If you loved HOMMV, you will love this one.
There were of course numerous things wrong with HOMMV (multiplayer never got fixed, hotseat had the screen blackout during enemy AI turns, several balance issues), but we still loved the challenge of trying to overcome impossible situations.
As huge HOMMV fans, we were nervous about M&M:HeroesVI. We were extremely worried they would ruin the gameplay in one fashion or another, it would be far too buggy to play, or be so dumbed-down it would provide no challenge for us strategy buffs.
I can say after playing nearly 40 hours since release that none of those worries were necessary. We like this game even more than HOMMV, which we were both kind of amazed about, since we love HOMMV so much.
Let me say this: OF COURSE there are bugs. OF COURSE there are some balance issues. But from our experience, the bugs don't interfere with the majority of the game. I had one crash to desktop out of 40hours of play, and some quirky things that happen when you trying to load a save game from within a current game (as of this writing it is much safer to exit to the main menu before loading a save game). Of course, other people have had more difficulties than we've had, from what I've read on the forums.
The game plays a LOT like HOMMV, even more than I first thought. But there are so many improvements it will be really hard to go back. Let me try to explain them here.
1) First off, it is just plain a LOT of fun. Fun is important for me because I am a busy dad and full-time employee, so if a game isn't fun for me, it quickly gets put down. I just don't have a whole lot of free time, so I'm pretty picky about my video games.
2) The graphics are awesome and the animations are fun to watch. Certainly no one can argue that the graphics are the best in the series, even if you don't like the game. The game runs with no hiccups or graphics lag whatsoever on my PC (i7-920@2.66GHz, 6GB RAM, ATI Radeon 4870X2). Some of the units are absolutely awesome, and only a couple of them are boring. From the way a chest floats and bobs in the water, to the way your vampire's critical hit animation goes off, there is very little to complain about. Some of the map decorations are just incredible (play the Hell on Earth map to see what I'm talking about).
3) AI turns go much faster (those HOMMV will know enemy AI turns could take 5min on big maps in end-game). I'm playing a skirmish with me and 5 other enemies and even on month 3 the enemy turns are under 15 seconds. There are a couple of stupid things the enemy AI does on the map, but for the most part it provides a good challenge. Inside combat, the AI is excellent, using everything to its advantage.
4) There IS a Hotseat mode! And it works without a hitch. You can't currently play two dynasties in a hotseat match, so everything both players do is credited to just one dynasty. But that doesn't change the fact that from day ONE it worked, AND you can watch the enemy AI during their turns, without hiccups or lag or any other bugs.
5) The game comes with five town types: Haven, Necro, Sanctuary (water), Inferno, and Orc. Every town has been "coolified", such that even my two least favorite towns from HOMMV (Orc and Haven) are way more fun to play.
6) There are no longer "Level 1 through Level 7" troop types. Instead you have 3 tiers of troops: 3 core, 3 elite, and 1 champion type (except orcs which have 4core, 2 elite, and 1 champion). We didn't like this change at first but we understand and appreciate it much more now. The reason? No longer do you have an issue with troops becoming useless in endgame. A big stack of core units CAN compete with a small stack of champion units, and a medium stack of elite units. This means you will want to use ALL of the troops at your disposal during your game, and none of them are a waste of money. In HOMMV you could get by with forgetting about Level 1-3 troops in endgame if you wanted. In HeroesVI you will be gimping yourself by leaving a troop type behind, because each and every unit has a special ability or benefit that can make a big difference for your army. I commend the dev's quite a bit on how they made sure each unit is worth bringing along, and not a waste of your gold. Also, enough of the units and stats have changed to make it feel like a very different game, but familiar enough to not feel lost (if you are a veteran of HOMM)
7) Another thing we didn't like prior to playing the game was the fact that sulfur/mercury/etc were all combined into a new resource called "Blood Crystal". Again, after playing a while we can also appreciate this change. You no longer have to spend time chasing down a specific resource like you did in HOMMV. This change feels like it has simplified gameplay (in a good way) and yet doesn't interfere with the importance of resource collection.
