Recent reviews by Lashocracy Manifest

This game has grown a lot over the years, in a lot of very positive ways.
This game is like if you blended the good parts of D3/D2 with many of the good parts and greater customisation of PoE1.
I genuinely love this game.

The way Skill selection and Class+Subclass work is a really fun combo to make building feel really unique and versatile.
There are of course meta outliers that scale harder, faster and better than others, so get played by a lot of people. But for the most part, any skill can be played to a few hundred corruption, if you build it right and don't face tank everything.

Genuinely think this game hits a lot of the marks D3/D4 completely missed, and the things that PoE dropped the ball on.

The skills are, for the most part, incredibly fun. You can turn some melee attacks into ranged nuke spells, you can turn some spells or melee into totems, you can turn some bow attacks into proc on-hits for other attacks, etc etc. There are just so many options to play in different ways. I'd genuinely recommend anyone give this game a try, if you were a fan of any of the diablos or poe1.
(if you're a fan of poe2 you're probably unsalvageable as a human) ;)

There is a lot about this game that I really like, the combat feels good with regards to rolling, and enemies being less in number and less zergy, it has been slowed down in a way that really harkens back to the good old days of an ACTION RPG.
But unfortunately, it's very much overshadowed by what I do not like.

Editing to add another thing I hate - Reload speeds. The %s it is increased or reduced, are a complete and utter sham. Galvanic is 50% slower reload, does it go from 0.75s to 1.125? No. it goes to 1.5. So according to GGG, 50% = 100%. It absolutely RUINS the flow of mercenary. I have 40%, 15%, 15%, 15% and 15% reload speeds, and my speed is still 0.8 on an ability that only has 30% slower reload... So that means that a total of 100% increased reload speed, does significantly less to reduce reload, than 30% slower reload does to increase it. I recommend no one play Merc. Your basic 7 shot bolt is higher dps than any skill up until about level 30... You have non existant aoe. Well I suppose you can wait for the 2 second detonation time of grenades and just roll in circles to keep enemies in it... Fun game play.
Thanks GGG. What a crock.

People may argue "oh this is early access, beta, stuff may change!" The things I dislike are not small things, they are large design choices and design philosophies. Things that should not change. It's fine that they make changes that I think are bad, poorly made, and not balanced, if that's the kind of player base they want to attract, and believe they can make financially viable. They're not making this game for the lowest common denominator, they're making it for themselves, and hoping to find players that fit their design model.



The ascendencies for merc are a big fat disappointment. There are none that focus on cool crossbow interactions, none that focus on cool reload interactions, none that even focus on grenades, none that use any part of the new mercenary systems. It's simply damage gains go brrr or gems go brrr. Maybe they'll add them, but why frontload the boring ones on the new class that is one of the ones specifically chosen to be showcased in a paid early access beta? That's just a bad administrative decision.

Speaking of the gem system, it has been utterly obliterated. I love the WAY the basics of the gem system work, they're tied to your character, rather than gear, the amount you can have active over all are based on your stats (strength gives you more red slots, dex gives you more green slots and int gives you more blue slots). But everything else about it, really sucks. You can only use 1 of each support gem. The support gems have been completely and utterly gutted, and they do not level so they do not ever get better than the trash they start at. Chain is so bad it's 0% usable, it literally halves your damage so it's always at best neutral to dps, but in most cases a large dps loss. the +2 projectile is almost never usable, as it's a -20% damage and -20% attack speed, so unless you are going from 1 to 3 or 2 to 4 projectiles, it's a dps loss in every single other situation.
You simply cannot build fun skills anymore because all the good gems you want to use in multiple skills, will be hard locked to only your best one. The rate at which you acquire increases in the amount of gems you can attach to a skill, is mind bogglingly slow. I am level 45, almost done with act 3, and 2 of my gems have unlocked having 3 support gems attached (because it's a dropped currency gated behind certain level enemies). It's so tedious and slow and boring.

The loot? Absolutely abhorrent. There have been so many reddit posts about people doing maps at end game, and getting 1 yellow and 2 blues from the entire thing. It's seemingly improved, and I actually have faith they will fix the loot because that's generally an easy fix that isn't a design philosophy, just an oversight. You currently get so few crafting currencies that you will basically never be able to craft a good weapon while leveling. I am perpetually using a crossbow 10-20 levels lower than me, because I am out of gold and currencies, trying to make one worth a damn. There's no deterministic crafting so far, and I can only pray that is simply due to beta, not something they intentionally removed.

Maybe worst of all, is the pacing of the campaign. The maps are far too large, the designs of them are far too windy and frustrating, with 10x long winding dead ends, than actually connecting areas. You will absolutely spend 2-3x as much time running back through areas you cleared, to explore some tiny spec of the map you missed, because that will be where the exit you actually need is. Most campaign maps are so large you could legimately spend 10-20 minutes running from 1 side to the other. It is so incredibly boring and tedious to do the campaign. Some of the story is good, a certain act 3 twist is really stupid and farfetched. They really ask a great deal of suspension of disbelief/logic this time around.
Why, when we are exploring a certain canal area, are there make-shift wooden bridges built by people there to cross the canals while they're filled, but we have to explore 3 zones to collect a thing to control the opening of only the very first canal that isn't even 10ft wide, rather than just build a single cobbled together wooden bridge ourselves?? Why are there entire areas of the map cut off by a single small fallen tree or maybe a knee high rock, so I have to run a long way around??

All in all, I'd give this game a 3 out of 10. I do not recommend unless you like games that lack quality of life, are painfully slow, and you didn't love the PoE1 gem system.

