Heroes of Might and Magic 3... And a little about a mod.

[solmyr]

Well ubisoft recently announced an HD remake of Heroes 3: http://might-and-magic.ubi.com/universe/en-gb/games/all-games/might-and-magic-heroes-3-hd/index.aspx

So I figured now was a good time to revisit this classic and make a few a videos.

Here's a review:

A trailer: (it might not look like much, but I sank over 80 hours into making this thing)

And a trailer for WoG, one of many excellent mods the fans have made for heroes 3:

Let me know if you like it.

[Roderick]

There is definitely a throng of cheeseball jokes in that video, Solmyr, but like HOMM3 itself, it's kinda charming.

 

That game... it's so much fun in the first few hours when you're frantically gathering up cauldrons and saffron, but then it becomes this endless management sim of supply lines, sending heroes to and fro to stave off escalating army growth, until you have thousands of arch liches fighting a millions goddamn dragons.

[solmyr]

Thank you.

 

Yeah, it can get like that in some of the large maps.

 

I'm really enjoying the mods I found, if you ever decide to go back and play the game again I can definitely recommend the mod 'Ride the Lightning'. I don't think I've enjoyed a Heroes 3 game this much in years, and I'm not even playing something handcrafted, it's just a random map.

[Valorian Endymion]

This is great news I loved that game, but I couldn´t figure exactly what Ubisoft is trying do with the franchise, won´t release Heroes III HD hurt the next Heroes VII?

 

Because in one way, originally Might and Magic was rpg franchise which mixed fantasy and sci-fi themes, Heroes was the strategy spinoff, which most don´t mention the sci-fi part. But it was in the same universe as the rpg franchise, this already lead to lots of confusions and plot holes due strange design decisions (add the mismanagement by 3DO), so you know the Kreegan? because in reality, that demons in Heroes III aren´t demons, they are aliens (they first show up in M&M6, which is before Heroes III in which they are just demons, later in M&M7 which is after Heroes III, they begin again aliens), which the climax was was whole forge town thing (long story short, forge town was planned to be extra faction in one expansion for Heroes III which bring back the sci-fi part, however due poor presentation generated a backslash, legend says that there was even a death threat).

 

Since Heroes became more know that the original franchise, part of the fanbase reject the older or newer titles (which can be bad)...now Ubisoft is trying to push the franchise in their own direction (which can be good, but at least with Might and Magic X they appear to be trying tie in the old universe) so I really don´t know how this will end... still great news, but it will came with the expansions?

 

There was old Three Moves Ahead which they talk about Heroes and Disiciples too. (https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/disciples-3-homm-and-games-like-this/), while I am a big fan of Might and Magic (but mostly the rpg, which I played all of them, even the infamous M&M IX) and the Heroes (played almost all of them, have to confess I liked Heroes IV and ubisoft tries more that I would like to admit, except Heroes VI) - One thing I don´t like is how numbers outweight everything in HOMM, because if one side got most numbers there is almost nothing you can do, except reset the map, which can be annoying after several days playing the same map. This meant you had to rush early on in some maps, which I dislike, because what I loved was the rather slow pace, picking up stuff around the map, building things, recruiting units...

[Roderick]

That's an interesting story, I didn't know that was playing at the time. I only ever once played a bit of Might & Magic, and it was so tragically ugly that I couldn't be bothered. I was spoiled by Lands of Lore and later, of course, Elder Scrolls.

 

The thing I love most is roaming the map, picking up stuff and building my towns. In an ideal world, that would lead to victory.

[Valorian Endymion]

That's an interesting story, I didn't know that was playing at the time. I only ever once played a bit of Might & Magic, and it was so tragically ugly that I couldn't be bothered. I was spoiled by Lands of Lore and later, of course, Elder Scrolls.

 

The thing I love most is roaming the map, picking up stuff and building my towns. In an ideal world, that would lead to victory.

 

I can understand that, they had to use the same engine for MM6-MM8 (thanks 3DO and add small development cicles too), in my opinion: MM6 was the ugliest one, MM7 slight better and MM8 somehow manage to look uglier again. Later (MM9) they try using a new engine, it didn´t work at all (tip, the game was so rushed they only model halfs character faces and them copied and mirrored, it look horrible)  - however, MM4-5 (World of Xeen) is a very good and highly playble game in oldschool style.

 

One thing I love about Heroes was the music, Heroes 2 (that small opera style music for each town was amazing, Necromancers and Warlocks had the best theme songs) and Heroes 3 had very nice soundtracks which make the exploration and build up almost relaxing (and tense when needed),

[valambrian]

Blasphemy! Everyone knows that the Barbarians had the best theme song!

[Valorian Endymion]

So the new version was released and its only the Restauration of Erathia, that is no other expansions and following what reviews on Steam say, no random map generator. Now I really confused on what exactly Ubisoft was trying to do, they expect to re-release the expansions at later date? why only the vanilla version? why without the map generator?

 

While this make me worried, Heroes VII still going on, having been reading their Q&A and looking the site I have some hopes for this one, but I am bit worried, given how Ubisoft is losing it way.

[ExitDose]

It doesn't sound like there are any plans to release the expansions, so I'm at a bit of a loss for reasons why anyone should buy the HD version over the Complete Edition over at GOG. I believe there's an HD mod for the GOG version.

[elvaq]

Did anyone else prefer 2 to 3? Maybe it was just the one I first got really into but I didn't like some of 3's additions/expansions. Never played any of the others though, so ignore me if I'm crazy and 3 is the best one!

[Valorian Endymion]

Did anyone else prefer 2 to 3? Maybe it was just the one I first got really into but I didn't like some of 3's additions/expansions. Never played any of the others though, so ignore me if I'm crazy and 3 is the best one!

 

Its ok, I too have more found memories of the second game, specially the music and colorful designs - and I even still keep the original box, along with all stuff that was inside. 3 was fine too and it still a great game, but I didn´t like much the more colorless designs and how they change or retcon some stuff.