Heroes VI Demo Now Available

[danijel1990]

Yes, I found it very annoying that you could buy all creatures in the single castle, it kinda ruins the balance of the game. And there's also the town portal spell, so what's the point? It all comes to it, I chase down an enemy hero, zap! he teleports to a town buys creatures from all towns and then comes after me, is it a game of cats and mice, where we, the players, and the AI exchange roles!

[vicheron]

Cooldown for spells is just so pointless considering how much mana spells cost. The whole point of a cooldown is to prevent spamming. There's no reason to have a cooldown if you only have enough mana to cast the spell 3 or 4 times anyway.



Also, they've made creatures way too tough, especially since they got rid of the attack skill for creatures. A stack of 10 Pit Lords led by a level 16 Chaos Lord could only kill around 30 goblins per hit. Combine that with all the healing creatures and hero abilities and combat just drags on so much.
Edited on Sat, Aug 20 2011, 08:09 by vicheron

[Pol]

Yes, I found it very annoying that you could buy all creatures in the single castle, it kinda ruins the balance of the game...

it's supposed to be that way...
It might meant to be that way but that is a crap idea.

Yep, there should be at least some time delay, let it work like way point - where you need to announce where do you want your units in advance, and they will travel to that town.

[noahmo]

Same error every time when I download. I've tried both links any other suggestions?



! C:\Documents and Settings\******\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\DJL2DJME\MM6_Demo[2].zip: Unexpected end of archive

[legendoferthia]

Well, I played a bit of the demo, maybe like 5 minutes just to get a feel of it. I can honestly say it looks better then Heroes V, but in my personal preference, I still like the 2d style from homm IV and below. However, I like older games better anyways.

[xover88]

despite the fact that this is 4 gigabyte demo, I'm NOT impressed by the game I am seeing.

First of all, town is the biggest let down. I understand everything is now purchased in only single castle. But unlike its prodecessors, there aren't no single buildings that make town look more interesting. And at least full screen town view...windowed town screen is most unimpressive so far. They need to create more content for town building in town view, towns now looks like a artwork drawn by modern abstract artist.



Secondly, in combat there is no sense of impact in every attacks units make. Everything seems moving very slow especially ranged attacks. Ranged attack doesn't look like it would be harmful or dangerous.



Lastly, this game still have worst cutscenes and voice acting like heroes 5 did.



I had a high expectancy of this game because this was 4gb demo. Well, compared to all other prodecessors, this is absolutely terrible in visual point.

Gameplay and music is very good don't get me wrong. Those are my disappointments against this game.

[legendoferthia]

Well, after playing more into Heroes VI. I also agree, being able purchase all units in a single town is indeed a negative. The combat is definitely slower then HOMM IV and below. For the plus, the graphics are prettier then five and don't look to cheap. However, based on what I have played so far, I rate the game 5/10. -1 for slow combat including spell cool downs, -1 for taking away the old resources, -1 for recruiting all creatures from a single castle, -1 for the bazaar creature names, for example: "Demented," and -1 for town screen.



However, I am still thankful for UBISOFT keeping the series alive. WHen it is alive there is a little hope!
Edited on Sat, Aug 20 2011, 22:06 by savetara

[largo1234567]

After playing the skirmish mode in the demo for two hours, i think h6's improvement over h5 has been minor, both technically and in gameplay. It is better but there's room for further improvement. I was originally expecting something better, but i can accept this one... sigh... I know there's probably not much that the develop team can do if the game is anyway going to release in two months, I just hope they can put anti-aliasing back in graphics options in the final release, and if possible, please redesign the menus and buttons.

[parcaleste]

Shittiest thing about bying all of the creatures in whatever castle is you need to have full upgrades in just one of these castles, from which you can buy everything upgraded and then just use the Town Portal. Which brings me to the Town Portal itself - IT SUCKS! HV was WAY better thinked of and not so much overpowered (like H3).

?what happened with the freakin' caravans?

Somebody said spells... well, I AM NOT USING THEM! Except for Vampirism and Regeneration I don't see what else I can use, except some shout here and there (this one with the hero charge attack).

