Might & Magic Heroes VI Reviews

It seems to have taken a while, but reviews for Might & Magic Heroes VI seem to be finally coming out at full speed, bringing together with themselves a mixed picture of the title.

GamePro awards it 3/5 for not trying something new and compares it unfavorably to King’s Bounty.

For years, the Heroes franchise was one of, if not the most prominent, strategy-RPG series in the West. But when King’s Bounty made its return in 2006, it showed how Heroes had become stale in some ways. Heroes VI has some additions, but the game just isn’t as fun for me as King’s Bounty, which mixes great unit variety, interesting quests, varied maps, and some silly humor (some intentional, some likely the result of poor localization). I plan on playing more Heroes VI, and if you’ve enjoyed past Heroes game, you’re going to enjoy this one, too. But it’d be nice to see Ubisoft try more new things and ditch their lousy online strategy.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun tell us “Wot They Think” in one of their customary scoreless reviews.

So, my affections remain very much with the simpler, cheerier King’s Bounty, though I would love to see a hybrid of both games’ take on things. I’ve had a good enough time with HoMM6, I greatly admire its generosity of content and I’d certainly recommend it as a worthwhile enough purchase in this rarely-serviced genre, but I wish it weren’t so caught up in 2011’s faddish spew of social networking and unlocks. It just doesn’t suit the introspection and masterplanning inherent in a title like this.

DeltaGamer offers some thoughts on the title before the proper review.

If you don’t own any other Ubisoft game for any platform (like is the case with me), the benefits of staying online are minimal. There are online saves, but the slots are limited. You can rank up and earn achievements, which earn dynasty points, which in turn you use to buy stuff to customize your profile. The ones that do have an impact on gameplay are trivial and boil down to equipping perks like in Call of Duty’s multiplayer. If you do own other Ubisoft games, then you can at least spend U-points to buy DLC for them.

I am still trying to figure out how necessary this all is and whether it detracts from the actual game. There’s still ways to go before I can give a proper review. I haven’t tried multiplayer yet, which should be Interesting when I get to it. I am having fun with the game so far, more than with Heroes V, that’s for sure. Unless something breaks horribly, I’m likely to give it a positive verdict and recommendation. In any case, expect a proper review this weekend.

And finally, WhatCulture! awards it 3.5/5.

A good and solid, slow-burning strategy game that it is easy to spend a lot of hours in the company of, especially in multiplayer.