8) Another concern we had was about the fact that each fort and/or city has a "zone of control", meaning if you capture the fort or city, you also gain control of every mine and creature generator in the zone of control. We REALLY didn't like this at first, it seemed to really remove some of the strategy from the game. However, we have changed our minds. No longer will you be sending level 1 heroes around to recapture all of the mines and generators every time you capture a town. This removes a large amount of senseless time from the game and focuses your time on capturing the key strategic things.. .forts and towns. There are other advantages to controlling a fort/town, aside from the obvious, in that they can be used for town portal destinations, allowing you to portal back to your home city, and then portal back out the next turn to get right back to the frontlines. Again, a simplified change that keeps your main hero in the action.
9) The whole dynasty thing. Ok here it is in a nutshell. When playing the campaign, multiplayer, or anything, if you have an internet connection, every piece of xp you ear will be added to your "Dynasty XP". The Dynasty XP you earn levels up your Dynasty. Each 10 levels gives you access to new things you can buy with Dynasty points. Dynasty points are earned by completing achievements within the game (for example, killing 1000 enemies, winning ten battles in a row, winning a battle without losing a single troop, etc). Dynasty points can be spent on things like Titles for your dynasty (like Your_name the Destroyer), or Dynasty abilities that you can slot into your hero when you start a new map. On top of all this, there are dynasty weapons, which you can find by playing the campaign. Dynasty weapons can be used by any of your heroes (with Might or Magic being the only limiter). Dynasty weapons gain xp every time the hero they are equipped with gains xp. As Dynasty weapons level up, they give the hero new abilities.
-I was kind of meh about this at first but I enjoy it now. It's nice to be able to brag that I got my Dynasty to level 10 already. =)
-Plus, dynasty weapons are powerful. Being able to level up a dynasty weapon with my necro in the campaign, and then using it on a hotseat map is pretty darn cool.
-Some of the things you can buy with dynasty points don't make any sense, and seem to have no effect on anything anywhere. But whatever.
-You can create your own heroes for your Dynasty (yes that's right, you can create your OWN hero). You pick gender, might or magic, blood or tears, your town type, and then your hero's specialization. This is way cool. And it means that there are 40 different hero models in the game. And yes, your hero's model DOES show in the combat map... not a generic one! Great stuff.
10) While a few people are complaining about the game balance on the forums, NUMEROUS tweaks have reduced the overpowered options that came from HOMMV. No longer is a dark spellcaster with Puppet Master going to rule every combat. Not that Puppet Master isn't still extremely powerful, but it has been reduced to 1-2 turns. No longer are might heroes going to feel like they can't go toe-to-toe with high-level spellcasters.... Might heroes get their own set of abilities that are very powerful. This is just one of dozens of changes that made it impossible for us to find the "God Combo" that will always beat everyone. And we don't WANT to find it.... we would prefer every fight is a challenge. So far, that has been very well provided by Heroes VI.
Here's a whole bunch more little tidbits for people who want to know more about miscellaneous gameplay changes for Heroes VI.
-Lots and lots of skill choices to make for every hero.
-The hero can act any time during the turn in which one of its own units has an action, making them way more useful. Heroes cannot be attacked.
-MUCH harder to fight "perfect" battles with no units lost. Attrition is almost unavoidable. Though, smart playing can significantly reduce losses, as expected.
-Town battles are WAY tougher than before. Units can attack walls and gates and towers though. Every town type has its own unique "catapult" creature, all of which are awesome.
-When you hire new heroes, they start out automatically at 5 levels below your highest-level hero. No longer are you totally lost if you lose your main hero (though, it would still be very tough).
-Heroes can have zero units in their army (though they instantly lose any battle as a result)
-There are no more war machines. All shooting units have infinite ammo. I think this is good because ranged units have to deal with
cover now.
-Cover plays a big part in ranged units now. Standing behind a rock on the battlefield that blocks line-of-sight between your unit and a ranged unit reduces incoming ranged damage. As you can imagine, this helps ranged units behind castle walls and hinders ranged units outside. Destroying wall chunks can help ranged units alot during a siege. Adds more tactics to the combat map.
-Some familiar, some brand new artifacts. Scrolls are now extremely useful as one-shot powers that your character can't normally get access to. Scrolls of "mass heal" for example, and "life drain"... VERY handy. Artifact sets are mostly very cool and there is a large benefit to wearing them all.
-Getting a positive morale trigger (now called leadership) now gives the unit half an additional move, at half damage, rather than a full attack.
To anyone who loved HOMMV, you will not be disappointed by this game. I do miss some of the other factions (elves, wizards, dark elves, dwarves), but I'd guess they are saving those for expansions.
Happy to burn lots of my free time on this game.