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At three in the morning, it's the perfect time to step away from casual chatting and delve into unexpected sections.
To be honest, I don't care if the eighth installment of Heroes will be set in Ashan or not, whether the undead will sail across the Sea of Irsus, or how awesome the campaign's plot will be. In games, especially strategy games, what attracts me most is the gameplay, followed by the atmosphere and aesthetics (not to be confused with graphics), and the plot comes somewhere at the end. If they create great battles, a good map with lots of interesting locations, and cool, atmospheric factions, I'll forgive them everything.
Traditional resources and economy work well; the mess they made in the sixth installment (cutting all rare resources down to crystals) shouldn't exist in the Heroes series. The key is that different factions need different resources; this is normal and it's very cool, as it enhances the aesthetics and style of the faction, but more on that later.
Regarding combat, the best turn-based strategy battles were in King's Bounty. I vaguely remember that the third Disciples game also had some interesting ideas (I absolutely hate that game for its treatment of Legions, but if one aspect of the game is a slap in the face, it doesn't mean the whole thing is like that). If we're talking specifically about the Heroes series, I'm a pervert, and the fourth installment is the best; although I agree that it's better to stick to the more traditional approach of the third and fifth installments.
It was a mistake to get rid of seven levels of creatures in the later parts. Reducing it to five or six would still be acceptable, but three is just not enough.
I really liked the idea of physical/magical attack/defense – King's Bounty had something similar in full, and it's incredibly awesome when a black dragon looks down on all attempts to pierce its scales with lightning from mage units or fireballs from imps, but at the same time, those same imps turn out to be a must-have against ents and thorns, which fall in droves from the same fireball. It might not be necessary to expand the list of defenses to the King's Bounty level; let them first make two types well, rather than like in the sixth installment (although I don't remember well how it was done there; the game was just boring).
Moving on from combat to aesthetics and style – let's make different factions! Really _DIFFERENT_. Let's remember that in the first and second games, humans didn't have flying units, that black dragons in the fourth part could easily defeat any other fourth-level castle unit one-on-one, that in the third game, the guild of mages had a different number of floors depending on the city, and so on. A faction's special ability is a really cool thing, but it's even cooler when the abilities and parameters of the units also support it, enhancing the style and atmosphere. Involuntarily, I'm reminded of my favorite fourth installment, and also Disciples, where each faction has its own unique school of magic, and to get spells from other schools, you have to put in some effort. But in the latest installments, it's more like Shadowverse (I know it's not a TBS, but whatever), where each faction supposedly has its own unique mechanic, playstyle, and atmosphere, but in reality, everyone defeats enemies using the same methods, only the packaging is slightly different (or not different at all, if you remember the mess with neutral creatures). Yes, it's easier to balance the online mode that way, but I'm expressing my desires, and the online mode is even less important to me than the plot.
And regarding aesthetics – seriously, what a disaster and embarrassment that many models from the sixth game were carried over to the seventh. Just yuck, disgusting, there are no polite words. Each part had its own graphics – from the bright, fairy-tale first and slightly less bright, but still fairy-tale second, to the muted "realistic" third, followed by the strangely bright fourth and the cartoonish fifth. The sixth and seventh games have merged into one mess for me; I don't remember what was in one part and what was in the other. Within one game, everything is passable, but when you release the same thing in two games in a row, it's not so great. We need a new style, perhaps more cartoonish (I'm reminded of King's Bounty with its stunning fairy-tale aesthetics and large, bright unit models on the battlefield, which also differed significantly from each other – you wouldn't confuse even recolored models).
Why is it still passable? Well... the same problem as with Legions in the godforsaken Disciples 3 (I hope Betrayzen will punish that designer). In the second part, the demons felt like a cohesive whole; although the units differed significantly in color, silhouettes, and images, they were facets of one force, and it all worked to create the atmosphere and aesthetics of the faction, enriching it with different details and aspects. In the third part, it's a fiery-black mess of models that are difficult to distinguish without a drink, especially with the muted colors and large battlefield. The same goes for humans and elves, although Legions is my favorite faction, and I'm more upset about them. And in Heroes, the unit models are small, the color palette is too uniform, and it's not always clear on the battlefield. In the fifth and previous parts, the models were larger, and the units differed significantly in silhouette, and yes, in color scheme. It's great that we can rotate and view the 3D model from all sides, but the graphics don't save when the arena looks like crap. In short, the models definitely need to be made larger, and the battlefield can be reduced for this – a number of large creatures, or even all of them, can easily mutate from four-cell to two-cell to take up less space. And play with the colors, make the factions as a whole brighter and more vibrant, and seriously, with the portraits – I just went to the seventh game's official website, and you can't tell half of the human units apart without a drink based on the portraits. And in general, work on the uniqueness of each unit so that it looks interesting, bright, and stylish. Oh my god, the fourth game is criticized for its graphics and crappy 3D, but absolutely every unit was unique there, even the traditionally suffering-from-uniformity humans, and the models on the battlefield weren't exactly large.
And yes, coloring units in the player's chosen color is a bad idea. The entire aesthetic of the faction is ruined. You can color the hero, but only slightly, like in the fifth game.
And regarding heroes – bring them back like in the fourth. Four models, warrior/mage, man/woman. The best transport was in the fifth, but the sixth also seems okay, it'll do. And of course, each hero should have a unique ability that resonates with the aesthetic of the faction.
...yes, I'm so focused on gameplay – 95% of the post is about design and graphics.
However, after the deep mess the series ended up in after the seventh game, I don't have high hopes. The eighth game could easily turn out to be a simple desecration of the corpse and a dance on the bones. And I'm not really expecting it anymore, to be honest; I've moved on from games in recent years. If it comes out, okay, if it comes out as a good game, that's great, if not, well, so be it; no one can take the fourth game away from me.
I think that's all, I'm going to sleep.
