Heroes VII: February Screenshots

[mr.hackcrag]

Yeah, I get the sense that this will be the best heroes 3&5 game so far. I wonder about the potential if Limbic had the funds, freedom, and courage to innovate more gameplay elements.

[Kalah]

Innovate? Are you crazy? The fans would lynch them!

Maybe if the franchise is successful and starts re-growing, Limbic will be given even more resources in the future.

[Bandobras Took]

Yeah, I get the sense that this will be the best heroes 3&5 game so far. I wonder about the potential if Limbic had the funds, freedom, and courage to innovate more gameplay elements.

Freedom's the big one. One of the biggest problems with Heroes IV was NWC was forced to ship it before they had fully innovated.

[Tress]

Heroes 3 was third iteration of essentially same game, and pretty much everything that could be done witgt tgat format was achieved(well homm 5 added some good ideas but in the end it a) wasn't that much , b) wasn't necessary improvment ).
So basically there is no other choice than to explore new grounds. heroes 6 tested quite many ideas, many of which were brainstormed around since homm3 (town conversion, etc), unfortunately nearly not enough them were lucky, but for series to evolve , they need to test new things.

[Kalah]

The problem, in case my point was missed, is that the Heroes fans are extremely conservative and don't want too many changes. They want the same game over and over, with small tweaks only.

[Tress]

Problem is that I cant imagine any next iteration live up to such expectations. Hardcore fans will always walk always saying we have homm 3 and this one's an imitation. And in essence that wouldnt be lie or anything, in homm3 sod they pretty much got everything down to what's needed. Sure racial difference introduced in h4(tied schools,skills) h5(emphasis on racial skils) would be welcome, but still.
Think we can look at civilization series (although I am not that much of fan, and probably am ignorant of many details) but there as well first 2or 3 civs were iterations of same game, while civ 5 is vastly different. Are all changes good and add to game play? probably not, but such evolution is needed, otherwise we gets something like CoD, where after MW3 it's extremely tiresome tiresome to even look that way.

[mr.hackcrag]

If they are in fact conservative, it may be because game designers made changes that were poorly conceived and rushed before final product was finished (H4 & H6).

I personally haven't and won't buy any new homm game if they don't do something to reinvigorate the series. Maybe it's because I'm getting old, but I do not find their copy pasta shenanigans very rewarding or enjoyable.

This is even more disappointing if it's true that "zey are Germans, and it iz impossibel to do a job badly" because maybe we finally have a team that is competent enough to make meaningful innovations in a successful way.