The transition of epic single-player series to the online mode cannot be called a recent trend: suffice it to recall World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic - exemplary cases of transforming successful "singles" into MMOs. However, this year has been particularly fruitful for fans who dreamed of transforming their favorite franchises into massively multiplayer online entertainment. No sooner had we gone to the “housewarming” of The Elder Scrolls Online, when another cult Friv game, Heroes of Might & Magic, went into open beta. This time a 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 have the opportunity to take a look at the beta test of this "heroic fresh". Let's share our impressions.
Might and Magic: Heroes Online is not the first attempt at turning Heroes into an MMO. In 2008, Heroes of Might and Magic Online was released in China, which at first was available only to residents of Asia. Subsequently, Jogos Friv Studio began beta testing the project in Western virtual spaces, but the skis did not seem to have gone too far. So the publishers took a different path: they commissioned the development of a new online version of the German studio Blue Byte and completely abandoned the Friv 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 eye-pleasing world, which, in essence, is not inferior in visual appeal to most modern turn-based strategies. Some inconvenience is caused only by speed - the speed of the hero's movement on the map, the speed of loading new areas and combat situations that require the traditional for a series of switching from the mode of wandering around the map to the mode of turn-based battle.
Instead of the usual abundance of playable races, we are suddenly offered a very modest choice between the Alliance of Light, that is, humans, and Necropolis, that is, the undead. All sorts of demons, druids and other loitering so far will only meet as monsters. The developers promise to give us new ones... old... some races with upcoming addons.
The class system, on the other hand, has not undergone much change compared to the most successful Friv games in the series. We can still choose between a warrior and a magician. In this matter, just do not be intimidated by excessive asceticism: we will combine skills at our discretion, creating, for example, a warrior with an emphasis on tactics or, conversely, an armored "tank", "swinging" defense in the first place.
However, "hex" to replace "square" is one of the very few references toHoM & M3, which many players still consider to be the strongest link in the chain of Friv games united by the respective 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 another apocalypse. Finally, the soundtrack for the game is almost entirely copied from the latest "singleplayer" incarnation of the franchise.
Not at all. Rather, it is such a King's Bounty with multiplayer buns. The turn-based approach, on which not only battles, but the entire campaign were built in the single, remained only in battles. Characters move around the global map in real time. Of course, this eliminates the need for multi-move combinations, in several heroes, one of which could serve as a "shuttle" transferring the army from a weaker character to a stronger one - in general, in all those features of the game on the global map of the world.
"Might and Magic: Heroes Online" is a typical representative of the free-to-play genus with an obsessive "donation". No joke: we want to see the number of troops in the enemy army - we pay. Do you need to expand bags, which initially fit very few items? We pay. Need to speed up the construction of buildings or the recruitment of troops - processes that take here, as in many browser Friv games, a certain amount of time? Well, it is already clear what we are doing, right?
But the extortions seem brutal only at first. In fact, it is quite possible to do without an injection of real money. PvP is not here today, although the developers promise to please us with a real "mahach" with arenas and other nishtyaks in a couple of months. In the meantime, in the PvE-oriented world disappears and the main problem of "donation" - a veiled purchase of victory for "real" when it comes to battles between players. The idea of the strength of the enemy army is fully provided by the built-in threat level assessment. The ability to move to your city at any time and the system of portals between provinces allows you not to worry too much about the capacity of the bags - after all, at any moment we can move the hero to the merchant with a couple of clicks and sell him everything we don't need. The building and recruiting process continues in a wonderful way, as long as we happen to happen or are out of the game altogether, so if you don't manage your squad in a very idiotic way, there are usually no problems with replenishment. In general, playing with or without donation is a matter of personal preference rather than a vital necessity.
By the way, the situation with the troops is also somehow not "heroic": the number of soldiers that we can take with us in each specific battle is limited and depends on the level. At the current stage of development, we are assigned a hundred "main creatures" - which means that in any battle the hero-commander will command exactly a hundred, and the rest of the "units" of the same type will hang in reserve. Again, it is impossible not to recall King's Bounty with its linking the size of the army to the value of the "leadership" parameter of the character. It is good at least that the reserve can be "carried with you", allowing living soldiers to immediately take the places of the fallen at the end of the battle.
