So what’s the detail like as far as character building goes? I saw a blurb that boasted how there are “over 20 skills” and that honestly seems a bit weak for a game that’s supposed to be all about building your party.
I’m always on the lookout for a nice crunchy party-building experience. Is this it?
Haven’t played it, but remember that it’s class based, so those skills are distributed among all the different kinds of characters. Each one has a reasonably unique skill array and a special ability along with its racial specials.
Just watched the trailer and it looks like the game is more grid-based like the VERY old M&M or Bard’s Tale games as opposed to the MM 6, 7, 8 engines. Is that the case or is the trailer demo just a lot more rigid than actual gameplay? if it IS grid-based, why on earth would they do that?
It is grid based, and they did it because it’s awesome.
Awesome as a throwback element? Like, “wouldn’t it have been great if PC graphics were this good in 1986!” Or is there an entertainment element of grid-based gameplay that I’m failing to appreciate?
Different target audience. Grid-based (turn-based) games are played with the brain and do not require a fast-twitch clicker finger … which some of don’t have.
Well, nostalgia is certainly a part of the appeal. But beyond that, I like turn-based, tactical games. Grid-based movement, as implemented here, is admittedly a pretty light tactical element, but it’s enough to keep me entertained. The last few M&M games (Six and on) tried to combine the combat style of the Might and Magic franchise with full 3D environments and open movement, and I don’t think it worked as well.
People are reporting the grid works fine in the dungeons, but kinda sucks balls in the outside world.
OK, I’ve had some time with it now, so let’s see if I can answer some of these questions. No plot spoilers, but a few “gameplay” ones, which I’m not going to bother to spoiler tag. You’ve been warned.
“20 skills” – these are basic skills: Axe, Sword, Heavy Armor, various magic schools, etc. They’re shared across all classes, although each class has different maximums they can achieve in them (freemages will never be great fighters, etc.). In addition, each class gets a couple of class-specific skills, and there are a ton of spells (many of which anyone can learn, given basic training in the spell’s school). It’s not a huge amount of customization, but it’s enough to both differentiate the classes from each other and allow multiple different builds within each class. Unless you’re incredibly obsessive, you probably won’t manage to use up all the options. There are hints that there may be something like prestige classes, but if so I haven’t gotten high enough level yet.
“DRM” The DRM is everything you hate about Ubisoft and worse. You need, in addition to your steam account, a separate “U-play” account. You don’t have to enter the U play login every time, but you do have to sit and stare at it for half a minute every time you launch, since it slowly updates. And then see the third-party ads every time the game quits. The game will not launch without a network connection, even though it’s not multiplayer.
“Grid Based” – This is an affectation, obviously, but it works pretty well. It adds an element of strategy to the game, since you can only attack along straight non-diagonal lines, and moving takes the entire party’s turn. So you want to plan ahead to make the monsters do the moving. The world looks very nice despite the grid, although it’s strangely barren: there’s a lot of detail (glowing mushrooms, fallen objects, interesting-looking artwork and items lying around), almost none of which is interactive. You have an on-screen cursor, but it doesn’t actually DO anything onscreen; the entire game can be played from the keyboard. (Actually, you can use the cursor to look up or down, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason to do so except to admire the scenery). I agree that it works better indoors than out, but the real takeaway is that many of the “puzzle” aspects of the game exist only because of the grid system – in that sense, the limitations enhance the experience. And even outdoors, you get used to the grid moving pretty fast.
And one of my own: Each skill is “capped” up to three times, at “expert,” “master,” and “grandmaster” level. No matter how many skill points you have, you can’t spend them past the cap until you’ve spoken to an appropriate trainer to remove the cap. But the trainers are scattered about the world (sometimes even behind secret doors in the dungeons). Only about half the necessary “expert” trainers are even available in “act one,” and even by the time you get to the second town, you still won’t have all of them (I still haven’t found a fire magic expert trainer, for example, and I’m fairly completionist about exploring). Which means that if you pick the wrong skills (which you have no way of knowing), you’ll be capped at the “novice” (or whatever) level of that skill for an unknown amount of time, even as the monsters keep getting harder. I got unlucky and fully three of my four characters had primary skills that simply couldn’t be advanced in the areas I had access to: it made the last few dungeons of the first act very difficult. So a hint: before committing points to a weapon, armor, discipline, or magic element, walk around the first town and make sure there’s a trainer that can help you when you level.
Overall, I like it. There are some balance issues, and the world is both empty and fairly small, but it’s a nice, retro-while-not-being-dated gameplay experience.
He’s in the wagon in front of Portmeyron.
There’s a fire/earth/primordial trainer in the gypsy cart on the wolf plain right outside New Sorpigal, yes.
That being said, I do think it’s kind of shitty that some skills simply do not have a training option before Seahaven - spears, dual wield, water magic, dodge…
I think it’s even more shitty that the game doesn’t want to work at all past Act One on my rig :(. Suddenly it crashes every 5 minutes, when it was every hour or so before. Guess 2 gigs of RAM really isn’t enough. To run a game that looks like 1995.
I think it’s 64 bit only and it does use up a lot of RAM - probably a cost saving measure. No need to optimize the asset pipeline/memory usage much.
Interesting. I tried to interact with that wagon from every side, and it appeared to me to be entirely “scenic.” I’ll look again tonight, although I’ve now found the one in Korthal.
The entrance is on the east side. There’s a merchant in there, and an Expert trainer for three magic skills.
Is the plot connected to any of the old games?
Has anyone made it to the end yet?
It doesn’t seem to be. I believe it’s using the setting from the last few Heroes games. Haven’t found any mechanical dungeons or robot monsters yet, and I’m ~20th level. However (very minor spoiler for a side quest):
The guy who rewards you for every ten entries you make in your bestiary is pretty clearly from outer space, and bad at keeping it a secret. “This is an interesting planet - I mean, city!” sort of thing.
There are NPCs that hark back to the older games - for example, the first city has Maximus the Orc Knight. He was a head bad guy in VII. There’s also a Falagar the Wizard, who was you mentor in VI.
But plotwise, yeah, it follows the events of Heroes VI.