Might and Magic: Heroes VI - with a sword in your hands, but sadness in your heart. Review of Might and Magic Heroes VI. Heroes Don't Die Heroes of Might and Magic 6 review

Fans are a fastidious bunch. And the army of fans of the world-favorite game series is an even more demanding, violent and often self-contradictory people. Give some innovations, while others shout “Hands off the shrine!” ready to burn any innovator at the stake of the Inquisition. And it’s a shame when developers, trying to please everyone, end up making a game for no one. This is exactly what happened with “Heroes of Might and Magic 4” - few people perceived the project adequately.

Fortunately, the flag that had been shaken was picked up by the flagship of the Russian gaming industry Nival, ushering in the fifth part of the series the triumph of “classics 2.0” - with three-dimensional graphics, but the principles familiar to everyone. And still there were dissatisfied people, for whom “hexagons are dearer to their hearts.” Needless to say, the announcement of the sixth episode, given to the authors of the mediocre strategy Armies of Exigo and the wargame Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, aroused wariness among adherents of sword and sorcery? As it turned out, not in vain.

⇡ Counter-Reformation

The main problem of Might and Magic: Heroes VI is the general course towards simplifying the game. Following the words of the project’s producer, Erwan le Breton, that “Heroes” was too overloaded, the Hungarian executives from Black Hole Entertainment began to cut and rework the sixth part in every possible way. And these changes are evident from the very first frames.

What has always been a kind of calling card, the “face” of any warring party in “Heroes”? Of course, her city. Partly, it was the appearance of cities that formed the first impression of newcomers about a particular race. At one time, Nival, having given the fifth part of the series full three-dimensionality, turned the demonstration of castles into a breathtaking spectacle. Accompanied by gorgeous music, the camera slowly flew around the majestic temples and powerful forts against the backdrop of a sweet pastoral (or not so dear) landscape. You could rotate your citadel as you wish, zoom in/out, and generally meditate on it for a long time.

Alas, we are not destined to see all this beauty in the new game. It’s unclear what the developers were guided by and completely destroyed one of the most aesthetically pleasing moments. From now on, the city screen is a small window with a defective picture and a set of tabs for construction, recruiting troops, trade and other business affairs. Large icons climb on top of each other, there is no trace of clarity, as in the fifth part, and the constructed buildings, with the exception of specific ones like the fort and the town hall, are not displayed visually anywhere. It is clear that this is, rather, only a cosmetic flaw, but those who are accustomed to the pomp and beauty of the fifth and even third “Heroes” will find it difficult to come to terms with such asceticism.

There are now five castles themselves. However, no one has canceled the additions, so their number may soon increase. But initially there are five sides to choose from - the Alliance of Light (people), Inferno (demons), Necropolis (undead), Defiant Tribes (orcs) and Sanctuary. The latter is an abode of Japanese fantasy culture, inhabited by aquatic naga creatures.

All creatures, including those from previous parts, have undergone significant processing and redesign, and the troops have been replenished with previously unseen creatures with their own distinctive features. The development of cities itself has become significantly simplified for two reasons. The first is the absence in the construction tree of some buildings like the Tower of Magic, which, taking into account the new role-playing system (more about it below), were simply no longer necessary. The second is reducing the number of resources to four. Sulfur, mercury and precious metals disappeared into oblivion, which automatically lowered the requirements for buildings and high-level fighters. So hundreds of angels are no longer the ultimate dream, but an entirely achievable reality.

Another very controversial innovation is associated with resources in the sixth “Heroes”, the legs of which seem to come from the Disciples series. From now on, cities and forts create a zone of influence around themselves, which makes it impossible to intercept the mines and dwellings of creatures located in it. That is, you can leave the hero stuck in the mine and rake in the proceeds for yourself, but as soon as you leave the enterprise, the resources will again flow to your opponent. The only way out is to storm the castle, and if successful, its territory with all adjacent buildings (except neutral ones) will go to you.

Finishing the topic of cities, it is also worth mentioning the possibility of rebuilding captured castles to suit your faction. For a symbolic sum, the orc shacks will be turned into the crypts of Necropolis, and Inferno will be repurposed for the benefit of Elrath and his Alliance of Light. Thus, now there is no need to monitor the compatibility of creatures and the morale of the composite army - you can, without distraction, methodically assemble a huge army of your race.

