Is this game anything like Heroes of Might and MAgic?

[WannaLearnEnglish]

I am a big fan of HoMMV and playing the KB game (russian verison) now.

Since I've got some spare time and also desire to both exercise my English skills and talk a little bit about my favorite game of the moment, I would write an elaborate answer on subject.

Comments (and especially grammatical corrections) from native English speakers are highly welcome and certainly would serve as a stimilus to write more.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

1. Similarities between KB and HoMMV.

1.1. First of all, there are genetical ones. KB was here before HoMM series ... bla-bla-bla ... Everyone now knows that.

1.2. Also, "fairy-tale" graphics and design. I consider them superior to HoMMV. But what is more important for me, they're very similar in spirit. Again, everyone saw these screenshots.

1.3. Now to the real stuff you guys do not know that much about. Battles.

Battles are ALMOST identical to HoMMV.

You also have a Hero and 5 stack of units. Hero cast spells, units hit the enemy stacks. Hero has spellbook and various abilities.

It is easier to explain minor differences from HoMMV. Here they are:

1. KB is hex-based.
2. You've got 5 stacks instead of 7 in HoMMV.
3. Number of units in one stack is limited by Hero's "Leadership".
4. However Computer may have any number of stacks/units per stack.
5. Initiative thing works like it was (I believe) in earlier HoMM games. There are Rounds. Every stack acts exactly once per round. Units with higher initiative may choose whether to act now or wait and act later in the round.

That is, if there are units with initiative 3,4,5 then first #5 acts or waits, then #4 acts or waits, then #3 acts. Then waited units act in reverse order. That is, #4 acts if it choosed to wait, and then #5 acts if it choosed to wait.

The system has interesting property, that units with highest initiative can act twice in a row. Very useful, hit and run away

I personally like this "new-old" system more than HoMMV style. It is more predictable. So I can plan my Tactics for two-three rounds ahead !

6. Hero can cast his spells anytime, but only once per round. Or twice per round if he has certain skills. Also certain skills allow Hero to receive a little bit of extra Mana per Round.

7. The RAGE Box thing. Well, it is a MAJOR innovation that I will write about later. Maybe. Shortly, it is a kind of RAGE-based magic, as opposed to Mana-based Magic.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

2. Now the differences.

It is indeed a RPG.

2.1. You've got only ONE hero.

2.2. Your primary objective is to run about the map and do some "Quests". Search and destroy that bunch of bad guys, find these artifacts, help this guy to find his lost stuff and that guy to find a good wife. All kind of those stupid things a good "Knight" should do for living. That is for Money and Experience.

Some people like it and some do not and even find it stupid and boring.

The "strategy" component in KB is here only as long as there are many packs of monsters walking around the map, and all these monsters somehow do not let you pass through. Or own the stuff you need to get. So the solution. Hire a good army and smash them out.

2.3. That means that in fact there are no such thing as "Enemy Hero(s)". Formally, Enemy Heros are here, a lot of them, but they are completely static. It's better to say that there are "heroless" packs of monsters and "herowith" packs of monsters. In the BATTLE these heroes act like in HoMMV, cast spells etc. But they do not move around the map, do not hire units, do not upgrade their level. They're really just a part of monsterpacks, not real heros.

2.4. Castles.

Yes, you DO hire your units in the castles.

However, you do not OWN any. You do not build or upgrade anything there. Castles are something like 'Tavern' where you can hire some types of units. Artefacts and spells in limited amounts are also on sale there. When you fulfill quests, new Castles with new types of units become available. Sometimes these Quests are about to please Castle's owner, sometimes to kill or conquire him somehow.

2.5. Money ! VERY different from HoMMV.

No castles means no fixed income!

You earn your money very hard way, especially in the beginning. As trophies in the battles. As payment for Quest fulfillment. Money is really an issue in KB, and there are NO easy ways to earn it, like pressing "next" button in HoMMV.

I think that a person without good Battle Tactics skills would not cope with this issue. You see, bad tactics imply big unit losses. And your unit losses should be covered by battle's "reward money" (trophies) If your losses cost more than that trophey's money, you go bankrupt very soon.

A pecular thing is that "reward money" do NOT depend on ABSOLUTE strength of your Enemy, but on his RELATIVE strength to YOU at the moment of the battle!

Absolutely NOT LOGICAL , but forces anyone to consider his unit losses and his Battle Tactics skills very seriously.

If you attack a weak enemy you may suffer no losses, but get little money. If you attack a strong enemy, you get more money, but also suffer unit losses you have to pay for. You're well off only if your trophies are bigger than your unit losses. A thing called "Game Balance" by some.

Although you can get some pocket money by doing more of those stupid side Quests, (There are only several main storyline Quests and a LOT of side Quests) its a good Battle Tactics skills that really helps.

===
All right. I would pause here. Would gladly answer any questions.

[KingImp]

Are there no stacks of gold or treasure that would contain money lying around to pick up either?

[WannaLearnEnglish]

Q: Are there no stacks of gold or treasure that would contain money lying around to pick up either?

A: Money is lying on the roads, but in very small amounts (say, 250gp). Treasure Chests contain a little bit more (say, 1000gp) but they're monster-guarded. Also all of these are only on newly-explored areas (exactly like in HoMMV) and are not renewable.

