The transition of epic single-player series to online mode cannot be called a recent trend: just remember World of Warcraft And Star Wars: The Old Republic — exemplary cases of converting successful “singles” into MMOs. However, this year has turned out to be especially fruitful for fans who dreamed of transforming their favorite franchises into multiplayer online entertainment. We didn’t have time to go to the housewarming party The Elder Scrolls Online, How another cult game went into open beta: Heroes of Might & Magic. This time the new incarnation of the famous turn-based strategy is called "Might and Magic: Heroes Online" and is based on flash technologies. That is, it lives in the browser. We had the opportunity to take a look at the beta test of this “heroic freshman”. Let’s share our impressions.

The shaman talks a lot about unity with nature and loudly scolds people who harm nature, but this does not stop him from wearing the skin of a killed deer himself.

These are the heroes you are looking for

"Might and Magic: Heroes Online" – not the first attempt to turn “Heroes” into an MMO. In 2008, it was released in China Heroes of Might and Magic Online, which at first was available only to residents of Asia. Subsequently Ubisoft began beta testing of the project in Western virtual spaces, but the skis, it seems, have not gone too far. So the publishers took a different path: they entrusted the development of a new online version to a German studio Blue Byte and completely abandoned the game client.

The browser format did not spoil either the graphics or the interface at all. The “play now” button opens the door to a full-fledged, colorful and pleasing to the eye world, which, in essence, is not inferior in visual appeal to most modern turn-based strategies. The only inconvenience that causes some inconvenience is the speed – the speed of the hero’s movement across the map, the speed of loading new areas and combat situations that require the series’ traditional switch from the mode of wandering around the map to the turn-based battle mode.

Instead of the usual abundance of playable races, we are suddenly offered a very modest choice between the Alliance of Light, that is, people, and Necropolis, that is, the undead. All sorts of demons, druids and other loitering people there will for now only be encountered as monsters. The developers promise to give us new.. old… some races along with upcoming addons.

The class system, on the contrary, has not undergone any significant changes compared to the most successful games in the series. We can still choose between warrior and mage. In this matter, you shouldn’t be afraid of excessive asceticism: we will combine skills at our discretion, creating, for example, a warrior with an emphasis on tactics or, conversely, an armored “tank” that primarily “rocks” defense.

"Six" says hello

It is impossible to ignore this event: the developers returned to the idea of ​​​​an Orthodox hexagonal battlefield instead of the godless square one with which we suffered in the fifth and sixth editions!

However, "hex" to replace "square" is one of the very few references to HoM&M3, which many players still consider to be the strongest link in the chain of games united by the corresponding brand. A lot has migrated to the online version from Might & Magic: Heroes 6. So, we still have only four types of resources – sulfur, mercury and gems have finally disappeared into oblivion. We are still in Ashan, which is once again threatened by no less than another apocalypse. Finally, the game’s music is almost completely copied from the latest "single player" incarnation of the franchise.

That is, what happens: "Might and Magic: Heroes Online" – this is what it is Heroes 6, only online and with hexagonal grid?

Not at all. It’s more like https://slotcrazycasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ this King’s Bounty with multiplayer format bonuses. The step-by-step approach on which not only battles, but also the entire campaign as a whole was built in the “single”, remained here only in battles. Characters move around the global map in real time. Of course, this eliminates the need for multi-move combinations, several heroes, one of which could serve as a “shuttle”, transferring an army from a weaker character to a stronger one – in general, in all those features of the game on the global world map, from which a kind of chess game was composed in various HoM&M.

And in general, you can only play one hero at a time – like in an RPG. In addition, in any case, we will be given a cell for an alternative character only for the so-called seals, which are a very valuable in-game currency.

Finance sings romances

"Might and Magic: Heroes Online" at first glance it seems like a typical representative of the free-to-play genre with an obsessive “donation”. It’s no joke: we want to see the number of troops in the enemy army – we pay. It is necessary to expand the bags, which initially fit very few items? We pay. It is necessary to speed up the construction of buildings or the hiring of troops – processes that here, as in many browser games, take some time? Well, it’s already clear what we’re doing, yes?

But the exactions seem brutal only at first. In fact, it’s quite possible to get by without injecting real money. There is no PvP here today, although the developers promise to please us with a real “makhach” with arenas and other goodies in a couple of months. In the meantime, in a PvE-oriented world, the main problem of “donation” disappears – the veiled purchase of victory for “real money” when it comes to battles between players. The built-in threat level assessment provides a good idea of ​​the strength of the enemy army. The ability to move to your city at any time and the system of portals between provinces allows us not to worry too much about the capacity of bags – after all, at any time we can move the hero to a merchant with a couple of clicks and sell him everything unnecessary. The processes of construction and recruitment continue in the most beautiful way while we are adventuring or even out of the game, so if you don’t manage your squad in a completely idiotic way, problems with replenishment usually do not arise. In general, playing with a donation or without a donation is more a matter of personal preference than a vital necessity.

