Ubisoft Release 1.7 and Unity

[{CH}ArticleBot]

As I came home from work this evening, there was finally some news about the latest developments of Heroes VII:

Firstly, patch 1.7 has been released, the patch notes to which you can read here.

Secondly, the long-awaited campaign The Lost Tales of Axeoth: Unity has also been released, offering players a free boost of 5 new maps written by Terry B. Ray. So it's basically a free DLC. Also in the package are new heroes, artefacts, creatures and adventure buildings.

You can read all about the contents here, or start it up and play why not?
Read full article...

[Karmakeld]

I'll have to admit, I'm curious to read the first comments about this new camping. But it's seems promising with the things they've listed to better match the world of Axeoth.

[JSE]

Hiring Terry -- the main writer of Heroes IV -- *would have* been a great decision ten years ago when Ubisoft took over and Heroes V was made. Instead, Ubi's arguments were either "the original lore is too thin" or "we are not familiar with the original lore and prefer to create our own universe"...

After having endured Ashan for so long, the sudden use of original Axeoth material can only seem like a desperate backpedaling action to me. Does Ubisoft really expect fans of the original M&M games to change their mind because of this?

[Karmakeld]

well wheter it's a desperate action or the reason is what they've stated, that they stumbled upon the old story scripts, why not just be pleased they decided to go back to Axeoth. I've just watched a vid of the first part, and I'm excited to follow the story from the side line. I couldn't help though, to be slightly amused by the players comments, about the general stories in H4 and H3 acutally containing more story and more detailed descriptions of the persons actions etc. compared to H6 and H7's dialogue storytelling. This is a sure to the old writers in my optic.

[Kalah]

It's an interesting question, isn't it: if Ubisoft decided to end the Ashan storyline and instead make future games in the old universe(s), would the popularity of the series increase?

[JSE]

well wheter it's a desperate action or the reason is what they've stated, that they stumbled upon the old story scripts, why not just be pleased they decided to go back to Axeoth.

I think, as a general rule, it's important to not only care about results but also about the way they were achieved. In this case it clearly makes the difference! In no official M&M-related statement made by Ubisoft up to this point have I seen any sign of admission that they might have made some unwise decisions regarding the franchise. In other words: There appears to be no insight, no honest change of heart. Those would be necessary, in my opinion, to actually be able to restore some of the franchise's former greatness.

It's an interesting question, isn't it: if Ubisoft decided to end the Ashan storyline and instead make future games in the old universe(s), would the popularity of the series increase?

Switching back to the old universe (or at least combining the universes and leaving the world of Ashan behind) is one important part of it. This decision could bring back many lapsed M&M fans of the past. And no, they are not all "old farts", but many of them actually started out as young gamers during the second era (M&M 6 and onwards) and are still very active players. The other part, of course, is designing a good game system. The key here, in my opinion, is understanding that it's an elegant simplicity which made the old games so enjoyable. But that's another discussion...

[Demilich]

It's an interesting question, isn't it: if Ubisoft decided to end the Ashan storyline and instead make future games in the old universe(s), would the popularity of the series increase?

Absolutely. If they'll allow Julien to make a game set in futuristic Gravel's world, it would be a certain hit, I think. Ashan is SO boring. So the time has come to tear down the Veil!)

[Avonu]

It's an interesting question, isn't it: if Ubisoft decided to end the Ashan storyline and instead make future games in the old universe(s), would the popularity of the series increase?

It doesn't matter as long, as overall storytelling won't improve. I think story writers want to tell us too much information at once, so instead of focusing on stories we have explained every detail of world but we don't recive much information about heroes themselves, their motives or thoughts. Well, not in missions but we can read it in units/heroes biographies. Meanwhile in HoMM1-4 we learn about our heroes from playing game itself (including scenario introductions), not from reading their biographies,... or just love them for their specializations (and clearly not for "+4 to Magic" ) or startng skills.

