Heroes of Might & Magic III– HD Edition v1.2.0. Heroes of Might and Magic III for iOS Heroes of Might and Magic 3 apple store
In addition to the game Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition, Ubisoft is known for a number of other quality projects, including a cool adventure, an excellent motorcycle trial, and good time management. Let's move on to our today's hero.
Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition on iPad - storyline
At the time of this writing, Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition contains only the first part of the story called The Rebirth of Erathia, which in seven campaigns reveals to the user the whole story of the fall and new greatness of the ancient kingdom.
After the death of King Nicholas, large-scale bloody battles began in the vastness of the once prosperous kingdom. Elves, people, angels, griffins and other even more or less positive creatures stood on one side, and evil otherworldly forces, including skeletons, demons, manticores and hydras, on the other. Such a mythological mess, in a word, turned out to be not weak. Looking ahead, I note that at the end of the story, Erathia really revived, but the process itself seemed to us more interesting than the result.
("Pretty" aunts are doing some magic)
The entrance to the game is available only for true heroes. It's time to prove your belonging to their camp!
Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition for iPad - Gameplay
The gameplay of the re-release of the third part of the cult series Heroes of Might and Magic has not undergone any changes. Before us is the same game that many of our readers, I am sure, tirelessly played in childhood.
Heroes are at the center of the gameplay. It is under their leadership that countless armies of mythical and not so strong creatures will be collected, only by whose forces it will be possible to win respect in the world of Erathia.
(Once on an adventure map)
The world around the user is huge. Here, surprises and dangers lie in wait for him literally at every step. Forests, swamps, snows and deserts - every inch of Erathia deserves the utmost attention.
The most diverse heroic achievements are not the whole point of the gameplay. An important part of it is the development of cities, each building in which can play a key role in the process of confronting good and evil, good and good, evil and evil, as well as their other combinations.
(A beautiful city among snow-capped mountains)
There are no internal purchases in the game.
Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition for iPad - controls
To the traditional gameplay control of Heroes of Might and Magic, which we got to know a long time ago on desktop computers, in the version for mobile devices, two-finger swipes were added to move the map, long tapes for information about objects, as well as double tapes for actions. By the way, it will take some time to get used to it. Nevertheless, after an hour of play, everything will fall into place.
(It was such a battle - nothing interesting)
Some game elements are so small that it is quite difficult to poke your finger on them - it is very annoying.
Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition for iPad - Graphics & Sound
The pride of the developer was the redrawing of all the textures of the game in high resolution format. Apart from a sharper image, however, the end user received absolutely nothing. We were pleased with this approach, because modern three-dimensional graphics are unlikely to be able to replace our beloved classics. Optimization of this whole thing is done more or less normally. Even on devices two or three years ago, there are no delays in animations. The sound content has been carried over from the original game without changes. The translation into Russian has been completed in full.
(What should we build a house ?!)
What is the sum? Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition on iPad are the same Heroes, only for iPad.
pros: Favorite game on your favorite device.
Minuses: Modest price in the App Store.
conclusions: We advise fans of the game and those who have not dealt with it.
Video gameplay from the game Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition on iPad
Heroes 3 is perhaps the most anticipated game from the past ... What can compare with it? Only Fallout 2 comes to mind ... Even Baldur's Gate was ported to iOS with grief in half.
Having a Heroes III port on the App Store in your portfolio is like owning a gold mine. The game is absolutely cult, known to everyone and everyone. With millions of fans all over the world. It has such potential that it is still able to attract more and more adepts into its ranks.
Until about November 2014, rumors persisted that the source code for the third Heroes was irretrievably lost. But along with the release of iOS 8.1.2, the announcement of an improved HD version of the first part of Heroes III - the Revival of Erathia - happened. When I learned that Ubisoft was licensed, I was relieved. Ubisoft releases sane projects on iOS and hasn't been seen to be greedy (like EA).
My expectations were met. Heroes 3 appeared in the App Store, as promised, on January 29, 2015 at a price of 599 rubles. For this price, the player gets a full-fledged campaign: Rebirth of Erathia, consisting of several mini-campaigns, and 50 single-player scenarios for every taste and color. Believe me, the price for such a project is at least adequate!
What have the developers changed?
