➤ Ascent to power 🎮

With Might & Magic Heros VI, the trust of one of the longest-running and most loyal communities they remember has been cracked amid cooldowns, structural problems and other elements not implemented at their best. But the honesty of the developers regarding the issues of the previous chapter hit the mark, reviving hopes for a seventh incarnation that was undoubtedly developed with fans in mind.

Basically, also removed the social dimension and eliminated the unwelcome extras of the sixth chapter, Might & Magic Heroes returns to the track, entrenching itself around the basic mechanics of the series embedded in a renewed narrative dimension. This always includes six factions, two of which have changed, but their representatives are members of a council in the service of Duke Ivan Griffin. By choosing one of the councilors, a secondary campaign opens and by facing two it is possible to access that of the Duke who, thanks to the events narrated by his supporters, can finally decide which path to take regarding the foundation of a new empire. This is the background and this is the element that immediately involves us, providing us with a choice and giving a rather strong context to the choice of the path to take. The six secondary campaigns are based on six heroes who have made their ascent to power in different eras and include a story of orc rebellion, a spoiled scion who becomes aware of his responsibilities, a story of powerful magic, the dark path of the necromancer, the strength of sentimental bonds and a destiny unexpected.

Might & Magic Heroes VII takes us on a walk through the rise to power of six great heroes of Ashan

I start again from seven

Might & Magic Heroes VII starts from the fundamental mechanics of the series composed of explorable maps full of creatures, missions, dungeons, magical objects, structures, resources and sanctuaries that allow us to increase our army to overcome the challenges and fight the bad guy on duty who in multiplayer mode he is played by a real player. A turn allows you to move the character whose movement capacity is determined by the characteristics and any bonuses as well as marking the passage of a day of the week with all the possible economic consequences dictated by the buildings controlled by us or by the opposing faction.

When the pawn of our hero meets an enemy, the tactical map intervenes on which it is always played in turns even if in a board divided into squares with the two factions on opposite sides of the battlefield. But let's go back to the strategic map by premising that the CPU makes us wait less but it is not always reactive, the glitches have significantly decreased but they persist, technical problems abound and the animations during the dialogues between the Duke and his advisers are completely lacking. Inevitably, these elements weigh on the final judgment even if, this must be kept in mind, they are largely solvable and it is not said that this Might & Magic Heroes, like the fifth chapter of the series, is not destined to mature over time. But let's get to the contents. At the base of the minor campaigns, all quite long and full of events, there is the collection of resources functional to the recruitment of troops that allow us to face groups of monsters, enemy armies or garrisoned strongholds. In some cases the resources serve as reagents to summon creatures to be recruited, in others it is better to sell some of them to quickly have economic availability. In the first phase of his story, the spoiled Tomas has plenty of time but limited resources while Imani is surrounded by deposits but must complete a series of challenging quests starting with a very small army. In this case, the collection of the seven materials leads us to the exchange market that allows you to trade using any resource as a currency and then acquire troops, magical items and so on.

In all campaigns, however, time is destined to become, as in skirmish and multiplayer, a decisive factor in a series that does not allow the opponent to give too much breath. Not losing shifts, in essence, remains a cornerstone of the experience even if this time the economy seems to constrain more the expansive possibilities of artificial intelligence and we did not find ourselves having to face titanic armies after a handful of shifts. In case of too much pressure, it is fortunately possible to calibrate the difficulty of each sector of the game by reducing, for example, only that linked to the strategic phase in order to calmly explore the map and devote to the development of one's city without the risk of having to face too unbalanced battles. or too simple. And in addition to the difficulty we can also increase the speed of actions and animations and also in this case we can decide specifically which phases to alter. We can speed up the tactical gameplay alone so as not to change the experience in the main map or push everything to the maximum by upsetting the atmosphere to cut waiting times. Finally, the weekly modifiers, the alt key that allows you to see all the usable structures, the caravans for the transport of reinforcements that can be attacked, the shelters for the troops and the teleportation portals complete a picture that, although not innovative, works even if the heroes, all based on the same skill tree, don't stand out for variety. Furthermore, the heralded possibility of intervening on the scenario is reduced to a few precalculated moments but on the other hand we are talking about a strategic turn-based strategy that has very little dynamic excluding the climate and lighting.

Ups and downs

The management interface of the cities returns to being two-dimensional and takes us back in time compared to the last chapter. By building new structures the level of the settlement rises and it becomes possible to build more important buildings such as guilds, nurseries of powerful creatures and specific structures for each faction. The choice was probably dictated by economic needs but the yield, somehow vintage, is good and it is also good thanks to the suggestive and rich soundtrack accompanied by an engaging narrative dimension even if plagued by shortcomings, problems and choices that are too oriented towards the savings such as cutscenes limited to sequences of images.

