What’s in a Sequel: Heroes of Might and Magic III and Heroes of Might and Magic V

What happens when you mash together every fantasy cliché and trope into one amorphous blob? You get the Heroes of Might and Magic series, now on its 7th installment. HoMM has better reasons than most series for being a bit cliché; it actually created some of the longest standing tropes in fantasy games. The series that HoMM stemmed from, Might and Magic, is one of the original PC role playing games, standing alongside games like Ultima and The Bard’s Tale. I’ve never played any of the Might and Magic games, but I’ve sunk a decent chunk of my life into HoMM. Let’s look at how the series has changed by looking at the (arguable) two highest points, Heroes of Might and Magic III and Heroes of Might and Magic V.

Heroes of Might and Magic III is definitely a product of its time. The art style would not look out of place in any fantasy novel (or the side of a kickass van), the interface is clunky and difficult to navigate, and the A.I. can be very incredibly unfair. That being said, it’s a fun and deep strategy game with an awesome soundtrack.

Heroes Of Might And Magic III Soundtrack-Main Menu Music by Paul Romero, Rob King and Steve Baca http://www.youtube.com/user/PAULanthonyROMERO You can buy this game for windows 7 34/64 bit, Xp and vista on www.gog.com ... its only $9.99 for the full game

You can pick from a total of nine factions, each with around a dozen Heroes. Each Hero has a specialization of some sort, as well as an attack, defense, power, knowledge, luck, and morale stat. As you play through the game, you level up your hero and choose new skills for them to learn. Your available skills cover everything for increased ranged damage for your troops to mastery of certain groups of spells. Your hero can collect and equip artifacts which increase stats or offer other bonuses (increased creature growth, resource production, or possibly new spells).

From left to right, we can see the home base model for Castle, Rampart, Tower, Inferno, Dungeon, Stronghold, Fortress, Necropolis, and Conflux. 

You collect resources to upgrade your home base, build and army, and defeat the other players in any given scenario. Each faction is visually and mechanically distinct and learning the ins and outs of each one takes a decent amount of time. Castle, for instance, has strong offence but very expensive units, so upgrading is tough, while Fortress has very strong defense, but cannot upgrade magic skills as much. Both world exploration and combat are turn based, with combat taking place on a hex grid.

It might seem a bit dull at first glance but there's more tension here than in a thousand hours of Skyrim.

Each turn is a day, and each week you can recruit new units for your army. The time system adds a lot of weight to when exactly you decide to build, move, and fight other enemies because if you don’t time things right, they could have just recruited a whole weeks’ worth of new units.

The maps of HoMM III are colorful, with several different kinds of terrain, locations to visit, and enemies to fight. Most heroes start with low movement points so every map feels huge and uncovering new areas feels substantial and tactically important. The more you expand, the more territory you have to lose, after all.

There's a huge amount of detail in every inch of HoMM III's maps.

The aggressive A.I means that you had to do a lot of multitasking on the larger maps, which definitely creates some tense moments. As you start to conquer your enemies you get that feeling that only strategy games can give you, which can be a tough itch to scratch. The large amount of pre-created scenarios will occupy you for hours, especially given the multiple difficulty levels to try everything on. There’s a random map creation feature which means that you can be playing HoMM III until you up and die, if you so choose.

Heroes of Might and Magic V changed the formula around in very drastic ways, though you might not notice from watching somebody play for a minute or two. The game works in the same day/week turn based based fashion, you still collect resources to build up your base and army, and most of the same factions have returned. Once you delve in you’ll start to notice the differences, however.

Looks like things have become a little more polygonal here.

There are now eight factions instead of nine, with Conflux lost to the winds. The maps in HoMM V feel smaller, but a large portion of that is due to the art style’s increased asset size. The less serious art style gives the game a more whimsical feel, which can make you underestimate the strategy needed to play. It’s more possible to take on enemies with only one hero, due to the easier A.I and new battle queue which tells you what order everybody is moving in.

This is like the switch battle mode in Pokémon; battles are way easier when you know what's coming.

Your units are now more powerful on their own, due to some big changes. A variety of them have the ability to cast spells as well as attack, which opens up all sorts of new tactical options (should I just attack my Archmages, or make use of their weaker fireball spell to hit a larger area?).  Some creatures also have certain abilities connected to their faction, like Inferno creatures ability to gate, or create temporary one-hit copies of themselves on the map.

By far the largest change in HoMM V is the new way that Heroes function. Heroes now have their own turn in battle where they can attack or cast spells, as opposed to casting spells on their creatures’ turns in HoMM III. Each faction has an ultimate skill that you can only get by combining the right amount of smaller skills. In the original HoMM V, you needed to master skills from five different disciplines to get the Ultimate Skill, making it almost impossible unless you were playing a campaign, but the HoMM V expansions lowered the requirements to three disciplines per hero.

