Octopus Overlords

just saw this online… had no idea this was in the works

Oh my. I pity the fool that tries to remake one of the best games in PC history. But good luck!!! I'm definitely pulling for them!

I love HMM III, but I am so bad at it I always edit the scenarios to give myself full legendary items at the outset.

I just stumbled on an article about this tonight, and I'm cautiously optimistic. I love the old games, but have trouble going back and playing any of them now. While not a huge Ubisoft fan, and haven't played any other games developed by Unfrozen, I'm still hopeful they can deliver something fun.

I think my favorite of all of them was 2 - it had just the right balance of cartoony graphics, gameplay with all the bells and whistles and faction variance. 3 without a doubt had more *stuff* in it, but for some reason the graphics bugged me, felt like it tried too hard to go for the "realistic" angle.

I probably had more playtime on 3 just because it had many more expansions (and the "legends" series); I always got a kick out of bringing heroes between scenarios. Once I figured it out, I delayed scenario victory quite a bit in most scenarios so I could do one last lap around the map with everyone that's going to be carried over and collect all the stat boosts and magic spells (gotta crank out that level 5 mage guild). When you come in to the second scenario of a campaign with a guy that a) has enough attack/defense that you can take stacks of creatures 2-3 tiers higher than what you've got and b) is loaded up with chain lightning, teleport and whatnot, it makes whatever they're throwing at you in that scenario completely superfluous.

Although there was that one expansion campaign where one of the last scenarios featured enemy castles locked behind color-locked gates (openable only from the inside), and I made the mistake of not having teleport on my combat hero. Well, maybe next time I'm stuck in a hospital for a week straight.

Anyway, back on topic, I'm excited for more Heroes action, hopefully moving back towards the "standard" formula rather than screwing around with weird mechanics like 4 and 6 did. But maybe bring in the guys that did the music for 4.

If the Magic of the III is replicated but the game is "more" then I'll be in. I don't see that happening. I want a great RMG, an AI that isn't brain dead, and a very slow epic progressive build from OMG this hard to multiple stacks of Monty Haul Doom with an interesting town build tree.

I know it's doable because one guy made Eador and he captured the magic way better than did IV or V. Being burned and let down by how much lip service IV and V paid to II and III, I'll wait and watch.

I must be the only person on the planet that liked IV. Yes, partly due to the soundtrack.

Put 10x more hours into III which I guess is telling (and replayed it again a few years ago) but I also think IV was great.

Followed.

HOMM 2 & 3 are in my top five all time games. I love them to this day and I still find them playable when the mood strikes me. My problem with later iterations is the focus on “story” on a map. I feel like the game became less a strategy game and more of a narrative on rails or a puzzle to be solved.

The maps that are just a long tunnel or path in the woods with programed events are the worst. Followed by maps where you must open a bunch of quest doors in order because that way the game can tell the story but if you go too fast you won’t be strong enough for the BBEG castle, or if you take too long the BBEG castle will have thousands of black dragons and unbeatable.

I think the game shines when it is a connected series of scenarios, maybe having branching scenarios. That’s the level of “story” I like in HOMM. I fear that I am in the minority though.

Mandeville wrote: ↑Fri Aug 23, 2024 11:06 am Followed by maps where you must open a bunch of quest doors in order because that way the game can tell the story but if you go too fast you won’t be strong enough for the BBEG castle, or if you take too long the BBEG castle will have thousands of black dragons and unbeatable.

This is what happened to me. That was the last map of the campaign for 3, wasn't it? Sadly, it's my only memory of the game. I showed up and there were stacks of thousands of black dragons. I had to quit without ever "beating" the game.

Mandeville wrote: ↑Fri Aug 23, 2024 11:06 am I think the game shines when it is a connected series of scenarios, maybe having branching scenarios. That’s the level of “story” I like in HOMM. I fear that I am in the minority though.

Not at all, in fact I rarely if ever played the standalone scenarios. I was, and remain a "campaign" man.

I don’t think I’ve ever played the campaign in HOMM 3. It was always about the random map generator for me.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2024 10:38 am I don’t think I’ve ever played the campaign in HOMM 3. It was always about the random map generator for me.

I played it once and barely remember it. When the RMG was put in, that became the thing that gave it a very very long life for me. So much so, I bought it again on GOG so I could put it on laptops from a memory stick on the in betweens and still come back to it now and then. And when I play, it always starts off crazy difficult with a real chance to lose badly and I'll play it through until hope is lost or you hit that magic point where it becomes a foregone conclusion. And once it becomes a foregone conclusion I still play it to the end with the crazy heroes and their stacks of doom.