One can debate for a long time on the topic of the above-mentioned perturbations and their expediency, but what is definitely worth thanking the developers for is the redesigned character leveling system. Spontaneity and random selection of skills are a thing of the past, giving way to a full-fledged role model. When a hero receives a new level, in addition to the standard increase in parameters such as strength or magical defense, he receives one point to develop his skills. All of them are divided into two large categories: “Physical skills” and “Magical skills”. There are also “Hero Skills”, but they develop automatically. Each category, in turn, is divided into several subgroups.

The pumping model is the same for everyone, but race imposes some restrictions on it. For example, a necromancer, by definition, cannot study light magic. This also includes the hero’s worldview. Depending on the decisions made during the game (whether the cowardly enemy unit was released or not, whether the traitor was executed or pardoned, etc.), the Tears and Blood scales grow. As one of them is filled, it becomes possible to increase its level and thereby receive certain bonuses from the adopted orientation. The second line in this case predictably loses its meaning: points will still be gained, but it is no longer possible to shake it up.

⇡ Five at a crossroads

“Heroes-6” deepens the mythology of the fairy-tale world of Ashan, discovered by Nival chroniclers, and the action of the new part takes place five centuries before Queen Isabel and the events associated with her. But if earlier we witnessed the gradual fall of the Griffin Empire, now everything is exactly the opposite. The humanity of Ashan is united under the rule of the Falcon Empire, and the Griffins have yet to become the magnificent dynasty that they will appear in the future.

The story begins with the hooligan antics of the willful Duke Vyacheslav (almost all people here are of Slavic roots, so don’t be surprised), who on a voluntary basis establishes good neighborly relations with the orcs of the leader of Kraal, which greatly irritates his comrades from the neighboring duchies. And everything, it would seem, is good and rosy, there is peace in the whole world, and the prophecy about the coming invasion of demons from the fiery prison world of Shio is just looming somewhere on the horizon. But no - the short introductory campaign ends, and Vyacheslav himself is killed in front of everyone by his own daughter Nastenka. The girl is summarily executed by brother Anton, even though she swore that she did not do everything of her own free will. The large Griffin family is naturally falling apart, and the player will have to take a direct part in these fraternal squabbles.

Actually, after the end of the prologue, the developers offer a choice of five independent campaigns, one for each existing race and, as a result, for each of Vyacheslav’s offspring, plus an epilogue. Moreover, the fact that five human children ended up being assigned to different, often completely “anthropophagous” races is explained very superficially, which only enhances the feeling of delusion. And okay, Anton, who after the death of his father headed the Griffin dynasty, but the rest...

One is resurrected by a necromancer aunt, the other, out of despair, let a demon into herself and went on a joyride around Shio, the third ran away from her brutal husband to the nagas, and the fourth is an illegitimate son who found refuge with the orcs. Each has its own character and motives, but the goals are similar - to find and punish the true killers of Vyacheslav, and at the same time save Ashan.

At first, the plot is seriously unsettling with its crumpled and chaotic presentation. "Where I am? Who are all these people?" - No one is in a hurry to answer thoroughly. Bam! Here Slava is friends with the orcs. Bam! Here he is at war with another duke. Bam! The griffin is already dead, the kids have fled, there are five campaigns, the choice is yours. In the campaigns themselves, the situation is initially little better. And the main engine of the plot - the interlude videos - are executed so badly that there is no desire to follow them.

Against the background of the overall graphic splendor and riot of bright colors, these inserts (with the exception of CGI videos, with them everything is traditionally in the openwork) are striking on the spot with poor animation and certainly close-ups of the characters’ clumsy faces. But if you come to terms with them and make your way through the first missions of the campaigns, the narrative gradually begins to gain momentum and throw up interesting situations. For example, in one of the tasks, Anastasia will have to travel through the labyrinths of her own mind, putting together scattered memories. It looks quite fresh and interesting. And closer to the end, when the plot gives out all the trump cards, you understand that the writers did not waste their time... Like the rest of the developers, who, unfortunately, still failed to please all groups of fans.

⇡ Advantages:

• interesting plot after a dull beginning,
• excellent design and nice graphics,
• mature role system,
• great music.

⇡ Disadvantages:

• “dead” city screen,
• mediocre castle balance,
• chaotic presentation of the story,
• impossibility of simultaneous moves in multiplayer,
• general course to simplify the game,
• occasional glitches.

