Recent reviews by Dnisify

I have mixed feelings on this.
The tutorial takes too long compared to HoMM3's little tutorial map.
But then again there are a bunch of new mechanics so I also took my time.

The city designs are cute. I like them more than MMH 7's cities in terms of design and execution.
But I HATE that the city camera is moving in direction to your cursor while navigating functions. Immediately turned that off.
The new Laws-System is cute too. It's nothing too crazy imo and only enhances effects that buildings and skills already have.
The magic schools are a bit off to me since they AGAIN reformed that BUT the spells are a mix of both old AND new and I found them alright. Upgrading spells with the new resource will be explored further but it's nothing too crazy cause again: it only enhances what you can already get from skills and the like.

The heroes don't really intrigue me, their designs are even more generic than in MMH 7. Personally the artstyle is not for me. But I won't ♥♥♥♥ on it just because I'm an oldschool fanboy. I do not find it exciting though.
The reworked leveling system is AGAIN a mix of both old and new, like in HoMM3 you get to choose between a random selection of skills (this time being 3 skills instead of 2) and they integrated sub-skills (in a way) similar-ish to 4 and 5 but instead on deciding to learn them instead of advancing a skill, you get them for free when advancing certain skills. An interesting touch and if you keep pushing you get all 3 sub-skills just like in previous entries.
The artefacts are also rather generic but can be upgraded with the same new resource you use to upgrade spells.
It's just a-ok.

The combat is probably the most interesting part here cause it sure changed a lot.
Spells work the same as in any HoMM part but some correspond to a new mechanic called "Focus Charge" which is basically just an ability meter.
Instead of being able to use a creature ability or hero attacks on cooldown or once per battle you fill up the ability meter by attacking enemies or with certain skills by tanking damage.
You get a maximum of 3 charges, a hero attack costs 1 charge, most creature abilities cost 1-2 charges. 1 charge usually consisting of 5 stacks, so you have to damage 5 times to get a single charge, but with a skill you can start combat with 1 charge.
That's cool and brings a bit of balance to the combat.
Other than that it's pretty similar to HoMM3's combat system except the distance feels shorter(?).
What I didn't like was that creature attack range is nowhere stated, there was a melee enemy that could shoot at nearby targets from 1-2 hexes away but there was no way to know that cause it's just very vaguely described in the creature info.
Same goes for archers (i think? i paid no attention really), cause I didn't feel any long-range penalty for basic archers. Not behind obstacles or anything. Ranged creatures might be broken yet again.
What I hated in combat: THE SPELL BOOK HAS A FLOATING ANIMATION IN BATTLE AND THE DESCRIPTIONS FLOAT WITH IT and THAT caused some eye straining cause you do micro-movements with your eyes up and down while tracking the text. It's minimal, alright but after an hour it got to me. (same with the city-cursor-thing from before... maybe I can turn it off I haven't checked yet...)

The creature design is ok. Some are better, some are worse. I think I understand when people described this as mobile-game-esque. Reminds me of that one game called Soul Hunters or AFK Arena (same dev, same gameplay loop lmao).
So that's a bit sad but generic at worst.

Navigating the map was kinda tough cause unlike the other games you have no indicator if your hero is entering the city or not, so I accidentally kept entering the city or thinking I was already there etc. Same goes for resource spots, the road points at the side of the building but the actual entry is a space to the right.
Grabbing artefacts is also kinda scuffed cause they have that floating animation like in 5, but clicking the floating artefact only lets you move in front of it, you have to awkwardly select the space below it, where the actual space is. You get used to it but from my perspective a design flaw.

What's my verdict then?
It's a mid demo so far. My eyes are tired but otherwise the game has potential.
Most of the new mechanics are kinda boring but in general not too bad.
I will try some side missions but if the full game really only has 4 factions, it will be a deal-breaker.
If there'll be DLC for new factions, I'll cry LMAO! I found that acceptable with MMH7 cause I got it for cheap and generally it was only one DLC faction, the rest sufficed. But if we're getting like 3-4 DLC-factions for this just to get the numbers back to the original number of non-DLC factions, this will be a bad look. A cashgrab, that lures you in with nostalgia (not that I felt any in this game specifically)...
A thing I didn't mention was that the soundtrack is mostly remixed HoMM5 tracks, except for very generic city and battle themes. The soundeffects are always too loud even when reduced to half volume in comparison to BGM. The overworld animations and battle animations are boring and in general the game screams mediocrity...
BUT it's not horrible... Just slightly concerning...
5/10

Very fun roadtrip roguelike. Found out about it rather randomly and got it for my birthday. Was not dissapointed! Interesting hitchhikers, many cool endings, collecting the soundtrack bit by bit is nice, yeah I find it very charming.

And it's still getting updated so... I'm looking forward to experiencing all there is to offer! Good game :D

Crazy climbing game ngl. With a similarish art style to Mike Klubnika (known mainly for Buckshot Roulette).
Haven't finished the full campaign yet but I've enjoyed the Demo a lot. I also listen to Buckshot Roulette OST while climbing.
Anyways. Thanks again Foekoe for showing us this <3

What an addicting lil game. Singelplayer and Multiplayer both rock!
I love the items, the soundtrack is banging and the implication that god played against the dealer and lost so yeah game in general pretty awesome.

Excellent experience. This is what we've been waiting for.
What a wonderful time to be alive and also be part of this community.
I am truly blessed!
HUZZAH!

Crazy climbing game ngl. With a similarish art style to Mike Klubnika (known mainly for Buckshot Roulette).
Haven't finished the campaign yet but I've enjoyed it a lot. I also listen to Buckshot Roulette OST while climbing.
Anyways. Looking forward to the full release! Thanks Foekoe for showing us this <3

Game's so fun, can't wait for the full game to release cause the campaign mode got me all bouncy man. And generally this game is a vibe so hell yeah.

Another great hit after Faster Than Light.
Yet another wonderful Rogue Like and this time with a turn-based twist.
When I first saw it on my FTL home screen I knew I had to check it out and I sure wasn't disappointed.

Can only recommend it ^^

To this day a very fun rogue like.
A friend put me on this game back in 2016 I think cause he knew I was into strategy stuff and I was hooked immediately.
I still play it every now and then and the soundtrack's good too.

Thanks for the years of fun Subset Games.

The photo system is kinda weird sometimes. Friends and I are a bit confused but generally a nice fun grind. Though there's definitely room for improvement. I wish we had more than just traps against monsters. But despite the things it lacks it's still really fun overall. Thumbs up!