HOMM7 review after 23 hours of play

[Laz3456]

I have been playing HOMM since number 2 and never brought a game for the campaign so cannot review this aspect of the game. I am however a huge fan of the franchise, for me the random map generator and hot seat functionality make or break whether I buy an edition. I am glad to say H7 has both of these which is why I brought a copy after skipping H6.

The good:
• A nostalgic blast from the past that has kept it core features that you know and love
• Units look great in the battles and a lot less ‘cartoon’ like than in H5
• Building and skill trees are easy to understand and use
• Single scenario AI seems to be perfectly fine and reasonably challenging
• Random generated maps are interesting and of a sufficiently large size to allow a decent amount of adventuring before meeting opponents (something H5 lacked)
• It is still pretty and engaging as it always was
• Graphics are far better than H5
• I have not noticed any significant bugs in 23 hours play and it seems stable for hot seat games.
• Factions are sufficiently different and the creature designs are very good

The Bad:
• Not a lot has been added since H3 with some of the better innovative features such as 3D cities and attacking monster stacks being removed.
• Campaign map graphics are not very modern and take some time to get used to, it helps if you zoom in close though
• The interface is horribly clunky feeling like something from the mid 90’s not the 21st century
• Even when brought on steam you have to Uplay running as well to play the game
• There is a pointless 3d camera on the campaign map that isn’t necessary and if you do accidently nudge it pretty clumsy to use

So to summarise this version of the game is not breaking new ground but re-treads a tried a tested formula without falling over itself. I will enjoy playing it with my daughter for many hours to come but do get the feeling Ubisoft’s tenure with the franchise seems tired and worn out and hope a more slick and innovative company such as Amplitude (SEGA) get the chance to buy the rights and move it in a new direction (an Endless Legend kind of infusion would do wonders I think).

Cheers,

[bloodraven43]

that is silly. heroes games are way more polished then endless legend games ever were plus heroes of might and magic games are in a class by themselves. i find those 4x4 games boring.

[Groo the one]

Predetermined possible actors: bloodraven43, Ubisoft, Limbic Entertainment, "real Heroes VII" community, Heroes VII itself. Switch actor(s) while watching this youtube video like you want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLvIFRNbqOs

Have fun.

P.S. I wonder about, that reviews from Endless Legend are much more positive, than Heroes VII reviews are. Hereos VII more polished, than Endless Legend ? Ah, ok... the bad community is responsible, we all know ^^

[windezz]

Originally posted by bloodraven43:

that is silly. heroes games are way more polished then endless legend games ever were

Originally posted by Antalyan:

Hello all,

This is the list of all bugs (and their descriptions) in MMH7 latest version 2.21 which I have experienced. Its purpose is to provide true information about the game state, and possibly if any modders volunteer to do some bug fixes, to make the work for them easier.

This buglist does not include the bugs fixed by 2.21 Bugfix Mod[www.hommdb.com]

BUGLIST 2.21
1. Shadow Image tooltip automatic number: Wrong number of summoned stacks is displayed.Less or more units than it says are summoned in fact.
2. Basilisk Rider tooltip: Automatic retaliation tooltip for small units should say "no" but says "yes" (the tooltip mechanics does not take into account this unit's special ability)
3. Solmyr's map: Asha Tear Building does not work when built in the town
4. Air magic Grandmaster: doing damage to random enemy units on the battlefield (when there are no adjacent units)
5. School of War automatic tooltip: When you visit "School of War" building with your hero, after some time, a green text for this hero "upgrades are available" displays on the building although after the visit, it does not upgrade and says "already visited".
6. Pretorian: The Pretorian sometimes shields random units on the map that are not adjacent to it.
7. Justicar: Justicar's "Opportunate attack" ability sometimes does not activate.
8. Plague Lamasu: Lamasu's plague aura does not work in certain occasions (=sometimes). Especially it does not work after you use teleport to move plague lamasu to enemy units.
9. Light magic spell Martyr: Martyr (light magic t4 spell) deactivates in certain occasions (=stopps working). And
10. Piercing shot ability: Piercing shot ability does not often hit the units it should according to its tooltip.
11. Unlimited retaliation: - If any unit with "unlimited retaliation" ability (- e.g. direwolf) uses "defend" and the hero has "preventive attack", the unit retaliates twice before the attack and once more after the attack - so there are 3 retaliations instead of one.
12. Coordination skill: Their is a grandmaster skill in dungeon racial skill (Shroud of Malassa), Coordination, which enables your unit to attack 2x if the enemy does not retaliate. However, I have a suspicion it sometimes triggers even when the enemy retaliates. If the enemy unit has preventive defense (=preemptive strike), the game does not recognise it was the retaliation (as it was before, not after the attack) so your units always attack them 2x.
13. Spectral Dragon: Its Flaying Breath ability often shows "0 killed" on the tooltip. In certain camera angles, instead of number of units which should be killed by dragon attack (tooltip), "0" displays. The problem usually appears when there are more units to be hit by the dragon.
14. Spectral Dragon: Soul Reaver ability does gain no mana when activated.
15. Silverback: Its "Feral Charge" ability does not work against minotaurs and against units under "preventive defense". They do retaliate.
16. Hathor has wrong hero specialisation in heropedia (to be fixed in heropedia)
17. Moral cap: Moral cap is 50 in campaign but in other parts of the game 75. Should be 75 everywhere.
18. Champion stats: There are different champion stats in skirmish and in campaign. They shold be the same everywhere.
19. Champion buildings costs: New (lower) prizes for buildings costs do not apply in campaigns.
20. Banned magic schools: Some factions should not have access to some magic schools, for example no light magic for necropolis. But this rules does not sometimes work.
21. Oak Dryad: Oak dryad's defense buff for adjacent creatures sometimes stopps working.
22. Treant: Living shelter ability works in a very strange way when you activate it: sometimes it works correctly and stopps enemies. Sometimes it stopps them but they get additional turn, so it's useless. And sometimes it does not get activated at all!
23. Area effects of positive spells (for example regeneration, stoneskin) sometimes stop working after 1 or 2 turns and do not last all 3 turns(randomly disappearing buffs from friendly creatures)!
24.Disappearing hero skills in campaigns: After you finish a campaign mission with random skilling, when you start the next mission, your hero forgets some skills! Some of them only disappearin skillwheel but still work in combat, some of them completely disappear and their effects too :(
25. AI is abolutely clueless against mass effects: its units remain in firewall, blizzard, poison cloud areas without any desire to get out of them.
26. Lizardman's Scatter Shot gives attack bonus instead of -50% penalty.
27. Fire bird's "Aura of Fire" does not work at all and the unit can be affected by water magic.
28. Soul confragration (new Tier 4 Primer magic spell) deals much less damage than it should when the hero has prime magic grandmaster ability. A suspicion that it is always casted with -20 magic even during the first cast.