“Heroes B” now knows almost everything that can be known about the game before its release. Players counted the days until June and timidly wondered why pre-orders were still not available? The reason turned out to be banal. On April 20, a message appeared on the Ubisoft forum that the release of “Heroes 6” had been postponed until September 8, 2011. They say the game is turning out so wonderful that they don’t have time to finish it by June. The saddened fans again began to be patient and console themselves with the fact that “it would be better to let them finish cooking than to eat raw materials.” In fact, the announced changes to the gameplay are not cosmetic at all, and even then. that will not be subject to change must be carried out at a decent level. Haste can ruin everything. HEROIC SANTA BARBARA We have long been promised a fascinating story with five main characters, each of whom is driven by their own motives. The action will take place approximately four hundred years before the events of Heroes 5. In the center is the mysterious murder of the ruler of the Griffin dynasty. allegedly committed by his own daughter Anastasia. Maybe the girl didn’t kill her father, but she will have to conduct the investigation after her death. The poor thing was executed on charges of murdering her father. The vacated throne goes to Anton, who gradually falls into religious fanaticism of a strange nature. Anastasia's twin brother. Kirill, although involved in a murder, is also eager to get to the bottom of the truth, which leads him straight into the arms of demons... In short, the backstory has more from the Disciples universe than from the traditions of “Heroes”. So, five factions are expected, one for each main character. Anton represents the castle of people - Heaven, Kirill fights on the side of Inferno, Necropolis suited Anastasia perfectly as a representative of the undead. Irina likes the calm Sanctuary, and Sandor leads the warriors of the Citadel, a set that makes you remember Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, where exactly the same races were presented: humans, demons, undead, nagas and orcs. To complete the picture, only the night elves are missing. All factions will be as different from each other as possible: different creatures, different city development schemes, different hero skills. Even combat vehicles will be different! Each race will continue to have its own type of land, of which six are promised so far: jungle, two types of plains. lava, wastelands and dungeons. It is not known exactly who will get what, so this is a fertile field for all kinds of speculation. I. of course. Each castle has its own creatures with a memorable design. Well-recognized ones include griffins, angels, jellyfish, manticores (now fighting for the undead!), nagas, centaur archers and goblins. However, approximately half of the creatures will be completely new to the Heroes universe. For example, the phoenix will not become a solar creature, but a lunar one, with all the ensuing consequences. As usual, most of the troops on the playing field will occupy one square, but some fighters will be located on four squares. The battlefield will remain checkered, not hexagonal. but its sizes will vary: so far the developers have shown only 144-cell arenas. but they promised not to limit themselves to them. Almost all creatures will have abilities, both passive and active, that require spending a turn to activate. Each creature will be presented in a simple and improved version, no more “three-story upgrades”, modified troops will not lose the abilities of simple ones. The game carefully implements the principle of “rock-reaper-paper” - each type of creature will have an advantage against one type of enemy, but lose to another. Combined with the ability to visually assess which branch of development the enemy has chosen (all castle buildings will be displayed on the global map), this opens up the possibility of creating effective counter-armies. ZONES OF INFLUENCE There will be four types of resources left: gold, wood, stone and some mysterious crystals that combine mercury, gems and sulfur. The extraction of resources will not so much be regulated by the heroes’ obsessive visits to the mines, but will be controlled by nearby forts and cities. Each such settlement will be “responsible* for all the surrounding mines, and at the same time for all the dwellings of neutral creatures falling within its zone of influence. There was a similar system in Disciples: on whose land the mine is located, he receives income from it. If we visited a mine located in the zone of influence of another player, then as soon as we leave it, control over it will return to him. To really recapture a mine or dwelling from the enemy, you will have to capture the corresponding fort. With neutral mines, the situation is slightly different: having captured a nearby fort, we will not automatically gain control over the mine; it will remain neutral. until the hero visits her in person. In the opposite situation, when the city or fort is not yet occupied, and we have received a mine from their zone of influence, resources will be supplied to the player who visited it last, that is, everything works according to the old scheme. Taking into account the fact that terrain control zones are determined by the authors of the maps, in the future we will probably face scenarios where we will have to fight for resources the old fashioned way. ■ NOTE: in controlled zones, heroes will move faster, and some of their skills will only work there. Neutral dwellings will also work like mines; once captured, they will produce creatures every week, available for hire in any castle. LESS HEROES AND MAGIC Good news for those who were tired of constantly turning the map to see all the nooks and crannies, now the camera will have a fixed viewing angle. Another nice little thing in the game will be quick access slots where you can put your favorite spells so as not to be distracted by flipping through the book. The importance of magic is going to be greatly weakened - now it will no longer be possible to create a hero who needs an army just so as not to die under the blows of the enemy, while the magician himself showers everyone with spells. Some offensive spells will still remain, but the main value of the magic will be to support and strengthen the troops. There are seven declared schools of magic - Air, Fire, Earth, Water. Light, Darkness and Primal Magic. Magic guilds will most likely be cut - spells will be learned directly in the skill trees. And thank God - you no longer have to rely on luck, hoping that the necessary spells will “fall out” in the guild. Now you can choose them yourself. Since boring auxiliary functions, such as controlling mines and collecting troops from homes, have been practically removed from the heroes, the need to have crowds of loyal commanders has, by and large, disappeared. That is why the cost of hiring each next hero will grow exponentially. GET YOUR MONEY READY! About one and a half hundred artifacts are planned, perhaps some will end up in the game as additional content. This may mean that we can expect not only noble additions, without which not a single game in the series has been complete since the second, but also numerous small DLCs that will hurt the pockets of players and the reputation of developers. Of course, I would like to believe in the best, but the deluxe edition already promises exclusive weapons, a map, and as many as four heroes! The developers are still keeping things dark with multiplayer modes. They only sparingly mentioned that fights between living opponents would be incredibly dynamic. A hot-seat will definitely appear in the game. This is probably the reason for the delay - the network mode still needs to be finalized. The number of boring, repetitive actions is reduced to a minimum. The dynamics are expected to be as high as possible for the turn-based strategy genre, and the battles are expected to be equally varied and intense. as was the case in the last parts of King's Bounty. Much skepticism is caused by the weakening of the role of magic (in this regard, there has already been a proposal to shorten the name from “Might and Magic” to simply “Sword”), but this is essentially just a matter of balance. The announced innovations look so appetizing that their implementation will be a real milestone in the development of the genre. The transfer of the game from June to September only fuels interest and strengthens the hope that Might and Magic 6 will turn out to be incredibly interesting.
Minimum requirements:	Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz processor / Athlon X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, GeForce 8600 GT / Radeon HD 2600 video card with 512 MB memory, 8 GB free hard disk space, Windows XP/Vista/ 7, keyboard, mouse, Internet connection
Recommended requirements:	Core 2 Duo E6400 / Athlon II X2 240 2.8 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 280 video card with 1 GB memory, 8 GB free hard disk space, Windows XP/Vista/7, keyboard, mouse, Internet connection
Release date:	October 13, 2011
Age limit:	From 16 years old