Haven't played with Stronghold yet, but did they fixed the (mostly the upgraded) Cyclops special melee attack? I mean it needs some rest, because once you get with the Cyclops it in the middle of the enemy army (which is REALLY easy considering the insane amount amount of moving point it has - just one turn) and with Vampirism the battle is just over (in a !SPLAT!) for the other side.

There was something else I wanted to point but it slipped while I was writing...

[vicheron]

Damaging spells have been nerfed to hell. They were already weak in previous games since they don't scale very well but now they're useless. They don't do much damage, they cost a ton of mana, they have a stupid cool down, and heroes need to spend skill points on them.

[Crayno]

Thanks for the torrent Metathron

I've finished the campaign part of the demo and I must say I liked it in general.

There are a lot of nice ideas and I liked the way they kept the look like HOMM5

I too, think that they should remove the ability to recruit all creatures from all castles/dwellings.

The demo has a lot of bugs in it still. So if they don't mind releasing a buggy demo they probably don't mind releasing a buggy game.

I was looking forward to HOMM6 and I was planning on preordering it but after the demo I think I'll wait untill the reviews are out.

Don't get me wrong, I'll buy it for sure but from what I've seen I might wait until the game has dropped in price

[mpapiz]

I downloaded the demo, no problem, installed it no problem, and have played through the campaign completely. And I really enjoyed the demo. If the complete game is like the demo, I will be pleased. It is much better than 4 or 5, and reminded me alot of 2 or 3. I agree that buying all troops in one castle makes gameplay a little easier, but it doesn't completely ruin it for me.

I like the names of the units, the spells, and the speed of combat. If I'm not mistaken, there is an option to adjust the speed anyway, isn't there? Ranged combat was fine, as archers and marksmen were always my favorite! Also, the cutscenes, the graphics in general, are beautiful, and the voice acting is fine. I've heard better, but they are above average here. Overall, I'm glad I preordered the game.



I must add that the only thing that Ubi has completely dropped the ball on with this game, is the lack of Collector's Edition in North America. Very poor decision!
Edited on Sun, Aug 21 2011, 11:04 by mpapiz

[parcaleste]

... There was something else I wanted to point but it slipped while I was writing...

Ah, yes, I remembered - NERF THE MENTORING SKILL, DAMMIT! Or at least make it available after the 15-th level.

Plus - I HATE the new tavern's way of use. What was wrong with the system from the previous games that you had to screw it, guys?

And PLEASE - made the spells to do some (a lot) more damage, I don't see ANY sense of playing with Magic Heroes. It suсks.

[ywhtptgtfo]

Praises:

- Nice graphics

- Nice town interface

- Secondary heroes are more useful

- Hero portraits are nice

- Nice music



Criticisms:

- Healing is way too strong. In previous games, resurrection is a rare luxury. In this game, resurrection is available early on.

- Sanctuary is crap in sieges

- 3-tier skill system sucks. At least make it 4-5 tier

- Spells lack variety

- Buy-all from one town is bad

- Easy-to-get town portal is bad

- Elite and Champion creatures are underwhelming compared to core (which is why they should've stuck with the 6 or 7-tier unit system, really)

- One rare resource (crystal) creates one big resource bottleneck.

- Damage spells are weak (even with spell power upgrades, 1 lightning bolt = ~2 autoattack worth of damage

- Lack of adventure map spells

- End turn button should be silenced in town/hero screens (I am used to clicking that as cancel) and there should be a pop-up for ending turn with movement pts left

- Tier 3 skills are hard to get because the gap between level 2 and level 3 is big (again, expanding the # of tiers can help)

- Creeping is easy with Haven

[aaelgr]

Aside from the rare battle where I can't see a thing it seems alright but I do miss seeing the structures I've built appearing on the screen.

"- End turn button should be silenced in town/hero screens (I am used to clicking that as cancel) and there should be a pop-up for ending turn with movement pts left "

The number of times I've clicked End Turn when I meant to exit the town is ridiculous...

