Heroes of Might & Magic V
Review
After a slow start, the campaign will grab you and drag you into the magical realms
by Sergio Brinkhuis
reviewed on PC
Or do they?
There are some subtle changes however. First off, the heroes are no longer completely chained to their location behind the lines. Next to spellcasting and bolstering morale, they can take an active part in the fight. A cool example of this is how Knights charge the battlefield to slash at the enemy with their sword. While this may seem obvious to newcomers, previously the Knight was forced to control the action from behind the lines. Special attacks by heroes cannot be defended against, can be upgraded over time, and are also affected by enchanted items in your inventory.
Experience is gained a little faster early in the game which helps to get your hero up to speed quickly. Gold and other resources are also a little easier to come by (or needed in lesser quantities), increasing the pace of the game.
Not so easy to outsmart
The most notable change however (besides the graphics of course) is in the AI. Remember how, with careful planning, your underdog army managed to pull off a victory against a much larger force? Well, that can still occasionally happen, but it has become much more difficult. Decisions made by the AI are often exactly the same decisions I would have made myself and the AI carefully weighs its targets, what spells it should use and how to approach the battle. In the random encounter battles, this is hardly an issue but as soon as you take the field against another experienced hero with a decent army, you'll know you're fighting an opponent that is not to be underestimated.
One new addition isn't as new as it appears. On some of the screenshots, you will see a bar with unit icons. This is the initiative bar and shows you which unit will become available next. Its mechanics are very similar to how the old games worked. The main difference is that this bar actually shows you what is happening. Now you can clearly see that some of your attacks actually slow down the enemy, pushing them back along the initiative bar. Every time a unit attacks, its initiative is recalculated and is placed back in the queue. A fun and very useful addition indeed.
Magic and skills
Building up your character continues to be one of the more attractive parts of the game. The RPG elements in the rest of the game are pretty thin, but in character-building, it shines. As your heroes gain experience, they get access to all kinds of special skills. Some of them futher your magic skills but others give you special powers like sucking the mana out of the fallen warriors on the battlefield to add it to your own. A very cool Demon skill is gating. With this skill, units can 'project' copies of themselves onto any location of the battlefield. These projections don't appear right away and aren't as big in numbers as their originals, but they can have considerable impact on the outcome of the battle.
Heroes can obtain new spells from books scattered throughout the map, or by visiting towns that have been upgraded to include Magic Guilds. Magic can be incredibly powerful but can also damage your own units if you're not careful. The Fireball spell for instance, damages all creatures in an area of 3 by 3 squares. If your units are within that area, they'll get burned just as badly as the enemy. The Chain Lightning spell has damage that carries over from unit to unit. The 'chain' picks the closest unit every time so if you are casting it on a unit that is near your own, expect to get hit yourself.
While experience and spells can be carried over into the next mission, items can not. Every time you enter a new mission, you're stripped of all your possessions and armies and are given a fresh start. This sounds frustrating but especially in the later missions, you'll find that you get more and more powerful; strong enough to deal easily with the tiny armies scattered across the map.
A worthy successor
At heart, Heroes of Might & Magic V is still very much the same turnbased strategy game we know and love. Most of the changes that have been implemented are subtle enough not to unbalance things too much, while at the same time freshening things up a little.
While my initial impressions of the game were not that positive --the campaign started off very slowly and did not appeal to me at all-- once the plot twists started kicking in, I was sucked in completely and and before I knew it, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion that I had been playing before I started Heroes of Might & Magic V had become nothing more than a distant memory. All things considered, the game is a worthy addition to the series, offering hours upon hours of fun gameplay, just like its predecessors did.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
