1 Like Enough with these nonsensical RTS afterbirth games already, go back to full-on Might & Magic RPG's already! Xeen-style!
Might & Magic Heroes VI - Shades of Darkness Review
Might & Magic Heroes VI: Shades of Darkness is a harsh challenge, but not often a fair one.
There is little to no margin for error here. You need to find the right path to the victory objectives without making any mistakes. Take on too many foes, and you lose the war of attrition; take on too few, and you wind up not gaining enough experience and missing out on artifacts that have a huge impact on powering up your hero. Then there are the tight time restrictions. Many maps have one or more goals involving a task like reaching a certain spot, or destroying specific enemy locations, that need to be accomplished in a set number of turns. Take too much time to explore or experiment, and you instantly lose.
Such time constraints hamper your ability to recruit reinforcements and all but require you to repeat maps once or twice before you have a chance at victory. You frequently wind up backtracking and fighting the same battles, or even just replaying maps from the beginning. It's all too easy to get close to the end of a map and discover that (surprise!) you really couldn't afford the loss of those dozen assassins an hour or so ago after all, or that you simply don't have the number of turns needed to complete all the goals that the game demands.
Still, it's not all bad. You must ask yourself before entering almost any encounter if the end result will be worth it. Will the inevitable troop loss be justified by the experience points, nifty suit of armor, nice pile of gold, or other goodies you get to loot after the bloodshed? These considerations prevent you from simply plowing through every encounter on the map en route to eventual victory. They also give the campaigns some serious heft when it comes to both engrossing you and the sheer time it takes to complete them. Having so little room for screwing up raises the stakes, giving importance to every move you make. It's all quite grueling, but at times, it's a good kind of grueling.
Bugs are another problem. Initially, the new content couldn't even be accessed on the Steam content delivery service, and while the problem has been rectified, there are lingering issues with battle screens going black due to a conflict with machines that have dual video cards. Dealing with this problem means forcing a shutdown, which in turn might cause save files to go missing, forcing a complete replay of the map in progress.
Shades of Darkness is aimed at hardcore Might & Magic Heroes VI players who want a serious challenge. And in that respect, the game delivers. Unfortunately, this difficulty is more than a bit unfair, hitting you with too many surprises that force you to replay battles and huge sections of maps on a regular basis. You have to be too perfect, in too many battles, too often. The relentless punishment, plus the bugs, make the game tough to recommend to anyone but diehard fans of the series looking for the ultimate M&M Heroes challenge.
58 comments
1 Like 
2 Like European developers tend to confuse strategy with puzzles. They design maps/levels/scenarios so there's one way to complete it and if you do anything else you lose. It almost always means you lose on the first try until you figure out the trick. Good strategy games allow different methods to succeed - speed, building a huge army, turtling, etc.
2 Like This guy needs to go play Shadow of Death - HoMM expansions have always been pretty grueling. I'm getting a bit tired of "it's too hard for me!" being counted as a negative against game design. From what he described, this sounds more challenging than broken, and he probably just needs to learn to play better. Bugs are another thing - but from the sounds of it, it's just one issue with a particular system setup. Anyone run into anything else?
1 Like Gah! When will we ever get a Heroes worthy of the old renowned games that was Heroes I-III, these days they can't even balance the difficulty *sob*
I finished both campaigns in this edition and there was one map I had to start three time to beat it. I had pre-ordered the game when it was released I couldn't find where to download it from. I sent a e-mail to Ubisoft that had yet to be anwsered. I found out how to download the game on the forum. The difficulty playing the skirmishes alone is damn near impossible. I haven't been able to win one yet.
One of the worst launched games and took them a year to fix it up to what should have been decent enough launch title. Ubisoft treated this like EA treated SWTOR, they just don't give a crap and wanted extra cash coming in.
It would be great if H3 was just remade with these graphics, or even 5.
@Master_Vexov umm i don't know on what version you're playing
but the gog.com version has full compatibility and they improve the textures of the game
plus who the hell plays a game for it's graphics???
This game is buggy. I started the second mission with my hero (Raelag) reset to lv 1! He started mission 1 at lv 5...! All my reputation, artifacts, and stat points gone.
1 Like @lostn heroes vi is pretty shit, so just search in youtube for the cutscenes (cause the story is amazing) and just play heroes 5 or 3
6 is the worst, i'ed take 4 anyday over this piece of shit
@thequickshooter @lostn Did they eventually implement town screens? That was the single largest oversight of the vanilla game.
@thequickshooter @lostn I think the game had potential. Way more than 4 did. The graphics are nice, and most of the gameplay refinements are great. But the bugs! And the difficulty was frustratingly impossible.
2 Like I bought the original Heroes VI game and it too is unfairly difficult. It is because you cannot develop troops without attacking, and you can't develop troops if you you're too weak to attack. It's a circular mechanism that is at odds with strategy. Also, the CPU manages to build up whatever and whenever it wants.
1 Like bought the complete edition on steam... its a complete disaster, too many bugs even in the original campaign that was released almost 3 years ago!, not to mention the online DRM :S. its a waste of 50$.
@botroo3 Listen, happened to me with Diablo III (not so long ago but still) now I download games illegally and if I like the game than I buy it, this way I don't waste money and I support the good companies. you should do the same :/
2 Like @botroo3 Origin, Uplay, GFWL. I don't know what disaster plafform will appear next? Steam is fa mor stable than those sh*t combined. At least Ubisuck puts their games on Steam for God 'sake. As much as I like to buy from EA (sometime),Origin prevented me from doing that ("Great" download speed).
