Hi!

I know I'm asking for quite a lot here, and I did search a lot online before creating this topic, but I never exactly found what I was looking for.

So I'm hoping the veterans of the series that have played all the games could give me a brief summary, ranking and opinion with reasons for all 6 titles in the series.

Personally my first HOMM was 3 and while I liked it as a child I always found it kind of "lacking", like the different factions didn't feel really unique except for small differences. And I don't understand all the stats to this day to be honest.
Later I played 4 only a little, it was the first HOMM in which I played a campaign and quite liked it. But I didn't really like the artstyle on some units and I always read and heard from everyone about how horrible it is.
Later I played 5 and liked it a lot, especially how each faction finally has a unique mechanic to them and creatures having more special abilities to seperate them from their other factions equivalent.
That's why I'm suprised to read that many people still think HOMM 3 is superior to 5 when 5 seems to only add and expand on what 3 already had. What am I missing here?

And then while searching for this comparison I'm asking for right now I found that many people also recommend HOMM 2 at times.

But rarely do I find any reasons or actual comparison between these titles.
And with comparison I do mean comparing how factions worked, units, heroes, magic, town building, resouce managenement etc.

So...

TL;DR: How would you rank the different titles in the series and what are the reasons for your ranking?


edit: Also sorry for marking this as a "question/problem", its my first post and it seemed to be an appropiate option, but now I see its for more technical questions.

I rank the Heroes games in this order, from best to not so good:
1. HoMM 3
2. HoMM 2
3. HoMM 5
4. HoMM 4
5. HoMM 1

I've only played a beta from Might & Magic Heroes 6, but from what I seen I think it's worse that HoMM 5.

HoMM 1 it's a much simplified HoMM 2. The same cartoonish graphics, but only 4 towns/races: Knight, Barbarian, Sorceress and Warlock. Only primary skills (Attack, Defense, Power Spell and Knowledge). No secondary skills (Leadership, Logistics and such). I haven't played it much, and perhaps if I had played it first and during it's time I would have loved it more.

HoMM 2 retains the Homm 1 parts but improves most of them. The graphics are similar, a charming cartoon style. The soundtrack is much better. The most important updates that make HoMM 2 great are: the secondary skills, the 2 new races, the creatures upgrades.
There are 6 races/towns now. 2 new races: Necromancer and Wizard. The original 4 races from HoMM 1 are quite the same, including their stats, only some minor aspectual changes. But now some creatures can be upgraded.
Heroes can learn secondary skills, there are 14 in total, each having 3 levels: Basic, Advanced and Expert.
Lots of new spells, artifacts, map buildings. The battlefield is larger.

HoMM 2 and 1 have unbalanced races. The Knight has very weak creatures, so it's best to play this Race/town on small maps. The Warlock has the powerfull Black Dragons, but they need time to be fully upgraded. On large maps with plenty of resources, Warlock wipes the floor with Knight and Barbarian.

I like HOMM4 a lot, not many people do I think but I really like the originality in this one.

I played a lot of HOMM2 while younger, a great deal of HOMM3 later on (dozens of hours of hotseat with my brother on downloaded custom maps) .... and playing HOMM4 was a new experience. The fights may be weird when playing with high level heroes and the graphics didn't age so well .... but the devs are to be congratulated for trying something new and very original.

The only thing that HOMM5 has more than HOMM3 is the complex hero progression system.

HOMM3 is better than HOMM2 in every aspect in my opinion, and HOMM2 is better than HOMM1 in the same way.

1. HoMM 3
2. HoMM 4
3. HoMM 5
4. HoMM 2
5. HoMM 1

I think the issue with HOMM was that before the expansions, the Main Campaign was extremely, extremely boring. So Single Players were turned off.

My ranking [no HOMM 5, as I am in the category above]

HOMM 3
HOMM 4 - it could have been better than the 3 if the balancing of Heroes "in battle" had been done better.
HOMM 2
HOMM 1

HoMM 3 is my favourite. Like many 2D titles, its graphics are still enjoyable today. It has:
- 8 towns/races (9 with Conflux, added on the Armaggedon Blade expansion).
- each town has 7 tier creatures (instead of 6 in Homm 1 and 2). Every creature can be upgraded once.
- each hero has 7 slots for creatures so all 7 type of troops from a town can be used during a fight
- more spells, secondary skills, artifacts, map buildings. Some artifacts can be combined for a bonus effect.
- underground level was added
- the "WAIT" button during the fight gives more tactical options
- the 4 magic schools were added as secondary skills: Earth, Air, Water and Fire Magic. Each spell belongs now to one of the magic schools.
- the flying troops have no longer unlimited range. Their range is limited by their speed.
- all towns are very balanced now. Personally I consider Castle to be a little better and Inferno a little weaker than the others.
- lots of other changes.