The Ultimate Skill for each kind of hero is always super useful and worth pursuing.

Heroes now have unique skills that change how you think about combat as well.  Haven heroes can use “Counterstrike” which allows them to retaliate against any attack on a preferred unit and Sylvan heroes can create a “favorite enemy” list which allows them to do more damage to those enemies.  Your hero is now a much more integral part of your army and in many cases, your most valuable asset.

When all is said and done, HoMM III definitely feels a lot more ponderous that HoMM V, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. There was a clear shift in focus when you compare both games; more creatures in III, but more skills in V. There’s more artifacts and spells in III, but more hero customization in V.  HoMM III is about exploration and exploitation of the world where HoMM V is about character building.

Though the styles are different, HoMM III and V are both enjoyable and challenging games. While I’ll always prefer the third, it’s great to see a series change up their formula especially when they’re successful already. The shift the series took managed to emphasize new aspects of gameplay without gutting the rest of the mechanics, which is certainly impressive. Give the HoMM series a try if you’re at all a fan of strategy games; you won’t regret it, though you might find yourself more than a little drawn in.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of What’s in a Sequel. Please share it with anybody you think would enjoy it.

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What’s in a Sequel: Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

I love Star Wars. I’ve seen the original Trilogy more times than I can count, and I saw Episode VII: The Force Awakens somewhere around 7 times in theaters. I’ve played a lot of the Star Wars games as well, from Dark Forces to The Force Unleashed. Most of them are pretty good, but few compare to the Knights of the Old Republic series. Both games are held up as examples of how to do a role playing game right, and both are still popular today. As with any sequels, there were a few changes made from the first game to the second that are worth discussing.

Who doesn't love Star Wars? Idiots that's who.

So, what’s different between the games? Was it an improvement, or a detriment?

Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR hereafter) had an interesting tone; it was very mysterious and it had a great sense of discovery. You spend most of the game trying to find the mythical Star Forge, a place where the Dark Jedi Masters Malak and Revan supposedly fell to the Dark Side. You travel from planet to planet piecing together bits of a map to lead you to the Forge, all while completing quests, picking up companions, and dodging Darth Malak.

The Star Forge maps are hidden all over the galaxy and you get to see some really atmospheric parts of the Star Wars universe trying to find the maps.

The tight focus on this mystery made the game feel smaller than it should, but in a good way. You had a concrete goal to achieve and each time you found a new piece of the map, you felt yourself getting closer to the mysterious Star Forge and its secrets. You start as just a regular member of the Republic Army, caught up in a bad situation. Your humble beginnings give the game a real sense of a hero’s journey besides the usual leveling up in most RPGs. By focusing on a smaller start, you feel like a part of the universe, not some super special anomaly.

Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR 2 hereafter) was also rushed out to release a little early, so there’s a general unpolished feeling to the game, but it’s not a huge issue. The game has a much more standard Star Wars sort of plot, which hurt the game a little. In KOTOR 2, you are trying to assemble the last remaining Jedi Masters to combat a newly arisen Sith threat.

The Sith in KOTOR 2 are mysterious, and their backstory is dolled out throughout the game at a good pace, which keeps you interested.

The goal feels a little less concrete, which does rob the game of some of the focus in the first. You also don’t feel as if you’re progressing nearly as much because little changes as you find the remaining Jedi Masters, other than the fact that you’ve found them. You start as a renowned Jedi Knight, though you’ve lost your connection to The Force. You are keenly aware that your character exists outside of the natural order of the universe, the Jedi, and even your companions. You’re already defined as a character, so there’s not really anyplace to go besides the usual Light or Dark side choices. Interestingly enough, some of the main character progression has been transferred to your companions. In KOTOR 1, your companions were fairly defined when you met them, and though you discovered new things about their backstories and personalities, they didn’t change much. In KOTOR 2, a fair amount of them can become Jedi if you can gain the required influence.

You can turn all but one of your non-droid, non-already-Jedi, companions into Jedi throughout the game.

This is a really interesting idea, and there’s a lot of directions that the game could have gone with it, but all it amounts to is that some of your companions can also use force powers and lightsabers. The influence system itself was a new addition in KOTOR 2 where you would gain or lose influence depending on which choices you make and how your companions felt about them. It’s a neat idea, but it just means that you switch out your companions constantly for certain situations to get them to like you more, as there’s no benefit to them disliking you.

