How does it compare to Heroes 3?

[Fables]

Is it better to stick to heroes 3 or does this surpass it?

[Axer]

Overworld is very similar, and better in many ways. And despite being a brand new game, it has quite a ton of variety in content for the overworld. Quite a lot more structures/loot variety than default heroes 3 without mods.

Combat though is a completely different game. It's just an autobattler, with spells..
But the spells imo are not very strategic, and fairly weak unless you specifically play a mage and build for them...

So the combat mostly boils down to just building and op party/character and facerolling everything (or losing), there's not much in-between.

And spells, I find it's just a matter of picking the highest health unit and using healing spells.. The damage spells seem very inferior to the healing route.

So yea i very much enjoy the overworld, its awesome, very nostalgic.

But the combat, Heroes series strategic turned based is a lot more fun. It allows a lot more skill in beating hard fights and avoiding loses, where as this early on theres not much you can do to change the outcome, and later on there may be, but you either end up overpowered or underpowered so its irrelevant what you do anyways.

[MagnusCerebrum]

I agree with some balance points @Axer mentioned however the same negatives can be said about Homm3 where making deathstacks of skeletons or abusing mechanics like retaliation and unit placement is a thing.
In this game you have some limited control over your units by giving them short-term movement commands and deciding whether your units should advance or defend. This allows you to commit to tactics such as cavalry flanks, baiting enemies into archer range, encirclements, binding enemy ranged units etc.
Heroes are imo more powerful in this game than Homm aswell and allow for more custom strategies - One hero can upgrade his lower tier units with the legion skill further buff them if that hero has a mastery for those units, get MORE units into the battle with tactics skill and finally empower them with haste to improve your effective combat width. Conversely you may choose to commit to high-quality troops with oligarchy (not my preference however), champion and again mastery.
Logistics/Economy heroes are also more useful in this game thanks to troop/building discount and movement skills.
Spells are also vastly more powerful and can allow you to wipe hundreds of units with a rain of meteors, can buff and revive units.

I played Homm3 a lot on my disc and a bit here on steam and if you liked that game this one will serve you well regardless of its changes

[dbemont]

Yes, the strategic map takes the same form as HoMM, but if you play it like HoMM, you will be very frustrated. The game is won or lost largely as you develop your hero's skill tree. Some of those skills are extremely powerful! For you and for the AI! And just when you come to the conclusion that some particular strategy (damage spells, for example) are over or under powered, you realize that this was contingent upon your particular opponent. Next opponent might be quite different.

The problem is that, unlike HoMM, you do not generally know your opponent's skills all that clearly. Which I see as one of the main weaknesses of this game.

The other thing is that although the battles are real time, the controls for giving orders and casting spells seem kind of unwieldy. But I am almost exclusively a turn-based gamer, so ymmv

[boho]

They obviously share adventure map DNA but are very different in design philosophy and intent. Additionally, HOMM3 released at $50 (so let's say $60 today) while Hero's Hour released at $20. Both are great deals for the price, and if you compare them to eachother, are fairly priced. HH has no campaigns, and obviously didn't spend what HOMM3 spent on presentation - UX, graphics, sound, etc. Matches in HH are shorter and quickly decided by design, and that design is due to scoping reasons. There are no big, sprawling, empire building RPG maps in HH like there are in HOMM3. And all of these things are true because HOMM3 was made by a well-experienced, professional, salaried team with a massive budget, and HH was made by one guy and some contributors he contracted probably from personal saving.

If someone totally showed up and asked if they should get HOMM3 Complete on GoG for $5 or HH for $20, having never played either before, no contest the answer is HOMM3, duh. But if you've played HOMM3 already and might be in the mood for something new in the same vein, go over to the itch.io page for Hero's Hour, download the demo, and try it yourself.

[Zeal]

It's a good game. But hardly surpass heroes 3. No campaign, no map editor, no online play. It also feels quite rough around the edges compared to H3. It is however still under development and all those issues could be fixed. The framework is there already.
Very good game though, i really like how every faction is very distinct... Wherein h3, most factions sorta felt like they all played the same. Dwarf faction love gold and enough gold is a win condition, Undead faction recover troops in a unique way, Barbarian have to upgrade their units trough combat etc etc. Best heroes since h3 is not even heroes.

[TheVampire100]

This game will never replace HoMM3 because there is no replacement of HoMM3. The game made so many things right, that it is hard to surpass it.
This game is however a good alternative to HoMM3 if you want something similiar but still different. The game has unique skill trees for each hero (although the heroes still share many basic abilities), there are a lot of different units in the game and the game has a big amount of neutral units and emphasizes on neutral as its own faction (with their own hero even).

The game also features an autobattler system with simple control mechanics instead of turnbased battle, so if you are looking for deep combat, you won't find this here.

[Qiox]

So far I have seen no evidence of quests for rewards, or quests to open gates, or scripted triggers to alter the terrain. Hence I don't expect to ever see any of the story based maps, or hidden secrets, that are common in H3. Here it is just maps full of fighting.

[boho]

Originally posted by Qiox:

So far I have seen no evidence of quests for rewards, or quests to open gates, or scripted triggers to alter the terrain. Hence I don't expect to ever see any of the story based maps, or hidden secrets, that are common in H3. Here it is just maps full of fighting.

You wont't find any of these in random maps, either in HOMM3 (unless you count key tents) or HH.

However, looking at the HH map editor, you can place triggered script objects that can do a whole lot of stuff. I only flipped through some of the script options so I can't say if everything you mention can be accomplished out of the gate or not, but it looks plausible.