In addition, some models, as in the case of the elementals, are not in step with the times and this is particularly evident in the combat phase. Fortunately, to partially compensate for the glance of the strategic map whose yield, net of some slowdowns, is more than valid thanks to an appropriate use of the Unreal Engine 3 which guarantees effects in quantity and a good yield of materials. . In addition, to reinforce the already excellent atmosphere, there are some delicious details such as the zoom out of the game screen, in the style of a fairytale movie, when the save menu is called. But let's move on to the combat phase which is the one in which the destinies of each hero are actually decided. The interface is the classic one and it is rather easy to decipher. At the bottom right are the options of the leader who stands out of combat, at the bottom left are those of the currently selected unit and between the two we find the order in which the troops can act. The small icon at the top left leads to the diary of the moves made while by dragging the cursor on an opposing unit it is possible to see the damage that can be inflicted by one of our contingents whose number of effective is shown below the figure. Pressing the right button instead brings out the detailed features that are very useful for formulating detailed strategies in a phase of the game that is inevitably influenced by the numerical factor of the troops but gives equal importance to movement, attack capacity and defense. All factors that can allow us to preserve fundamental troops to overcome the next fight or invite us to risk a decisive attack, perhaps hoping for the additional damage of a critical. Some units also have access to secondary abilities such as flying creatures that can make quick attacks and then return to their starting position and the ability to attack from behind or flank not only increases damage but causes the attacked unit to turn around. counterattack, however, giving his back to the bulk of the army. The title also offers us numerous talents that affect every aspect of the fight and can make a difference like the spells with which the leader can heal, attack directly, inflict malus or guarantee bonuses. The other important element is represented by the protections scattered around the maps that do not stop the attacks but reduce the damage of the bullets and can be fundamental to cover the back avoiding the attacks from the shoulders that cause much higher damage than the frontal attack.

And it is important to take this factor into account since the enemy generally attacks the weakest units and tries, not always with clarity, to take advantage of all the game dynamics even at normal difficulty. Obviously when the disparity of forces is very high, the artificial intelligence cannot do much and it is in these cases that the possibility of simulating most of the fights is useful but after having had the result of the simulation it is still possible to face them a second time. , manually, and it is a possibility that should not be underestimated since the CPU is generally less effective than an experienced player. On the other hand, it is always good to keep as many units as possible in a title that does not treat us with gloves starting from the total absence of tutorials which could be a problem for newbies. Starting boarding in Might & Magic Heroes VII means leaving your feathers in no time even at normal difficulty and our advice is to start with the Haven campaign which is decidedly permissive in the first phase. In any case, we can say that the overall balance of the experience has definitely improved and we are faced with a solid experience even if in multiplayer the big problem of recovering after losing a fight remains. But in a situation of equilibrium, with the heroes squaring off at a distance between rapid raids to gain control of resources, the tension is high and the formula works. In addition, the good turn-based combat system makes duels quite fun, the hotseat mode allows two to play on the same machine and the LAN support avoids undergoing this crash. Finally we can not forget the editor which is very intuitive and allows you to put your hand not only to the maps but also to the heroes and factions.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Windows 7 operating system
Intel Core i5 4440 processor
16 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 780 video card

Minimum requirements

System operating Windows 7 SP1 on Windows 8 / 8.1 and 64 bit
Processore Intel Core i5 660 3.3 GHz o AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.2 GHz
4 GB RAM
Scheda Video NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 o AMD Radeon HD5850 (1024 MB VRAM)

Recommended Requirements

System operating Windows 7 SP1 on Windows 8 / 8.1 and 64 bit
Processore Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-6100 @ 3.3 GHz
6 GB RAM
Scheda Video NVIDIA GeForce GTX670 orAMD Radeon HD7870 (2048 MB VRAM)

Comment

Digital Delivery Steam, uPlay Price 49,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

7.0

Readers (11)

6.4

Your vote

Might & Magic Heroes VII wisely focuses on basic mechanics and manages to involve thanks to a full-bodied and in some ways original narrative component but the experience is tainted by technical problems of various kinds and obvious gaps. There are also no substantial innovations but given the difficulties encountered with the previous chapter, the choice to start from a solid and safe base undoubtedly makes sense even if it would have been better to do it with a more refined product and accompanied by a tutorial to welcome newbies. In any case, there is room for improvement and it is very likely that the inevitable patches will give us a fully usable product.