Bugs caused by 2.21 Bugfix Mod[www.hommdb.com]
1. Ardent Dragon receives unlimited movement when using its Trail of Fire ability. This bug is connected with tge bugfix: You activate Trail of Fire and move on the battlefield (no attack). Then you receive one extra turn and you can use Trail again, again you get extra turn etc.

Bugs caused by Balance mod[www.hommdb.com]
1. Shantiri Titan cannot be displayed in Heropedia
2. Ancient Treant's "Entagled" effect applies when performing ranged attack too. What is worse, it is never removed, even not when the treant dies.

Endless Legend was released on Steam on September 2014, its latest patch was released on November 2016, and the developer support is still ongoing. It has 7 DLCs, ranging from free to $12.99 for a new faction.

H7 was released on Steam on September 2015, ubisoft announced the end of support on October 2016. Barring additional fan-made bug fix mods, all the aforementioned bugs will likely remain. Its only faction DLC is priced at $29.99 and whatever bugs it carries or introduces into the main game won't receive further support.

A quick cursory reading on both games' reviews would reveal much about whether each game is plagued with ongoing issues or receives poor/non-existent developer support.

The only thing that's currently getting polished on H7's side is a pair of boots. As to who wears them and who licks them, I'll leave it to other posters' imagination.

[bloodraven43]

Originally posted by Groo the one:

Predetermined possible actors: bloodraven43, Ubisoft, Limbic Entertainment, "real Heroes VII" community, Heroes VII itself. Switch actor(s) while watching this youtube video like you want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLvIFRNbqOs

Have fun.

P.S. I wonder about, that reviews from Endless Legend are much more positive, than Heroes VII reviews are. Hereos VII more polished, than Endless Legend ? Ah, ok... the bad community is responsible, we all know ^^

i would rather play a heroes game then any 4x game. they bore me. to each its own. btw if thats what you were excepting from a heroes game, then you must be new to the series.

btw i wouldnt put my name up there with ubisoft and or any other studio and or pub. im just a gamer and have nothing to do with the industry and or media outlets. you can see by the games i own on steam , in which i play. you are misinformed man totally.

[Laz3456]

I have always wondered why the HOMM community seemed polarized and pulling in different directions. It occurred to me that this may be because the game can actually be played in two different ways. These are the story line based players that like the structure of the campaign and the sand box players that prefer the freedom of random generated scenarios which may explain the (at times) conflicting desires of the fan base.

It seems that I have always played the game as a 4X rather than an RPG as I ignore the campagin and only play random generated maps.

Cheers,

[bloodraven43]

Originally posted by Scumario:

I have always wondered why the HOMM community seemed polarized and pulling in different directions. It occurred to me that this may be because the game can actually be played in two different ways. These are the story line based players that like the structure of the campaign and the sand box players that prefer the freedom of random generated scenarios which may explain the (at times) conflicting desires of the fan base.

It seems that I have always played the game as a 4X rather than an RPG as I ignore the campagin and only play random generated maps.

Cheers,

i think you are absolutely correct. i love the campaigns/story mode in all games. i would rather play them rather then pvp or senarios,hotseat,etc....the stories in homm7 are really cool, the mage one kind of weird but ok ...lol