HOMM fans would definately agree on what i have to say!!!
I found that HOMM6 did not live up to its expectation .....
It did not live up to the predecessor of HOMM series .... Being a big fan of HOMM (ive been playing since HOMM2 Demo) HOMM6 might be the worst in the series yet...
Here are the reasons why:
1. Town Screen
When i started playing the campaign mode (which sucks by the way... but i had never been a fan of HOMM campaign mode before anyway) ... when i enter my castle... i was so excited to see how is the new town screen look like .... but all i got was a small screen on the middle showing an UNINTERACTIVE town screen...
My first thought was... "this cant be right" ... maybe theres a full town screen button somewhere... maybe its just for the initial stage of the campaign.. But no... thats all it gave... I was wondering how the hell .. after 6 series... they manage to find a way to F*ck it all up .... its not just the screen being small and not being interactive.... its because the town would look JUST THE SAME even when u build the unit buildings... the town only look evolved when you upgrade the town hall .. and it look CRAPY as hell.... Worst than HOMM3 ...
I know many people complained that HOMM5 being over the top on their town screen .... but at least it gave me the feel that ive been playing a more evolved HOMM in my time of year.... They could just revamped HOMM5 instead of just giving us a picture framed town...
2. Resources
There are only 4 Natural Resources available... no sulfur/mercury/diamond all that **** anymore .... some people stated that micro-manage may not appeal to gamers... so they decided to simplify it to attract new players to play this sort of game .... well my comment is ... ITS A TURN BASED GAME .... action game fans wont find this appealing no matter what you do .... and for the fans ... i think they would agree with me that micro manage is the way to go .... its not just about how you manage the different resource.... it also gives you a feel that when you find a sulfer mine .. you would felt the excitment that you found the required resources to enable you to build the champions [The hard to get feeling is just so rewarding] besides... with only 4 resources... it makes the marketplace felt bland .... i used to be able to trade the less useful resources for the ones more suitable.... now i only trades the excess for the ones i need....
3. Gameplay
In HOMM6, you could skip ALL THE units and just directly build the champion units .... there is no prerequisite what so ever (except the town hall level).... WHAT THE HELL MAN??? Remember the GOOD OLD days?? where magic tower is required to build soccerer?? Stable is needed before you could build jouster?? and the level by level units before you could reach the CHAMPION?? YEA ITS ALL GONE....
speaking of magic tower.... remember the time of excitement when you build and upgrade the magic tower just to see what sets of skills they gonna give you??? well now theres a leveling system for your hero where ALL SKILLS are displayed and you could choose the skills you want .... theres no thrill in the skill book anymore...
[Im not so sure on this paragraph, so correct me if im wrong] - The units u see in each towns are the units you get ... with the addition of a few elements unit .... WHERES the Fairy dragon?? Azura dragon?? and those other than towns units..???
Units ability, god they sucked so BAD!!!! .... remember the times where 3 headed dog ability to hit 3 targets in u in 1 go?? remember jouster being able to hit the back target too?? remember when you upgrade the hawk and it could cast random lightning???theres NON of that now .... you got some units that have some active skills which somes are limited to only 1/2 uses... and thats about it....
In custom game, the LARGEST map isnt that large... im able to bump into enemy units eventhough im playing 1v1/1v2 ... and usualy ended up winning and completed exploring the map within a few hours.... for older HOMM .. 1 faction took me days to explore .... for HOMM6... lets say its sooner than what a turn based game supposed to be...
4. New feature
After discarding a whole bunch of stuff ... you would ask.. What feature they have left then?? The only new feature i see is the TEARS AND BLOOD thing... which allows you to have some additional skills and during battle there is 1 unique skill for each factions ... which i found annoying cause factions like heaven gives invulnarable and heal+ressuration @ level 3 ... which makes angels even harder to kill if they just focus on quality units than quantity (which in this case very possible since you dont need prerequisite units to build stronger ones)
Other new feature in HOMM6 which does not affect the gameplay is the DUEL mode ... i found that this is a nice feature when i feel like playing a match or two in battle mode.... but wished that they would provide more options like able to set the amount of units and magics available.. rather than just preseted amount of units and also units given to your team
Conclusion
In conclusion, its a waste of money buying HOMM6 .... you would expect more from HOMM game which out in 2011 ... but what you get is less .... i think BlackHole and Ubisoft new way of shifting the HOMM genre by making it a fast pace and simple game killed it for older HOMM fans which familiars with 3DO works....
HOMM usualy last me MONTHS and MONTHS without getting bored of playing.. but HOMM6 lasted me 2 days max....then its just DUEL mode for the next 2 days .... and now im completely over with HOMM6...
its definately not worth getting this game ... even for the fans of HOMM series
Minor rant :- There is no labeling on how many turns u need to reach your destination .... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?? Why do they take it off after it existed in the first 5 games??? sure its a minor issue... but for a HOMM player like me... i used to look at the number of turns i need to reach the destination so i could make decision on wheter i should take a detour or change route...
Also... there used to be color signaling how close you are reaching your destination ... from green to yellow turning to red as a sign of reaching the destination ... now its just GREEN ... the whole thing is green ....its also a minor issue.... but it made HOMM6 seems like an effortless design and creation put into making the game...
Places where they should innovate more such as more factions or NEW FACTIONS ... they recycled old ones and just polish the models a little instead..... Places they should not innovate... they added STUPID BLOOD TEARS feature...