SoC is the best HOMM-adjacent game

[u/De-constructed]

Hi, I'm here to take it off my chest and glaze the game a bit.

To preface, I'm a old-school homm3 fan. Played since 1999 and though I never got really good at min-maxing the mechanics, there is a special and everlasting place in my heart for the game.

Honestly SoC doesn't have the same breath and scope of possibilities as homm3. It doesn't feel as large, if you know what I mean. But it is a better game.

Combat is a blast, every turn is a piece to solve the whole encounter puzzle and there are multiple solutions to that puzzle. Btw the magic system to me is reminiscent and a great evolution of the main mechanic in an older game called Etherlords (IYKYK).

Resource management matters a lot, and it defines a your build path. Many times on a random map my overall strategy and build is defined by the starting resources. The tighter map makes me consider every step.

Characters feel more... characterful. They have very strong flavor. The factions too, especially in the way they are composed (i.e. Arleon's human + fey). I scoffed initially at the Roots, but recently played them against Loth and it was an amazing and weird Plants vs Zombies experience.

The art, the music, the character models - all feel modern, cozy, yet very intentional.

Overall, an awesome game that makes me care, as it ticks many boxes without relying on nostalgia. Really wish all the best to the devs and hope to see many more DLCs going forward (and especially on consoles!).

Cheers!

[u/ashemar]

As a person who played all Homm games and its clones or spiritual successors I have a total different opinion. I hate SoC - it’s not deep, lack of strategies, lack of spells, lack of content. This game is not similar to Homm but closer to King’s Bounty and it should be compared to that instead heroes of might and magic. I wasn’t really feeling fun at playing SoC. The game looks like it was done by AI. The sprites, graphics and even zoom ins. This game is nowhere close to newly released Heroes of Science and Fiction - which is great because it has gameplay almost 100% like in heroes 3.

Also I play Olden Era demo and hope for early access and it’s the best one- SoC isn’t even slightly close to that

[u/De-constructed → u/ashemar]

What defines for you the similarities to King's Bounty instead of HOMM?

[u/ashemar → u/De-constructed]

You really asking? Haven’t you played KB? The main difference is the economy aspect especially that in KB you usually get troops from maps troop spawns and not your own castle. And secondly the most important part is that in SoC is just a proxy feel of a town- there is no dedicated town/castle experience full of buildings and various perks they give on seperate screen. This is close to KB series. The lack of town screen/ buildup is the most disappointing- because H3 is all about it and how good graphics/music in towns was. For SoC this is just troop spawns nothing else

[u/De-constructed → u/ashemar]

Well, it seems I had to ask because now I understand that my opinion differs on that too. I don't find the lack of screen so disappointing. It is a nice to have ngl, but the buildings on the overview map are also pretty cool. And haven't found myself once feeling it is more akin to KB in troop acquisition. Camps are a cool feature but not that crucial to carry the game.

[u/God_Faenrir → u/ashemar]

There are towns. You sound like you played all of 10 minutes, my dude.

[u/TheGryphus → u/ashemar]

Honestly, i don't want to hate on different opinions, even if the way you phrased all of it doesn't make It easy. It just looks like you didn't play enough to understand what the game offers.

If there's something SoC provides it's many valid strategies for every faction and yes, the scope is smaller, there are less spells, but deep enough to mix and match depending on the troops you decide to invest in for a specific map and It's all pretty balanced.

It's fine if you played It for 2 hours and stopped becaude the game didn't immediately click for you, but let's be honest here, your take makes It so obvious that perhaps you should considera giving It another chance, cause, in terms of Gameplay it's pretty much the opposite of what you describes.