Hi, I did the review on an iPad 4th gen iOS 8.whatever's newest. No crashing problems at all. Game ran like butter.
Nothing on this world is perfect. I'm not saying they couldn't have done better. But I wouldn't call the controls messed up. And I didn't need forums or videos to figure them out. I just watched the little multiple screen tutorial that the game forces you to watch twice before your first battle. Yes, they are sensitive and can be improved. But after that first day of playing with it I've never made an accidental move.
I've been playing almost daily since the first HOMM and I always build creature generators the first week. Money gets easy later in the game, but every week of creatures is important.
That's why this game is such a classic; multiple paths to victory. I used to play it your way but without the creature boosts you get from having a castle, the number you get in the first few weeks is pretty paltry, IMO. Also, my strategy is to reach level 7 armies asap, and most of them require other infrastructure upgrades. Fielding even 3 of them in the early game will mean no attrition when clearing your area and claiming resources; which is pretty important. For example, when I play The Academy, I can usually build Giants before the end of the second week, and upgrade them to Titans before the end of the third if I save my money. I can't afford to do that if I'm buying low level creatures, and constantly replacing them. It's the tier 7 and 6 armies that win the day for me; that and a strong caster hero. Not arguing with you. I just offer this to back up my strategy with some rationale.
So true. I try multiple strategies often just for fun. I typically try to get a level 7 creature the first week, and then use the high level creatures to clear as much territory quickly. Even if I lose a few creatures or even heroes, getting most of the mines and a few enemy towns that first couple weeks will usually turn the tide my way.
I will give that a try. I can see we are just taking different paths to the same goal. Thanks for weighing-in. Edit: thanks also for not getting "all up in my grill" for offering a different perspective. It's so easy to upset people on this forum these days.
It's early in the morning here for me so maybe I'm not reading this right. Are you saying you've been playing HOMM EVERY DAY (almost) since 1995!? ...20 years?....daily??
Well, daily is an exaggeration. But I've been an addict since the original HOMM and have put in thousands upon thousands of hours. I have weeks of cold turkey, and weeks of 8 hours a day. Never tried much of the sequels beyond 3; it just syncs well with my OCD and I'll probably never get tired of it.
Running fine on my IPad 3, latest iOS. Zero crashes in 2 hours play. And that 2 hours has just felt like a couple of minutes......I love this port. The controls, sure, different, but after the first 15 minutes or so, no problem. Anyway, back to the game.
I feel ya! Never put in 8 hours a day but HOMM is definitely one of the best series out there to put an incredible amount of time in, maybe the second best after Civilization. As for the port, I had considerer buying it on PC but ended up buying the iPad version and I couldn't be happier. Not really used to playing for hours on the tablet but HOMM might very well be the game that gets me used to it...
They are. Checking an Artifact's info requires a sequence of taps that makes no sense at all. The sequence of taps for attacking makes no sense at all. I can't imagine any good mobile developer with a lick of common sense use that control scheme unless they're too lazy and just phoned it in once they got their game working on mobile. The controls are messed up, and a lazy effort on the part of the developers.
Works all right for me, and I'm happy to have it on my iPad. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 2 recently (on PC) and marveling at how cumbersome the interface, combat and inventory management are. But we're happy to have it. Maybe they'll change the interface in HoMM 3, but once you get used to it, it doesn't seem like too big of a deal to me.
I agree with both of you. The controls are messed up but I'm so happy to have the game on my iPad that I haven't let them prevent me from enjoying it.
One fluid drag press to check an artifact, not a sequence of taps that makes no sense. But since selecting artifacts to move them is the primary function, how would you have them do it differently? Not having contextual help or a better tutorial, yes that you can be slightly upset at them for. But the controls themselves? And how does the sequence of taps (which is only two by the way) for attacking make no sense? A key part HOMM combat has always been exact unit placement. Sometimes you want to move a unit to an exact spot and attack a specific unit, sometimes a different unit from that same spot, and sometimes just move to that exact spot without attacking. How would you design it differently? What could possibly be easier than a simple tap for movement only; and a long press then tap for exact attack? I guess there could be a different method, but it couldn't possibly be easier. Again, yes, you can be pissed at Dotemu for not including more contextual help, a manual, or longer tutorial perhaps. But once you spend the 60 seconds to figure out 'long press then tap', then what the heck are you complaining about? Tell me what could be simpler. I can't imagine wanting a confirmation button for each move, that would get old fast and drastically slow down combat.
I totally agree with you : once you are used to the controls they are fine. I hope Dotemu will not change them, a simple update of the tutorial will be well enough.
I would like them to address the large army melee bug, which can cause your stack to move next to a target instead of attacking. I would also like the two finger map scroll to work better; sometimes it stops working. when it does work, attempting to scroll with a hero selected causes that hero's movement location to change. Like you, I think the rest of them work about as well as you could hope, once you get used to them.
