Trevor

It's been awhile since we've mentioned this franchise.

I just pulled out H3 again the other day and am hooked again.

I remember people being disappointed w/ H4 initially, so I never tried it. But perhaps people grew to like it, and/or patches made the AI better.

I usually only play against the AI, don't have the patience for multi-player games.

H4 compete is down to maybe $20 total on ebay or amazon, so I was thinking of moving on to it.

I realize that H5 is out, but prefer to make a decision on H4 first.

Any thoughts?

tonyc3742

I did not like H4 at all. Visually it was hard to see [you may have a bigger monitor and can deal with a higher resolution], and though they made some gameplay improvements [the caravan], I just didn't get a good feel from it. It felt tedious, rather than engaging. Perhaps it was simply comparing it to H3, which imho is as close to perfect for a PC TBS game as I've played. HoMM V did make more of a return to the gameplay of 3, but spent a lot of energy in upgrading the graphics, which isn't necessarily bad, but graphics weren't what i played the HoMM series for.
If I were to buy one, and they were the same price, I'd likely skip IV and go to V. But I will admit that the changes in IV might interest some people; I don't necessarily think it's bad, I just didn't like most of the tweaks, and I vastly preferred 3.
20 bucks, eh, that's not a lot, and you could probably turn it right back around and resell for close to that. Or you could hit some fansites and download user made maps/campaigns for III....or both...

Trevor

Thanks for the input.

Yep, H3 is the perfect game, TBS or otherwise. I've played it more in my life than I have slept (almost), and have downloaded a bunch of user created maps. I even experimented with Wake of the Gods, the user created total mod.

I decided to go ahead and try Heroes 4. I found it for $20 shipped, the compete version with both the expansions.

So far, I'm enjoying it. I'll probably end up finishing all the campaigns (I love the role playing storyline aspects of the Heroes line), and then going on to H5 or back to WOG.

The caravans are great, and putting heroes in the army is pretty cool. They can quickly become quite powerful, which appeals to my role playing roots. I'm in the first camapign, and by the 2nd scenario I'm pretty much using heroes only and not using creatures much at all.

Trevor

Not sure why I feel the need to update this thread, but here goes...

So it's been a month now, and I have firmly decided that H4 is a worthwhile game.

I'm only in the third campaign, but I have pretty much spent all of my free time (and a good chunk of my should be sleeping time) playing this game.

My above comments stand; caravans were a great idea, and heroes in the battlefield is a lot of fun.

I'm sure that H3 will always be my favorite, but H4 has a chance to make a run for it. I still have most of the campaigns, the two expansion packs, and the user mods and campaigns to play, as well as possible map editing and online play.

It also perked my interest enough to grab a limited edition of Heroes 5 on ebay for pretty cheap.

Setzer

I thought H4 was a good game, not as good as H3 but still a "good" game. I was initially dissapointed with it because there were a few things left out from the initial release and it wasn't until they patched it that I got to really enjoy the game. Jon Van Caneghem and his team were rushed to get that title out before the end of the first quarter in 2002 because of all the financial problems 3DO was experiencing. Had they been given the proper time the game could have probably been better.

After you play H4 I would definitely pick up H5 on ebay, it's really a fun game and makes a good transition to 3D while still retaining the great gameplay qualities from the previous games.