Such a solid and fun game. I always do custom settings to increase exp and yields, because honestly it can get a little too grindy for my taste.
Murder pals, capture pals, exploit pals, butcher pals, murder people, capture people, butcher people. Explore dungeons, level up, craft rockets and laser rifles and grenades. What more could you ask for!
Would recommend!

Jetragon and Anubis MVPs!!

I've tried this game a few times over the time I've had it and frankly, I just get so bored so quickly.
The exploration is non existent, because travelling is absolute cancer. If you have not built beside an alien teleporter, enjoy spending 100x more time travelling than you do actually enjoying content. If you have, maybe that'll be half as bad lol.

The crafting requirements are the most monumentally boring grind fest I have seen in a survival game like this. Gold being a 1 or 2% chance drop rate, and you need 10 of it to make one gold bar and you need dozens of gold bars throughout your play through, to even just get to tier 4.
I have spent easily 90%+ of my time grinding, and I put the drop rate up to 4x for basically everything, that should tell you how abhorrent the grind is, and I didn't even finish tier 4 before I just got too fed up.
Vehicles are all so boring and so slow, the hover crafts are maybe 50% faster than running? They're worth it, but not good enough to be the only viable travel vehicles in the game...

The random world events are a good idea, but they should start weak, and some of them should be bloody doable by a new character. It's insane that you can start a game and get an event in the most dangerous part of the map, that is actually just a super huge alien boss. This isn't rimworld, you can't just ♥♥♥♥ on me like that and it be a good mechanic in a survival game like this.

Unfortunately I need to amend this review. I hadn't tried to play the campaign since they took out the forced always online stuff on ubi's side (to save themselves insignificant amounts of money...) and it turns out, they completely broke the campaign.
I cannot play the red, purple or final campaigns, because in all of them no matter who I CHOOSE to play, it forces Irina the water hero to be my main... Trying to play water inferno teams is cancer, trying to play water darkness teams is cancer.
The campaign is basically unplayable now, so I kinda do not recommend anyone buy it unless you only intend to play custom games...

I've played every Might and Magic Heroes/Heroes of Might and Magic since I was a child. My blind father would lean an inch away from the screen and play HoMM3, using a Black dragon and armagedon only build, and just stomp everything. That is to say, I LOVE these games.
With that being said, I genuinely believe HOMM6 is one of, if not, the best. The skill and leveling system is really fun and diverse and not controlled heavily by RNG. The same is true of the magic system. Your ability to focus on being a martial hero or a magic hero is fantastic, and both very strong. I've never done a ton of testing on which is truly the best, but I personally love both. Reinforcements is such an incredible skill, giving your whole team a pre attack retaliate is overpowered as hell, having a unit take a second turn when it kills a stack just gives you so much control over the flow of battle. But mass life drain at 25% is disgusting, mass regen, summon incredibly tanky earth elementals that self regen a ton, mass shielding everyone, locking an enemy in a time stasis so they can't use their strongest guy for several turns. Both are so very compelling and I honestly love both.

The way you can create custom heroes is really surprisingly fun as well, I didn't expect to love that as much as I do. The destiny weapons are crazy fun and sometimes ridiculously strong. Some start incredibly strong at the beginning of the game but fall off hard late game. (looking at you summon 8 undead dragons). Some are really strong and reliable all game. Some are just incredibly fun like being able to use both blood or tear abilities at full strength!

All in all I'd definitely give this game a 9.5 out of 10 for games of it's kind. It truly deserves to be lauded as one of the best heroes games in my humble opinion as a massive fan of them for almost 30 years.

My only gripe is the way Ubi has abandoned this game. At least they have made it able to be played fully offline now, that's a big gain, but in doing so they gutted several kind of fun progression systems and instead just gave you part of them permanently unlocked for free. They could have handled it better but could definitely have handled it MUCH worse. I simply now hope they do eventually make a sequel. HoMM7 is absolutely trash, probably one of the worst heroes games ever made, do not buy that one. We need a new one like 6 IMO.

To all my fellow heroes fans, Sandro is king! :D

I really want to like this game, but it is so unbelievably rife with bugs. Like really bad bugs that if you haven't just saved before encountering, you're rolling back to your last recent save because the ONLY WAY to unbreak it is to force close the game...

Do not buy, not worth the frustration and money so far.

I am down voting this game just because of how predatory their business practices are. It's just completely getting out of hand.

The fact that ads for the next game or DLC show up in game faster than the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ main menu, is unacceptable. I am so sick and tired of big companies doing everything they can at the consumers expense, for literally every single 0.0001% more profit.

DLC costs too much. DLC gets released too often. They advertise to you faster than they let you play. It's more predatory than most free to play games...
To hell with 2k.

Man Amazon really going the Elon route.
Over promise and under deliver.

I hope Amazon goes bankrupt :D Not the gaming studio, the entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ company.

I wanted to like this game, but the breach mechanic is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying and boring and slow and tedious and makes the game feel so stilted and linear and rail roaded.
Also the RNG in this game can eat my ass. I missed six over 90% chance shots in a row. ♥♥♥ whatever game calculation ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lies to me.

Genuinely an amazing take on an RTS. I typically hate RTS and how intensely based on APM/CPM/Constant full map vigilance, I think this game does such a damn good job of minimising that without making it feel too easy or too passive. It's a really hard task to distil RTS down into smaller scale combats and smaller scale worlds, but Northgard really achieves it in such a fun way.

Rat clan for the win, WORK YOU MASOCHISTS!