By the way, with the troops, things are also somehow not “hero-like”: the number of fighters that we can take with us into each specific battle is limited and depends on the level. At the current stage of development, we are entitled to one hundred “main creatures” – this means that in any battle the hero-commander will command exactly one hundred, and the remaining “units” of the same type will hang in reserve. Again, it’s impossible not to remember King’s Bounty with its linking the size of the army to the value of the character’s “leadership” parameter. It’s good at least that the reserve can be "carried with you", allowing living warriors to immediately take the place of the fallen at the end of the battle.

A tired hero comes to the city in the hope of an overnight stay and shopping, and they tell him: “Leave him alone.”! Carry water, put out fire!"And so – every day.

Hitting in the back – cheap, reliable and practical

The almost complete absence of PvP – at least at the current stage – usually implies a fairly developed PvE system. "Might and Magic: Heroes Online" in this sense it produces a somewhat ambivalent impression. We will certainly find interesting enemy monsters here – usually almost every unit in the enemy army has its own unique ability. Thus, the demonic Progenitors are expelling from themselves more and more “little madmen” – a kind of infantry; and the wolves howl, thereby demoralizing our soldiers. There are also “bosses” who are usually beaten in groups, although in most cases you can deal with them alone. If we decide to “swing” together with a friend, the number of troops opposing us automatically increases, adjusting to our overall strength.

At higher levels, heroes can expect “raids” for five, where they give out a lot of experience and good loot, so even after completing the main storyline, the “old-timers” will have something to do. Castle siege also occurs, although perhaps somewhat less frequently than we would like.

Battles can take place in completely different scenarios, even with the same set of opponents. After all, tactics largely depend on the terrain: it is very important, for example, to cover the backs of your soldiers in close combat – and, on the contrary, not to allow opponents to occupy positions that are vulnerable only from the front. A blow to the back removes a significantly larger number of hit points than a blow from the flank, which, in turn, is incomparably better than a regular frontal attack.

For the Motherland! Behind the tree!

This all sounds quite varied, doesn’t it?? However, in practice, it turns out that we have to engage in a lot of the same type of battles every day in order to get to the resources and artifacts scattered around the map – the path to them is usually blocked by enemies. Moreover, if uniforms and gold can be obtained in other ways, then with wood, ore or crystals everything is much more complicated. Without them there is sadness and melancholy, because the improvement and construction of buildings usually requires large amounts of valuable materials. You can, of course, build “worker halls” in the city to constantly extract resources, but not everything is so simple here: our warehouses are far from limitless. As soon as virtual subjects produce the maximum number of units of wood that can be stored in the city at a time, production will immediately stop – and will not begin until the hero comes home and collects all this happiness. The same applies to troops – you need to come for them and take them with you, otherwise at a certain point the conscription will stop, and new soldiers will not be trained until we liberate the barracks. Upgrading buildings increases this limit, but also requires resources.

Things are even sadder with the mines and sawmills scattered across the map. They are also equipped with storage facilities and also stop working when the warehouse runs out of free space. But they are not at all in the city and, as a rule, they turn out to be completely out of the way when we move to the next, higher-level location.

Note that the automatic battle familiar to the series, which, of course, has an adverse effect on the size of the army, but saves time for more interesting achievements, is only available for seals. We have to put up with a somewhat monotonous grind and console ourselves with the fact that in addition to resources, we also receive experience for each battle.

Fun logistics

However, much more experience comes from completing tasks that are handled rather trickily. Of course, the quests contain the main storyline, which is mainly responsible for the “pumping up” of the hero. At low levels, it is in the process of moving through the scenario that we are unobtrusively introduced to the main features of the game. In most cases, the transition to a new location occurs after a fight with the “boss”, and these locations are organized in such a way that movement between them is carried out as quickly as possible. For example, the first big city we find ourselves in is equipped with a pair of portals and a couple more entrances, access to which we do not gain simultaneously, but one by one, only after completing the corresponding plot assignments.

“And what’s the trick??"- the attentive reader will ask.

You won’t believe it – with action points. The same action points that in previous games in the series determined the range of our movements in one turn here work as a progress limiter. We spend this kind of resource on battles within the scenario and, when it ends, we lose access to “story” battles for some time. The situation can be corrected with the help of a special elixir – if you really can’t bear to go further today. If time is of the essence, it is enough to wait for the night, when the action points are reset to zero, and we can rush to new exploits. However, no one bothers you to take on side quests that can be completed under any circumstances.

These are mainly daily, repeatable quests, most of which are focused on killing and gathering. An herbalist, for example, needs regular supplies of ferns, and a vampire is ready to supply us with ghouls once a day in exchange for ghost coins. You don’t have to scour the area for a long time: you usually only need to bring three or four pieces of what you are looking for, and this something appears in the same places. All quests are accompanied by quite tolerable dialogues, sometimes even with humor.

It is customary to gather groups against “bosses,” but practice shows that you can easily deal with them even without support.

Probably for the game "Might and Magic: Heroes Online" doesn’t need to be treated as multiplayer HoM&M. Online inevitably introduces its own adjustments to the main idea of ​​the series, so that the result is more of an RPG with turn-based strategy elements than, in fact, a purebred turn-based strategy. Otherwise, even at the beta testing stage, the game seems suitable. Especially compared to most browser-based entertainment, which you can only play at work out of great boredom.