Might & Magic: Heroes VII

Combines the best of the previous games. The online mode does not work correctly yet but they announced patches to deal with that. Furthermore I am not interested in the online experience (especially if I had to play with such a hateful community). The gameplay experience is definitely worth it and I will spend a lot of time on the singleplayer.

I find it hard to rate a game so low. Even in the worst games you will find something that saves it from a total disgrace, say some music tracks, maybe graphics, maybe even one little thing, like a loading screen which you find particurarly artsy, or this one voice actor, who saves a day. Anything. In…

Графически игра просто шикарна, новые нововведения также располагают к себе. Всю картину портят лаги, также есть заклинание снижающее инициативу врага, так вот- не используйте его враги визуально становятся тормозами и приходится ждать по 15-20!! секунд. Жалко что отсутствует фракция демонов. Игра в принципе понравилась

I feel like the developers either did not understand what makes the classic HOMM games so great, or they just did not care at all. This is not a terrible game at core, but it just feels incomplete and soulless. In comparison the the older HOMM games, it just doesn't hold a candle to them. A few design decisions make me quite disappointed too. I wholeheartedly wished that they would learn from their mistakes after VI flopped, but I suppose not.

I really wanted to love this game. I really did. Somewhere, deep down, there is a solid, fun gameplay here. But it is buried under tons of bugs, lack of polish, and straight-out amateurish development. Where do I start? Well, let's start with the good. Campaigns, for what is probably the first time in history since Heroes III, are actually enjoyable and well thought-out. The RPG elements are possibly the best ever - the skill wheel and general lack of skill points ensures that: a) each hero is unique in his/her own right, and b) hero development is not based on random chance this time - you decide how to build your hero. That is what you call good game design and that is why I tried to much to spend worthwhile time in this game. Sadly, no matter how good some core concepts are, the fact of the matter is that the game is unplayable because even 3 years after release it just does *not* work. One of the most important thing, the AI, is not even broken, it's basically non-existent. The AI, no matter the difficulty, will always behave in the same idiotic way: it builds its army, then it throws itself against you. So far so good. However, when you defeat it, it will continue to waste its gold on buying heroes in the tavern and do nothing for the rest of the game. Yes, that's it. That's literally it. Difficulty only changes the magnitude of cheats the AI uses and thus the strength of its initial attack. Any intern with basic programming knowledge could gobble up a network of if-statements and it would work better than Heroes VII's AI. So, at this point, I said to myself: well, maybe the game is enjoyable in multiplayer. My mistake. Since nobody is playing this crap online, I had to persuade my friend to try both network and hot seat. Network multi player doesn't work because of constant time outs. Trust me, we tried. It's beyond ridiculous. OK, so hotseat it is, then. At least in hotseat, the game actually works, since there is no Internet connection to time out.. However, it blatantly uncovers the second fatal flaw of Heroes VII and the last nail in its coffin - there is no game balance at all. While in Heroes III, V, and even VI to an extent, you can pick any town in multi player and win, unless you pick specific towns or do a specific strategy in VII you are simply screwed. There are hero builds that are simply stronger than others. There are towns that are simply superior to others. Since units now get substantial flanking bonuses that are basically unavoidable, superior attack is always better than superior defense and everybody is literally a back-stabbing bastard now. And so on, and so on... Nothing screams "rushed launch" more than total unbalance Heroes VII is. And it's a shame because the new skill wheel is simply superb concept. Lack of polish (weird or missing sounds, bad animations, recycled assets, inconsistent art style) is just an "icing" on the cake of problems mentioned above. Since ubisoft, of course, pulled the plug and discontinued its collaboration with the developer, the only thing that could save this game is modding but since nobody plays it, there is no hope left. Nothing has changed in years. RIP Heroes VII, you had a chance.