I’m generally not one to complain when the AI needs a boost to provide a challenge (I’ve been happily taking on uneven playing fields in Civilization since the ‘80s), but the huge obvious piles of free troops in Heroes VI is a bridge too far. More importantly, the strategy of conquering a map – the central joy that the franchise has revolved around since its inception – is twisted into an unrecognizable shadow of its former glory by the massive AI cheating. The campaign attempts to tell a story about elven exile and demonic invasions, but the awful voice acting and terrible cinematics are too much for the mediocre boilerplate fantasy script to overcome. Controlling a dark elf army is like being a sniper in a shooter: great when the fights go your way, but painful when caught out of position.
Assassins, the other core unit, start invisible and avoid retaliation while getting large damage bonuses when attacking from the shadows – both enormous advantages well worth putting up with their low defense. The faction’s special stealth ability, combined with two strong core ranged units, allows dark elf players to dish out an absurd amount of damage in devastating alpha strikes. Based on the dungeon army of old, dark elves hit fast and hard while struggling in stand-up fights.
Shades of Darkness is worth it for fans just to take the reins of the new dark elf faction, which exemplifies much of the good in Heroes VI’s design. Heroes VI gives you all the tools you need to enjoy heroic victories against brutal odds with its delightful mix of unit special abilities, hero spells, and varied terrain. Coming out victorious against a hero-led enemy stack with half again as many troops as you command is quite another. Avoiding attrition when chewing through the neutral armies that guard the treasure you need to fuel your war machine is one thing. The tactical battles are excellent examples of the concept, pitting standard and unique fantasy troops against one another in a wide variety of conflicts. Mines ship their resources to your stores every day, cities produce troops every week, and ever more powerful heroes lead them across fantastical landscapes to conquer rival kingdoms as others defend against enemy incursions. This expansion requires the core game to play, and as such, has few surprises. The campaigns, however, are badly wounded if not outright killed by the free armies the AI continually spawns in some of the worst cheating the strategy genre has ever seen. Units are grouped together into armies with wonderfully distinct identities and playstyles, especially the fantastic new dark elf faction.
I still mostly approve of the changes to the core design. Ubisoft’s latest attempt to make something of its Might & Magic Heroes franchise follows in the footsteps of the original Heroes VI release.
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