Recently I played Heroes of Might and Magic IV and completed both expansion campaigns, defeated Hexis and took Channon with Spazz Maticus. Overall, it was a fun experience.
Most fans of HoMM series however prefer its 3rd part and tend to avoid pretty much every other installment of the series. That is why HoMM III keeps getting remasters and unofficial fan expansions, while official fully 3D sequels often go unnoticed by public.
In my personal opinion 4th part actually improves gameplay over its predecessor. It kept a lot of good from the previous series and added many more new stuffs. It was a move in the right direction.
However, there was one mistake that developers made with the 4th part that made fans hate it. That same mistake was later carried on to its other sequels. This mistake is a reason why 3rd part endures forever more and all its sequels languish in obscurity.
The mistake is aesthetics and overall feel of each fraction. HoMM III got fractions and creatures uniquely right. All subsequent sequels deviated from that formula and ended up either hated or ignored by fans. I wonder how many brainstorming sessions developers held in an attempt to arrive at this simple truth, however as of now it remains undiscovered.
However, why developers fail to understand this simple truth?
The reason is likely in the fact that HoMM III was somewhat of an outlier when it comes to fraction and creature design. When it comes to design only all other games have more in common with each other than with the 3rd part.
For example, centaur creature is a range unit of a Barbarian fraction in 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th game of the series. Only in 3rd game it was instead a melee fighter in a Rampart fraction. Similarly, dwarf was in a Tower fraction in all, but 3rd game of the series.
Yes, exact number, names and creature composition of each fraction does vary from game to game. For example, Inferno and Necropolis were merged in 4th game but went back being separate fractions in 5th. All that maybe true but this fact simply obscures the most important truth that it was 3rd game that got fractions uniquely right. Major changes such as fraction merger obscure minor changes that are actual reasons for the failure.
Above mentioned Necropolis fraction was one of the key reasons for failure of HoMM IV. It is easy to simply explain it that players did not like the merger, but there was more to it than just that. Necropolis from HoMM III had a vastly different vibe from its HoMM IV iteration.
HoMM III Necropolis was solemn and proud fraction. It had overall gothic aesthetics of different shades of black and while. It had calmness and eeriness of a cemetery as well as certain sense respect for dead. Great fallen warriors of the past were now undead soldiers of a Necromancer's army. Even humble upgraded skeleton wore black Greek style muscled armor and Ancient Greek statues adorned the building where you recruited them. Other creatures were also equally pompous and wore elaborated armor and ornaments. The whole fraction gives a feel and vibe of a relentless and unstoppable grim reaper whose eventual triumph is as inevitable as biological death is.
All that was gone from Death (Necropolis) of the HoMM IV. In the sequel developers made death look more decayed, rotten, shocking and disgusting even. HoMM IV skeleton was a sickly warrior with enemy arrows sticking out of his armor. Wraith who looked like death incarnate was replaced with Ghost who holds its severed head in his hand. Power Lich, that reeked with unlimited power, was replaced by some ugly giant poisonous slug. All black aesthetics made way for some dark, red, green and brown.
Sure, dead people rot but that was not why people who played Necropolis played them. People who prefer Necropolis are Goth and Emo in real life. They wear only black cloth and will stop wearing black only when they will invent darker color. If you think they will appreciate if you liven up their image with some color, then you are mistaken. They are darker than dark and want to bring death to the people of the world. Despite that neon green is constant feature of Necropolis town since 5th part even as people jokingly compare it with Monster Energy Drink.
Other towns are equally on the mark in the HoMM III and greater or lesser miss in other games of the series.
Just like Necropolis, that became home of goth and nihilists, they all have one particular type of player they fit like a glow.
For example, basic Castle is home for a chivalrous and self-righteous hero who sees himself as a hero who slays evil. The same type that plays Paladin in WoW. They like to kill but they do not want to be seen and murderers but rather saviors who only kill those who are evil and save innocents, kind of like superheroes in comic books. This type fantasies about going on crusade or something this pretentious. They probably own a gun in hope to use it against a home invader and play vigilante in real life. They likely also own a dog. Here they instead want to plat knight errand from Arthurian legend.
Castle town is just what such a player needs. Its pseudo medieval but colorfully decorated like for a festival to celebrate the hero. There are no peasants or feudal pyramid, only brothers in arms in fight against evil and wicked. Crusader is that baseline knight in shining armor who bravely charges forward with sword in his hand. A more senior comrade does the same on horseback. Less brave comrades help him out with bows or halberds. Wise monks in robes help out with spells. Angels, direct emissaries from god, watch over these god worshipping heroes to make sure they will not come to harm with their resurrection spell. Finally, a loyal like a labrador beast, gryphon, who looks like half lion half bald eagle acts as "men's best friend", because simply put labrador dog into a game is too plain.
