I know about Heroes3, it was great and I somehow managed to go straight to 5. Not much talk about Heros4. Did I miss this one and if so, was it not a good game?

Some regard H4 as a bit of a poor sequel to H3, I must admit though, I still enjoyed the limited amount of time I spent playing it.
I did go back to playing H3 though, and what with playing H5, and other games, I haven't got round to playing H4 again, I will eventually get round to it sometime.

Horrible game.....tried it, hated it, sold it. H3 was the best. H5 is close, but still doesn't cut it.

HOMM 4 was a turkey. I also sold it on ebay luckily just before it was re-released with HOMM5 and got back what I paid for it.

I think I played HOMM 1 for laughs more than I played that garbage.

what about h4 with equilibrius?

it was fun for a short time only...

heroes III lasts longer

i'm getting heroes V in a matter of days now

Tried it. Hated it.

IV was worse than III, that's true, but still much better than V. I survived only one hours with V and not going back.Some of the ugliest games ever seen. Primitive graphics, wrong proportions, no improvements in anything.

Heroes IV, is poor, horrible and the grahics are very bad!The battle mode is very bad!

If you don't think of it as a part of the series, it's one nice TBS with some quite original ideas. If, however, you take it as a part of the HoMM-line (and that's what it is)... well, the things get a little bit worse. Even a lot worse. But the opinions may vary.

You see you have landed in the H-IV hate zone, which is not unexpected since this is a H-V website. The heroes community is badly divided on both games and I do not have the energy to plow through it all again. Leave at this, if you like playing games with a strong rpg element that are quest driven then H-IV is a superior game to play, and has a user friendly map editor that has allowed many fans to create fabulous maps that demonstrate how great a game it can be. If you like single maps that are mostly driven by defeating the opponent’s armies then because the H-V AI is more polished, H-V would be more to your liking. Both games have their strengths and weaknesses, for me H-V's complete lack of an rpg feel and its terrible map editor has caused me to loose all hope of my continuing any involvement with the heroes franchise.

quote:

and has a user friendly map editor that has allowed many fans to create fabulous maps that demonstrate how great a game it can be.

The landscape design is actually a bit difficult - there are A LOT of individual objects, and great looking too, no doubt here, but no groups of objects or a tool, which fills some designated space with "obstacles", like in the HoMM III editor. Thus creating a forests or larger mountains could eat days on one big map. But generally it's a very good editor, maybe less user-friendly than those of the predecessors, but with more options.

I'm no friend of HoMM 4 either, BUT at this stage you can get the complete game (main game plus the 2 rather skeletal expansions) for a rather moderate price (in one case even combined with HoMM 3 complete), and the game is certainly worth that price, if only to get a first-hand impression.

JJ you and I have fenced over this topic and I have no wish to restart it again. In the last conversation we both came away agreeing that H-IV and H-V appeal to people that enjoy different gaming experiences RPG vs. a game that’s more pure strategy. Many people enjoy both. I think we agreed with the current price of H-IV with its expansions makes it a low risk investment for anyone who has not tried H-IV. If you fall into that category I would suggest that the fan made maps available at several sites including Celestial Heavens will improve the experience, and the Equilibris mod helps correct many of the balancing issues. I hope that H-VI returns to the RPG feel as that is more my type of game.

Well, yes, we are on the same sides here. It's a low-risk investment and the vast amount of fan-made maps plus a long-time standing and still worked on mod make sure that there is a lot ground to cover for low money.

Heroes 4 had great potential but was obviously rushed out the door. They used old HoMM 3 alpha art for the adventure interface. The game was actually incomplete and required patching in order for it to work (multiplayer).

As for all the new changes, they were good in concept but were not applied correctly or were ruined by some major flaw in the game design. LoS in combat was ruined by the new combat grid, Heroes in combat were ruined by poor skill selections/requirements, etc.

I probably have more fun in dreaming about a "perfected" HoMM 4 then the actual HoMM 4 .