Graphic arts	If you close your eyes to the nightmarish inserts on the engine, then “Heroes 6” seems like a very beautiful game indeed. The surrounding world is filled with bright colors, special effects are organically woven into the overall style, and the creature models delight with very “live” animation and exemplary attention to detail. Except that loading times and rare disappearances of textures slightly overshadow the overall favorable picture.	8
Sound	In this regard, the game is traditionally good, although it does not offer anything new. The fighters are shouting menacing battle cries, birds are chirping in the world - pleasant, but not new. But the music is worthy of admiration. And even though the soundtrack from the series' permanent composers Paul Romero and Rob King partly consists of recycled tunes from previous parts, it is still epic and damn beautiful. Although some variety would be nice.	8
Single player game	Traditionally, players are given five large campaigns to choose from - one for each race, as well as a set of single-player scenarios. The missions are interesting and varied, the battles are complicated by various additional conditions, and closer to the middle a normal plot appears. But in some places the sharply jumping complexity associated with the uncontrolled proliferation of neutral armies is seriously annoying.	8
Group game	The game offers the standard set of multiplayer entertainment familiar to all fans of past “Heroes”: scenarios, duels and, of course, the “Hot seat” mode. Unless there was no place for LAN servers. The dynasty development system, which is practically unclaimed in single-player games, coupled with the connection to the Conflux network, works in multiplayer, allowing you to choose a unique style and a worthy company. However, the lack of the possibility of simultaneous moves greatly slows down already drawn-out games.	7
General impression	“Heroes 6” largely follows the fate of the fourth part and a little of Disciples III, when thoughtless “innovations” made the project lost in the eyes of old-school players. Fortunately, Black Hole did not cross the dangerous line, maintaining at least some minimum standards of decency. The main problem with Might and Magic: Heroes VI is that the game is overly simplistic. But this is still a very good strategy that can captivate you for more than one evening.	7

It’s common to whine about the new “Heroes” that everything should be exactly as it was in the third part: any change that is insignificant at first glance means shock, drama, devastation and darkness. We, too, engaged in this kind of whining throughout all our previews, and not without reason. It seemed that four resources instead of seven was something between fraud and stupidity, capturing territories was a ladies' game for Dawn of War fans, and in general, please bring back 2D. After eighty pages of fan discussions filled with holy hatred on any gaming forum, which followed each official press release, even calm and sane people agreed on one thing: there is no soul and spirit of the old school, everything needs to be changed urgently.

