First Impressions

And what did you like about it?

Hello.

1) The skill tree, similar to the one in the 5th installment, but no longer hidden and improved. I liked it.
2) Expansion in terms of city buildings. Everything looks quite harmonious here, unlike the 6th installment, where, apart from unit dwellings, there are only town halls and citadels, and that damn cheesy portal.
3) Return to the canonical guild of mages from the 3rd installment with a spell system like "air-fire-earth." In my opinion, this is the best option.
4) Everything else is minor, in the spirit of bringing back "old, forgotten" units.

However, there is still a feeling of some emptiness... By the way, I had the exact same feeling in the 6th installment. Few spells, very few interesting and diverse structures on the map. I didn't like the implementation of faction skills.
I'll finish with the mediocre unit animations and the extremely questionable sound. The music of the factions, except for the Academy and both Elves, is tasteless and uninteresting. And the operatic singing is starting to annoy me more and more, especially for the undead. Just turn it off - it's so awful.

There are indeed quite a few structures on the map. 80% of everything is just stat-boosting for the hero. The same recruiters, increasing only the unit growth... I was really annoyed by the hero skill "governor." You buy a hero with a specialization of +2 to an elite unit, but there is no increase in the city, even if there is a creature dwelling on the territory. Maybe I have a bug, or I missed something. Regarding the implementation of faction skills, I already wrote in the first point that I like it #shrugged helplessly#. I agree with the mediocre unit animations - I remember the arrow flying almost from the 1st person in the 5th installment and involuntarily shed a tear. I don't really have any complaints about the music, but I will also note the soundtracks of the Academy and the Elven Alliance as my favorites among all the others. Among the disadvantages, I would also note the extreme imbalance of some units of the Shadow League, the imbalance in the garrison guard (for example, the Shadow League has 10 minotaurs in the castle, while the barbarians have lower-level wyverns and centaurs, although, in my opinion, minotaurs are the most obvious imbalance in the 7th installment), as well as some bizarre things, like a succubus with a hundred hit points and high damage, and a low-level destroyer, while in the previous installment it was the other way around. And yes, in the question of "emptiness," the units also play a role, but this is only because the developers categorically refused to work deeper on the game, giving players the right to choose when creating two factions in the game. And I, by the way, would not mind seeing my favorite "Fortress" and a full-fledged "Inferno" too.

In summary, it can be noted that in the 7th installment, they tried to include all the best moments from the previous installments (although the 6th installment was generally terrible, IMHO), but released another product that is quite raw in terms of... well, you already wrote about "emptiness"... But if we operate with graphics and a couple of nice features, then it can still more or less compete with the 3rd and 5th installments. Let's just say, somehow, in some way, "pull itself together."