Ubisoft will release next January an HD edition of the legendary Heroes of Might & Magic III on PC and mobile devices. However, since yesterday evening, when the French announced this, this is no longer news, given the number of fans of the original game among the Russian audience, who immediately picked it up. The question is, is this good news?
To answer this question, let’s see what we will be offered.
Ubisoft is preparing a full-fledged remastering. The artists working on the new version of the game have redrawn more than 25 thousand elements to make the novelty look decent on modern HD screens. The original, released in February 1999, we recall, worked in a resolution of 800 by 600 pixels.
The publication will include the original campaign “The Revival of Erafia” (only its sources went to Ubisoft from New World Computing), 50 scripts, a script editor, a local game, including hotseat mode.
It will be available on Steam, as well as on iOS and Android tablets.
It would seem to be a great reason to circle the release day, January 29, in the calendar with a red felt-tip pen, given the love of the game from the gaming community and the almost complete absence of turn-based fantasy strategies of the classic format on mobile devices.
But personally, I am alarmed by three points, because of which, I am afraid, history may repeat itself, not even Bioshock, or XCOM, or Siberia, but in general all ports from PCs and consoles.
Firstly, it is unclear exactly how the interface of the game will look like on tablets. Ubisoft claim that the game has “improved intuitive controls”. Where, in what, is unclear, while the screenshots do not show any differences in the UI.
Secondly, the redrawing raises questions. The fact that more than 30 thousand hours were spent on it deserves respect. But, it seems to me, this was not enough, because now the picture looks “soapy”. The original “Heroes 3” were distinguished at one time by a clear, detailed picture. After the stroke, the game seemed to be passed through one of the Photoshop filters.
That is, on the one hand, it seems to be cool that very soon it will be possible to drive the childhood game on the couch, on the other, the holiday may be a little spoiled.
Thirdly, even if everything goes well (the new interface will be beautiful and convenient, and the blurred picture on small tablet screens will gain clarity), are mobile players (even if only hardcore) ready to return to the classics today, which requires not even an hour for a session, but much more.
Because of this, I have a fear that, in the end, each of us will pay for this case (as he has already paid for all the Final Fantasy series, a dozen quests, Tomb Raider, GTA), but he will not play. The project will simply lie on a virtual shelf, catching virtual dust.
Therefore, the question “is it good that we will soon receive the third “Heroes of Might and Magic” needs clarification: for whom is it good? For those who sell or those who are nostalgic, but are unlikely to play?
It seems that the answer suggests itself that both are good. Only now, outside the “seller – buyer” paradigm, the situation looks strange: some are trying, remaking, bringing out the product, and the latter, although they buy it, but they would have bought it without total alteration, they have nowhere to go. And in any case, it is unlikely that they would not have played.
Or am I wrong?
Are you going to play “Heroes” on mobile devices?