Backstab is cheap, reliable, and practical The almost complete absence of PvP - at least at the current stage - usually implies a fairly well-developed PvE system. "Might and Magic: Heroes Online"in this sense it makes a somewhat ambiguous impression. We will certainly find interesting enemy monsters here - usually almost every unit in an enemy army has its own unique ability. Thus, the demonic Mothers expel from themselves more and more "little madmen" - a kind of infantry; and the wolves howl, thereby demoralizing our soldiers. There are also "bosses", which are usually beaten here in a group, although in most cases you can cope with them alone. If we decide to "swing" with a friend, the number of troops opposing us will automatically increase, adjusting to our overall strength.
At higher levels, the heroes are waiting for "raids" on five, where they give out a lot of experience and good loot, so even after passing the main storyline, the "old-timers" will have something to do. The siege of castles also occurs, although, perhaps, a little less often 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 back of your soldiers in close combat - and, on the contrary, not to allow opponents to take positions that are vulnerable only in front. A backstab takes away significantly more hits than a flank attack, which, in turn, is incomparably better than a regular frontal attack.
This all sounds diverse enough, 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 across the map - the way to them is usually blocked by enemies. Moreover, if uniforms and gold can be obtained in another way, then with wood, ore or crystals, everything is much more complicated. Without them - sadness, longing, because the improvement and construction of buildings usually requires large amounts of valuable materials. It is possible, of course, to build "workers' halls" in the city in order to extract resources constantly, but even here it is not so simple: our warehouses are far from unlimited. As soon as the virtual subjects get the maximum number of wood units that can be stored in the city at one time, production will immediately stop - and will not start until then, until the hero comes home and gathers all this happiness. The same applies to the troops - you need to come for them and take them with you, otherwise at some point the call will stop and new soldiers will not be trained until we free the barracks. Upgrading buildings increases this limit, but also requires resources.
The situation is even more sad with the mines and sawmills scattered around the map. They are also equipped with storage facilities and also stop work when the warehouse runs out of free space. But they are not at all in the city and, as a rule, find themselves completely out of the way when we move to the next, higher-level location.
Note that the automatic combat, which is customary for the series, which, of course, adversely affects the size of the army, but saves time for more interesting achievements, is available only 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 get experience for each battle.
However, much more experience is gained by completing tasks with which things are quite tricky. Of course, the quests contain the main storyline, which is mainly subordinated to the "pumping" of the hero. At low levels, it is in the process of progressing through the script that we are unobtrusively introduced to the basic possibilities of the game. In most cases, the transition to a new location occurs after the battle with the "boss", and these locations are organized in such a way that the movement between them is carried out as quickly as possible. For example, the first big city we get into is equipped with a couple of portals and a couple of entrances, access to which we get not at the same time, but in turn, only after completing the corresponding story missions.
Believe it or not - in action glasses. The very action points that in the previous Friv games of the series determined the range of our movements in one turn, here work as a progression limiter. We spend this kind of resource on battles within the framework of the scenario, and when it ends, we lose access to the "plot" battles for some time. The situation can be corrected with the help of a special elixir - if it is absolutely unbearable to go further today. If time suffers, it is enough to wait for the night when the action points are zero, and we can rush to new feats. However, no one bothers to take on side tasks that can be performed under any circumstances.
These are mainly daily, repeatable quests, most of which are focused on killing and gathering. A trawler, for example, needs a regular supply of fern, 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 need to bring only three or four pieces of the desired something, and even this something appears in the same places. All quests are accompanied by quite tolerable dialogues, sometimes even with humor.
Perhaps for the game, "Might and Magic: Heroes Online" does not need to be treated as a multi-user HoM & M . Online inevitably makes its own adjustments to the main idea of the series, so that the result is more of an RPG with elements of a turn-based strategy than, in fact, a purebred turn-based strategy. Otherwise, even at the beta testing stage, the Friv game seems to be good. Especially compared to most browser-based entertainment, which can only be played at work out of boredom.
