OT: HOMM V

[DonCorazon]

Thanks all.

SSJ - I am mostly interested in SP anyway. I find Dom 3 MP so much more enjoyable than Dom SP, that I can barely play the SP – it just pales in comparison and I race through moves without any real deliberation until I get bored in about ~ 20 turns. So I was actually interested in finding some lighter fare for SP. I downloaded the HOMM 5 demo last night so will give it a try. BTW that is pretty cool your wife will play HOMM with you!

[NTJedi]

DonCorazon said:
BTW that is pretty cool your wife will play HOMM with you!

I agree... most females lean towards the usual "I'm too kool for computer games". My wife doesn't play any PC games, but I've been lucky to convince her to play a few Wii games. Maybe after 5 years or 10 years I can convince her to try a PC game.

[djo]

I found HOMM V to be amusing enough. Sadly, though, if you have a Mac, it has some performance, stability, and bug issues. I find it basically playable on a 2-yr old MacBook Pro, if you're patient.

[DonCorazon]

Wii may be the gateway platform for wifes. My wife will also play and wails on me in the boxing game.

[Ironhawk]

DC: I bought and played HOMMV for the same reasons as you. I was getting my fill on Dom3 MP, but I just wanted a little something to play SP when there were no turns around or I wanted a change of pace.

I found the game to be overall reasonably fun and quick to learn. The campaign stories were also pretty good and the characters ok if a little stereotyped. The one problem I had with it tho was that the missions are, for the most part, designed to be longer and bigger rather than more interesting. That said, I did eventually finish the game, even tho I had to put it down for about 6mos at one point for my interest to come back.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

The problem of HOMM 5 is that it's a real joke if it comes to strategy. Almost everything is randomized and makes it pretty much impossible to play a certain strategy.
It could be nice as a "switch brain off and just enjoy the mood" game, however the game not even has the probably worst AI ever designed, it also has the slowest. If an AI needs several minutes to decide that it just does nothing with his one and only hero, that's really, REALLY low.
HOMM3 was kind of nice and had an amazing music score, but HOMM5 was a real sleeping tablet. Not exactly sure what was the difference between 3 and 5, but HOMM5 turned out to be one of the worst fantasy games I've played in a long time.

[HotNifeThruButr]

Maybe it's just that I haven't played HOMMV online, but I found everything about the game good... except the actual gameplay... and I don't really know why. The systems of the heroes, cities, and the creature variety all seem to have integrity and potential.

My personal feeling on HoMM's failing, either looking only at V or at the whole series, is that the game has an enormous slippery slope problem. The nature of the game is such that one army, one hero, or one city is always so meaningful that to lose just one battle or have one of your cities taken over basically means you've lost the game. Conversely, you can tell how a game will end long before it's actually ended by looking at which side won the first battle. This is because as stacks grow, they become more powerful faster, not slower. Shooters/casters can annihilate almost any neutral army without suffering casualties as long as they have a critical mass, and melee stacks can wipe out any enemy stack without fear of retaliation as long as they have a critical mass.

So basically, and I'm pretty sure I'm making not too bold an assertion here, the only place in HOMM games where a player's skill can determine whether he will win is in his judgment of which neutrals he is powerful enough to attack. If a player gets his army wiped out by neutrals, then he's basically lost the game but if a player can fight the toughest neutrals he can take on, he'll have more gold, items, and experience to fight others with.

HOMMV is boring. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My 2 cents.

[Loren]

I've had no crash problems with it. I've had to restart a couple of times due to scripting errors making victory impossible, though.

There's one thing I really don't like about it, though--there's always a final battle involving prior heroes and you don't get to build your forces or anything, you just get what it gives you and you lose all equipment that's not part of a set. These final battles can be insane, especially if you didn't manage to get some key spell you need for victory.

[Randvek]

HotNifeThruButr said:
Maybe it's just that I haven't played HOMMV online, but I found everything about the game good... except the actual gameplay... and I don't really know why. The systems of the heroes, cities, and the creature variety all seem to have integrity and potential.

I think the same thing, but I think I do know what HOMMV is lacking: map design. Think about it. Which maps really stand out to you as interesting and well-designed, either as a custom game map or as a campaign map? Probably none of them. I think maps make a huge difference in games like this.

[S.R. Krol]

I recently reinstalled HOMM1 and 3 (can't find my 2 CDs at the moment) and have gotten sucked back into it. Man, I used to play those games on a daily basis for years. Anyone remember the Astral Wizard site? That was a great place for scenarios.

I found V pretty good (once patched) and hated HATED IV.

The only problem I've found with the HOMM series has always been it boils down to the killer stack. I wish you could have free form armies without heroes, that may change the way it is played.