I am very dissapointed the game looks awfull . Starting with maximum resolution 1024*780 windowed , crappy animation and movement, text font ,etc etc etc everithingh looks like a pain for me to play. I think Ubisoft give it to this guys the license just because they  will not be a real competiton in homm market. I deleted the game from my pc and never return to install

You were able to get it to play! Better then I've been able to manage!

I didn't delete it yet, but I just wanted to make a thread myself with the title "disappointed"

I mean the game is ugly as sin. It's from like 20 years ago. There are many browser games that are prettier. The water has no animation, half of the game is not even actual 3d. There are actually nearly no animations in general (like grass, trees or whatever). The text is ugly and sometimes hard to read. And... it's just... eeewww... incredibly ugly. And the music is bad too. And they even reused some of the graphics from HoMM 3 (which was released more than a decade ago). Seriously. They reused some of the graphics directly. God... Or spell effects are barely nonexistant. Or effects of any sort in general. There are no cloud shadows, no fog, no reflection, no spells lighting up the area, no shading of any sort since half of the game is 2D!. Or like, just as an example for the standard of the technology used in the game, when one of my unit shoots an arrow, then the arrow has a few selected fixed angles. If (as most of the time) the flight path doesn't coincide with the angle of the arrow, the arrow is flying through the air in an angle that makes absolutely no sense.

As said, the music is bad too, not to mention the sound effects! And there is of course no bit of voiceovers either, nothing.

Not to mention all the other annoying stuff about the game. Like, windows (that can't be moved) clustered on top of each other. An abysma auto-walk function that motivates you to switch that function on, alt-tab out of the game and then come back. I mean, you don't have to alt-tab, since the game doesn't have any full-screen mode, probably because the developer thought that if they'd shrink the window there would be no need for good graphics or details.

And don't talk about any form of mood coming up.

Like, I chose the swamp fortress as town, and a beastmaster (or something) woman as character, and selected the picture of some ugly gnoll for her. And I expected to come out in some disease infested swamp, in my foul stinking fortress, and slowly having my power to increase, first in my swamp and then slowly getting stronger and stronger assaulting players outside my swamp and start invading their shiny countries with my muddy scaly swamp thingies. So that's what I expected. What did happen? My character, despite the portrait, is a cute young woman looking like from some lingerie catalogue. And I'm not in some filthy swamp, I'm in a shiny polished castle. Not so polished as there'd be any reflections on the floor (because the game's technolgy ain't advanced enough for that) but still everything very clean and what not. If I want to access my swamp town, I walk through a sparkling shiny portal and then a 2D screen of my town appears. And even that screen is ugly as sin! And since it's too large for the tiny window of the game, I have to scroll around in a very annoying manner. Oh, and to top it off, the 2nd quest or so I got for my stinky swamp woman (who loos like a dainty princess): get a haircut!!!

Gah...

This game is soooo bad... it pains me. :( And the controls are horrible too. And the interface. And... gah... And I'm normally a huge fan of the series. I played HoMM 1, 2, 3 and 5 to death (I didn't like 4 that much). But this abomination? Eeeewww...

Just look at it! And compare it with this, which is HoMM 3 from 11 years ago! To avoid confusion: the above picture is from the current game which is now, 2010, in beta. The below picture is from HoMM3 from 1999.

Oh for any people having problems with logging in: Since the game is for the chinese market, any capital letters in the username or password screw it up. Create a new account without any capital letters in username or password and it should work. High-tech at it's best!

i agree with what you guys are saying

what a huge disappointment from the interface to the gameplay

as if they went back 10 yrs

Hmm was going to check this game out loved the older games of it but guess i will pass on it now thanks guys . :)

So if what I gather is correct - this thread contains a bunchload of people who QQ about graphics.

Enjoying the game so far. Feels a lot like HoMMIII which i s great after a huge trainwreck which was HoMMV...

AS for that someone who cried that his character did not look "different enough" - you DO remember that it was the same in HoMMIII? Where a huge skeleton evil guy, a barbarian and a mage were all displayed as same "Knight on the horse" but with different colors?

Ok, I'm not so unhappy couldn't get it to work now...

As soon as I saw the system specs I know it was going to be pretty poor. 800MHZ, 16mb video card, and like 128mb ram? LOL!!

Originally posted by Yuui

So if what I gather is correct - this thread contains a bunchload of people who QQ about graphics.

