Simon Bourne

Personal Portal

Heroes of Might and Magic V


Strategy Game - Turn Based


Synopsis

Witness the amazing evolution of the genre-defining strategy game as it becomes a next-generation phenomenon, melding classic deep fantasy with new generation visuals and gameplay.

In the renowned Might & Magic universe, demon swarms spread chaos over the land in a relentless assault. The fate of the world is at stake and heroes from a variety of legendary factions must stand up and defend their causes. Live their fate, lead their forces to victory and unveil the secret goal of the demon lords.

Become a strategy gaming legend by raising unique hero characters, assembling armies and defeating enemies using the brand-new dynamic battle system both offline and online.

Features:

  • Cutting-edge visual technology - For the first time, experience the world of Might & Magic in a full, breathtaking 3D animated world supported by a consistent and modern graphic style.
  • A more mature & consistent heroic fantasy universe - Includes all the features that made the series successful in a completely revamped and more mature universe - with six unique factions and over 40 different creatures and spells.
  • Complete strategy experience and RPG gameplay - During six campaigns and more than 30 missions, explore and conquer territories, manage your cities, recruit armies and raise and upgrade your heroes through a user-friendly yet deep turn-based system.
  • Complete scalable turn-based battle system for challenging and tactical combats - Discover the combat system that made the Heroes series successful or experience the brand-new dynamic battle system that transforms a chessboard into a lively battlefield.
  • Competitive, addictive, and intense multiplayer mode - Play five different online modes via hot seat, LAN or the Internet. Challenge your friends in furious battles and create your own level with the editor.

My Opinion

Fantastic graphics without cluttering up the scenery too much and a welcome return to the more complex town building and larger number of creature types per town. However, there are definitely not enough scenarios with this edition and, being cynical, doubtless more will be on sale later on. Also, your choices to set up the scenarios (eg town type, hero, colour etc) are very limited, making it difficult to extract maximum value by replaying every which way you can.

The lack of a random map generator is a huge negative so expect to be parting with more cash once you've (very quickly) played what you can. Another niggle is that even playing on the largest maps ("very big") it still feels like you're ferreting about in someone's back yard. It lacks the epic feel of Heroes III's XL maps and makes it difficult to attain higher levels. However, the skills and abilities arrangement is excellent and combined with racial abilities makes for you & your enemies pulling some pretty wicked tricks out of the bag during battles!