I'm a long time fan of the series and I've followed very closely the development of this installment. I sort of cofunded and participate on a daily basis in a Heroes community in my country as well as international forums. I am even part of the M&M VIP program from Ubi for like 10 years now.
I don't write this to brag or anything just to make clear that I'm a real fan of the series and I know the game.
Said this, the game is crap. Technically is one of the worst pieces of shit I've played in a very long time. The main problem here is not so much the fps (which is really poor as well) but the huge memory consumption (and it gets worse with memory leaks) and loading times. In my recently bought middle class laptop with 6GB of memory it takes at least 5 minutes since I start the game and I can play anything. And while my rig is certainly not the best around, it is not only me, it is a general issue for everyone. Unless you have very fast components AND a solid state disk you'll get awfull loading times. Even youtubers with monster pcs like Total Biscuit complain bitterly about the poor performance, so it is not like "it is not running light on 5 years old computers".
Another big issue when it was first release was AI. Not only it was dumb, but it took (depending on the map conditions and your computer) up to 30 seconds per AI player to make his turn. So unless you played the campaign which has a scripted AI and is obviously instant, then AI would effectively play longer than yourself. Thankfully AI turns were fixed in recent patches so now it is 5-10 seconds per AI (sometimes less). Now it is just dumb.
The visualization is also another important aspect that was clearly screwd up. Instead of going for a more iconic representation of the world like in the old games (like old time fans were asking for) they opted for more realistic landscapes with big hills, different levels and a more realistic proportions in comparison with the rest of the interactive objects. The result is that everything else is tiny. And because the terrain is big as well as distances you need to zoom out, making hard to spot a thing unless you zoom in & out constanly. This might look like a minor issue unless you experience yourself but is very clear from the first minute you start playing. UI is also tiny by the way.
Of course we have the same problem in the combat arenas, where creatures are displayed tiny. Well, a user put Ubi/Limbic to shame with a simple mod that rescales creature sizes making them bigger, and makign the difference of sizes more noticeable (a titan or a dragon are now much bigger than a low tier unit). Limbic said it was impossible due to the clipping, but apparently most of the player base prefers some clippling in exchange of being able to actually see the units.
And if you ignore the awful performance and the rest of flagrant issues (and bugs... lots of bugs) what do you have left? Well, you have a game that though reuses a lot of assets from H6 and recicle a couple of their mechanics, it inclines much more to the classic formula, only that they don't quite got it. It looks more like a mixed bag of features than a coherent design and it shows. There are still some appealing as it relies on some of the features that have always worked in the franchise, but doesn't look like it may become a lasting experience. It looks more like a disposable product that you'll play only for the campaign (which probably was the main focus anyway) and throw away for lack of complexity and depth.
It can only get better that's for sure. Patches are being released and they promise to support the game for long, even trying to fix the most demanded issues (on top of bugs). But well, you can put your trust where you think it fits better. Performance for instance will hardly change significatively, specially when we're talking about the studio that has twice in a row made a performance mess with their games (M&MX and now Heroes7). By the way, they were not using any cheap engine now, but Unreal 3.
Modding possibilities are also reason for hope, as it is the easiest to mod Heroes to date. In any case, it is a good advice to wait a few months until they patch the game to what it should have been on release.
About the question if there is still a community who asks for Heroes games, complains and is active, the answer is yes. It might be not as big as back in the time because last games have been really dissapointing, but it exists. And what do they want? Well, there is a wide range of opinions of course, but at least those who are vocal about it want mainly a Heroes game that can be enjoyed instead of suffered, no more no less. A lore that doesn't limit the world and game possibilities but that help go deeper in whatever the imagination of designers brigns. Classic mechanics refined and improved and some novelties that actually make sense and integrate with the rest instead of beign a slap on the face. Nice art and visuals that stress the magical side of the world, but not necessarily need the highest number fo poligons nor state of the art computers to play.
Been waiting for this since H3 myself and seems I'll have to wait a bit longer.
