From a single player standpoint, I liked this version better that other versions I've tried. The higher level creeps make it easy to level up. It has a couple of powerful items lying around in the beginning that make it a cakewalk if you find them. Not sure if that was intentional. It does get rather boring after a while because you kill the same high level creeps over and over to level up. The five optional quests are fairly easy but killing the Mountain King and the three heroes at the end seems impossible in single player without finding the secret shop. I've not found it yet after many tries.
Some suggestions for improvement:
1. Add a main quest that provides a victory condition. There does not seem to be any ultimate goal. Even after you kill the three level 100 heros in "The Final Challenge" the game does not end, they quickly respawn.
2. Many hero abilities become useless at higher levels, even ultimates. More abilities should be based on a percentage of the heroes damage, attack rate, etc. rather than a fixed value. For example, windwalk bonus damage could be 1x, 2x, 3x, etc. of hero damage rather than 100, 200, 300, etc. It would also be desirable to have a very strong ability that is not available until level 90. For example, it could be a 10% chance of 10x critical strike, 500 per second immolation, mana shield that absorbs 10 damage per mana point, aura that gives 100% attack rate increase, 50% vampiric aura, etc.
3. Provide better descriptions of the unique items both in hero inventory and before they are picked up. Many do not specify how much they benefit the hero. For example, Bryan's pick does not indicate its attack speed increase, Pinky's pick does not indicate how much critical strike it provides, Loving Wifes Ring does not indicate how much it increases armor, stats and attack speed and the Ogre's Club does not say how much damage it adds.
4. Indicate when an item counts as an orb because melee heroes can't attack the dragons without an orb.
5. When the hero with a non-nation home builds a Construction Yard they can buy workers of all races. Also make it possible to build all their buildings. Now a lot of the buildings cannot be built which makes most of the stronger attack units and upgrades unavailable.
6. The game warns that if the Savior is killed "All will be lost." If the Savior is killed, nothing bad seemed to happen.You can kill even kill the Savior yourself.
7. Reduce the 500 armor on the level 1 bandits near the start to a more reasonable value for a level 1 unit.
8. Give hints about locating the secret shop.
9. Add more optional quests such as killing the evil heroes including Bryan, Pinky, the Worm Lord and Naga Sea Witch.
10. Allow a single player to control more than one hero and build as many races and homes as desired.
11. Explain why does hero leveling stop at level 87 except for certain creeps.
12. The priest hired at the cathedral does not have the heal ability as advertised and his inner fire does not work without an upgrade that most non-nation players and most nation players don't have access to.