That is, for some reason everyone decided that Black Hole- rebels whose hands are itching to break something. But in reality it turned out quite the opposite. Hungarians are sober, qualified performers without a single thought of their own, for whom cold calculation helps to hide their own cowardice and lack of talent. In order to cope with such a complex genre and such a difficult series, this, to put it mildly, is not enough.

Hero of Socialist Labor

Actually, all the fears that the authors are destroying the invented New World Computing mechanics turned out to be completely groundless. Yes, you cannot capture the mines adjacent to the castle or fort, you need to storm the bastion - thus, in Might and Magic Heroes 6 The classic situation is simply impossible, when hordes of unleveled heroes in torn shirts run around the map just to take over enemy resources for a turn or two. This is where the significant changes end. If you don’t even understand what we’re talking about, then that’s even better.

The hero can now walk around without any troops at all, but it is still impossible to fight in splendid isolation.

Just in case, let's explain. In “Heroes,” two strategies more or less organically coexist: global and tactical. The first is a turn-based wargame, where we build a castle, capture mines and collect artifacts. The second is battles on a marked field, where purchased (or poached) armies, indicated by modest figures, exchange pleasantries. At this time, the hero himself stands modestly on the sidelines and, if necessary, can cast some kind of spell. The goal is to capture all enemy castles: a knight without permanent residence can last only seven turns.

Twenty-two years ago, during the release of the original King's Bounty(and ten years after), it seemed like the smartest and most elegant way to combine romantic wanderings through fairy-tale lands and large-scale battles in one game. But the mechanics carried over into the third millennium no longer give the impression of a cozy fairy tale. This is rather a rash attempt to be like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, naively believing that it is enough to just write off without any mistakes, and success will definitely come next. We have new “Heroes” here, damn it!

The queue for the kick, as before, is lined up in accordance with the morale of the squad.

The desire to repeat the third part verbatim is, of course, understandable - we remind you that everyone asked for approximately this. But an HD remake of an old game should cost fifteen dollars at most, be called something like HoMM 3 Turbo Remix, and for convenience be sold somewhere on PSN and Xbox Live. But the Black Hole strategy is exactly that sixth part, it lies on store shelves in 2011 and completely ignores all the evolution that video games have made in their desire to turn from a meager set of rules into full-fledged works.

Mother heroine

Strictly speaking, Might and Magic Heroes 6 is a set of rules carefully rewritten from one very good, but old game. Heroes, battles, castles - all this is driven into the tight framework of template, poor, boring cards and, according to the authors' idea, should somehow entertain in itself. In the story campaign, this is all complemented by a merciless Russian fantasy, and all the cut scenes resemble a YouTube parody of the film Mortal Kombat, where everyone first looks angrily at each other for three minutes, and then comes running for a righteous blow.

This is the city development screen. Seriously.

Even “non-linear editing” (played a couple of missions for one faction, then another, then another, then returned to the old one) does not save the situation: not a single level tries to be anything more than a tedious tutorial. You need to do the same thing all the time. We capture the nearest mines, save up funds for barracks of all types, wait three weeks and go for a serious conversation with the enemy hero. Just like ten or fifteen years ago. For some reason, the authors of the revived, domestic King’s Bounty were smart enough to build a magnificent role-playing adventure based on the old mechanics. In the sixth "Heroes" there is no clear story, no interesting tasks, no characters, no world. Only endless collection of resources for speed. This looks especially strange against the backdrop of a mature RPG system. You can, for example, raise a power hero who does not use spells at all, and magic itself, firstly, is divided into branches, without any unnecessary schools (as well as all other skills), and secondly, it is divided into classes and two subclasses - the magic of blood and the magic of tears. That is, there are really a lot of development options, and the outcome of the fight often depends on whether you can summon any deadly winds or not.

