[b]Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this game at this moment.[/b] 😕
[b]Long story short:[/b] I don't care about PvP mode; the game lacks key PvE features this series is known for.
[b]Long story long.[/b] I am a huge fan and long-term player of the Heroes of Might and Magic game series. What I love this series for is an immersive, large-scale and unpredictable fantasy world, where you can encounter fantasy creatures of all kinds, complete quests, gradually progress through large and diverse maps, and follow a well-scripted story. I like to have large armies, [i]learn[/i] all available spells and hero skills, collect all sets of artifacts, and conquer every available faction in the game in one scenario or campaign. I also love some level of randomness, where you encounter unexpected armies and receive unpredictable rewards in quests.
I still remember that excitement you get when you visit a seer's hut and the seer asks you to bring an artifact or defeat a hero... But you don't know where on the map they are, so you continue exploring in the hope you can find what you seek, taking your time. Nor do you know what the reward for your endeavors would be, which may be both a complete surprise and a major disappointment. You get that same feeling when you see a colored border or gate, which you can pass through only after receiving a key of the same color from the keymaster's tent. But since you don't know where those tents are, or at which point in your journey you'll come across them, you anticipate great adventures full of surprises. 🗺️
[b][u]Guess what? None of that atmosphere is present in the new game.[/u][/b]
[b]Main single-player content that needs to be added but is currently missing:[/b]
[list]
[*] quest objects, like quest huts, quest guards, and quest gates
[*] water gameplay and water objects
[*] underground level of the map
[*] key tents, key guards, and key gates
[*] long, handcrafted scenarios, where you gradually defeat every enemy faction, with each next faction stronger than the last one (The Empire of the World II, Wayfarer (E), LOTR 4.0, Paragon)
[*] map events, either triggered by stepping on a certain grid square or by a certain in-game day occurring
[*] a so-called "bomb" event, that removes an object on the map when triggered
[/list]
In general, the game does not offer any tools to restrict the player from accessing certain areas and/or enemies until a certain point in their progress.
I wish I were a good PvP player, but I'm not. The moment I step into that area, I'll be wiped out by some pro PvP player in a split second. ⚔️ The only reason for me to play this game is to relax in a long PvE session, at my own pace, splitting the game time into convenient chunks and returning to it whenever I have time. The most important thing here is that only when mapmakers have enough tools available to create long, immersive scenarios is there a chance for the game to get on track toward long-lived continuity and replayability. Ideally, we also need more diversity and randomness, by adding new factions too.
I wish I were wrong in my assumptions, and that these features will be added in the future — I'd be happy to change my opinion on the game. 🙏 But as of today, the game has every chance of turning into a massive online battle arena, [b]not a HoMM game.[/b]
