So first I would like to say that even though they have been around for ages, I am a newcomer to the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I played plenty of the Might and Magic role playing series derived from the Heroes series, but I was never very interested in strategy games, so the Heroes series was largely overlooked in my world. Recently I signed up for Gametap, and in between reminiscing with Shining in the Darkness, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sword of Vermillion I figured that I might as well check out Heroes of Might and Magic.

Andrew and I spent a good long while playing the first game. Heroes of Might and Magic was first released in 1995, but even the first installment of the series was so much fun it sparked off an immediate desire to play more. And then Heroes of Might and Magic II, III, and IV.

I went out and bought a copy (the last copy, I might add) of Heroes V the day it came out. I was surprised to learn in my research before I bought the game that 3DO, the developer of the Might and Magic series, had gone under and Nival had taken over the game. And they have carried on the tradition brilliantly.

If you were to play any of the old Heroes games and then play Heroes V the first thing that would strike you is the difference in graphics. Heroes IV was released in 2002, Heroes V in 2006. Four years have made an absolutely incredible difference. First and foremost, and perhaps most impressive when compared to the older games, is the transition from the flat, immovable, single screen cities to this:

Move up, down, zoom in and out, and go around in a full circle around your city, and enjoy the stunning opening animation every time you enter. Moving the camera around your city can be a bit awkward, but the easy command circles in the right and left lower corrners of the screen mean that you don't have to click on the specific building to perform the action associated with that building. So moving around and checking things out is really more to appreciate the stunning graphics than for anything practical.

Hows that for a change? ^_^



Overland travel through the main map has been equally revamped. Every bit of resource and random encampment or artifact you come across is beautifully rendered. The meticulous attention to detail to the cities and buildings is readily apparent. Interestingly enough, while the overland maps of the pervious Heroes games tended to be fairly open, constricting to smal; paths blocked with monsters only in a few spots, the overland maps of Heros V seem tm be more confining, trapping you in the envinronment and leaving you to wrestle a bit with the camera to figure out how to navigate from point A to point B. Fortunately, you get used to it quickly.

Combat has also been revamped. One change I very much appreciated was the ability to arrange my units before combat. I loved that skill in the earlier games, I believe the skill set was "battle tactics" or something to that effect. Unit movement is clearly outlined in bright green squares, also making it easier to move troops around having to slowly slide the mouse across the screen to see how far you can move your units. ^_^ The initiative bar at the bottom of the screen showing you the battle sequence in advance is great. Your hero doesn't participate in battle like in IV, but hangs out in the corner until it is his/her turn, then can attack or sling spells as usual.

And speaking of your heroes...



Think this is cool? You should see the heroes for the evil factions.

Your heroes will have a much wider variety of skills to choose from when they level up, enabling you to specialize your hero to a greater extent than any of the other games. And interestingly enough, each race of hero has only one class. For instantance, dark elf heroes are always warlocks.

And here are some unit model examples:

Overall, I feel that Heroes of Might and Magic V was a brilliant follow up after the four years since Heroes IV. And the thing that makes Heroes of Might and Magic V especially worth it to me is that they kept the multiplater hot seat option. I was harboring a fear that the hot seat option would have been dismissed as too "old school" for the new Heroes game, and I am happy and relieved to know that I was wrong. And remember that just like the older games, Heroes five is slow paced without feeling slow placed, so block out well over an hour before you sit down to play!