The soul of the third installment was created by the developers. Van Canningham himself wrote that the entire series of Heroes was created with passion (up to the fourth installment). And you can really feel it. If NWC were making a game purely for profit, they would have created a real-time strategy game instead of a turn-based one, or even a shooter. But as it is, it's clear that they enjoyed making it themselves. That's why the third installment still lives on in our hearts.