I don’t wanna feel Blue anymore...
To me "Heroes" is one of the pillars of modern gaming. I first met HII when I came across it on one of those "200 in one" CDs they sold in the 90's. Most of the stuff on it was crap but that was a sure gem and loved it. Then came HIII, still considered to be the most classic one in the series. I loved it and played it a lot along with HIV which I loved about as much. HV came much later, as I got a new PC and decided to pick up where I left off. Yet, it came as a huge disappointment. There were many games which I gave more chances than I should have but with this one I didn't even bother - struggled for maybe half an hour before deleting it. I honestly don't know, to me it looked like crap. It's much better to have a good isometric game than a bad 3D one. But after a few more years I decided to give HVI a try.
Tonight I finally finished Heroes VI and here's a few words on that.
To me the feelings are very mixed. First of all, the game was incredibly laggy and froze ever so often. I tried to fix it, I really did but in the end I just gave up and reloaded the game, sometimes 3-4 times at one point. That really ruined the experience. But let's move on. Overall, I liked the new design, the units looked great though you seldom looked at them up close. The animations were good too, when they didn't lag that is.
The castle overhaul was mostly good in general but it felt like there were fewer castles and so many classic units were just very absent. I didn't quite like what they did to the Necromancer and Demon castles. Some units were so gross it was disgusting to even look at them. The main reason why I skipped the Demon campaign. But I liked the Sanctuary castle. It is refreshing to see Japanese mythical creatures used in a game. The dark elves looked great too. But yeah, the units and the gameplay is good.
I thought the plot was odd and messy. While I don't care much normally, here it was more evident so it influenced my choices a lot. While there were 5 main campaigns, one for each sibling and of different factions, I only did two. And even that only because I needed it to finish the final campaign. I chose Irina, of course, and later Anastasia. Both wronged women who took their fates into their own hands. I tried playing the humans but the protagonist was such a giant douche I quite on 2nd scenario. I was reluctant to play for the Necromancers but I had to choose another campaign to finish the game and in the end it felt strangely liberating. I mean I sure look the part. Also inner jokes like “You’re not taking my castle! Over my dead body, bitch! Oh, wait. I am dead anyway.” The ending brought no satisfaction whatsoever. It was just like "What? That's it?"
I will probably try HVII at some point but for now I need a break. From the battles and from the bugs