Of course I complain about graphics (and sound and crappy interface and most of the gameplay). It's HoMM. HoMM had always great graphics for it's time. Especially HoMM 3. And it's about atmosphere, which especially HoMM 3 had also tons of, and which doesn't exist in HoMM Online.

How are you supposed to feel like a "hero" when you spawn in a city with hundreds of other people looking all about the same? How am I supposed to feel evil when my cutey-character lives in a shiny castle and is busy about getting haircuts? How am I supposed to enjoy the world that HoMM takes place in, if it's ugly as sin in any possible ways? Yes I complain. "MMO" ain't an excused for shitty graphics from 20 years ago.

Enjoying the game so far. Feels a lot like HoMMIII which i s great after a huge trainwreck which was HoMMV...

Sorry but it's an entirely different game than HoMM 3. Saying playing HoMM Online feels like playing HoMM3 is the same as saying sitting on the toilet with diarrhea feels the same as cuddling with your partner in the evening sun on a beach.

AS for that someone who cried that his character did not look "different enough" - you DO remember that it was the same in HoMMIII? Where a huge skeleton evil guy, a barbarian and a mage were all displayed as same "Knight on the horse" but with different colors?

HoMM 3 was no MMO. In an MMO people want to be different from each other to feel special. Especially when the game tells you that you are a hero. You don't want to look like everyone else, and I especially don't want a stinking swamp woman to look like barbie.

Granted, HoMM Online might be fun for a select crowd (if you ignore the graphics, sound, interface etcetc) if you get deeper into the game, have lots of cities and quarrel constantly with other players. Maybe that's fun. But it got nothing to do with HoMM. And if there are great looking games out there that are fun right from the start, why should I play a horrible looking one that could maybe be fun at certain moments?

I mean the old HoMM games (especially 1, 2 and 3, the other two is a matter of opinion) were incredible. They had nice graphics, replayability, depth, and were addicting. Any oldschool player, whom you shout "HoMM!!" in the face, will get a dreamy look. No wonder why people have huge expectations. And if a game comes along bearing the name of that franchise, then it has to come up with something great, or people will say it's crap. If the game is about any random series then who cares. They tried, might be fun. But it's HoMM! So yeah: expectations are huge, and for me personally, they weren't met.

Well, later this year is afaik HoMM 6 released, let's see how that turns out.

when i saw the official site first i already knew the game would be horrible.

Asian, cheap, ugly. Why would ubisoft (or whoever owns the game) let their beautiful game to turn into some ugly asian F2P style bullshit... Really really dissapointed.

The idea is good and i would definitely play a good turn based mmorpg, but what they made is just ridiculous.

Originally posted by Yuui

So if what I gather is correct - this thread contains a bunchload of people who QQ about graphics.

Of course I complain about graphics (and sound and crappy interface and most of the gameplay). It's HoMM. HoMM had always great graphics for it's time. Especially HoMM 3. And it's about atmosphere, which especially HoMM 3 had also tons of, and which doesn't exist in HoMM Online.

How are you supposed to feel like a "hero" when you spawn in a city with hundreds of other people looking all about the same? How am I supposed to feel evil when my cutey-character lives in a shiny castle and is busy about getting haircuts? How am I supposed to enjoy the world that HoMM takes place in, if it's ugly as sin in any possible ways? Yes I complain. "MMO" ain't an excused for shitty graphics from 20 years ago.

Enjoying the game so far. Feels a lot like HoMMIII which i s great after a huge trainwreck which was HoMMV...

Sorry but it's an entirely different game than HoMM 3. Saying playing HoMM Online feels like playing HoMM3 is the same as saying sitting on the toilet with diarrhea feels the same as cuddling with your partner in the evening sun on a beach.

AS for that someone who cried that his character did not look "different enough" - you DO remember that it was the same in HoMMIII? Where a huge skeleton evil guy, a barbarian and a mage were all displayed as same "Knight on the horse" but with different colors?

HoMM 3 was no MMO. In an MMO people want to be different from each other to feel special. Especially when the game tells you that you are a hero. You don't want to look like everyone else, and I especially don't want a stinking swamp woman to look like barbie.