2 Like @Master_cheat001 @botroo3 gog is the way to go.. now if only there were more games released there
1 Like I like all the Heroes games, and I guess I don't really have a favourite. They're all good in my book.
Beat the game and did not run into any bugs. Game can be hard as heck though. Nearly impossible to beat some maps on the first playthrough.
New faction is okay , combat animations for some of the units seem are a bit off though. Overall i liked it.
8 Like The Heroes series ended for me when Sandro the Necromancer became a side character and subsequently removed.
1 Like It's a 30$ DLC that, according to Steam forums, is completely broken and unplayable. How we are getting "more than our money's worth" is beyond me, even if it were functionnal.
@thequickshooter I generally just pretend that all HoMM titles after the fourth don't exist. After NWC closed its doors, M&M games just aren't the same thing. I just hope M&M X returns this once great IP to its origins.
1 Like @dark_sith_ actually heroes V is pretty damn awesome
the campaign have novel like story and it's not just conquer this and conquer that
it has a great story filled with many emotions
the magic system is way better then 3 and they made the online much more fluid
it's one the damn best heroes games in existence and completely shits all over heroes 4
@ggregd @thequickshooter @dark_sith_
provided they were from the same nation
the negetive moral you'ed get for mixing troops is just unfair
@thequickshooter @dark_sith_ I always though Heroes 4 was too easy because of the OP heroes on the battlefield. You could forget troops and have 4 heroes in your army and destroy anything you come up against.
yeah i miss those text boxes of how did you get an artifact
especially heroes 4 text boxes, for they were pleasant to read
the art style is a bit off but it's ok by any means
the campaign is much better, heroes 3&4 campaign were insanely difficult
the story is great, it's actually more understand able since the world of ashen (heroes 5) has a proper time line >> http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes5/timeline.shtml
@thequickshooter @dark_sith_ As a matter of fact, I'm just now playing Heroes V. Again. Game mechanics are good. No question there. But the game somehow feels stripped to me. Gone are all those little touches from previous titles. Colours look drab in comparison to HoMM III and IV. No more little blocks of descriptive text when you find some item or a chest. Not to mention that the new world is nowhere near as interesting as those that came before. It is a good game, but not as immersing as previous titles.
@thequickshooter uhmm how about NO... already have 2 copies of all might and magic games even 3 of 2 of them
2 Like @enartloc @thequickshooter Agreed! These guys are one of the last remaining companies that actually see the customer as a person and not a fat wallet to suck dry, they truly deserve all the support they can get.
Ubisoft realized that they can't casualize the mechanics of this game so they just release a crap version to milk the last bits from the fans, oh well.
3 Like I'd like to know what version of this game the Reviewer played. Whether it was the actual released 1.8 version, or the 2 gig patch 2.1. The reason I bring that up is because games here on Gamespot and in general, reviews are supposed to be based on the first release of a game. I remember when Heroes 6 came out and Gamespot took almost 3 weeks to review it, which by then several patches had already came out....Just wondering is all. And if you're a Heroes 3 fan such as myself, you'd of enjoyed Heroes Chronicles.
@n0xinab0x Heroes Chronicles is an awesome set of games. Wish someone would roll out high resolution mod like the one for Heroes III
2 Like You can clearly see that reviewer, as 90% of the time on this site, doesn't know what he is talking about. Since when "few suprises" are a bad thing? CoD has no suprises and yet you all beat off to it, or rather paycheck.
Also, difficulty? The guy didn't play HoM&M 6 for sure, because there you also had to replay missions to have a chance, and some of them were pretty long and hard as shit, and yet he writes it like it has been added now. And "Might & Magic Heroes"? What the hell, no, what the fuck does that even mean? It should've been "Might and Magic" world, because Might and Magic and Heroes share the same world, history, timeline or whatever you want to call it. And it's an EXPANSION, so what did you expect, aside from new castle and few tweaks?
Also "Take on too many foes, and you lose the war of attrition; take on too few, and you wind up not gaining enough experience and missing out on artifacts that have a huge impact on powering up your hero" well, sounds like Heroes VI to me. So yeah, he didn't even played it. Is that a good thing that the game is hard? According to Gamespot they don't even know, because there was no mention about it in the VI review.
3 Like @PeterDuck I liked the fourth one as well. While it wasn't as good as III it still retained the great aspects of the previous titles while trying to innovate. I'd recommend Disciples 2 also. That was an awesome game too.
2 Like @dark_sith_ @PeterDuck Agreed. IV wasn't as good as the others, but it was still enjoyable and at least it tried to do something different. Disciples II is a great game as well. Haven't tried Disciples III yet, but I hear that was pretty bad?
1 Like Don't buy Disciples III, it's one of the worst games I've ever played. Try King's Bounty in case you haven't yet
1 Like @idontlivehere11 @dark_sith_ @PeterDuck That game is abysmal. Don't waste your time and money on Disciples III. I rushed to buy it, and it was one of the worst game purchases of my gaming history.
4 Like @PeterDuck Ok, I hate to be that guy but I have to say that HoMM5 with all xpacks was still pretty damn good. I would even argue it was almost as good as or just as good as 3, albeit with some atrocious art-style. :)
3 Like @idontlivehere11 @PeterDuck agreed, except I liked the art style. Haven't played 3, but (at least for multiplayer) HoMaM 5 was an incredibly fun, addictive game.
3 Like @PeterDuck I agree. I still play my old copy of Heroes 3, still one of the best games ever.
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