They completely redrawn the graphics in HD. I will not say that it has become much better, but the game on the retina screen looks presentable. The only negative is that the animation remains the same. 16 years after modern games, you can feel it. But so that the animation does not seem twitchy, I immediately suggest setting it to maximum speed in the settings.
They built Russian into the game (unlike Aspyr Media or Overhaul Games). It doesn't matter to us that there are other languages and that the Italians and the Germans were not offended either: the main thing is that Ubisoft perceives the Russian App Store as a profitable market, and this is not the first time that it pleases us with Russian localizations. There is even a Russian voice acting for the opening video and inserts between missions.
Also, the developers have adapted the controls for the tablet screen. At first glance, the controls are very inconvenient, but after a couple of hours you get used to it and it becomes just “a little inconvenient”. Moreover, there are small flaws both in battles and on the map. For example, shooting is a double tap on a cell on which an enemy unit is standing. And since the units are tall, you need to remember that you need to click on the bottom part.
On the map, it is not always possible to hit the desired object the first time. Half a centimeter miss and you lose precious moves.
Game modes
Single player game- 43 solo scenarios with different victory conditions. Each scenario takes place on a unique map of its size. (6 XL cards, 11 L cards, 18 M cards, 8 S cards). You can set the difficulty (I prefer the most difficult level), starting cities, starting heroes and a starting bonus.
Multiplayer- game for one iPad for several people. Each player will be shown a separate confirmation screen before their turn.
Campaign- 23 missions, divided into 7 mini-campaigns. Each mini-campaign is story-related.
Textbook- a learning card for beginners.
Obvious flaws and shortcomings
Heroes 3 on iPad no random card generator... There is a suspicion that this was not done by chance. The developers did not want to give players a tool of endless generation of new cards, and therefore endless replayability. Most likely, over time we will see the ported Blade of Armageddon, Breath of Death and even the Chronicle of Heroes ... The game has skyrocketed to the top of paid and grossing games! I am sure that she will hold out there for a long time ...
Video of gameplay on iPad Air (a little introductory video, mission, wandering around the map and battle):
Conclusion: Heroes® of Might and Magic® III HD Edition are timeless classics for all time! A game that can surpass all the most modern toys in terms of replayability and fun of the process. I sincerely congratulate everyone who, like me, have been waiting for this port. Also on white I envy all those who have not yet encountered the heroes: they have a chance to join an excellent and clever turn-based strategy!
The long-awaited release of the strategy took place this afternoon Heroes of Might and Magic 3 which won a huge audience in 1999 when the regular edition came out. About 16 years have passed since then, and the game has acquired support for touch controls and Full HD graphics, which looks great on iOS and Android.
In order not to greatly change the game mechanics, Ubisoft I had to abandon the idea of scaling the interface, which means that only owners of tablets on Android and iOS, as well as the owners Windows computers. We were able to establish Heroes of Might and Magic 3 on the iPhone 6 Plus, but it became almost impossible to play. The interface has become so small that the text has become almost unreadable.
Development team Ubisoft promised not to touch the general game mechanics, but the team still broke their word. In three hours of testing this game on iPad Air, several annoying moments were revealed at once, but otherwise they are all the same Heroes of Might and Magic 3 1999 with updated graphics.
Oddly enough, the game balance was upset. Perhaps this is only a temporary bug, but it is very upsetting. In a normal battle, 5 level 2 forest dragons cannot kill 4 level 2 ends with one hit. In our memory, this was not the case in the classic version, which means Ubisoft changed something in the game mechanics.
The second drawback of the game was the inconvenient control on touch devices. It is not that uncomfortable, but unfinished. In order for the troops to attack someone during the battle, you first need to hold your finger on the enemy unit, and then click on the cell from which our warrior will attack. Such a decision destroys any desire to play battles, because if, out of habit, tap twice on an enemy soldier, our unit will simply stand next to him and will not hit him.
V iPad and Android version of the game has a mouse, and the finger acts as a mouse. The game has not been fully transferred, so finger taps are not always perfectly recognized, and this is also upsetting. Of course, perhaps this is a matter of habit and you need to practice it for a couple of days, but the fact remains.
In our case, the game proved to be stable, since no brakes, freezes or crashes were detected during testing. This is good news, because recently in App Store and Google play games are released that are very slow even on the iPhone 6, not to mention older devices.
Otherwise they are all the same Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which are commonly called the "Golden Series", are a line of games. You can still change the speed of movement of heroes and units on the map, change the color of the interface, and save the game anywhere. Russian language and voice acting are also present.