In HoMM 3 some creatures were moved from a town to other. Some creatures aren't available anymore.
The hand-drawn cartoony graphic is replaced by pre-rendered art.

HoMM 3 and 2 worked very well on medium specs computers. If I click on a hero then instantly I can see all his troops, skills, equipment. The same if I click a town.
In HoMM 5 I had to wait for a second for the town screen or the hero inventory to pop up. This lag was very annoying. I have to check out how the game plays on my new PC (I5 2500K and Radeon 6950).

For my order it would have to be:

1. HoMM 2
2. HoMM 3
3. HoMM 5
4. HoMM 4
5. HoMM 1

While it is true that HoMM 3 blew HoMM 2 out of the water, HoMM 2 was the very first one I played and I've been in love with it ever since. Really 2 and 3 are tied for my favorite. HoMM 5 was reaaaaaaaaaally 'meh'.
With HoMM 4 I didn't like the fact that your hero could die in combat before your creatures, it was sort of lame, and as for HoMM 1...I've never actually played the first one.

1. HoMM5
2. HoMM4
3. HoMM3
4. HoMM2
5. HoMM1
6. HoMM6

Heroes 2 is basically upgraded Heroes 1. Heroes 3 is better, because it has more stuff, but there are few bugs as well. Unlike most people, I like Heroes 4 and I think it's even better than 3, because some ideas were cool, like throwing potions into emenies (available to both heroes and units). Heroes 5 is the best, even without cool ideas from 4. Heroes 6 - never played it, but I know the bad stuff about it - DRM, many bugs at the beginning (even more than in Heroes 5). Heroes 6 like that - no way.

1. HOMM2
2. HOMM3
3. HOMM4
4. HOMM5
5. HOMM6
6. HOMM1

HOMM2 was my first - I got the demo on the cover disk for a magazine, and played it to death, then bought the full game and played it to death too, along with all the scenarios.

HOMM3 is a close second, although I didn't like the artwork to start with - I preferred HOMM2's clean almost cartoony graphics.

HOMM1 only comes last because I haven't played it much - I didn't own the original, but only bought it on GOG.

I haven't played all the way through HOMM6 or HOMM1, but I have played through every campaign for all the others. HOMM4 gets a lot of stick for not being "HOMM3 and a half" and breaking with a lot of the traditions of HOMM, but it has caravans!! And Mongo!!

I get what you're saying about abilities setting towns apart in 5, but it's nowhere near as good as the earlier games. I haven't played 6, because I heard they took away the town screens altogether. They were a defining part of HOMM in my opinion, and in most cases the music in the towns was awesome and they looked fantastic.

I would rank the games as follows:

3 is the best, I'd say even is 10 out of 10. It has perhaps the most replay value of any computer game ever made.

2 is the second best, and it is easily a 9 out of 10. It has tremendous aspects, but there are some balance issues and even with six sides you don't get the same replay value as you can from 3, with 8-9 sides. I found it to be a little too monotonous, with the same units always being sought after, but the music and sense of immersion are second to none.

1 hasn't been played by that many people, but it was easily one of the best games. 2 and 3 naturally built upon it, but almost all of the core game is in 1, except there aren't any secondary skills or creature upgrades. The graphics are also much bigger, with each troop being really big, and I liked this. While 2-3 really work, this is one area I missed, and whenever I play 1 I marvel at how clearly you can make out all the details on each unit. I have heard of balance issues here, but I found the game to be a blast and it's well worth buying. I'd give it 8 out of 10.

4 comes next, and I liked it a lot but it's just too different. HOMM was really a system that worked, and had benefitted with each new installment 1-3. The changes are just drastic, and so bleak. It's even lame at times, especially with regard to the inferno and necromancer sides being thrown together in every which way, and with the skeleton transformer building letting you make as many vampires as you could want. There are so many balance issues it's a wonder how it got released as is, everything from this which takes the cake, to genies and water elementals having super spell damage. I give the game a 7 out of 10, or only a 4 if you take into account the notion that any sequel should strive to keep up with the fans. 4 was a big let-down.

