How is Heroes 7?

[DoPo]

So, uh, that's a bit embarrassing - I didn't notice that Heroes 7 came out. I knew it was due out in September, and I missed it. Now, three months later, it is now on sale.

Since I don't know...well, anything about it, I ask anybody who does - how is the game? Is it worth getting? If so, now or maybe later?

Spoiler: For anybody interested - some background on me and HoMM

I'm a long fan of Heroes and also the Might and Magic universe in general. I've played all major Heroes games (not necessarily all expansions or the Chronicles and such) and I liked most of them. For more of a breakdown:

- Heroes 1 was good. I didn't really play it as much, as it was "before my time", but it was still pleasant

- Heroes 2 I've played more. It looked like an upgraded version of 1. Still, pretty solid.

- Heroes 3 is what I actually started with and it is possibly my most played game to date. Wake of Gods is fantastic and the Heroes 3 HD mod[/quote] is a close second in sheer amzingness.

- Heroes 4 I didn't much like for a variety of reasons. Mostly because it tried to do too many things at once. It had some really good ideas but the sheer amount of changes meant that some of them were bad, some were executed poorly, some were just WTF. At any rate, it was an alright game, just didn't fit well with the franchise. It also sort of killed 3DO.

- Heroes 5 was also amazing. I found it's better than Heroes 3 in a lot of respects, since it tried to get the best of 3 and also the good ideas from 4 and actually execute them properly. The result was an upgraded version of 3 which addressed issues and left the good parts. Then with the Tribes of the East expansion, it became really good and really more its own thing. Overall, I still played Heroes 3 more than 5 mostly because 3 loads so much faster. Heroes 5 looked...erm, too good, which meant that performance was a bit crap. Still probably my favourite game in the franchise, but tend to play 3 more.

- Heroes 6...I actually liked. With a caveat, that is: the Heroes franchise was getting a bit...same-y. Heroes 6 tried to shake things a bit by changing some of the formulas. Overall, I was pleased, but it felt like a good beginning - it wasn't really a game I'd play more than the rest. It had its share of problems (fuck you, campaign difficulty) but the game felt solid enough to stand on its own, but also to possibly pave the way for some changes that would help out the future games. Though, it should be noted that while the set of changes were nice, I could definitely seen some of them being potentially problematic depending on how they evolved.

https://sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I wondered this myself. It has extremely hostile reviews, and that's putting it charitably. My suspicion is that it's a turd.

 

[Jandau]

Tried it for a few hours... You know how Heroes 6 was a fairly decent game burdened with online crap and some questionable design? Well, Heroes 7 gets rid of the online crap and replaces it with plain crap. It's poorly made in pretty much every way, unpleasant to look at, plays poorly, feels bland. It's like a shittier Heroes 5...

 

[DoPo]

I wondered this myself. It has extremely hostile reviews, and that's putting it charitably.

I...noticed. I went "Oh, Heroes 7 is on sale. Wait, if it's on sale, it must be out - you can't have sales on preorders. *clock on the game* Oh...38% positive. That's low".

My suspicion is that it's a turd.

It was extremely suspicious. There was almost nothing to announce the game would be coming out. Well, I remember there was something, because I did hear about it...mid-2015, so not very long before it. And then it came out and...I missed it. When I knew when. I thought that would have been hard. But no - not much publicity preceding it, not much publicity on release. Nothing much after it's been out for three months. Low user reviews.

I didn't really want to trust the aggregated user reviews because 1. It's a Ubisoft game 2. Most likely comes with Uplay. 3. It's a long established franchise and that increases the chance of certain fans perceiving it as "BETRAYAL!"

So, overall, the scales would have been tipped against it.

Also, Heroes 7 doesn't have a demo. For...reasons. Heroes 6 had a demo and it's what actually got me to get the game in the first place - I wouldn't have bothered otherwise.

 

[Adaephon]

I bought it pretty much on release (I've been a die hard fan since 2) and then I got to try out the steam return policy for the first time about a week later. I found the entire thing to just feel.... unfinished basically. It felt like it got rushed out with no budget to try and cash in on the fandom.

