All these Kickstarter and Indie developers seriously shook the game industry. It turns out that to earn millions, it is not at all necessary to spend millions. Moreover – sometimes it is not necessary to spend at all to earn. All the largest gaming publishers are now frantically trying to understand this new arithmetic, trying new financial models and experimenting with markets that have not performed before.
The second birth receives, in particular, Free-2-Play. Microsoft now is working on Killer Instinct, where fighters will have to buy separately, and Capcom In the near future, it promises an absolutely incredible Freedic Deep Down. On the same field experimentes and Ubisoft: instead of the seventh part Heroes of Might & Magic was announced Might & Magic Heroes Online. To find out what kind of beast it is and whether it was worth treating him with suspicion, we were able to talk about the “Heroes online” at the past Henning Schmidt (Henning Schmid), project brand manager.
Normal heroes always go around
Some kind of work setting and loading the game passes, and we ask the first question: so why still Freedia? The interlocutor thoughtfully shrugs: ”Just Because We Can”. He reveals the “secret”: there are no seventh part of the “heroes” in development now, and therefore it seems like to release the “spin-off”. But this will not be some kind of “casual” concomitant product-the authors hope to lure the same people online who play in the main series.
Important remark: Might & Magic Heroes Online has nothing to do with Heroes of Might & Magic Online. It was a two-dimensional Chinese online game created for the domestic market. Now the ”Heroes” on the Internet is transferred by a decent German studio Ubisoft Blue Byte, Responsible for the series Settlers. It remains a mystery why no one tried to come up with a more original name: these two games do not even distinguish between Google, issuing information on both mixed.
Despite the fact that Heroes Online – “Browser”, made on Flash, it looks almost more interesting than the last full -fledged game of the series. The action is still unfolding in the cartoon-accelerated world of Auchan, but now bright stylistics has acquired the features of German economic strategies: the picture has become softer, animation is smoother, and the number of little things has increased pleasantly.
Alas, the visual series is the only one unambiguously good news;The rest of the fans is unlikely to please. First of all, there can be no talk of any step-by-step in the MMO game, therefore it will move on the global card in real time. If so, then there is especially no need to have heroes – one character in one game session has to be managed to manage. It is obvious that it will not work to deploy a serious strategic battal on such material, and therefore no one will offer you to fight with other users. What is from this? Purebred King’s Bounty.
A large number of two -dimensional objects in the frame is only a dignity: the picture looks much more interesting.
Events unfold between the sixth and fifth parts of the main series. It was not that it was too important, but the world threatens another apocalypse
. This time he is so harsh that in the fight against him all races are forced to join forces. Yes, that is why users will not fight each other: Heroes Online based on PVE and is designed for cooperative interaction. And if you dig deeper, then inside it is generally a ”singleplay” game.
First, the hero’s basic profile is determined – sword or magic. Then the race is selected, of which at the time of the release there will be two (Heaven and Necropolis), and the rest will appear during updates. The knight falls into the low-level empty castle located somewhere on the global map. The introduction begins: a small quest chain unique for each ”nationality”. From some moment, the plot will reach a more global level and unite all the branches into one – as it was, for example, in Dragon Age: Origins.
The horseman explores the adjacent territories, performs quests, kills opponents and grows in levels. The collected money and resources will need to be invested in your own fortress, canonically built up with new buildings. The latter, of course, produce creatures, and the powerful army will allow the player to climb into new lands. To explore the entire local geography, you will have to spend 60-80 hours, but you will never be able to pass the game completely – the authors will constantly lengthen the storyline so that high -level characters do not get bored.
Hero on the heroine
Purely technically Heroes Online It will be possible to go as an ordinary (albeit very strange) single part of the ”heroes”. Players see each other, but do not affect other people’s worlds: no one will just allow you to just take a chest from a neighbor from under the nose or kill a monsters detachment on the path. You can only ask someone from the ”Fredenist” to participate in the next battle.
But this mighty man can be drew quests. Damn, how unusual for Heroes it sounds.
The battles here occur in an absolutely classic way, but three sides can be present on the field: two gamers and artificial intelligence. The team game will come in handy, for example, during battles with ”bosses”. The raids on them will be furnished in several stages, each of which is distinguished by its own decorations and unique enemy behavior algorithms.
The only competitive element will be lists of the best heroes. It is still unclear how they will form, but craftsmen who have won high positions will gain access to unique merchants with the best equipment that will facilitate the passage. Everyone else will have to pay for this ”accelerating” equipment.
Monetization is designed to minimize the meaningless ”grind”. For example, it will be possible to buy an “+15% to experience” or resurrect all lost creatures after a fight. There can be no talk of an imbalance, since there is no PVP in the game. However, the creators categorically reject any promises: “We think about the possibility of introducing battles between players. But do not perceive it as an announcement;maybe nothing will work out ”.
For money, they will allow you to purchase … pets. Yes, this is still an online game, and therefore without stupidity in this kind it was not possible. On a global card, an absolutely useless trophy beast will be dragged for you. You can get a small griphon during adventures, but an elite angel will have to be paid separately. He does not participate in contractions, does not affect the balance. In the best traditions of magmatic kittens from Blizzard.
Heroes Online -This is a real AAA project from the world Free-to-Play. The game looks completely amazing and promises a long month of gameplay, and the creators swear that they will not press too much to monetization. And if you consider it at such an angle, players receive a free branch of their favorite series, which does not claim to break the popularity of ”older brothers”.
And right. Because these same ”brothers” have nothing left. Neither global strategy, nor war for gold mines, no endless number of accidentally generated cards. Fans of the third part here definitely have nothing to do, but they should not despair – Blue byte constantly repeats about the fact that this is only an experiment, which means that “normal” “heroes” will ever appear someday.