Ugh, I hope you don't hate me for this, Magerette, but I was just about to say that after having played HOMM 1 and 2 extensively, I began to feel bored by the same-old-same-old kinds of units being repeated in HOMM3 (at least HOMM 2 had a greater variety of spells and creatures than HOMM 1 had).
So I decided to take the plunge, and against everybody's hate for HOMM4, give it a decent go.
...and I'm having an absolute ball of a time! I just cannot put this game down...- I get up bleary-eyed in the mornings because it's keeping me until 2 AM in the mornings. Sure, the huge difference in the interface is actually a shock at first, and many things have been changed, but most definitely not for the worse! The graphics are crisp and lovely, the environments rich, and the creatures are fresh and new.
The only thing I deplore a little, is that focus seems to have been removed from city-building compared to the previous HOMMs and HOMM 5. In the other HOMMs, building up the right structures in your stronghold ASAP, is absolutely crucial. Here, the focus seems to be more on your hero and on exploring the environment.
Ah, well, and what an environment full of eye-candy it is...
Some features seem to have been borrowed from other games, notably, for instance, the tree-like structure in your stronghold that you get in the Disciples games. (One branch precludes the building of another parallel branch).
I also like that the campaigns are more focussed around proper stories; and boy, is there attention to detail in this game!