Later iteration of Castle fraction does take away from this fantasy in favor of a more realistic medieval feel. However, that realism gets in the way of roleplaying as knight errant in shining armor. Peasant has no place in a fantasy tale, it's about heroes. Because of that later iterations of the game are not as popular as original one.
For something opposite of Castle is Dungeon. Dungeon is home for a selfish player who give in to his passions, selfishness and greed and now craves more and more money and power. They do not care if they are good or bad, all they care is to wield unlimited power. They likely go Sith Lord in KotoR and play as villains in other games if there is an option. They want to play something overpowered to have advantage over their opponents. Often, they also want to crush their opponents and laugh at their defeat and weakness.
Dungeon fraction has full of borderline cheating things such players like. Playing it feels like cheating, a portal for an extra creature in town. A Black Market to buy artifacts one wants. Mana vortex to double all spell points. Creatures are all with some cheats, from simple Troglodytes immune to blindness because they have no eyes to an ultimate cheater: immune to all magic Black Dragon. There are also medusas who turn enemy creatures to stone, harpies that attack and return back to safety and Scorpicores with their paralyzing poison. Every scary monster at the service of an evil obsessed with power Warlock or Lord.
HoMM IV actually replicated feel of the Dungeon reasonably well with its Chaos fraction. Different monsters but a lot of the same feel. Alas in HoMM V Dungeon became a femdom den instead and lost all of its original appeal.
Rampart is JRRTolkien's fraction of HoMM III. Tolkien fans and other traditional high fantasy fans play this fraction. They are what you would expect of a hardcore fantasy fan and want a fraction that represents best things from their favorite books.
The fraction has plenty of staples from Lord of the Rings and other classic fantasy books, most importantly Elves and Dwarfs. However, there are also kind walking trees, like the treebeard who helped Merry and Pipin in LotR, unicorns, pegassi, centaurs and even kind and wise Golden Dragon who lives in high caves and does not sleep on stolen gold like his selfish and evil Dungeon cousin. Everything is either green and brown or white and gold so symbolize either nature or mythical purity and rarity. Also, architecture has certain Japanese feel to it because some fantasy fans like fancy things such as anime and Japan.
In later iterations Nature fraction became less of a fantasy and more of a feral nature with wild wolfs and such. It lost its unique magical high fantasy charm.
For a slightly different fantasy fan, who is more into Harry Potter and magic there is Tower fraction. Tower has mages that fight with magic as well as various creatures either animated or created with magic. Ever wondered how that stone gargoyle or a statue would act if it was alive. Wonder no more as we have there in this fraction. Humble gremlins assist mages like elf Dory from HP. Genies can cast spells themselves; Nagas are mysterious magical creatures and a giant statue of a Roman general that throws thunderbolts like Zeus or Jupiter tops the selection. Buildings of this fraction are no less mysterious than creatures, magical libraries hold extra spells for its heroes, castle has literal high towers like a 19th century imitation castle, and they even have magical mines around their walls to defend against intruders. Their grail structure looks like a flying ship with a propeller.
While HoMM IV Order fraction retained some of the aspects of the Tower, HoMM V completely revamped it into an eastern aesthetics. Why would a HP fan play as a dude with a turban on an elephant? I have nothing against turbans or elephants, but they should have been a different fraction.
Finally, there is Stronghold that favored by people who like Conan the Barbarian and watch American Wrestling, boxing or body building. Some might go to gym. The kind of people who love and value strength and biceps size above all else. They think that tricks or magic are beneath them and always attack without thinking.
Stronghold just what such people like. Everything made of stone because softer materials are for weak people. All creatures are good at attacking and bad at defending because defense is for cowards, strong and brave always attack. They even have an ogre mage creature that can only cast one spell that makes attacks stronger, so you get the idea. They throw axes and giant rocks instead of shooting arrows or magic, ride wolves, hit people with sticks and so on. Even their ultimate creature, behemoth, lacks flying, teleporting or shooting ability, it just fights one on one. All the aesthetics and vibe also revolve around toughness and strength, even traditions and rituals this fraction practice. Story covers that in great detail.
Once again that diminished in HoMM IV and evolve into something else in HoMM V.
I will not cover Inferno, Fortress or Conflux as they are not as popular as other fractions.
Overall, it's pretty clear that it is not the 2D art but rather concept and aesthetics of each fraction that got people to love them. People would like to see them replicated in 3D, but it has to be these fractions and not some other fractions that look and feel nothing like these. A new HoMM game that will come back to this most love concept is bound to be a success.
