Which HoMM to get?

[Micmu]

Elemental town sucked major amount of ass. It even had university for all 4 magic schools - overpowered/cheating. Also psychic elementals looked epically ugly. With only four elementals and pixies, they really had to invent "something" new for sixth tier creatures...
I liked the Phoenixes, though. Guaranteed first turn if you had one or more in army.

 

[Deitti]

i agree with above, Conflux sucked major ass both by design and balance. the faction was so overpowered it wasn't funny at all.

anyway most of what i would say has been said already. HoMM3 is the one to go for if you want to play one HoMM game. Although IMO HoMM3 is much more worth it if you go for multiplayer, as if you want single player, heroes 4 is better. HoMM2 is pretty good too although i haven't played this one as much as the others. HoMM4 made alot of changes so you really gotta try it before you know if it's your thing. Personally i liked most of the changes in heroes 4 despite the fact that it made couple of shit ones aswell. Also heroes 4 multiplayer is worthless IMO, only single player is worth playing. HoMM5 as vanilla is bad, you really gotta get Tribes of the East and AI mod. Then it's pretty good, although it's campaigns suck the most compared to earlier HoMM games. HoMM6 was fucking trainwreck from the beginning to the end and not worth playing at all.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

One thing I forgot to mention about II is that it has the best economy of all HoM&M games. It's impossible to get stupidly rich on most maps, even if you play on normal, you have to plan your expenses and things like gold mines matter a lot so map control plays a huge part which adds to the strategy layer.

 

[groke]

Supposedly the canceled town was completed, just never released.

:lecry:

 

[Terpsichore]

I enjoyed 4 the most.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Here goes:

1 - haven't played

2 - really fun, I'd recommend you start with it to really appreciate part 3. and how they've expanded upon 2. If you don't like it that much, just stop and go straight to 3.

3 - the BEST, and my first one too. Just go with the campaigns, I'm actually really jealous you haven't tried them yet.

4 - a decent game, fun for some time but the AI is truly terrible. I'd only start with it once you've gotten 100% out of HoMM III

5 - didn't like it.

 

[octavius]

5 - didn't like it.

Why not?

 

[Micmu]

Because it's piece of shit?
Retarded campaigns and bigtime 3D for the sake of 3D syndrome.
(obnoxious rotation, missclicking, missing resources hiding behind opaque walls, etc...)

 

[octavius]

Because it's piece of shit?
Retarded campaigns and bigtime 3D for the sake of 3D syndrome.
(obnoxious rotation, missclicking, missing resources hiding behind opaque walls, etc...)

Which is partly offset by a far superior character development and skill system compared to HoMM 3.

 

[groke]

HoMM5's character system is plenty more complex, but I really preferred the boardgame-style skills of the old games. I don't really want to think to much about my heroes in HoMM?

 

[octavius]

HoMM5's character system is plenty more complex, but I really preferred the boardgame-style skills of the old games. I don't really want to think to much about my heroes in HoMM?

Eagle Eye will make you think...

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

5 - didn't like it.

Why not?

Several reasons, none of them too substantial I guess - that's why I didn't say it's a bad game, just that I didn't like it.

HoMM3 was novelty to me and really got me hooked, and HoMM4 satisfied a bit of my "HoMM3 nostalgia" when it came out, with some innovative changes (heroes on the battlefield!) but also a lot of derpy ones (less unit variety, the different unit path choices were all very obvious and felt tacked-on as a bad way to cover for the lack of unit upgrades). Overall it felt like a quick fix, but I still returned to HoMM3 a lot more than I played HoMM4.

By 5th part, I couldn't really be bothered anymore with the HoMM style of gameplay. I played around with a few custom maps, but there weren't any really interesting ones (compare the epic HoMM3 collection!) Tried a campaign but it felt too slow-going and easy. Compare it to, say, Blade of Armageddon campaigns that grabbed you by the collar from mission 1! I guess 5 just doesn't offer anything new to a 3/4 veteran. It may not be strictly worse - character system might have been better like you mention tho I don't really remember much about it - but it just felt like a waste of time.

Compare it to, say, Etherlords - on original look at HoMM with a spice of Magic the Gathering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etherlords There are just better games out there than HoMM5 for someone who already played 3 and 4 to death, in my opinion at least.

 

[groke]

HoMM5's character system is plenty more complex, but I really preferred the boardgame-style skills of the old games. I don't really want to think to much about my heroes in HoMM?

Eagle Eye will make you think...

But you're only thinking about how you use Eagle Eye (grinding for Conflux spells or whatev.), not how you're going to build your hero so you can even have Eagle Eye in the first place.

 

[octavius]

HoMM5's character system is plenty more complex, but I really preferred the boardgame-style skills of the old games. I don't really want to think to much about my heroes in HoMM?

Eagle Eye will make you think...

But you're only thinking about how you use Eagle Eye (grinding for Conflux spells or whatev.), not how you're going to build your hero so you can even have Eagle Eye in the first place.

Well, mainly I try to avoid Eagle Eye.
Are you saying it can actually be worth having?

 

[Terpsichore]

The fifth game has a beyond awful campaign, writing is terrible.

 

[groke]

HoMM5's character system is plenty more complex, but I really preferred the boardgame-style skills of the old games. I don't really want to think to much about my heroes in HoMM?

Eagle Eye will make you think...

But you're only thinking about how you use Eagle Eye (grinding for Conflux spells or whatev.), not how you're going to build your hero so you can even have Eagle Eye in the first place.

Well, mainly I try to avoid Eagle Eye.
Are you saying it can actually be worth having?

Well, it's cool for grinding spells on Conflux!

 

[tuluse]

The fifth game has a beyond awful campaign, writing is terrible.

It's impressive to stand out as the worst writing in HoMM series.

 

[DakaSha]

HoMM5's visual style alone scared me off. I cant make out shit on the map and its slow SO DAMN SLOW. Tiny maps don't help much either.
Hero development seemed decent if not even better then HoMM3 but meh. It does not offset the other shit. May as well just buy some paper and pencil rpg books and start creating characters for no reason

 

[LizardKing]

HoMMII and III are the way to go.
HoMMIII is actually one of my alltime favourites.

HoMMIV felt unfinished.
HoMMV isn't that bad, but the art direction is a major turn off. This game has one of the shittiest campaigns I've ever seen, ridiculously bad writing.
HoMMVI, no reason to play this one.

 

[ohWOW]

Heroes III and Heroes IV

Heroes I and II are basically III light.

Heroes V IS SHIT BEYOND MAN'S IMAGINATION.

So is VI but city screens from the last patch alone make it already better than V. Even with a ridiculously dumbed down gameplay.