The graphics haven't changed much from the past years. The supported resolution has changed, so at 800 x 600 the game looks about the same as the 1920 x 1080 version. In fact, it was not worth waiting for another, because Ubisoft promised to release the HD re-release of the game, which implies the release of the game with support for larger and better displays.
The game Heroes of Might and Magic 3 costs 599 rubles in the Russian app store App Store which is quite a lot for such an "old" game. Of course, such a price was facilitated by a sharp drop in the ruble almost twice, but even 329 rubles per game for iPad quite a lot, because it does not even have a map editor and the ability to add your own scripts to the game from the computer version of the game.
It is finished! One of the greatest turn-based strategies in a graphically updated version, which has received the now fashionable prefix HD... In the same form, it was released on the PC a little earlier. As a fan of the entire series, I tested the mobile and desktop versions and below I will share my impressions of the toy, which in the old days were spent hundreds of hours. This is one of the few games that I personally expected to appear on the iPad since the release of the tablet. Now it remains to wait for Fallout 1/2, Starcraft, Diablo and a couple of three more mighty games of the past, but for now let's talk about the venerable "Heroes".
A bit of history
In my time Heroes of might and magic has become a real revolution in the genre of turn-based strategy games, harmoniously combining elements of a global map with a tactical combat mode, role-playing component, collecting resources and developing castles. The revolution happened already in 1995, when the first part of the game was released. But few of the young people remember that the predecessor was King's Bounty, it was with her that I began my acquaintance with the magical universe created by the company New World Computing.
King's Bounty of 1990
The graphics were scary even for those times, but completely new, unusual gaming features and vigorous gameplay dragged on in earnest. Especially after my friend and I mastered the work in the hexadecimal editor and found a game resource file where you could sketch out troops for yourself, and then tear everyone on the global map like "Tuzik hot water bottle". Released five years later, Heroes of Might and Magic almost completely adopted the game mechanics of the original, expanding it with the help of resource extraction, castle construction and role-based development of the hero.
Heroes of Might and Magic 1 - a breakthrough for its time: SVGA graphics, a sea of game possibilities, genre unification
Together, these chips made a real drug out of the game, which dragged on with terrible force and did not always let go even in the middle of the night. Rather, you simply did not notice the rapid running of time, because a couple more moves and it will be possible to build the next floor of the magic tower, get spells of a higher class and break the enemy hero brazenly roaming through your territories. And then finish building a couple of buildings in the castle, drive your hero inside and pump the troops. And still it would be necessary to release the second hero and pinch off a piece of the army, but leave a little to defend the castle ... I think, who played, he understands how this process sucks.
A year later, in 1996, appeared Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars, which surprised not only with strongly matured graphics and a huge number of innovations, but also simply an incomparable soundtrack recorded in the Audio CD format: classics, opera singing, fantasy motifs, for each race and castle its own gorgeous music, for each combat area too. And how much time was spent in battles with friends in Hotseat mode!
Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars - music
Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars - Intro and Gameplay
But the coolest I personally think were those released in 1999. Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia... They were the ones that have now been re-released in HD. Even better graphics, even more chips and interesting features, but at the same time the same addictive gameplay, recognizable style, great music and ample opportunities both in single and multiplayer. By the way, for the third "Heroes" fans are still releasing modifications, and tournaments for the game are also held. V Heroes of Might and Magic IV(2002) the graphics were changed, an isometric projection appeared, and the fans did not like it very much, and I was not happy either. I played a little in it, but abandoned it in favor of HOMM III.
The situation was a little better with HOMM V created by the forces of the Russian Nival Interactive... The toy acquired three-dimensional graphics and became a kind of synthesis of the most successful ideas of the third and fourth parts. It also delayed and, I hope, in the future it will also reach mobile devices. But the sixth part has already passed me by, rushing along the path of simplification and a very serious change in the concept as a whole. In the seventh, it looks like it will be the same. So we return to the classics that have found a second life.
HD and hardcore!
I have tested both the PC version and the tablet version. In the latter, I am actively dealing with it, and I will start the story with a computer version, because it was he who caused the greatest attack of nostalgia, and I was the first to experience it. Well, friends, these are the same HOMM III, but with slightly improved graphics and adaptation for any resolution, in my case it's Full HD. As a PC monitor, I use a 37-inch TV, and it costs a lot to hack into my favorite "Heroes" behind such a screen, since in the past it was only a 15-inch Sony CRT monitor.