Hero from Hell

But there is no place and no need to use all this in the campaign - the main tests fall on the shoulders of the multiplayer, especially since “Heroes” has always been mostly a sociable game. Only here, instead of tactics, there are boring runs from mine to mine. Although the first two or three matches are at least something to gawk at. The new race of underwater monsters, for example, is very funny - there are even anthropomorphic sharks. And in general, the most pleasant experience of Heroes 6 is when you try something for the first time that has not been seen in the series. To an outsider, of course, it won’t be very clear why the ability to hire all the creatures from one castle or rebuild an enemy fortress for your own faction (so that you can replenish your own army) is interesting, but against the backdrop of all the self-repetitions and general creative impotence it really seems a bold decision.

Heroes 6 is a bright but poor game.

But neither castles, nor the capture of territories, nor the abilities of the characters (and almost every type of army now has them), nor even the impoverished set of weather resources do anything. All tactical schemes, balance and methods of pumping are from the evil one, and whether you win or lose depends mainly on whether you manage to collect the blue crystals in time. For many years, fans have debated whether their favorite game is a strategy game or an RPG? The sixth part puts an end to the disagreement: it is neither one nor the other.

Heroes of Might and Magic should not have survived to this day, if only for reasons of humanity. This is a clumsy, cumbersome, slow, completely unnecessary dinosaur strategy, unable to adapt to modern realities. At least under the supervision of Black Hole. Ubisoft should have taken a closer look at another Hungarian studio, Neocore, where people make absolutely magical wargames for mere pennies. Or entrust the development to the authors Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes- at heart this is a modest puzzle on the scenery of Heroes 5, but for some reason it plays a hundred times more fun.

Damn it! My army, sent to reconnoiter the lands around the castle, encountered a well-armed enemy army. The vanguard of brave warriors drew their katanas, determined to strike back at the enemy if they attacked. And so the refined oriental style of sparkling swords and laminar armor came to a life-and-death clash with the colorful madness of Indian feathers and bulky obsidian weapons. All this could easily be mistaken for a crazy fantasy from the series Total War, if not for the snake tails of the eastern warriors and the huge fangs of the local Indians. Before us is the long-awaited Might and Magic: Heroes 6, Ladies and Gentlemen! And if you think that the appearance of the game is its most important difference from the previous parts, then get ready to be further surprised. The new part is replete with numerous changes, but whether they benefited the game or not, we’ll figure it out now.

Dancing with Orcs

Although the external style of the game is influenced by the development team from Black Hole made a decent bet. The skirmish described in the introduction is nothing more than a clash between the armies of two of the five factions in the game. The fighters, decorated with feathers in the manner of the Aztec Indians, are played by orcs familiar from previous games. The newcomers to the series - the united peoples of Hashima - flaunt sharp katanas and dragons in the oriental style. All factions in the game have a unique ethno-style, and this is reflected not only in the appearance of the units, but also in the architectural style of their castles. The well-known asceticism of the necromancers took on the cone-shaped ancient Egyptian forms, people gravitate towards everything pompous and gothic, and the demons even took the Rome of the era of Nero, Caligula and other impartial emperors as a basis.

Overall, the visual style of the game has changed for the better. The castles look bright and original; the fairy-tale touch in the depiction of characters inherent in the previous part has disappeared. We were also pleased with the animation of the units, including their humorous scenes that entertained us as the battle progressed. It’s gratifying that when you get closer, the picture doesn’t become less attractive, showing three-dimensional objects on the maps in all their glory. It will not be possible to examine this beauty from different angles, because the camera in the game is static and does not allow you to control itself. Otherwise, everything is ordinary - the familiar cell marking the battlefield, allowing you to direct the squad in eight different directions. Except that icons have appeared next to the battle menu, on which you can attach current spells or skills.

Bloody tears

But as soon as you dig a little deeper, innovations begin to literally hurt the eyes of orthodox fans of the series. Firstly, sixthly " Heroes“The approach to the main heroes of the occasion, that is, the heroes themselves, has been thoroughly redesigned. A shift has been made towards the role-playing component, which connects your actions with the skills you achieve. The roles of the Dark and Light sides of the Force are the path of Dragon Blood and Dragon Tears, respectively. By taking the side of one or another doctrine, your heroes will not only change in appearance, but will also acquire specific improvements for each class, giving access to unique abilities. You can take the side of Blood predictably - do not spare enemy units fleeing the battlefield and upgrade your attacking skills. It is easy to guess that those who choose the path of Tears will have to show generosity towards the defeated enemy in order to be subsequently rewarded with bonuses to defense. It is gratifying that the two paths are not mutually exclusive. You can successfully accumulate Tears and Blood points by choosing to achieve a certain level of improvement for your class.

