13га
I completed the campaign (original) in 202 days. I played on "hero" difficulty, but it felt like I was playing on "recruit." I downloaded the campaign because of the stream of positive reviews, and I greatly regret giving in to the hype. I liked it less than I disliked it. I played, I quit, I tried to continue, I quit again – I barely managed to get to the end. The campaign is not a strategy game, but rather an excursion-like visual simulator. (I think I've written something similar before). But at the same time, it's a perfect fit for the modern audience of the fifth Heroes game. For most of them, a turn-based strategy is something akin to interactive television. The main efforts were focused on creating secondary visual and audio effects, rather than on developing the gameplay. It's like developing a passenger car: a lot of time is spent on the ergonomics of the controls, the quality of the audio system, and the upholstery of the seats, while the engine is only capable of 5 horsepower.
The dialogue scenes are beautifully made, and the texts in them are well-written – it's clear that a lot of work was put into them. The voice acting in the videos is a great technical achievement, but I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't read the forum. (all sounds are turned off in the settings). It's much faster to read the text with your eyes than to listen to it. And you only watch the videos once, unless you're a die-hard aesthete or haven't yet discovered the magical properties of the "next" button.
Regarding the maps themselves. In my opinion, the first and fourth maps are more or less decent. On the fourth map, the time limit for capturing Mythgard should be reduced by about half. On the second and third maps, there are supposed to be active and formidable opponents, but they only exist for show. They are harder to find than to defeat. However, the logistics of the maps are poorly designed: there are no teleports to shorten the travel time, there is no way to move the hero using travel spells, it is difficult to gather caravans, and to combine the available forces. All the key opponents stand still and wait for the player to arrive, having gathered everything possible and with a huge army. These maps are a depressing swamp. It's clear that you win almost immediately, but you have to spend a long time running around like an elephant chasing fleas. The quests are poorly conceived and executed. On the one hand, they don't provide anything useful, and on the other hand, you can only remember them if you play without interruption. The information about the quest requirements is not clearly stated in the quest menu. On the third map, it's not immediately clear how to remove the yellow tent.
The battles are practically organized poorly in most cases. In most cases, the opponent casts some single spell or simply attacks with their fists. Even the Orc (against whom the AI performs well on its own) from the end of the second game is placed in such conditions that it is very easy for him to lose. The Dwarf on the third map is deprived (almost) of magic and runes, and he will never be able to overwhelm the Necromancer with brute force. The last map is entirely built around battles, and therefore it is the most depressing of the entire campaign.
Markel, whose special ability has been changed to "leadership," looks like a grandmother ballerina.
Thank you for your work; at least I dusted off the icon of "Heroes," but if the cream is bad, then what about the milk?
P.S. From the first map: "Acquire the relic (artifact)" – "acquire" is jarring and doesn't match the overall style of the texts. Perhaps "take," "grab," or simply "get" would be better.