Might & Magic Heroes VII Preview

RPGFan has published a preview of Might & Magic Heroes VII, the seventh title in the turn-based strategy/RPG series that started as a spin-off to the mainline Might and Magic titles, developed by Limbic Entertainment. As per our usual custom, here’s a short excerpt from the full article:

This is obviously a lot of content, but how does it play out on the screen? For me, it felt reminiscent of the old Heroes of Might and Magic that I loved as an adolescent; definitely a good thing. Revealing an area through the fog of war to find a magical spring, a pot of gold, or just a new enemy to fight kept me engaged and wishing I’d had more movement points that turn to explore further. The two maps I saw were large and beautifully rendered, with great attention to detail in the structures and neutral monsters dotting the landscape. The developers said each map should normally take 2-3 hours to fully explore and complete, and each of the six factions has at least 3 or 4 maps.

I played as Imani, a legendary hero from the Stronghold faction of Orcs who led her people to freedom from slavery at the hands of the Wizards. Because I was in the role of a revolutionary, I had very limited resources and units. In fact, in the first map, I had no fortress to supply new units and instead had to rely on allies I recruited from the map. Being limited in this way meant I had to be very selective about picking fights and carefully weigh the potential rewards of combat.

As a result, the game was difficult; I got wiped out by a flock (or a pride?) of griffons midway into the second map. Limbic promised that it was still balancing and play testing, and the maps we were playing were harder than average. I appreciated that I couldn’t be too cavalier with my army, but the game also presented some problems that were completely unnecessary.

If I saw one flaw, it was a lack of streamlining and conveyance for the player. There were several times where I blew past map objectives because I did not realize they were necessary to my quest. Menus could also be a pain to navigate or find relevant information. For instance, when I got my fortress, I noticed that I could assign a hero to act as governor and provide a bonus effect, but I had to exit out to the hero menu to learn what that hero’s governor ability did. At one point, I spent at least a minute trying to figure out how to exit another menu. When I was a kid, I would have solved this problem by reading the instruction manual after unboxing the game, but those days are long gone. I don’t want hand holding, but players need certain basic information in order to enjoy the more rewarding gameplay aspects.