Heroes of Might and Magic® 4: Complete

The main crime that Heroes IV committed was simply not being Heroes III. Yes, those are large shoes to fit. But this is a TBS PC game. If you want every single entry in a game to be exactly like its predecessor, you should stick to Call of Duty, Fire Emblem or some other console drivel. This is a great game by its own right, but 3DO wasn't the true villain. It was the fans. 3DO was still a good contender for the role though. Budget cuts and unrealistic scheduling did their fair share to tarnish both main Might and Magic vehicles. The good news is that the name now lies with Ubisoft, arguably the least of three evils in the gaming publishing trinity (EA and Activision would probably be much, much worse). And certainly some orders of magnitude better than 3DO. But enough with the history lesson, lets go to the game itself: The main strengths of this title are the Campaigns, easily the best in any Heroes game, and the soundtracks, that keep with the amazing job we've learned to expect from Romero and Rob King. You'll be amazed how an evil storyline can do away with the known clichés as you take the shoes of Gauldoth Half-Dead, the necromancer apprentice who blundered his lich-transformation ritual and struggles to survive in this new world. And Emilia Blackraven, the orphan with a few magic tricks up her sleeve that at first just try and gather refugees from the Cataclysm and band them together, and ends up leading a full-fledged revolution against a well-meaning tyrant. Yes, new world... cataclysm. Because Colony, the world that housed Enroth, Erathia and Jadame, is gone. Gelu, the wielder of the Armageddon Blade, finally made his sword do its namesake and destroyed the world as it clashed against the Sword of Frost. The wizards opened old portals to this new world, Axeoth, one of the many secrets left behind by the Ancients (don't know what I'm talking about? Then play the Might and Magic series as well). Gameplay wise... the short-sighted schedule and budgets show a bit. They tried to reinvent the series, and they would get away with it too, if wasn't for that meddling publisher and their little fans. Heroes are part of the combat, but they are very imbalanced as they are very fragile in the early game, very strong in the mid game and again fragile in the end game. The tier system was also quite turned around its head. Now there are only 4 tiers of creature, but 8 creatures total. You only get to keep 5 of them though, since from Tier 2 onwards you have to make a choice between two creature dwellings. You do get to keep both Tier 1 creatures, so that's nice. Kinda. Well, they could have gone on to make things differently here, especially because the tiers didn't make diminish the gap between low and high Tiers since the gap between individual tiers was increased as well in the process. One nice change is that the game pace isn't bound to the week anymore. You get creatures on a daily basis... although some creatures like the powerhouse that is the Black Dragon only spawn once a week. Still, you don't need the "Hero highway" anymore, since the creatures are more than capable of walking in the map without a babysitter, so you can buy them from the castle and send them to your hero without hustle. It was also here that they created the Caravans. So helpful. Previous Heroes game would require you to have an ungodly amount of Heroes in the map whose only purpose was to haul stuff from castle to castle to closer to your main heroes so you don't waste their precious movement points. Now this not only isn't necessary as it is inviable, since creatures have their own move points. Those games were filled with good ideas that both made the game more organic and better paced, but it was bogged down by a fanbase unwilling to experiment something new and a publisher unwilling to let the developers iron out their new ideas. Recommended, sure. Even at its its worst state, Heroes is leagues and bounds above most games. Still a great experience, added with a great story and a wonderful soundtrack, for the price GOG is charging, it is more than worth it.

Пролистав отзывы на эту часть, я наткнулся на сплошной негатив, который очень субъективен и связан с ужасающей любовью игроков ТОЛЬКО к 3-ей части. "Все тлен, а только в 3-ке истина". Из-за таких игроков NWC и 3DO клепали кучи однотипных дополнений к 3-ке и когда пришла пора двигаться дальше они сделали что-то действительно новое то, гов... любители конвейера заплакали что все по-другому и не приняли её. Согласен, часть критики обоснована: ненужный постоянный туман войны, местами бюджетные поля битв, отсутствие Капитолия и стенобитных орудий, которые, походу вместе с чертежами, остались в Эрафии (что превращает осаду в посмешище). Однако ненавистники 4-ки в упор не замечают уже не столь спорные нововведения: - разработчики разглядели в названии игры "Герои" и сделали их более активными и самостоятельными участниками игры (порой герой сам по себе армия и теперь сильный герой может даже с никчемной армией одержать победу). Также Герои могут получить, в зависимости от прокачки, свой индивидуальный класс, который может поменять исход битвы; - альтернативные пути развития города (повышение тактик и реиграбельости на картах); - чудесная музыка, которая меня вернула из дополнения «Легенды Аксеота» к 7-ой части сюда. Итогом, что имею сказать: 4-ка привнесла множество изменений (как спорных, так и очень нужных), которые не дают вернуться в оригинальную 3-ку (однако эти изменения, как мне кажется, вдохновили создателей модификации WOG и её последующих вариаций, которые я затираю и сегодня). Если вам не нравится 4-ка стилистически или из-за спорных нововведений, то рекомендую 3-ку с модификациями либо WOG, либо Horn of the Abyss, 5-ку либо 7-ку (там как раз и есть дополнение «Легенды Аксеота», которое назначалось для 4-ки). P.s. Если будете играть в 7-ку не советую играть в DLC про гомов – за столько лет багов в нем не убавилось, особенно с рунами (которые могут зациклить ход противника до бесконечности).