Free elections

In general, skills can now be chosen independently when the hero reaches a certain level. This also applies to magic spells, which in this part have migrated to the category of skills. True, the range of your choice is influenced by several parameters at once. The already mentioned above reputation, faction and the hero’s penchant for power attacks or magic. At a certain point in development, magical skills will become unavailable to a warrior, and combat attacks to a magician (third level of skills). The free image of the heroes is completed by their ability to walk unaccompanied by friendly units in search of, for example, resources.

Unitary economics

And their number has been reduced to four items. True, getting them has become a little more difficult. You can still capture an individual mine and get the resource you need from it, but this will only last as long as your hero is in close proximity. As soon as he goes away for a “smoke break,” control will be lost. To establish a stable supply of materials, you will have to capture the settlement closest to the mine, subsequently rebuilding it under your faction.

The construction process has also undergone some simplifications. Architectural excesses include magic towers and blacksmiths, but a number of basic buildings like the town hall and magistrate remained in place. Also, each faction has 4 unique buildings - two of the second level and two of the third. However, only two of them can be built in each castle. But no matter how many castles you have, you will no longer have to bother with collecting troops. Produced from different estates, the units are magically assembled at the designated fortress.

The hired creatures also suffered strange metamorphoses. On the one hand, the number of their levels has been reduced from seven to three. There are still seven types of units themselves - three at the initial and special levels and one at the highest third level for each side.

Difficulties of modernization

Who would have thought that behind a simple rearrangement of words on the “façade” of the game there are so many changes hidden in its “interior”. Not all fans will appreciate the modernization done. It will seem to many that a number of changes in Might and Magic: Heroes 6 akin to replacing soft armchairs with office chairs - it smacks of a desire to make everything simpler and more accessible. Undoubtedly, there are interesting ideas in the game, but you will only be able to fully enjoy them after the release of a hefty pile of patches that will eliminate large and small technical flaws in the execution.

GAME FORMULA

Heroes of Might and Magic is one of those conservative and self-sufficient series, from the continuation of which only one thing is expected: a repetition of the old. Like chess.

Is the board a different color? Yes, sure. More figures? Well, let it be. But only so that there must be sixty-four squares, and the knights move in the letter “G”. And so that no one dares to call the rook a tour! The fans won't forgive.

One thing follows another, like the little rhyme about the house that Jack built. Here is the castle, here are the creatures that are born in this castle every week, here is the hero-commander who leads these creatures, here are the resources for which this hero fights, and here is the field lined with cells on which he fights. Take out one brick and the whole pyramid will crumble. Therefore, sequels are not interesting to anyone in themselves.

For twelve years now, everyone has been worried about only one question - how close is it to the original?

Compared to the classics, the game has become simpler in certain components: before the battle, the exact number of creatures in the enemy squad is shown, and an unsuccessful battle is offered to be replayed without loading a save. Might and Magic: Heroes 6 fits into two words: “Very far.” At first, you don’t play as much as you kill yourself, just like the publishers and developers abused the game. Everything alien to “Heroes”, everything outrageous and incomprehensible, which angered fans even in the beta version, ended up in the final game.

There were seven resources - now there are four.

Mines can no longer be occupied simply by a hero running there - you need to capture the nearest city or fort. The towers of magic have disappeared - now spells are learned on the same basis as ordinary skills: when gaining a new level, you have to choose between, say, leadership and a fire arrow. Instead of city screens, there were still pathetic, shaking pictures, which the developers themselves called stubs at the last gamescom. All the buildings on the map were redrawn, all the icons were redone, all the units were rethought, throwing half of the creatures out of the game.

A mandatory performance when storming a castle is the destruction of the fortress walls. And not so much with a catapult, but with units. For two or three turns, they usually line up along the wall and gnaw at it little by little (just like in the fourth part).

Everything takes its course

And then suddenly insight comes. It’s like with a foreign language: I struggled, crammed, didn’t understand - and suddenly I spoke.

You learn the new logic of the gameplay somewhere in the third hour, and all that is needed is to stop perceiving “Heroes 6” as a single whole. No matter how you put it together, the sixth part breaks down into three components - tactical, role-playing and strategic.