Granted, HoMM Online might be fun for a select crowd (if you ignore the graphics, sound, interface etcetc) if you get deeper into the game, have lots of cities and quarrel constantly with other players. Maybe that's fun. But it got nothing to do with HoMM. And if there are great looking games out there that are fun right from the start, why should I play a horrible looking one that could maybe be fun at certain moments?

I mean the old HoMM games (especially 1, 2 and 3, the other two is a matter of opinion) were incredible. They had nice graphics, replayability, depth, and were addicting. Any oldschool player, whom you shout "HoMM!!" in the face, will get a dreamy look. No wonder why people have huge expectations. And if a game comes along bearing the name of that franchise, then it has to come up with something great, or people will say it's crap. If the game is about any random series then who cares. They tried, might be fun. But it's HoMM! So yeah: expectations are huge, and for me personally, they weren't met.

Well, later this year is afaik HoMM 6 released, let's see how that turns out.

Some rather good points for what I've seen of the game, although if you're complaining about the sound, then apparently you never liked any of the sfx and music of the whole HoMM-series. Considering they've taken them straight out of the earlier games.

Anyways, another one who can't login here. Especially nice since right now you're unable to get an activation key anyhow.

To be honest, I don't really like the fact that they've just cross-overed Heroes 3 and Conquer Online, and apparently done a bad job at it :P

I don't know what OP was expecting when they played the game, and it's kind of clear they never or very briefly touched a HOMM game, regardless of what they claim. They most likely wanted a carbon copy of the HOMM series which, I hate to break it to you, is not possible in an mmo format unless you want it very slow and dull (i.e. Heroes of Gaia).

As far as graphics, HOMM has never been about looking pretty, it's been about good gameplay, which the Online version has.  There is nothing wrong with the animation or movement that some slight tweaking wont fix, it's not like they are stuttering around. Everything I have seen has been smooth.

It has its issues. There are bugs and translations issues, which is norm for a port from a foreign country.  A little polish would be nice as well. And the exploration/battle maps feel kind of sparse, at least in chapter 1. But all in all it's a fun game so far, even with its flaws. But I suppose, if looks are everything, it won't be your cup of tea.

I've never played a HoMM game before but am playing this now. I am really enjoying questing (no seriously I am) and the music is great. I've seen a few bugs and some text looks garbled in some parts (not very often) but it is first day of closed beta. Honestly everything about this game has impressed me so far. I like how it looks (has a nice classic feel to it). If you are a graphics whore and think  "Graphics>>>>>>>More Graphics>>>>>>>gameplay>>music" then yeah you might not like this. Anyway the gameplay is superb and I can't wait to get more into the game....I've only just begun!

Originally posted by EverSkelly

when i saw the official site first i already knew the game would be horrible.

Asian, cheap, ugly. Why would ubisoft (or whoever owns the game) let their beautiful game to turn into some ugly asian F2P style bullshit... Really really dissapointed.

The idea is good and i would definitely play a good turn based mmorpg, but what they made is just ridiculous.

 I had the chance to play a bit of closed beta ummm say no more, sorry to say. Deleting the game as I type this.

Bad Graphics, Bad Interface, Bad Game. 

http://mightandmagicheroeskingdoms.ubi.com/en/

this will be better!

im from bulgaria and it sais: "M&M Heroes Kingdoms™ has not been launched in your country yet!"

anyone outside europe manage to play it already?

---

Originally posted by Archeminos
I don't know what OP was expecting when they played the game, and it's kind of clear they never or very briefly touched a HOMM game, regardless of what they claim. They most likely wanted a carbon copy of the HOMM series which, I hate to break it to you, is not possible in an mmo format unless you want it very slow and dull (i.e. Heroes of Gaia).
As far as graphics, HOMM has never been about looking pretty, it's been about good gameplay, which the Online version has.  There is nothing wrong with the animation or movement that some slight tweaking wont fix, it's not like they are stuttering around. Everything I have seen has been smooth.
It has its issues. There are bugs and translations issues, which is norm for a port from a foreign country.  A little polish would be nice as well. And the exploration/battle maps feel kind of sparse, at least in chapter 1. But all in all it's a fun game so far, even with its flaws. But I suppose, if looks are everything, it won't be your cup of tea.

---

Congratulations, sir. Your post is first unbiased non-elitist post in this thread with actual arguments.

As for difficulty of quests - latter on it gets harder. Even Chapter2 already has some different quests (like the ones with turn limits, or the "dig up the treasure" one).