There are also a number of mechanical differences made from KOTOR 1 to 2. One of the biggest is the crafting system in KOTOR 2, which allows you to build various items, weapons, and upgrades if you have the required skills. In KOTOR¸ certain rare pieces of equipment (and lightsabers) could be modified with upgrades that you found around the world, but they were few and far between. The upgrades would do different things for different items and it was tough to find enough to upgrade all your items, so you had to make some choices around your equipment. In KOTOR 2, almost every weapon and armor piece can be upgraded with a huge variety of upgrades.

This allows for a lot more customizability, which a lot of people might appreciate, though it fell a little flat for me. When the customizable items were limited, it felt as if you found a more unique weapon/armor that had its own story. When you can modify everything, the items feel a little less special.

You can build a number of versions of all the upgrades, which gives you more options, but makes upgrading more of a chore and less unique.

There was also a huge jump in combat complexity from KOTOR 1 to 2. In KOTOR 2, you could use a variety of lightsaber forms that gave you different kinds of bonuses, hand to hand combat was a viable option if you had the right skills, and there was a number of new combat feats, force powers, and items. Combat was a lot more customizable in KOTOR 2, and it was interesting to have your companions be able to fill more roles than they did in KOTOR. In the first game, you would often just line your party up and have them wail on the enemy, whereas in KOTOR 2 you could specialize them more. There’s also more situations where you control one of your companions on a side mission, rather than always controlling your main character, which does give you an incentive to make sure that they’re upgraded in a sensible way. These missions start really early on, so you have a good idea that you’ll be doing it again. Overall, the combat was improved in KOTOR 2, despite some of the crafting shortfalls.

Both KOTOR 1 and 2 are great games, and more than worth your time, though the first one is 12 years old this year. KOTOR definitely has a tight focus, a great sense of discovery, and grounded, believable characters. KOTOR 2 improved the combat, offered a lot more customizability to your characters, and made your companions more useful in general. I think there were a lot of stumbles from the first to the second, but KOTOR 2 tried some new things and made some improvements, which is always better than going with more of the same.

What's in a Sequel: Bioshock and Bioshock 2

Sequels are crazy common in the video game world. Maybe it’s because the developers feel more comfortable with an established IP (intellectual property), maybe it’s because the money people push for something with more brand recognition, or maybe developers just think they have some more stories left to tell. Any way you slice it, Space Marine Shooter will sure as hell spawn Space Marine Shooter 2, as long as Space Marine 1 sells well enough. Let’s have a look at a notable game and its sequel and see what went right, what went wrong, and why. For this edition, let’s have a look at Bioshock and Bioshock 2.

I think they could have changed up the cover art a little. I mean, it's the same exact thing.

To start, we need to know what makes a good sequel. It’s hard to establish a hard and fast rule, but I’ll say that a good sequel needs to expand upon the ideas of the original while exploring new territory.

Bioshock was renowned for its story. It’s a tale of Objectivism gone mad. Andrew Ryan, an Ayn Rand stand in, creates a utopia underwater for society’s elite, named Rapture. After a few successful years, a scientist named Brigid Tenenbaum discovers Adam, a genetic wonderdrug that lets anybody rewrite their DNA to give themselves fantastic abilities. Society quickly falls apart when addiction sets in and the crème of society’s crop start killing each other for a fix. Twisted human beings roam the city, and the Scuba suit enclosed Big Daddies protect the grotesque Little Sisters as they gather Adam from corpses. You enter years later, a victim of a freak plane crash in the middle of the Atlantic. Bioshock tells you one simple thing: You make choices but, in the end, your choices make you.

Meet the man who burned down a forest after the government tried to turn it into a national park, Andrew Ryan.

Bioshock 2 did not get the praise that the original did, especially not for its story. You play as a prototype Big Daddy who has his Little Sister reclaimed by her biological mother. Sophia Lamb, the girl’s mother, forces you to shoot yourself in the head, but you somehow survive. 10 years later you wake up, revived by Little Sisters under control of your former Little Sister Eleanor. Her mother activates a prototype failsafe designed to keep the Big Daddies from wandering away from their Little Sisters. Your heart will slowly stop working if you cannot make contact with Eleanor. Throughout the game, Eleanor attempts to help you while her mother attempts to kill you. Where Andrew Ryan spoke about the power of the self, the “Great Chain of Progress”, and free enterprise, Lamb speaks about the power of “The Rapture Family”, faith, and altruism.

Welcome to the Rapture family. Imagine a new age cult, but with murder and drug addiction. So, just a new age cult, really.

