I`m not going to go into much detail about the bugs & such because it`s in closed beta.  All i can say about the game right now, is that it still needs work & more polishing, so thank god it wasn`t released yet.   It was a great move to delay it, and i wouldn`t be surprised if they delay it more.  This does not mean it`s bad, it`s just not a finished product. 
 

 My impression is about the first campaign map and nothing else at this time.  I will elaborate on more of the game in later stages on different days. These are just first impressions, and i will not go into further details of the mechanics yet.

Booting up the game, there isn`t an intro or trailer, which is kind`ve rare for a HOMM game, but like i said it`s in closed beta.  I`m sure there will be a nice one on release, and if not, oh well not fussed.  It has a nice opening menu screen pictured: 

  There`s a lot of options here & everyday it changes a bit with patches.  I will go into more depth on later blog entries.
 
 

Campaign Map

The first campaign is griffin bane.  

Graphics

-  it`s a beautiful game with gorgeous landscapes & amazing atmosphere. The cut scenes are a great visual addition & the story is intriguing.  

 
 
Instead of walls of text & reading novels, like in past heroes games, you have a nice story voice acted throughout the map.  However, there is no visual movement or action while the voice acting is going on. It`s only portraits of the characters, which is a bit old school. Ubisoft needs to keep up with the times. It`s not a huge deal, I`ll get over that easy.  I bought the game already so i have no choice of what`s coming. ^_^. 
 
Landscapes
 

Gallery

 
Battle scenes and monsters look very beautiful.  The ghost especially is nice. Pictured above:  It also has some nice cut scenes during battle, when you hit some luck it brings you up close & personal for some nice visual monster attack moves, pictured below. 
 

Sound/Music

The music so far is phenomenal. The opening menu screen, the start of the campaign & the towns, all great. I`m only hoping while playing it`s not on a 4 song massive loop.  There is one musical tune that is on a constant annoying loop, i hope they will fix that.

 

Major Gripe

Towns.  Where are they?  Heroes was all about going into town chilling, listening to the town music, almost like a safe haven sanctuary. They somehow thought it would be wise for towns to be windowed. The hell were they thinking on that one.  The good news is, there is assigned music to each faction town. There doesn`t seem to be any changes to your town portraits once you upgrade or add a unit building.  And that my friend... blows.  

 

That`s all for my first day impression. Enjoy the screens

Gallery