It was hoped that in the HD edition Ubisoft would include both official add-ons for HOMM III - Armageddon's Blade and Shadow of death- but not destiny. Before us is a pure original, The restoration of erathia, as it appeared in 1999, albeit with improved graphics. Enhanced just enough to look good in high definition on both a huge TV and a 9.7-inch iPad display. The picture is pleasing to the eye, after all, good 2D graphics rule, and nostalgia adds its own degree to the intensity of passions. In general, everything is played as fervently as it was 16 years ago. Of the features of the PC version, I noticed that the battle takes place in a kind of window with an aspect ratio of 3: 4, the interior decoration of cities looks the same, that is, the company did not alter this part for a wide format, but on the whole it looks fine:
But the global map is perfectly adapted!
Although in the case of the iPad, there are no problems at all, since the tablet has a classic aspect ratio 4:3. In general, if you once sat on the third "Heroes", then on the PC you will find the same cool experience of the game, I recommend.
As for the tablet version, there are no complaints about the graphics, about stability, at least not, too - in a couple of days of the game, HOMM III HD crashed only once, which is not critical. Music, sound - everything is the same as in the past, everything presses on nostalgia and drags on just incredibly. And, of course, playing on a tablet while lying on the couch is much more comfortable than huddling at a PC.
If there are no complaints about graphics and music, then there are questions about management. Firstly, I recommend to take the training- the basics of touch control are shown there, although not always in an understandable way.
- It is more convenient to move the hero by clicking on the corresponding button in the menu on the right(icon "rider on horseback"), having previously selected the direction with a single tap. With a double tap, you start the movement automatically, but when you press, you need to hit the same place with your finger, which is not very convenient - you often miss the mark, and the hero does not start moving. So we set the direction and walk by clicking on the mentioned button on the right.
- For shooting at the enemy during the battle you need to do a double tap. With a single click, you will only see information about the enemy.
- To attack the enemy at close range you need to press on it and not release your finger for a while, until the hexagons highlighted in yellow appear around - they indicate the direction of the attack. Then tap on any suitable yellow hexagon. If you just double tap when attacking with a melee unit, then just skip.
- To see the properties of artifacts or clothes on a hero you need to click on them, as if you want to remove, and then click on the thing again without releasing your finger.
Remember the commands described above, and there will be no difficulties with a tablet game, you get used to the controls in literally 30 minutes. Nevertheless, I hope for patches and fixes, since a number of points are implicit (attack with ground units, viewing information about clothes), and it would be good to correct tap zones, especially on the global map when controlling a hero. Also, the mobile version lacks a full-fledged multiplayer, while there is only a multiplayer game mode for one device - Hotseat.
Firmware: iOS 5.1.1 and higher
Compatible devices: iPad (3/4 / Air / Air 2nd generation), iPad mini (2/3) + partial support for iPhone (4S / 5 (C) / 5S / 6/6 Plus)
Supported Resolutions: 1024x768, 2048x1536
Description
"Heroes of Might and Magic 3" in HD has finally hit the shelves of the virtual App Store. Anyone can enjoy the cult game in a new, "mobile" format by purchasing a new product for only $ 9.99 (or 599 rubles).
Heroes 3 HD Edition for mobile devices justifies its name a little more than completely: on small tablet screens, the picture looks really impressive. In this sense, Ubisoft coped with their task perfectly. Only now, getting used to the unusual controls in the new "Heroes" can be difficult even for experienced players (for this case, the game provides for a Tutorial). The situation is somewhat worse with the game over the network. Since only content from "Erathia Rebirth" has undergone HD-processing, players will have access to only 20 multiplayer maps from the original third "Heroes" (and this is in the absence of a random map generator in the game!). The situation is aggravated by the fact that the ability to play Heroes 3 HD Edition via Wi-Fi simultaneously from several devices for some reason has not yet been implemented. In short, the multiplayer in the new "Heroes 3" still needs some work.
Another unpleasant surprise for the owners of Apple devices was the news that they will not be able to play the new Heroes from a smartphone: at the moment the game is available for download from the App Store only for tablets. But there are almost no restrictions here - Heroes 3 in HD works without problems on all iPad models, starting with the second, including iPad-mini.
