14 DAY TRIAL // 
Might & Magic Heroes VII bears the weight of an entire franchise on its shoulders, the kind of video game that needs to cater to the desires of a very dedicated and often conservative fan base that loves classic mechanics more than any kind of attempt at innovation.
The development team at Limbic Entertainment and publisher Ubisoft have tried to re-invent the essence of the franchise and have delivered a title that takes the best elements of the various older entries and delivers six faction-driven campaigns that have some surprising moments.
Might & Magic Heroes VII also offers custom games, with a variety of maps and some intriguing setup options, as well as multiplayer, which means that for those who love the core mechanics, there's a lot of replay value.
Gamers should be warned that the title uses the Uplay service from Ubisoft, which worked without a hitch during the time I spent with the turn-based experience.
Story
Might & Magic Heroes VII frames the story in a unique way, with the players able to select between the advisors of count Ivan Griffin, each of them prepared to tell a story about a unique event or hero that will help them in their decision about the future of the kingdom and the way the world should be shaped.
I played all the previous titles in the series, even if I failed to finish some of the included campaigns, but I initially understood little about the circumstances for each of the narratives and the involved characters.
Thankfully, the factions included in the new game will be familiar to most fans, and the characters tend to behave according to classic fantasy tropes, with betrayals and twists that are enjoyable if predictable.
Haven, Academy, Stronghold, Necropolis, Sylvan and Dungen are the featured types of castles, and each of them has a clear personality and encourages the player to develop a certain playstyle via the offered units and upgrades.
As a scenario or campaign in Might & Magic Heroes VII evolves, the heroes themselves evolve and the development team has managed to create a progression system that feels both deep and broad, allowing players to pick and choose the bonuses that they believe are best suited to their style and the faction they are controlling.
The series has always encouraged players to create their narratives around battles and hero development to complement the official story events and I feel that the new title offers more options than its predecessors, although it does not reach the greatness of the third installment and especially the Armageddon's Blade.
Gameplay
Might & Magic Heroes VII offers a very classic turn-based strategy experience, with gamers asked to guide their heroes across levels to acquire resources while they also manage their castles and guide troops at a tactical level when combat is engaged.
Limbic has clearly went through the history of the series to pick up the mechanics that fans loved the most, and as a result, the new title will feel very familiar and it's very easy to get involved in one of the campaigns and feel right at home.
As the name implies, the experience is centered on the heroes that gamers can recruit and develop, using a re-designed progression system that features some interesting choices and with the customization pushed even further via unique items and the various bonuses that they can pick up from the game world.
These leaders of men and creatures move around the map and need to secure mines, which deliver the resources required to develop their cities, and other important sites that allow them to improve their strength or their movement rate.
Initially, resistance is offered by neutral creatures, some of which can be very threatening, but the real challenge of Might & Magic Heroes VII is when an enemy hero appears and a tactical battle is launched.
Players need to place their creatures on the battlefield and then, based on initiative, each of them has the option to move and to attack an opponent stack, with special abilities and bonuses added to the mix to complicate calculations.
Heroes do not fight directly in the field, but they can deliver a strike or a spell in order to help their troops.
Each hero can also hire additional support troops that stay on the sidelines,and sieges complicate matters even further with trebuchets, walls and ballistae.
It's relatively easy to understand the entire system but it's very hard to account for all possibilities, which means that combat remains fresh and challenging in the long term, especially when heroes operate far away from their bases and reinforcements are hard to come by, even with the caravan system enabled once again.
Might & Magic Heroes VII might be familiar but I spent a lot of time right clicking on the various units to get a better picture of their abilities and to try and understand the best way to use them on a tactical level.
“The development team at Limbic has managed to create some interesting synergies and counters and the game remains challenging in the long-term, especially when heroes focused on magic meet those who have might as their primary concern.”
The campaigns of the game are well-balanced, with the levels always asking the player to move forward and make progress, maintaining both gameplay and narrative momentum.
The computer-controlled heroes and factions also react well and exploit the weaknesses of the player troops and magic use even on the Normal difficulty, where they get no extra units or resources to play with.
The biggest problem with Might & Magic Heroes VII is that newcomers might have some trouble understanding everything that happens, even if they start with the relatively tame Haven campaign, and a dedicated tutorial would have been a good way to welcome them.
Graphics and audio
Might & Magic Heroes VII uses the Unreal 3.0 engine to create the game world, and for the most part, the experience created by Limbic Entertainment looks very good, with plenty of detail on both the strategic and the tactical level and some cool animations that underline the best moments of the combat.
All conversations between the council look a little weird, like a long talk between wax figurines, but the intros for the faction stories are nicely animated, and I appreciate that the entire world seems to be alive.
When two battles meet on the field, gamers will be able to zoom in to see each type of units deliver their attacks and endure punishment from others, but I suspect that most players will stay zoomed out to have a clear look at the situation and plan their next move.
The new Heroes also features some frame rate drops, but nothing that makes the title unplayable, and presumably improvement in performance will arrive via patches.
The voice acting included in the game straddles the line between heroic fantasy and parody at times, and after a while I decided to skip as fast as possible through the exchanges between the main characters.
On the other hand, the music manages to be both atmospheric and subtle enough to boost the feeling of immersion without constantly trying to capture the attention of the player.
Multiplayer
Might & Magic Heroes VII allows gamers to play with other humans using hotseat, LAN or online, and the classic scenarios are complemented by the duel concept, which drops gamers straight into a battle with pre-selected units and heroes.
For me, the series has always been one best enjoyed in single-player, mostly because of the time commitment required, but on the few occasions I battled other fans, I was happy with the quality of the experience.
The Good
- Classic turn-based strategy mechanics
- Factional variety
- Solid campaign structure
The Bad
- Strategic map could have used some innovation
- Narrative is often predictable
Conclusion
The tactical battles are the highlight of the package, challenging without being too difficult, with players pressed to carefully consider their moves and find the best way to employ each unit and each opportunity to launch a spell.
The strategic layer could have used a little more innovation and can become a little dry, but the campaign levels are well designed and always give the player clear objectives to chase.
The development team is also including an editor in the game package, which should make it relatively easy for gamers to create their own content, which can range from unique factions to units and maps, with an option to use the Shadow Council network to then share it with the rest of the community.
