Dear Ubisoft,

please remake Heroes of Might and Magic 3. That game has a stronger following today than the new titles in the series. It was balanced out, simple and yet complex enough to keep people hooked.

Let us examine some BASIC reasons as to why Heroes 3 is still a better option today.

Hero level up - In H3, leveling up system was very simple. You had 10 skills you could choose and there was no "skill ladder" making players choose a skill they did not want just so they could get a stronger one later on. If you took Leadership, you had Leadership, nothing more, nothing less. Now mix and match to your heart's content... because you know... games are meant to be fun.

Unit art - It may SEEM counteractive to go back to H3 representation of units from the side as opposed to top down, but really, what can you see from the top? Nothing! A bunch of helmets and horns. Units in H3 still seem a lot more detailed than those in today's releases even though they are practically pixel art by today's graphical standards. Go back and have a look at the screen space a unit occupies in H3 and then in the modern HoMM releases. You cannot get excited about a bunch of tiny somethings running around like ants on the battlefield. What players want to see is proper well-drawn side on representations of units. Their imagination will do the rest.

While we are on the topic, the HoMM6 has fixed a similar problem with town look where the town no longer rotates and every building is standing proud and visible (as opposed to the H5 where you had to "hunt" for tiny buildings hidden away in dark crevices of huge town decorations). These towns look amazing now! Now if you could do the same thing to the world map, units, artifacts... everything basically; that would be great.

But see? You are already on the right track! Keep going! It is a pity you are reinventing the wheel though.

Music - This is important. Ask a FORMER H3 player who has not touched the game in years and they will easily hum few to several towns worth of theme music to you. It was quality and it was memorable.

Economy - Stop dumbing the game down. What is wrong with having 7 resources? It is part of the experience to size up a Naga group defending a couple of mercury cauldrons and contemplate possible losses and profits. The mercury that was left alone by another player because they need crystal instead. The map is suddenly a lot more interesting with different players seeking different objects and crossing paths.

Factions - 8 Factions in Heroes 3. 9 if you count the Conflux from the Armageddon's Blade expansion. Towns and units are well balanced, with each town having that unforgettable vibe to it, and with enough unit special abilities to keep the battle interesting and keep players choosing a new faction every time they play. Since when does "progress" means cutting down game choices?

Graphics - If I cannot see a unit on a map because of all the fancy rendering and 3D effects of nearby trees and bushes, then the graphics are horrible, they are not doing their job. And don't try and highlight units and other objects with unnatural glows, to cover up the fact that they would otherwise get lost. Form follows function!!! Graphics must derive from the gameplay.

Timing - Watching a fancy spell being cast for several seconds might be fun the first times around, but as time goes on, choice and effect must happen almost instantaneously. Again, go back and look at Heroes 3. Everything is fast-paced and players do not wait on each other.

Let us not generalize though. All in all, there were of course improvements in new titles, for example being able to choose whether or not you want to learn a skill at the Hut on Chicken Legs as opposed to being taught Eagle Eye whether you like it or not. Or the battle turn order to make calculations faster. Certain Heroes 3 things could use some more balancing, aside from the mentioned Eagle Eye there are a few more skills one would never choose. But really, those are the things new titles should have fixed without sacrificing the good bits of the game.

Go back to Heroes 3 and make Heroes 7 an even better release. Easy on the CPU without bloated graphics and effects that no one really needs, and more emphasis on gameplay.

EDIT:
Heroes 7 was out for a while and the same issues persist. No, really, fix these issues.

Quasi fatto! Ora fai il passo successivo: condividi la petizione!