intrigued. What I'm not into is how the models pop out on the battlefield, I prefer it when they blend more with the surroundings. Guess they did that for more "readability" for all the old farts I can read around here too.
Weirdly chunky mobile game style aside, seems like it started out as fangame and was bought by Ubi in a partially made state, so we may see actual attention to details in the plot.
Stevie said:They're about as 3D as Unfrozen's other game.
No, those are definitely animated 2D townscreens. And they look pretty sick.
Animated 2D? Care to elaborate? In the dungeon town it does a progressive zoom-in travelling in which you start to see stuff that was behind other buildings. I'm no expert and I have no idea how you can animate a 2D image to look like that. It doesn't look like a parallax effect either because it looks quite progressive and I don't see obvious layers.
That doesn't mean we will be able to do that in-game though, might have been just for the trailer and we'll have a static view in-game but to me it looks 3D.
Aside of that, new Q&A video with the devs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vae95-E47zw&t=1s
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The adventure map and combat are made up of cel-shaded 3D models. The town screens are 2D and employ the use of the parallax effect.
____________ Enshackling time itself, heralds of the Ancients among their heat-depleted land.... Who could they be, who could rally the beings of the East and the North and control the mortals' fate?
LordInsane said:Considering they are highlighting dark elves as a major element of the underground town, not so sure Jadame's portrayal in Might & Magic VIII will have any real impact on how they handle things.
I mean, Dark Elves can still look like the ones we know from Might & Magic VIII. What's more, I wouldn't mind seeing Dark Elves as Dungeon units, but to each their own. As long as it feels natural and fun to play, I don't mind cosmetic changes. Heck, Dark Elves fighting among Minotaurs and Medusas in the Dungeon faction don't have to be lore-inaccurate. It's not that all of them had to live in towns on the surface, heh. Let's also not forget that the Olden Era game is set before HoMM 1. The events told in the first HoMM game happened circa 1110s-1120s After Silence, and Might & Magic VIII's story takes place in the year 1172 AS. While we don't know when exactly, at least several decades of difference of the times of action between Olden Era and M&M 8 is enough to justify some subtle design changes.
gnollking said:A bit more footage of actual gameplay: (The video is German but there's English subtitles)
I gotta say, the adventure map is even better than the teaser showed. Visitable locations and collectables are visibly distinct from the obstacles, the graphics are great, and the fog of war just looks amazing. Easily the best adventure map since HoMM 3. All the changes (like the spell system) the dude talks about sound interesting. Will need to wait to see how they actually play out. This was a completely unexpected surprise, and after this second video I'm even more excited about the game.
Thanks for sharing the video! I fully agree that the adventure map looks fantastic. Like you said, it's easily the best looking adventure map since good old HoMM 3's. Clear, intuitive, with good looking elements mixing old and new designs, and yup - this fog of war is simply stunning.
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posted August 23, 2024 03:20 PM