The skill system was a lackluster attempt to merge the skill tree ideas from 6 with the more traditional level ups from the older games. Combat was slow (and not in a fun, strategic, chess-like sense, but just sluggish all around) and surprisingly ugly to look at considering how pretty Heroes 6 was. I found the animations really janky and immersion-breaking which, again, is weird because of how nice 6 looked. I liked the new unit designs and felt that the stat balances seemed good, but they took away almost all activated abilities all but a few special powers or skills that made any units into anything besides things that just smash into each other.

Overall it was just a massive disappointment when compared to Heroes 6 or any of the earlier games. I understand that every heroes game has had problems. The Warlock from 2 was strictly better than every other hero, half the skills from 3 were practically unusable, 4 was a massively different game than anything else in the series, 5 had camera issues, 6 had all sorts of online-only forced uplay stuff, but they all were really good games beneath all of that. 7 just wasn't, it was a bland generic game that felt plain weak.

 

[DoPo]

half the skills from 3 were practically unusable

Come on, now, it's not half. More like a third. I'd say around a third.

but they all were really good games beneath all of that. 7 just wasn't, it was a bland generic game that felt plain weak.

OK, that's mostly what I feared. Damn, and I was somewhat happy with Ubisoft having the IP until...erm, recently. Clash of Heroes felt...ummm, somewhat underwhelming, but on the other hand I actually had quite a lot of fun with it. It's just that it wasn't really a M&M game, just wore the skin of one. Then, more recently, there was the M&M online CCG thing that I pretty much only heard about and that's it. And it sounded like another attempt at cashing in on the franchise.

I can't entirely blame Ubisoft for trying to grab as much as they could - it's not like 3DO didn't do the same. But at the same time, I would have thought that 3DO's demise would have served as a warning.

 

[Mangod]

It's basically a worse version of 6 in every way; it looks worse, plays worse, animates worse, doesn't have a fun skill system, doesn't have a coherent art-style or look...

You know what? Here's TotalBiscuit's research stream of it, judge for yourself:


In summary, if you want to play a Heroes game... get any of the games OTHER THAN VII, with the possible exception of IV. It's a downgrade from its predecessors in every way.

 

[DoPo]

You know what? Here's TotalBiscuit's research stream of it, judge for yourself:

I've now watched half of this. Erm, I did actually pause it at 1:07, so it's pretty much exactly half way. Wasn't intentional. Just wanted to say that TB seems to share a lot of my opinions about the Heroes games, which is good. This one does have some neat looking mechanics...but it also doesn't look like it really got the attention it needed.

I might wait for some expansions to come out - it might be better at that point. Doesn't really seem that enticing, though and I somehow doubt it'd be a lot better but it could be playable. At the moment, it looks like something we could all skip.

 

[Mangod]

You know what? Here's TotalBiscuit's research stream of it, judge for yourself:

I've now watched half of this. Erm, I did actually pause it at 1:07, so it's pretty much exactly half way. Wasn't intentional. Just wanted to say that TB seems to share a lot of my opinions about the Heroes games, which is good. This one does have some neat looking mechanics...but it also doesn't look like it really got the attention it needed.

I might wait for some expansions to come out - it might be better at that point. Doesn't really seem that enticing, though and I somehow doubt it'd be a lot better but it could be playable. At the moment, it looks like something we could all skip.

Skip ahead to 1:50:50, and you'll get to see the Striders in action; the animation on that unit is amazing (/S).

 

[DoPo]

Skip ahead to 1:50:50, and you'll get to see the Striders in action; the animation on that unit is amazing (/S).

I did watch all of it now. The strider animation is indeed...noteworthy.

I totally agree with TB, though - the game doesn't deserve full price. It might be worth getting after it with a patches/expansions and a discount.

On a separate note, I looked up the Necropolis faction units and they at least look nice. I am a big fan of them in all their incarnations and one of the more disappointing things in Heroes 6 was that the undead looked just so underwhelming, for some reason. The liches in partcular were just...erm, old dudes. Heroes 6 felt especially unsatisfying in that regard, after Heroes 5 absolutely nailed the undead. Every unit in H5 looked gorgeous. Not ony that but the animations really felt right at place - the vampire lords would teleport around in the blink of an eye, for example, and when the liches would cast a spell, they levitate their magic book, teekinetically flip to the page they need and unleash the magic. So awesome.