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Heroes of Might & Magic VI - Previews @ IGN, PC Gamer

IGN has a look at Might & Magic Heroes VI and the new morality system they've introduced:

Quote:

The last Heroes game was released in 2006, and stuck closely to its turn-based strategy-mixed-with-RPG roots (which began in 1995). The series has always been strong on story, a throwback to the original Might and Magic games which were strictly RPGs. Now, though, Heroes VI is taking things a few steps closer to what we have come to expect from modern RPGs, by adding a morality system — a system that can change the ultimate outcome of the game, and is dependent on choices you make while you play.
The system is called Blood and Tears, and works on the premise that players typically fall into one of two categories when playing strategy games: defensive; ensuring their units are always healthy and playing cautiously, or offensive; mitigating the loss of life by destroying enemies as quickly as possible, and being totally ruthless on the field of battle.

…and a preview at PC Gamer:

Quote:

New to VI is the reputation system, designed to boost role-playing in a Mass Effect Paragon-Renegade way. Value-burdened actions will add to your Blood or Tears reputation. Blood is the path of strong attacks and retribution, the kind of person who negotiates with his sword, and seals the deal with a kick to the downbelows. Tears is the kind of path that will let a fleeing army escape, and spend its Hero’s mana on healing, and spells like Martyr – a passive-aggressive buff that increases the fighting power of your stacks as they’re whittled away. Missions you’ll find on the map will also have “negotiate/fight” options, giving you another chance to up your Blood or Tears stat.
Then there’s the script and acting. I had to go back to V, just to remind myself how much better it all is – and sure enough, everything from the the unit tile pictures to the in-battle animations is ten times better. But that doesn’t mean the acting’s… good. It’s still earnest and slightly uncomfortable, in that Two Worlds 1 approach to fantasy kind of way – with lines like “ah, but now it is you who is the pupil, not the teacher, and the lesson is not theology, but punching horses in the neck”. Well, not that exactly, but you get the drift. However, although the script might not have the casual ease of Superbad, there’s an intelligence about it that lets you see that good people can disagree, and come to blows, both believing they’re right.

More information.

Blood and Tears sounds interesting.
Hope its a tad more complex then the standard for this gerne.
Anyways, cant wait to put some hours in this game !

Is this a HOMM successor or an successor of the RPG line, then ?

Or do they plan to mix both ?

I guess they just don't want HOMM to be anymore this cute little strategy game where one could easily spend hours … They want something bigger. They began with it - imho - with HOMM V.

And maybe … Maybe they are even aiming at a different target audience now ? : Those who liked Elven Legacy, perhaps ?

I don't know. I'm confused.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer (Post 1061052650)

Don't try so hard to put things in containers :)
It's Heroes of Might and Magic, with a few extra things. You'll still have your towns, recruit units, build armies and move around the map.

I follow development even before it was public as I have the luck to belong to a VIP group (as some of the leaders of HOMM communities around the world).

The game is being quite focused on single player campaign at release, and thus the role playing factor is important. However it is still a strategy game at heart and you should still happily spend uncountable hours in open maps with "defeat all" objective and no story at all. Map editor promise to be powerful and user friendly (unlike the H5 nightmare) which means that, if the game core is solid enough, you'll find a miriad of user made maps to play of all types shortly after release.

There are some gameplay innovations that affect directly to the strategy aspect of the game (like town transformation to your faction, or the unified creature pool to recruit in any of your towns or forts instead of each town having their unique pool).
Other new features affect both strategy and role playing, as the new skill tree for the heroes.

A deeper focus on multiplayer has been promised for expansions (like a probable addition of some kind of simultaneous turn system).

Until now the game looks promising. There are some hints of humour like in the old games. Lead map designer is Marzhin, an fan known for his good maps and campaigns hired by Ubi. There are some references to the old game universe as well, and music will be composed again by the masters Rob King and Paul Romero (just hope they change their direction from H5, which was good but not excellent as in previous instalments).
But until release we won't be able to know the quality of things like AI (one of the serious problems of H5), or balance, so we'll have to wait and see.

Oh and I know it's not the most important at all but, landscapes look more beautiful than ever. Just have a look at screenshots, they look impressive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vitirr (Post 1061052677)

Your words give the hope i have for this game an extra positive spin for me.

HoMM is probably my all time favourite strategy series. It's brilliant. If HoMMVI comes even close to the games made by NWC, I'll be playing it for weeks or months.

A few things they need to address:

Maps need to be bigger

Performance needs to be a lot better

Multiplayer should have PROPER simultaneous turns

They should combine the variety and AI of HoMM3 with the CRPG elements of HoMM4 and take it slightly further

Implement the innocent charm of the first games

THAT would be something.

Vitirr, that all sounds good. I love me some tb strategy.

Alrik, Elven Legacy? Other than their both being turn-based, I don't see a lot of similarities.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing (Post 1061052668)

Don't try so hard to put things in containers :)
It's Heroes of Might and Magic, with a few extra things. You'll still have your towns, recruit units, build armies and move around the map.

All I can think of is we will see. Most companies try to reinvent a franchise and destroy it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Couchpotato (Post 1061052737)

All I can think of is we will see. Most companies try to reinvent a franchise and destroy it.

but if they don't change anything, they stagnate :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing (Post 1061052879)

but if they don't change anything, they stagnate :)

Oh look its the famous Mike Laidlaw comment.. If that was true Halo and COD wouldn't make billions.:rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing (Post 1061052879)

but if they don't change anything, they stagnate :)

"Stagnation" is actually one of my favourite Genesis songs ! :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing (Post 1061052879)

but if they don't change anything, they stagnate :)

Mmm is game franchises died because of stagnation? Clearly many died when they tried evolve significantly. Also clearly stagnation will bore me but that's just me, last example was Armored Princess that I felt like replaying once more King's Bounty the Legend I had already replayed 4 or 5 times. AP felt from my hands because of that.

EDIT: Now I think of it the main reason the game design of franchises tend evolves is because games are mainly designed by designers. Design is their trick and their fun and repeat a formula can only bore them to death. So they end promote new idea and need have enough talent to sell the illusions to the commercial team.

About performance, I'm 90% sure it will be way better than in H5. I don't mean you'll be able to play with a 8 years old PC and everything on high, but at least if you have the proper hardware it will go fine. I mean I testes H5 with my 1 year and half PC a few months ago and I had to set everything to low to move it with a decent FPS.

By the way other innovations you will find. There will be bosses, like in King's Bounty. There will be a reputation system, allowing you hero to follow the path of the blood (aggressive) or tears (pacificator), leading to different skills options.

Greetings.

Depends on a lot of things, such as genre, gameplay, perspective and the fans. Both HoMM and M&M were developed by the same company, yet they suffered different fates: HoMM has always been successful despite very few changes, while M&M went down the drain due to a lack of changes (let's not talk about the game where everything changed).

Generally, I find that 2D games (Baldur's Gate, HoMM, etc) age better than 3D games (M&M, Doom, Wizardry, etc). There are many other factors as well though, such as gameplay, target audience and so on.

How can we make HoMM better? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, it needs more mass effect.