While Bioshock 2 certainly added a new angle for its story, it still boils down to the same general thing as Bioshock, with a very important exception that I’ll get into in a bit. In both games you are still opposed by a person with control of Rapture’s citizens, including the Big Daddies and Little Sisters. In both games, you can rescue or harvest the Little Sisters, but it falls flat. There's no middle ground between being a saint and being the devil, and in both games, you are rewarded more for taking the moral path. The problem with this is that for the whole game, you're told that taking the high ground means you're making sacrifices. There are more moral choices to make in Bioshock 2 besides just “will you harvest the little sisters or rescue them”, which is interesting, but it doesn’t really lead anywhere. You encounter several people who have wronged you or Eleanor and you can choose to kill them or spare their lives, which changes the ending a bit. Bioshock’s Andrew Ryan makes for a much more compelling antagonist than Sophia Lamb. Lamb comes off as dry, and a bit uninspired where Ryan came off as furious, charismatic, and dangerous. While both characters speak to you continuously throughout the game, Lamb is much more accessible and when you do finally confront her, there’s not nearly as much nuance and emotional buildup as there is with Ryan. Bioshock 2 feels like it should have been an expansion, rather than a standalone game. There is one area where Bioshock 2 trounces Bioshock though: Motivation. In Bioshock 2 you have a clear and extremely pressing motivation to move forward. Your heart is stopping and only being with Eleanor can save your life. In Bioshock, you’re just dropped into Rapture and expected to move forward because some Irish guy named Atlas says, “Would you kindly?” It feels like there should be a moment when you at least try to escape from the city. Near the end of the game, there is a justification for this, but it feels very hollow until then, and makes the whole deal a little less plausible.  

While a cool idea, the harvest/rescue option in Bioshock really fell flat. It really clashes with the overall message of the game, and is too simplistic.

Bioshock also got a lot of praise for its combat system, which relies on both guns and “plasmids.” Plasmids are essentially magic and you have access to the usual lot (fire, lightning, telekinesis, etc.), but there are a few interesting ones, like the ability to temporarily trick Big Daddies into protecting you, or the ability to create a temporary hologram that enemies will chase. There is also a whole slew of “Gene Tonics” which give you passive boosts like increased speed, or an easier time hacking the various machines around Rapture. You can even hack stationary turrets and security drones so that they protect you, which is fun. Maybe ironically, the combat is at its best in the beginning of the game when you are forced to use your environment to defeat the heavily armored and equipped Big Daddies. You hack the turrets, security cameras, and security drones to create a hail of lead that allows you to take down even the strongest enemies. Constraints breed creativity and all that. As the game progresses, you become so strong that you take down multiples big daddies with ease, which takes a lot of the fun out of the combat.

There's a lot of combat options in the picture, and Bioshock does a good job of making you adapt on the fly, at least in the beginning. 

Bioshock 2 on the other hand, made combat faster, punchier, and deadlier. Your weapons are souped-up versions of Bioshock’s, but they are tailored to your larger stature and are fittingly more destructive. Your plasmids have also been expanded, with a few new abilities. Your hacking ability has also been improved, with the ability to heal and improve your hacked drones, turrets, and cameras. While you’ve definitely lost the fun of setting up traps and such for larger enemies, combat has become much more enjoyable overall. There are more gene tonics with verifying effects that really allow you to change up your playstyle, more than just moving faster or doing more damage with your melee weapon, like in the previous game.

The Rivet gun you see here is basically the revolver from the first game, only a bit larger. New weapons would have helped separate Bioshock 2 from the original. 

While similar, Bioshock 2 has far superior combat in almost every way. Bioshock’s combat can feel a little plodding and wooden, and the later stages of combat feel far too easy. Bioshock 2 has difficult combat throughout, along with a number of different playstyles, rather than just the running and gunning of Bioshock. However, Bioshock has the advantage when it comes to traps. There’s something so fun about setting up a corridor littered in proximity mines, turrets, and hacked sentry drones. You fire off a shot at the Big Daddy and gleefully watch him come careening through your carefully designed snare, or panic as it all goes wrong at the last second somehow. Bioshock 2 also wastes the opportunity to really change up how combat works by not focusing enough on the fact that you are a Big Daddy. It’s pretty well established that Big Daddies are slow, heavily armored, and extremely deadly. While you’ve got the deadly bit down pat, you’re as damageable as you were in the first game, and you are far too fast. It would have been really interesting if the game forced you to play at a slower pace, rather than taking the safe route of giving players exactly what they had in the last game.

The large variety of gene tonics and plasmids really help Bioshock 2's combat stand out compared to the first game.

So, now we come to the real question. How did Bioshock 2 do as a sequel?

Unfortunately, not so well. While Bioshock 2 did have better combat and an arguably better story motivation, it re-used so much from Bioshock from the general story arc, to the array of the weapons, to the game feel without really trying anything new. If you play Bioshock and skip 2, you wouldn’t be missing much besides the improved combat. While playing as a Big Daddy is fun, bigger doesn’t always equal better.