I was afraid, that buying the game in early acces I will be let down, but it turns out I spent hundreds of hours in the game. I had tons of fun playing single scenario maps, campaings and making maps with the in-game map editor. The good-old formula of turn-based fantasy strategy games is nicely combined with fresh ideas for innovative mechanics and really beautiful pixel-art graphics.
After a year I bought a supporter pack, just because I liked the game. Authors of the game seem very passionate about it. I really hope for some expansions in the nearest future, becuase I want more.
Full game, no DLC, no online-only. Support this developer instead of wasting your money and time with games like Age of Wonders 4.
Kind of an old-style look with the pixel art, but still looks nice. Reminds me of HoMM2's style.
I've only played the first two missions yet, still fairly bad at the game, but the years of experience in HoMM helps a bit. If you liked HoMM, you'll like this.
Economy seems to be decent. Even in the later stages of the game you'll still find yourself running out of money.
AI seems to be decent as well from what I've played so far, though that might've been just scripted content. Sometimes quick combat does even better than me, so that's a surprise for sure.
Not being able to mix factions is a bit of a bummer, but it kind of makes sense with the essence system. Not sure how I feel about the fact that there's no mage guild, but you get access to all spells instantly.
Like the fact that there's no Town Portal and Dimension Door type spells. Those are some of the worst ever. Also like the fact that there's a limit per stack. Can no longer go into hundreads/thousands.
Only thing I dislike so far is not being able to right-click on an object and have it tell you what it does. You get the generic "Source of Riches", "Source of Power" etc., but nothing more.
Story seems to be kinda cringe up until now, but that's about all games tbh. Music is nice though.
And one last thing: Hey hey, people.
Game has potential but it looks like developers don't know what to do with it. Yeah, overall HoMM formula works, but here and there it's just badly copied and don't give even half of the fun that gives HoMM 3. I Know this is not a Heroes game but in every aspect it tries to be and don't have its own identity. Got some nice ideas like magic system, but where idea works, technicals and designs are not. First impression is really nice but after few hours you see only mess of ideas putted in one bag and hardly shaken.
Its not bad game overall but very "hit and miss". As game that aspire to be "inspired by" HoMM series, it changes too much of elements and for the worse, new mechanics feeling forced and odd.
Having each town falling into "tier" category (also upgradable) with each having limited “slots” for buildings sounds interesting except it only means that recruiting require more walking around. Also capturing enemy town converts it into your own so you cant even mix armies. Units in combat cant defend (unless its “special ability”) or wait, creating odd situations where you can be actively punish for having fast troops. Stacks are limited in numbers without research (and even then they are laughably small) and unless you pump “leadership” attribute , you cant carry more with you (default being absurd three). Magic system where you gather “essence” from troops and use it for casting (so potentially having unlimited casting in single turn) simply doesn’t “click” and spells are generic anyway. And biggest offender – campaigns have only 4 missions each. Just 4, whooping 16 in whole game.
Better to play HoMM again.
