It's been a long time, but i have not forgotten my comrades. You guys did an exceptional job in terms of gameplay feel - feels like it is a campaign from NWC themselves. But i am stuck and angry in the final map. I will be short and start from begining.
Before everything, i do not give a dent about your campaign story, sorry
. It felt very cheesy and i was bored very quickly...
MAP1 - too easy. The only enemy hero has a fixed amount of units and can not move as well, so you basically come until you feel you have the army to crush him. If you choose to leave him bound, fine by me, but you should add several minotaur recruit generators around him and allow him to reinforce from his town each week as well, so that his army grows all the same. Actually this map should have a timer to kill the main hero in a certain amount of time, otherwise the map is totally unchallenging.
MAP2 - the best map so far. Challenging enough with many options to choose where to move/what to attack first. No major stuff to correct.
MAP3 - this is a good change of pace, but not challenging enough. Most Heroes 3 campaigns have these type of maps where you are free to roam without much interference from enemy heroes from time to time or where you can kill all enemy and still need to do another objective - you guys actually took notes from that (Drakon's campaign to capture all sulfur, Adriene's campaign to gather all creature generators and so on...). But! It was not difficult. The last hero should be MUCH stronger. By the end of the map, i was at 22/22/14/19. I think the last hero should be at 30/30.
MAP4 - this were BS starts. I am very disappointed so far. Now, it is month 2, week 4, two of my castles are build to max, but the map is so ridiculously unbalanced in terms of cash generators, that i literally have a PATHETIC army. An enemy hero Garbel comes with 20 black dragons, 140 scorpicores, 160 minotaurs and so on.. What the ACTUAL FUK?
I spend ALL MY CASH just to get 20 angels, all griffons, all zealots, and that is it - no cash for anything more! WTF have you done guys? What a waste of time! I just recently finished Unleashing the Bloodthirsty and managed to beat all those 10000X multiple dragons in that orb of annihilation with 6000 ancient behemoths and the rest of scrap army, so it's not like i do not know how to play, but this map is all messed up! This map IS INCREDIBLY ANNOYING, because every creature stack wants to fight, even if they have pathetic numbers and should flee on sight. If i could buy all my troops available at the start of 3 month, the enemy hero Garbel would still have a far larger force than me, so that would be an insanely challenging fight considering his primary skill is equal. I would only have 50 champions and 85 zealots. But guess what - i don't have the cash to buy even that pathetic force!!! I am glad i have listened to some cool music during this gameplay or this would have been the biggest waste of time in Heroes 3 for a long time. And no, i do not want to replay this map, because the money situation will be the same and by the end of month 2 there should be no hero with over 300 combined level 5/6 upgraded creatures when i have barely a minimal horde of champions..
Aaa yes - you are supposed to have fire magic with berserk to beat that overwhelming force... Well now, how the heck i was supposed to know? I always train my hero earth and water magic in any non familiar map, and nothing more. I was betting on the same here - it is a safe bet. Also getting no town portal in map 4 starting castles is BS, considering that in map 3 there was a pyramid with random level 5 spell.. That pyramid should be removed, because if you learn air magic and get fly, well, then it will be unbalanced in another way.
Overall this was enjoyable (until map4) and showed your craft! I am sorry that this campaign came this way in the end, i am just honest, i wish you the best of luck!!!
Heroes franchise was not about the free actions of Heroes or monsters, it was not about 3D of shiny graphics either, it was about diversity and balance, simplicity of gameplay and realistic picture, strategy in it's purest form. That's why Heroes 3 will be the greatest game of all, because only Heroes 3 has all those qualities together, no matter which one you personally like more. This statement is unquestionable, uncriticized and undeniable .