Почему нету русской локализации?!?! Нет русского языка в игре, для игры в стратегии необходима знать все тонкости механик и прочее, а без русского перевода всего этого не понять. Есть отличный перевод от Бука компании, почему не впилить его в эту версии игры я не понимаю. Очень не очень.

Наконец-то она появилась в продаже! Только вчера обсуждал с дружбаном, что не могу нигде найти лицензию, а тут почти даром) И пусть меня закамняют бросами, но это самая любимая часть серии и, имхо, самая лучшая)

HOMM4 is basically HOMM3 with a -massive- amount of extra content. For many gamers all that new content can be overwhelming, but if you're someone like me who loves just having "more" options to play around with then you will grow to love HOMM4 as surely as you as the rest of the games in the Heroes series. In order to truly appreciate HOMM4 one must not fall into the trap of comparing the gameplay to HOMM3 or HOMM 5. HOMM4's gameplay is very different - your hero now participates actively in combat, and so you must tailor his abilities to fit your particular playstyle while also complementing the overall playstyle of your main town. For example, if you want a hero who who excels in physical combat (or at least have very good survivability) then getting Grandmastery Combat is a must. If you prefer a hero who specializes in map control instead of direct combat then you will want a hero with Grandmastery Scouting/Stealth. At the same time, if your town of choice favors quality over quantity (fewer but more powerful/expensive troops) then consider taking Nobility (resource generation, additional unit generation and diplomacy) as your second main skill, while if your town favors cheaper, generally well-rounded creatures then Tactics (which improves the overall abilities of all friendly creatures) would probably give them just the edge they need to prevail in combat. Several other things make HOMM4's gameplay unique from other games in the HOMM franchise. First off: each town is now allied with two other town types, which means you may hire heroes from these towns. For example: you may hire a Life might hero to help you lead your Nature town along with your Nature magic hero. This opens up an incredible amount of possibilities. Consider, from our example, that the Life might hero specializes in the Tactics skill while the Nature magic hero specializes in summoning/buffing allied creatures... To reflect this change, all town types (except Might) have mage guild upgrades that allow them to learn spells from town type allied to them. Second, depending on your two highest skills your hero may gain a new "class" or title, along with some cool new abilities. Each class is amazing in its own right, especially once you consider its base abilities. For example, the Beastmaster class' only ability is a token bonus to the Summon Wolf spell. Laughable (it's not a very useful spell) although in the end there's really nothing funny about a druid-turned-Beastmaster who is essentially an extremely difficult-to-kill summoner/buffer-type hero. Third, managing your heroes in HOMM4 is just as important as managing your creature army - this is noteworthy especially in early-game since using your heroes correctly or keeping them at optimum/peak efficiency means buying them items. Obviously, this means that hero upkeep now becomes a factor in resource management. Having your hero use potions (some of which can be thrown at enemy stacks for a variety of effects) can, in many situations, be a much more sound investment than buying extra creatures your army won't need to beat a particularly encounter with as few casualties as possible. A good player must learn to juggle between focusing on his heroes or on his army, so that in the end their total efficiency is higher. Finally, in HOMM4 line of sight becomes a major factor in combat. This revolutionizes unit positioning especially when it comes to casters and shooters (including your heroes). Slower but tougher units are a valuable asset in HOMM4 since they can be used to stand in front of and protect your heroes/shooters. The presence of ranged retaliation in HOMM4 makes them doubly important. HOMM4 is not without its drawbacks. First off, the AI. Easily the worst in the entire series. Second, the aesthetics need some getting used to - the creature animations are generally less intricate than those from HOMM3 and 5. Third, the shortcut keys are only mentioned in the manual. Finally, the game requires precise control and planning and is far less forgiving of mistakes than other games in the series (in a large part due to the hero system). On the plus side, the music is great, the campaigns (especially from expansions) are good and that particular HOMM humor is as alive in HOMM4 as it is in HOMM3 (case in point: the female chaos magic hero). So why 5 stars you ask? Easy. Despite its flaws, this remains to be one of the most enjoyable strategy/tactics games with among the highest re-playability -in existence- today. That tells you a lot about the quality of games these days. All in all, mechanics-wise, HOMM4 is a strategy/tactical game fan's paradise. There are so many different things to try that it's a shame how very few people have played it compared to the other HOMM4 games. Even today, when there are people who can tell you the exact damage range of a dozen HOMM3 Blacks Dragons modified for hero statistics/specialties (and possibly how many pixels there are in one Black Dragon, even). Do yourself a favor and try this game. Even if you loved HOMM3 just pretend that this is a completely different game set in a different reality. It's what I did a few years back, and I have not regretted that decision.