Latter on, together with map size and difficulty, more creatures are added in a way that you actually need to think and re-arrange yoru army to succeed(as there are creatures resistant to meele or range attacks, creatures only harmed by certain magic type and etc).

Chapter1 is "sort-of" tutorial, teaching you on what various map stuff does.

Latter on they will seemingly introduce Player-VS-Player HoMMIII-like "raze their castles" maps

---

Originally posted by bugse82
http://mightandmagicheroeskingdoms.ubi.com/en/

this will be better!
im from bulgaria and it sais: "M&M Heroes Kingdoms™ has not been launched in your country yet!"
anyone outside europe manage to play it already?

---

Its browser-based heroes, so I expect it to suck.

sadly not many people were able to try it as Ubisoft seemingly totally forgot about that game.

I don't know what OP was expecting when they played the game, and it's kind of clear they never or very briefly touched a HOMM game, regardless of what they claim.

Tell me more about me please, it's always interesting when random people on some forums know me better and what I did or not did than I myself. :)

They most likely wanted a carbon copy of the HOMM series which, I hate to break it to you, is not possible in an mmo format unless you want it very slow and dull (i.e. Heroes of Gaia).

I agree, that getting the HoMM feeling into an MMO is not possible.... if you just slap random components together without any effort, to get the most cash out of the famous name while delivering the least possible. It is possible to get a good HoMM MMO, if the developer would even remotely be interested to create such a game, which would require some effort obviously. But the developer is just interested to make some cheap money by taking a famous name and slapping it on a horrible product.

As far as graphics, HOMM has never been about looking pretty, it's been about good gameplay, which the Online version has.  There is nothing wrong with the animation or movement that some slight tweaking wont fix, it's not like they are stuttering around. Everything I have seen has been smooth.

I agree, gameplay was always one of the most important aspects of HoMM. Still, for their time, HoMM games were always looking fine. They had no next-generation graphics engines, but they looked fine. This HoMM Online does NOT look fine. It looks horrible. Your argument is as if you'd say "watching TV has always been about watching, not about hearing. As such, the sound is irrelevant". And the big joke is: even the gameplay of HoMM Online is not great. If it would have awesome gameplay, then hell yes: graphics ain't that important. But the gameplay is bad too! And don't get me started about the animations. There is nothing wrong with them you say, I suppose, because they don't exist. Trees, grass, water, nothing moves the slightest.

It has its issues. There are bugs and translations issues, which is norm for a port from a foreign country.  A little polish would be nice as well. And the exploration/battle maps feel kind of sparse, at least in chapter 1. But all in all it's a fun game so far, even with its flaws. But I suppose, if looks are everything, it won't be your cup of tea.

So you are one of those dudes who ignore 90% of other peoples posts and make things up. I said that graphics are not everything. I wrote it before, I wrote it now. You still ignore it? I can write it again if that helps: graphics ain't everything. Read it now? Yes? No? If not, I can't help you. But in case you still keep ignoring what I write and make up things: graphics ain't everything. But what does HoMM online deliver please? Graphics obviously not. The atmosphere of beeing a hero? Uhm, no I just start in some random asian MMO town among hundreds of people, doing hair-cut quests. Sound? Either taken from games a decade ago or non-exist. And a cash shop to top it off, so that the one who pays most wins.

On the steam xmas sale I picked up "King's Bounty Armored Princess", which is also a game with a HoMM-like gameplay, for like 4€. It got no multiplayer apart from a highscore list with stats, where those who completed the game can compare their stats with others.

BUT: it got incredible music and nice sound effects, boss-fights where the bosses fill half of the screen and have unique abilities, like destroying some of the arena, the graphics ain't the best, but they look fine and give you the feeling of beeing part of a world. It even has interesting quests and humor, and adds new elements to the game with a dragon that you can level up and that has it's own talent tree.

Compared to:

Why on earth should I play HoMM Online instead of playing a round of Kings Bounty on a higher difficulty or with another class instead? The only thing HoMM Online has that's better than King's Bounty is a crappy multiplayer mode, that get's a kick in the nuts by the cash shop.

Not to mention Disciples 3, whichs english version should soon be available.

Yes, graphics ain't everything. But they can add a lot to an otherwise good game, making it superb. And horrible graphics can bring down a bad game that adds nothing interesting even more.

