New ‘Heroes V’ Offering Outshines All Previous Versions

By Mark Hoerrner

This is not the game you’ve played before. And yet, it’s familiar. Ubisoft Entertainment’s new revision of the Might and Magic saga—Heroes of Might and Magic V—offers players a stunning new 3D realm in which to adventure. It’s partially the concept that gamers have known over the years, but the graphics, gameplay and overall feel have been upgraded to reflect a more mature, more engrossing single or multiplayer game. From the start of the first campaign scenario to the endgame, consumers old and new will be drawn to this exciting offering.

The Gist
Apart from the quirky Might and Magic games of the 1980s came the Heroes of Might and Magic series, generally designed as a single player campaign or multiplayer head-to-head game. The key player moves between captured cities building an army and taking on the opposing side(s), depending upon the scenario. Between cities and battles, the hero will learn spells, skills and navigate a world of traps, monsters and challenges both above and below ground in his quest for ultimate domination. Sometimes the overall goal is elimination of the opponent, sometimes the achievement of a specific capture such as a teleporter or other in-game element.

That’s the gist of the game, but that’s like saying gardening is basically using a shovel to move some dirt around. HoMM5 is much, much more.

An Improved Landscape
Sure, past versions of the game have offered a dynamic landscape, and certainly, the changes between HoMM2 and HoMM3 were a clear evolution into modern graphics. However, the limitation was set in viewpoint—only the overhead or three-quarter views were available to the player. With HoMM5, we see a new generation of graphics that not only change the entire look of the game, but create an eerily real landscape in which the player—if he so desires—can pan right down into the action as his hero treads the world. In addition, combat scenes are no longer simple animations where one figure gives another a whack with a sword or tosses out a spell, but complex mini-movies in which the player can see his or her hero or minions truly combat the opposing creature.

The game’s creators claim that the step toward 3D graphics allows a darker, more intense world with breathtaking scenery. They are not making empty boasts, however, there’s always a downside to vastly improved graphics. Most are created to run well on today’s machines but to perform with aplomb on future machines that will make the modern graphical processor look like the proverbial 98-pound weakling at Muscle Beach. Thus, the requirements to have the game run smoothly are considerable.

Exciting new gameplay
It is worth noting here that Ubisoft has probably broken a barrier here with some of the best turn-based gameplay options on the single-player game market. The overland and subterranean movement cues are clearly defined and most operations are key-bound for those who are more comfortable with tapping keys rather than using the mouse. In conjunction with the mouse, however, the keyboard provides a way to pan around the landscape and change camera views in order to plan the player’s routes. Once in combat mode, however, the game really shines as a tactical interface comes up with a grid (also expandable through skills the hero can obtain) allowing the player to rearrange minions for each battle.

For movement in combat, the game no longer uses the familiar system of travel dots for each creature, but uses an ingenious turn palette and grid. At the bottom of the screen, the player can see the order in which each minion will act, adjusted on the fly based on low or high morale. When a minion gains a turn, a movement grid will spawn giving the player all of the options available. This allows for a much more strategic placement and usage of troops.

Incorporated features
Many of the skills former players enjoyed are brought back in this incarnation, though some have been reworked to coincide with the new version of the game. All told, heroes have access to some 200 skills and 40 spells. This is offset by 180 creature abilities, giving players a nice challenge on the field of battle. Further, city building has evolved in a new way. As players work through building the various enhancements to their cities, they will see a megatropolis appear before them in rich detail and with a strong development tree.

Perhaps one of the nicest features for the consumer lies is in the multiplayer option for the game. Players will find that though the game is turn based, there are options for simultaneous play that open up the world to the players on a real-time basis. This is a first for the series, despite similar developments in other game systems such as Starcraft where players can go head to head from the moment the game opens.

Downsides
As mentioned before, graphically-heavy games require graphically heavy machines to run them. At the time of release, only the Nvidia GeForce™ 3/4/FX/6 and ATI Radeon® 8500/9000/X families and the Matrox Parhelia™ video cards are supported. Unfortunately, for users like myself, the laptop versions of these cards may work but are not supported by Ubisoft at this time. Gameplay on my 3.4 GHZ Pentium® 4 Laptop with a Gig of RAM is slow even with most background programs turned off. Desktop users should find the game plays well on any of the supported chipsets.

Further, even with 40 spells, the game is lacking a bit of customization. Each of the heroes come with a special skill, but the lack of magic is regrettable.