Game Review: Heroes Of Might And Magic VI

Overview:

The adventure in Heroes VI, starting 400 years before events in Heroes V, catapults a family of heroes into a fast-paced epic story where Angels plot to end -- once and for all -- an unfinished war with their ancient rivals, the Faceless.

A legendary Archangel General is resurrected, but with his powers crippled. Plagued by horrible memories of the Elder Wars, he plots to recover his powers and take control of Ashan while destroying both Faceless and Demons in a series of carefully orchestrated attacks and betrayals. He underestimates, however, the power of the all-too-human Griffin dynasty.

The destiny of these Griffin heroes will be determined by our players.

Review:

The latest game in the Heroes Of Might And Magic series which as you all know or SHOULD know that it is my favorite game series, Heroes Of Might And Magic VI leaves a mixed feeling.

Well to begin with lets start with the poster. I mean...OMG right?! HOW AWESOME IS IT?! Now this poster, the soundtrack and the artwork were TOTALLY worth the money for the Deluxe edition.

As for the game now, well it had some very nice parts and some parts that disappoint greatly. Lets begin. The story of the game is interesting, it shows the journey of 5 siblings and its amazing how different their story was, and how much they each affected the main plot in their own way. The story is shown through cutscenes and dialogues as it was in Heroes V, which is something I enjoyed there as well. The story unfolds in a more cinematic kind of way and keeps an interest to the player.

Then we have the obvious change on the graphics. The graphics are now smoother, the animations and effects are much better and they add a very nice touch to the overall scene of the game. The battles are smoother since the analogy of the size of the units is way better than in Heroes V (you dont have dwarves or wolves that are in the same size as a grown man, if not bigger), and the magic and the way it is cast and shown is much better worked.

Then we have music, which as always is very nice and blends in with the world perfectly. They managed to embody the factions with their music very nicely and they even made a tribute to the older games by adding a few soundtracks similar to the older games such as Heroes II. The sound effects are much better than before, and they vary according to distance and point of view. The voice acting was better as well.

Finally there were a few things in terms of gameplay that were improved as well. For instance i liked the fact that every nation had its own unique set of spells and powers as well as looks (both male and female, mage and fighter, which was a thing that was lacking from heroes V). They also had their own catapult when you assaulted forts and cities, which was a great touch. They also worked very nicely on the rpg element of the game. The fact that every hero gained a skill point that he could then spend on various abilities or spells was to me a great improvement. Though many would argue that the cities no longer had the mage's guild that had spells and you had to learn the necessary skill to learn them, i find it an improvement since many times you wanted to train your hero to lets say "fire magic" and the mage's guild you had only had water spells on higher levels so you were stuck with an awesome fire mage that had crappy spells. This way you have full control of what your hero knows and doesnt.

However there are also a few things that disappointed me greatly with this game. First of all the fact that you have to be online to unlock content and experience the game in its full is a major minus for me because I dont want all of my games to require internet to play properly. I mean, what if I am stuck somewhere with no internet? that means I cant play anything? That is a big minus Ubisoft.

Another thing that disappointed me was the lack of choices when it comes to races. I miss having the old plethora of choices, from Lizardmen, to humans, to elves, to dwarves, to undead, to barbarians, to orcs etc etc. Yes I know that after Heroes III (the best heroes game imo) there was never much variety, i found it annoying that they did not have some key races in Heroes as I have come to think of them. For instance this game did not have Mages and Elves, which is stupid. I mean, the game is practically called might and magic, and you dont have the Mage people? or elves? Elves always played a great role in Heroes universe. I know that they were not part of the plot, but they could and should add them. Perhaps in future expansions?

Last the MOST disappointing element of the game was the city view. Dont get me wrong they did major improvements on the way the city looks in the world map when you upgrade things. Meaning that a city with a capitol, castle and all the bonus buildings build was WAY more different than a city that had no castle, or different bonus buildings. However the in town view is just dreadful. I mean really Ubisoft? they had in town camera awesome and replaced it with a boring 2d moving picture. How could the improve so many things from heroes V and the only key thing that Heroes V ROCKED the waves with was left out? Bad move. VERY bad move.

To end with I think that it is a worthwhile game, a fine addition to any might and magic fan out there. Sure it has a few things that keep it from the level of perfection we all want, but it is not to shabby. It has a solid ground to begin with, and I hope it will only improve.

P.S Those b....bad people kept some of the music tracks off the soundtrack!!!! the best ones were out!