Back to old worlds won't make next Heroes game a success, if we still get broken game and flawed mechanics. NWC changed continents/worlds between games and it worked (not so much with Heroes 4 - but this was more case of changing game mechanism then game world). I think that Ashan also could work, if someone would try to reevaulate its concepts and make room for much needed creation freedom and stop making games in past, as we already know what will happened... well at least at Thallan continent.

[vicheron]

Yeah, the problem isn't Ashan, it's that the writing is terrible and monotonous. They act like they're trying to write some serious deep historical epic but it just comes off as a kid trying really hard to be adult.

The old Heroes world wasn't super creative or amazing, neither were the stories. But the writing was at least competent. The world and characters had personality and dimensions. They didn't take themselves seriously all the time. There were comedic moments and jokes. There was variety in the stories. Some campaigns are serious stories, some are fun adventures, some are character focused.

[Galaad]

Ashan is a problem, is not only the bad writing, but also the dull universe and the tasteless art that comes along, and straight out wtf creatures. Seriously, when you see what mythology has to offer...
Anyway, things just can't get worse when even gameplay aspects and overall game philosophy is being influenced by it. Ashan is not only a nuisance for the lore, but for the series as a whole.

And about these new H4 campaigns... I just hope some dedicated h4 fans will implement them to h4, the game it belongs to, because here is just h4 texts in a h7 environment, pretty horrible from my POV.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

I agree with Ashan being a problem, at least for those of us who like games with a reasonably well written story. I purchase games in a series to follow the story from one game to the next. Knowing that H6 and H7 (as well as H5 but I already bought it during a GoG sale) don't continue the story from the previous games really puts me off and makes it extremely unlikely that I will ever buy them.

As far as the worlds of Enroth and Axeoth are concerned, I was so annoyed about the stories that weren't told / continued that I decided to write my own in campaign form It may take me a while, especially with the map generator project I've taken on, but I'll eventually get it finished

[Pol]

Overall it's getting better after 1.7.

[Galaad]

So it went from 38 to 40% on steam.

http://opencritic.com/game/1793/might-magic-heroes-vii

[JSE]

The ratings on both Steam (40%) and Metacritic (5.0 of 10) are still by far the lowest a *new* Heroes game has ever had. The same is true for the Metacritic professional critic rating of 67%. These bad numbers cannot be explained by a frustration over bugs and crashes alone -- and this is confirmed by the user comments on both Steam and Metacritic: gameplay, story, and presentation are often pointed out as the major flaws of Heroes VII.

Returning to the topic of Ashan, I'm convinced that the choice of Ashan as a setting is at least partly responisble for this bad reception: Not only is this world the foundation for all of the characters and stories, it also impacts areas like the overall design of the factions and their creatures and the game's visual style.

[Pol]

The world doesn't matter. The quality of settings and the game concept does.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

The world matters to me. Of course, you still need a playable game with good / fun mechanics. I guess I'm just greedy.

[Galaad]

The world doesn't matter. The quality of settings and the game concept does.

But the quality of the setting depends on the world, I'm with JSE on this one.

[Kalah]

It's a two-way street. A good game could more or less nullify the problems connected with the transfer to a new universe, but if the game is not very good it works in the opposite direction.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Eh, it'd have to be an exceptional game to nullify transferring to a new universe for me. I rather enjoy the Enroth / Axeoth story and world(s), which is nonexistent in the new universe. Once the story finally started getting good in Heroes Chronicles and H4 (I haven't played the Might and Magic games), it just got thrown away.

It's not like it would have been difficult for another writer or writers to pick up from where things left off.

[Galaad]

I agree game mechanics have to be good regardless of the universe but I also think they influence on each other, good universe gives good gameplay and that also works in reverse, reflecting a creator's vision.



Thanks to a team who actually listened to the fans feedback TotE did good, yet 3.2 never was released officially.

H5 was saved by TotE mechanics, because all the rest just sucks.