One pecular "real-time" thing is that you can in fact steal a guarded item without fighting. Just wait till monster who is supposed to guard the item, and does so by walking to and fro, moves somewhere sideways. Or play tease-and-run game: when a monster sees a player, he is eager to pursue him and forgets his guarding business for a while. But this "game designers-approved cheating" is a really time-consuming and boring process. And besides, as I mentioned, Chests are not very rich. You also can get some two grands or even less for doing a Quest. But a decent battle with about equal-strenght Monster would give me (at my current level) about 10 grands in trophies.

So really, to get rich you have to fight well Maybe there are other ways, but I'm not aware of them.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

To give you the idea how much does the local money cost, a Peasant (Human level 1) costs 10gp, and a Bear (level 3) costs about 250gp.

BTW, many units are similar to HoMMV. Peasants are still simplest units, Skeletons are of two kinds: Archers and Fighters, Vampires still suck lifepoints, Fairies are level-one Elves, Elven Archers hit twice, Dragons are Black, Green, Skeleton and Red ones, etc.

However, overall balance is quite different. Low-level units are just as useful as high-levels, or even more useful. Remember that the size of your stack is limited by "Leadership". That is, you walk away with stack of 70 Peasants OR 5 Bears. So the best units in the game are probably low-level Fairies and Skeleton Archers.

Another difference is that you have to fight with the units you've got on sale. And units availability is half-randomly generated when the game starts. People say Giants are cool FAT unit, but I've got no Giants in nearby Castles, and have to cope with Bears as my Fatties.

So, although there is only one map, if you restart the game you would get a slightly different thing to play.

BTW, who said these's 20 hours gameplay time, he is wrong. Show me a man who can do it in 20 hours, a real Hero Genius Probably if you know everything about storyline, unit abilities, spells availiable etc, you can do it in 20 hours. But I've read every spoiler I could find on Internet, and am playing for at least twice as much time now. I think I'm only about halfway through.

[Sol Invictus]

Thanks for the mini-review. I like the fact that the Player is forced to consider army losses and can't just throw his units into the meatgrinder without a thought. I am really looking forward to the game. Your English is quite good by the way.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

Thanx Good, but not perfect. There ought to be errors, point some of them out.

3. Graphics: technical issues.

3.1. 3D Style.

Another difference from HoMMV is that in KB 3D is forced upon you. In HoMMV there was 3D camera, but I always turned on "classic camera" with 2D view from above and with the North in the proper position.

Here in KB there is no such thing as classic camera. You're FORCED to walk 3D, DOOM-style, be lost in directions, and do all those Chest-scrolls-stuff-searches real 3D-way. Build-in maps are rather sketchy. Game designers even do not allow one to look at the picture a little bit higher from above, helicopter-view camera style. To avoid us players to walk good old 2D style Although would it be possible, it would speed-up the game process significantly.

Probably, game designers thought that it would embed one into proper "game athmosphere". Well, maybe they've right. Map is handmade and most of the building are unique. At first I was troubled, but eventually learned every corner of the map, and can give good "driving directions" (turn left, then turn right etc) to anyone. But again, these are RPG elements. To strategy-lover they're alien.

3.2. Just some Lyrics notes in between the lines

There are some nice 3D-moments also. E.g. I remember how I was staying ON THE HILL near the Temple, somewhere near the entrance to the Graveyard. I just cheated one monster, won a hard battle against another one, but lost half of my tiny army. Enemen Guy Castle was clearly seen on the horizon DOWN THERE in the Valley. In spoilers I've heard there're some good units available. But quick monsters of "deadly" rank were moving galore in between. So I turned back, and postponed my visit to the guy. Which proved correct aftewards, since in MY map there were NO these cool units in that Castle, and I couldn't hire Skeleton Archers that were there instead, without Army Morale losses at that moment.

However the hill was not very high. I would STRONGLY ADVISE game designers to make good hills with REAL PANORAMIC views. A good hill with panoramic view would help me to accept this 3D enforcement stuff, otherwise I'm (frankly speaking) fed up with it.

3.3. Video demands

One of the consequences is that my 7600GS graphic card works well only in 1024x768 and low-profile settings. In fact, HoMMV in true 3D mode is also pretty video-demanding. But there 3D-walk was neither obligatory nor really necessary. Even if for some reason one wanted to walk around 3D-style, there were no running real-time monsters around, and low FPS was tolerable.

Here in KB not only moving Monsters, but also superb hand-made graphics of the game demands and deserves more. Luckily, time of insanely expensive 8800 series looks to be over, and NVIDIA-AMD war has produced a decent mid-priced product of almost equal power, 9600GT. That card (silent versions available !) I would probably buy, solely for KB reasons. The game picture looks significantly better in 1680x1050 (or one can rather say: "looks significantly worse in 1024x768") although FPS is too low to play on my current system.

As for STARFORCE, I had no problems with it. Never asked me for stupid letter "codes", never tried to connect to internet or something. All one needs is to keep the disk in tray. I've heard that STARFORCE protection misbehaves on old or unusual CD/DVD-drives. I'm using new ASUS SATA CD/DVD-drive, that is widely availiable for about 30 bucks or so.

3.4. Small Letters problem.

Letters are very, very small. After 4 hours of the game strained eyes are guaranteed. I understand that a good artist should have good attention to the details, and therefore is a natural-born petite lover. But I'm just a player and not only have to look at the artist's works, but also have to read what these story-tellers wrote. Also, I really READ all those hitpoint-damage information etc.

Dear KATAURI, please recall that these are NOT petite letters in WARRANCY contract ! I swear I wouldn't use them to suit the designers and claim damages Just let me SEE them, not just look at them !

[lostn]

Thanks for the excellent review WannaLearnEnglish. That sheds a lot of light on the game.