The role-playing component is, of course, the development of the hero. In Heroes 6, the role-playing system has become more complex and now looks like skill trees. There are many of them - as many as ten! - and they are divided into specializations: the character’s personal qualities (charisma, physical strength), tactical skills, schools of magic.

Skills and spells are mostly moved from the classics, but there are also discoveries. For example, heroes can suspend the operation of other people's mines for a week or speed up the development of a city - so that two buildings can be built per turn, rather than one.

Well, strategy is about conquering the world. It is like a patchwork quilt, stitched together from zones of influence with mines and creature dwellings. They cannot be captured without conquering the nearest fort or city (the first is different in that you cannot build anything or hire creatures in it), and the struggle to expand the empire turns into redrawing the global map, rather than the petty capture of individual buildings. The activity is fascinating, but rather painful, because there is simply no point in traveling for a hero without a large army: he will not win anything on foreign territory. Moreover, now you can redeem all creatures from all cities at once in one place, and the enemy is always ready to meet you with his entire army.

Once you get used to it and learn to deal with all this, you’ll stick for a long time. The game allows you to feel your rapid, excited pulse; you fall in love with her and play greedily and furiously. The heroes turn into heroin, the gameplay flies along, and you can exhale: everything has grown together.

Revived the series.

To make it clearer where someone else’s territory ends and where your own begins, there are even special obelisks installed on the maps, painted in the player’s color.

The shortest profession in the world

And then it all ends.

Where the old magic of “Heroes” is felt is on the battlefields. If the whole game was made with such care, it would not be worth it. Alas, the reality of the new “Heroes” is death screens, freezes, missing units and offspring of minus 34,000 creatures.

Heroes? Well, the developers have achieved their goal: all skills are open immediately, you can see where you need to invest points to gain access to the next ability. This makes leveling more predictable, but does not save you from the same type. There are still many fewer points than the skills themselves, so you inevitably have to choose. You memorize the best skills very quickly - and, as before, you learn them from card to card. As for spells, they are now filtered out of the game by a teaspoon per day. And since they have a cooldown, on the battlefield you have to think hard about which of the three damage-dealing skills to use now and which later. The head is swelling again, and the irritation is growing.

World map? In comparison with the third "Heroes" it is confused and empty. There are few interactive objects on it - only beautiful, but stupid bushes and trees, behind which you can’t even see the road. Of the buildings, the most common are mines and forts, then - buildings of experience and skills, and occasionally - some chat spheres and markets. But the map still looks as if someone had already plundered it before you. Everything around is so colorful and at the same time bare, there is no spirit of exploration.

The sixth “Heroes” are making full use of the Internet. For example, every now and then there are chat spheres on the map through which you can send messages to other players. The Russians say: “Vote, don’t vote, you’ll still get a penis.”

Locks? You can't look at them without tears. After the city screens of the threequel - priceless exhibits of meticulous handcraft - and after the breathtaking screensavers of the fifth part, these framed pictures are simply a mockery. And the reduced amount of resources, designed to make construction more thoughtful, only slows it down and again irritates it.

Everything else is nothing more than frills sewn onto the remains of phenomenal mechanics. The magic is lost, the fairy tale has run away. You can play the sixth “Heroes”, even for hours, but you can’t fall in love with them.

Opinion

Alexander Trifonov, site manager

“The creation of the new part of the series was entrusted to guest workers - the result is predictable”

To be honest, I initially didn’t expect anything good from the sixth “Heroes”. When the development of the fifth part was entrusted to the domestic Nival, I rejoiced along with all the fans of the series - after all, its revival was entrusted to a world-class studio, already famous for creating high-quality strategies. With the sixth part, it's the other way around. To “construct” the sequel, instead of a reputable company, Ubisoft hired migrant workers from Black Hole, who have not made a single decent game in their lifetime. The result is predictable. Of course, the Hungarians tried, but the lack of experience and budget affects literally everything - from the terrible interface to the same city screens that they promised to implement in full form for the release, and even postponed the release for this, but never did. The saddest thing in this whole story is that in the current economic realities it could not have turned out any other way. Only Free2Play projects bring any decent income on today's PC market, and there was no point in Ubisoft investing a lot of money in the development of a niche hardcore strategy that everyone would download from torrents anyway. Have you noticed that the turn-based strategy genre has quietly died on PC over the past few years? "Heroes 6" is a clear example of why.

 

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