[Sir Alock]

D/L the demo on Friday. No issues from Fileplanet or demo itself. Played it & I'm on the ropes as to how I feel about HoMM6. My very 1st game (ever) was HoMM1. Feel in love with the series since (even HoMM4 after a while) The town screen disappoints me to no end (yes...it's really really gameplay) In previous versions, the town screen gave a fraction an identity! I'm going to play it again today & I'll chime back.

[xover88]

Everytime we recruit units, we only used a castle to do it in entire series. Well, what they have done in H6 hinders Heroes series concept in art perspective. Art played so important roles but I think their effort was mostly focused on world map rather than the town screen, 95% on world map and 5% on town screens. Town doesn't look interesting anymore, just boring. And why there is no magic tower anymore?
Edited on Mon, Aug 22 2011, 12:06 by xover88

[parcaleste]

^ Actually what I hate the most about the new town's view use is (and I don't think I saw anyone pointing this) is one can build whatever building wherever he wants - just be sure you have City Hall (a.k.a. Town Level 3). This way I ALWAYS aim for the Champion unit and I am having it (on that map that is on the demo) in week 2. + the Elite creature that fits me the most (let's say the shooter). Than this is all I need to wipe the entire map.

So, I miss the "build Ogres and Rocs dwellings to be able to build the Behemots dwelling".

I guess just like the bying all of the troops in whatever castle this one was also made to speed up the game (in MP) but this way it kills the core (no pun intended) feeling of playing Heroes at all. It's too easy guys.




PS I also have some problem with the battles, but after the latest King's Bounty and to some degree Disciples III it is understandable. I was expecting more... diversity on the battlefield.

[FireCage321]

I actually really really enjoyed the demo. I've already spent more than 15 hours on it, and there are still things I feel I haven't seen yet. I mean, there are full games where you can't even get that much value out of.

First, it blows Heroes 5 out of the water. It's just so much more fun to play. The art style is much improved, and everything with it in terms of animations and the graphic engine. The music is outstanding as usual, and I even really dig a lot of the new gameplay changes they made.

I've been skimming the above posts, and though I agree with a lot of the comments, I think a lot of them are also just minor issues. Balance for instance can easily be fixed in a patch even after release. So stuff like damage spells/skills being weaker than others, and certain units being weaker than others just isn't important at all in a demo.

Further, a lot of the concepts like Town Portals in every castle, castle conversion, buying all units from the same castle and such don't bother me either. BUT, I do think their execution is flawed in its current state. All of these ideas are too powerful right now, but if they balance it right, I think they'd be great fun to have.

Examples:
* Castle conversion should not be allowed unless you hold the castle for X number of days.
* Town Portals need stricter cooldowns, like once a week per Hero. Right now, I can just teleport all the time everywhere and protect all my castles. Restricting it to once a week makes it actually strategic as to how and when you want to use it.
* Buying extra units from a different Castle should require a bonus tax on the unit.

I really see a lot of potential in the game, and I think with a strong expansion, it can really become the best Heroes game ever. For instance, I can't imagine playing Heroes 3 today without its expansions. So at worst, we'll get our beloved town screens and better balance with the first expansion. My biggest concerns right now are primarily the dumb AI, and the tons of bugs this game has.

[rdeford]

Regarding corrupted file download: I thought I had this problem because my built-in XP archive utility said that the archive was corrupted. On a hunch, I tried WinRar and it was able to open and extract the files.



Regarding the buy all creatures from all castles and forts from any castle or fort: I think the old caravans were far, far superior. I don't like the way it works now, especially with a town portal in every castle, the strategic element in the game degenerates to just load up a super hero and skip around to each castle that's in danger. Brain dead.



The non-rotating map bugs me too, especially when I can't see an enemy creature during a battle.



The use a level-up point to buy a weak spell is the worst idea in the whole game. That silliness combined with the weakness of the spells and the silly cool-down implementation effectively removes the Magic from this Might & Magic game.



OVERALL IMPRESSION: I am having fun playing the demo. I give it a 7 out of 10. With a few patches and an expansion this game could easily get a 8 or even a 9.