I mean if you like HoMM Online and want to sink your money and time into it, then yes do it if it makes you happy. In the end, only the entertainment we get out of the game counts. But for me, HoMM Online is a horrible made generic asian MMO, that got the HoMM name slapped on it, to milk people with the cash shop.

It had been released in France a few months ago, the game could be interesting but there are several major flaws that makes it not very interesting. It doesn't feel like a HOMM but more like a Travian or any "strategy' browser games.

Originally posted by maji

I don't know what OP was expecting when they played the game, and it's kind of clear they never or very briefly touched a HOMM game, regardless of what they claim.

Tell me more about me please, it's always interesting when random people on some forums know me better and what I did or not did than I myself. :)

They most likely wanted a carbon copy of the HOMM series which, I hate to break it to you, is not possible in an mmo format unless you want it very slow and dull (i.e. Heroes of Gaia).

I agree, that getting the HoMM feeling into an MMO is not possible.... if you just slap random components together without any effort, to get the most cash out of the famous name while delivering the least possible. It is possible to get a good HoMM MMO, if the developer would even remotely be interested to create such a game, which would require some effort obviously. But the developer is just interested to make some cheap money by taking a famous name and slapping it on a horrible product.

As far as graphics, HOMM has never been about looking pretty, it's been about good gameplay, which the Online version has.  There is nothing wrong with the animation or movement that some slight tweaking wont fix, it's not like they are stuttering around. Everything I have seen has been smooth.

I agree, gameplay was always one of the most important aspects of HoMM. Still, for their time, HoMM games were always looking fine. They had no next-generation graphics engines, but they looked fine. This HoMM Online does NOT look fine. It looks horrible. Your argument is as if you'd say "watching TV has always been about watching, not about hearing. As such, the sound is irrelevant". And the big joke is: even the gameplay of HoMM Online is not great. If it would have awesome gameplay, then hell yes: graphics ain't that important. But the gameplay is bad too! And don't get me started about the animations. There is nothing wrong with them you say, I suppose, because they don't exist. Trees, grass, water, nothing moves the slightest.

It has its issues. There are bugs and translations issues, which is norm for a port from a foreign country.  A little polish would be nice as well. And the exploration/battle maps feel kind of sparse, at least in chapter 1. But all in all it's a fun game so far, even with its flaws. But I suppose, if looks are everything, it won't be your cup of tea.

So you are one of those dudes who ignore 90% of other peoples posts and make things up. I said that graphics are not everything. I wrote it before, I wrote it now. You still ignore it? I can write it again if that helps: graphics ain't everything. Read it now? Yes? No? If not, I can't help you. But in case you still keep ignoring what I write and make up things: graphics ain't everything. But what does HoMM online deliver please? Graphics obviously not. The atmosphere of beeing a hero? Uhm, no I just start in some random asian MMO town among hundreds of people, doing hair-cut quests. Sound? Either taken from games a decade ago or non-exist. And a cash shop to top it off, so that the one who pays most wins.

 

On the steam xmas sale I picked up "King's Bounty Armored Princess", which is also a game with a HoMM-like gameplay, for like 4€. It got no multiplayer apart from a highscore list with stats, where those who completed the game can compare their stats with others.

BUT: it got incredible music and nice sound effects, boss-fights where the bosses fill half of the screen and have unique abilities, like destroying some of the arena, the graphics ain't the best, but they look fine and give you the feeling of beeing part of a world. It even has interesting quests and humor, and adds new elements to the game with a dragon that you can level up and that has it's own talent tree.

Compared to:

Why on earth should I play HoMM Online instead of playing a round of Kings Bounty on a higher difficulty or with another class instead? The only thing HoMM Online has that's better than King's Bounty is a crappy multiplayer mode, that get's a kick in the nuts by the cash shop.

Not to mention Disciples 3, whichs english version should soon be available.

Yes, graphics ain't everything. But they can add a lot to an otherwise good game, making it superb. And horrible graphics can bring down a bad game that adds nothing interesting even more.

I mean if you like HoMM Online and want to sink your money and time into it, then yes do it if it makes you happy. In the end, only the entertainment we get out of the game counts. But for me, HoMM Online is a horrible made generic asian MMO, that got the HoMM name slapped on it, to milk people with the cash shop.

Stop comparing 2D images with 3D images

It doesn't make any sense

I agree with the rest :)