Addicted to HoF

[Angelspit]

For a moment, I'm going to go against the various labels that have been given to Celestial Heavens during the past year (did I hear whiners and elitists?!) and declare my love to Hammers of Fate. Since I needed the expansion for my work on this site, I went out and bought the expansion on Saturday afternoon. I started the Haven campaign last night just to see what it was all about, and I'm been playing my way through the fourth mission, which represents nearly half of my progress on the original campaign, believe it or not. I hope you guys won't burn me if I say that Freyda's campaign gave me flashbacks of the Restoration of Erathia.



The fact that the Dwarves make their first appearance in the fourth mission is not a problem at all in my opinion; it's actually useful for the progression of the plot and replaying a familiar town is probably a good idea if you have left the game on the side for a while. I also thought the design of the maps was slightly better than the first campaigns of the base game, but maybe my judgment is biased because of the time I spent in Dark Messiah's awful spider nests. From my window, I could even see the first snow of the season fall as I got closer to the dwarven territory in the game. Now, if only Ubival didn't rely so much on spoken dialogs to tell us what is going on between missions. Maybe what this game needs is a frickin' narrator...

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1165203590

[soupnazii]

well said, AS.

[Corelanis]

No its not the site thats whining and elitist its all me. Im happy with HoF to. Good luck with the campaigns AS.

[HodgePodge]

Small Spoilish Below …

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I think that HoF has been improved too. The maps are better, the cut-scenes are better, the voice acting is definetely better and HoF has a better feel to it than does the original game.

However, it is on the very map that you are describing that I encountered my first MAJOR bug. In C1-M4 (The Negotiations) when Freyda enters the Dwarven Castle and the cut-scene takes place (about the humans being traitors) after the scene is completed, my game froze. I was supposed to have Freyda escape from the Drawven lands but since the game froze (I tried it more than once) I couldn't complete the map and had to use the @Win() code to progress to the next map.

Anyhow, I finished the next map, which was the final map of the campaign and now I'm about to start the Dwarven Campaign.

[Mytical]

HoF is as to the Original h5 like Pure mountain spring water is to a sewage plant's water (before filtering). One is crisp, clean, and refreshing ...and the other well lets just say it would leave more then a sour taste in your mouth if you tried it (never have, but one must guess this is true). HoF is fun, adictive, with a great story line (imo) and much better all arround. The Dwarves, though a little too magicy for my taste, are still very interesting and fun to figure out. The campains progress in a way that seems well thought out, and there are only a few bugs. This expansion was good, and leaves hope that the next will be great!

[kingcranium14]

HoF has definitely been improved. It's made the game a lot better and more fun.

[Caradoc]

As I said a while back, I can't remember a supplement with so much content and so many improvements over the original release. I sometimes criticize Nival over the game's flaws, but I will always say how much I appreciate their ongoing commitment to the game.

[asandir]

It's good to know that the fans are satisfied with HoF's addition to the game ... I will still wait before getting it though, finding more solid enjoyment from the earlier iterations

[Mytical]

Possible spoilers included, please keep this in mind.









Now this maybe a little off topic, but ... ok we know that Aagreal (or however you spell his name) is in love with Isabel (who actually seems human in this one yay!). So I can get him helping the Haven people, and Duncan and this Wulfgar are old friends, so I can understand their allience. But what in name of sanity is Ylaya (or whatever her name is) doing allied with Haven (who's light dragons gods should be opposit of her shadow dragon gods) forces? Just because she was asked to find Raelag by the shadow dragons should not comit her to helping them in this. Can somebody explain? Anyhow, it's not that important, so maybe once I beat it I will know more.

[Cleanpea]

Because it always makes for intriguing plot twists, when the forces of evil and good is forced to work together, for some reason. An old trick from the fantasy book

[arturchix]

As I said a while back, I can't remember a supplement with so much content and so many improvements over the original release. I sometimes criticize Nival over the game's flaws, but I will always say how much I appreciate their ongoing commitment to the game.

Same here, I think HoF is a great add-on and a must-have.

I haven't had too much time to play it past week, only yesterday I continued to play 3rd mission of the Dwarven campaign. It looks like Dwarves have a good chance to become the favourite faction among the H5 players.

[Mytical]

To be honest Stefan, and this is hard to explain, but for me HoF actually makes h5 a little more fun then H3 in some ways. Sure h3 is still better in other ways, but if the next expansion is this good or better, h5 could become my favorite of the series.

[asandir]

Well I hope that is the case for most people, cause it keeps things going in the universe that is M&M and more importantly for me HoMM

[Jolly Joker]

Just to add things, for narrative purposes (although this is a bit clicking around and means that there is the danger that something gets lost): Each time you get a new victory condition go to them and CLICK ON THEM (you can do that with the map title as well, btw); you might be surprised about the narrative that's unfolding. (That was true for the original game as well.)

[pigsticker]

Now this maybe a little off topic, but ... ok we know that Aagreal (or however you spell his name) is in love with Isabel (who actually seems human in this one yay!). So I can get him helping the Haven people, and Duncan and this Wulfgar are old friends, so I can understand their allience. But what in name of sanity is Ylaya (or whatever her name is) doing allied with Haven (who's light dragons gods should be opposit of her shadow dragon gods) forces? Just because she was asked to find Raelag by the shadow dragons should not comit her to helping them in this. Can somebody explain? Anyhow, it's not that important, so maybe once I beat it I will know more.



One phrase... The enemy of my enemy is my friend...

since they both share a common enemy, i.e. the demons,

Ylaya decides to help the Haven forces...



My major problem with the campaign is that they don't allow us to play with the renegades for even one map... It would have been nice to play with a renegade Haven castle once....
Edited on Mon, Dec 04 2006, 06:55 by pigsticker

[Cleanpea]

yeah I thought that they were alternative upgrades. They are just campaign flavour?

[Elvin]

I loved it as well from the beginning.Apart from the normal improvements there are these new 'special' cases that are a nice touch.

The rebel army whose stacks are cheerful The intuitive way of finishing quests.The newfound subtlety in maps.The turning of peasants into demons!

There is no doubt it has enhanced the game.At the same time it suffers from some serious bugs which is disappointing.At least I know it's nothing that can't be fixed in one patch but there should be no need in the first place.Don't tell me that after so many months they made a worse rmg than Tapani's!!! Unprofessional.

[Cleanpea]

Just some kindoff offtopic things:





In Scandinavia's biggest games newspost, Gamereactor, H5 got 9/10, and dark Messiah got 8/10. Lovely words on the good stuff, and deserved pwn on the bugs and error issues.



So, definitely, HMM is back in the world again (at least in Norway). I hope I get HoF for christmas!!!
Edited on Mon, Dec 04 2006, 16:05 by Cleanpea

[Gaping_MAW]

HOF is good, but the allied play problem, and a couple of other bugs were a bit disappointing... but I've since modded a few maps to fill the void till the patch comes out and it is a lot of fun. The dwarf faction are quite interesting to play - their mid tier units don't seem very tough to me, but that's where the rune magic comes into it



Hopefully they'll buff the Wizards artifact creation to make it cheaper (like dwarves runes)...

[Humakt]

I think HoF is (easily) the best expansion HoMM ever had, even with its faults. I just lost four hours like nothing playing the campaign. New faction, neutrals and music are all great.

My biggest concern with the game is still the map editor though, they need to enchance its performance (no motion option would help).