5 is next, and let me quickly say I give it a 6 out of 10. This is a good game, standing on its own, but it's not in the same league as 2 or 3. Things are "cramped" in 5, the graphics run slow to very slow on many computers existing at time of its release, and there is no story continuity. I like how you can zoom in on units in combat, to see them up close, but the whole combat system just went bananas. You have units that can take so many repeat turns all the time, and it all seems to happen randomly which undermines strategy. You can also have a hard time fitting your own units on the battlefield, but one great thing is you can keep troops you don't want to expose to enemy fire out of a battle for the first time without transferring them to another hero.

I'd recommend for a future release that they try to return to 3 as much as they can, and have even more sides than before. I'd like to see 12, including the forge which almost was released, a new dwarven side with the rampart having a more elven feel with the dwarf units replaced by elven bladesingers or something, and an "evil castle side" with human troops only nothing angelic or priestly. Pirates could be a good theme, with evil mages and swashbucklers.

To most of your post I agree with you although my rating of the games is 3, 2, 5, 4 seeing as how I never played 1 or 6. I rate 4 and 5 about the same although I have so far played 4 more seeing as how I only recently got a comp that could handle 5. Sadly 5's 3d graphics annoy me quite a bit. With 4 I rarely play any side but Necro if I actually want to win sadly other than just going pure Might/Barb.

Now as for them going back to the H3 as much as possible I kind of agree with however I do NOT think more sides is really needed. I mean if they do that what will end up happening is you will get copycap units with only a different picture thrown on really. "Rearranging" the sides a bit more would be cool though with some units perhaps becoming obsolete. Also a possibility is adding one of the good H4 features of Tier Choices for select levels would perhaps be ok as well. I don't want them to go down to only 4 tiers though like they did in H4. Also a Max of 2 Heroes in the battle should be implemented as well, more than that is just asking for trouble.

HoMM II (The Succession Wars) - the best game in the series in many aspects (graphics, gameplay, even spells). But sadly ghosts from PoL severely unbalances this game...
HoMM III (RoE). Brilliant game but magic system with magic schools became worse compared to HoMM II. I don't like expansions too (AB - for Conflux, SoD - for trench damage, art combination and ridiculous new teleporters).
Heroes Chronicles (Chapters I-VIII). Wonderful plot/story (SoD engine), which undeservedly forgotten.
HoMM I. First installment, the prototype of all other games in the series.
HoMM IV. RPG and 3D elements, unfortunately, did not bring luster to the TBS gameplay.

P.S. I don't even want to discuss about so-called Heroes V/VI. These games obviously have nothing to do with New World Computing's HoMM universe.

I don't bother separating the games into expansions when discussing them, especially now when it's almost impossible not to get the complete versions of any of them.

I mean you cannot actually take Chronicles as a separate game in any significant way as each chapter was pretty much released individually, and are only Stand Alone campaign playable. There is no Single Scenario maps or a random map generator for them at all and so they would lose SOOOOOOOooooo much replayability that it would totally suck. I mean alone they are not actually a "game" but just a series of maps with interconnected story lines, aka campaigns, of Heroes 3.

This is a pretty fair take on HOMM4, imho. I'm not sure I'd downgrade it to 4/10 just because it wasn't the best sequel, but I agree that taken on its own, it's a fun game with some drawbacks, and compared to HOMM3 it was a let-down (especially at the time it was released).

I think one of the best improvements from H2 to H3 was the fact that Heroes really got separate identities and were not just cookie cutters with absolutely no difference but that you called them different names.

Not to mention the fact that each alignment got a "Might" & "Magic" class whose primary stats went up correspondingly.

Sadly this is a major area where Heroes 5 failed. While they did keep some of the best idea's from H3&4 with skill improvements they put the Heroes back to almost being cookie cutters in the stat development department.

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Great answer and I think I pretty much agree with you from my experience. First I would say that the HoMM series as a whole for me is the best pc game ever and certainly the one I've spent most time.

I would give a tie for HoMM 2 and 3, my head says 3 is better but my heart is is with 2, I fist got 2 in the mid 90's and have loads of memories of great hot seat games with friends, usually after a few beers at the end of the evening. I like the long campaign, although I only finished it once.

As a game I think the improvements to graphics, extra towns, hero types and more individuality in the heroes made 3 a better game and I am looking forward to playing it again.
I've just discovered GOG and have bought Heroes Chronicles, which I've wanted for years and am looking forward to playing it.
Heroes 4 I just could not get into, very disappointing, not that bad a game but why play it when you can play HoMM 2 or 3.
I have played 5 a few times and it may grow on me, definitely (IMHO) more playable than 4
I have tried Heroes 1, good for its day but why bother now, it does feel like a prototype version of Heroes 2