Heroes Of Might & Magic V Review

Close to three years after Ubisoft first bought the Might & Magic license from defunct hardware/software firm 3DO, the first of two titles set in the new M&M world of Ashan, Heroes of Might & Magic V is finally released to a patiently waiting fan base. Very much considered by Ubisoft to be a re-launch of the series (evident in the creation of Ashan), the burden of responsibility to create this fifth Heroes game belongs to Nival Interactive whose past exploits include the Blitzkrieg series of RTS for German publisher CDV. So with a pedigree in RTS titles, have they been able to do the game justice or will the passionate fans of HOMM lay siege to their offices?

Continuing with the established turn-based structure of the previous instalments of the series, HOMMV features six campaigns across six different races, each with their own story to tell. Beginning with the campaign of Isabel before moving onto the next Hero character, players are given a gentle introduction to the mechanics of the game from the bare basics of the control system and the turn-cycle to the various items that can affect a battle, and the development of abilities and spells. From the start of the very first mission, fans of the series will notice a distinct visual difference between HOMMV and previous instalments: Nival and Ubisoft have brought the series into the third dimension for the very first time. For gamers accustomed to playing their games in 3D environment, something that has achieved even in the RTS genre, such a point would barely raise a glimmer of excitement. However for HOMM fans, the move is a natural evolution required if the franchise is to survive in the current climate.

Gameplay is split into two separate and very distinct modes: Adventure and Tactics. For a majority of time, players will find themselves in the Adventure mode, where exploration of the land and resource development takes place. Best described as a turn-based-RPG with RTS resource gathering, the Adventure mode sees players take control of that campaign's Hero character as they complete their objectives and over-arching missions. As with RTS titles there's a fog of war covering unexplored areas which is nothing new, but perhaps what's startling is exactly how dramatic it actually is, taking the form of a jet black cloud that makes the discovered lands seem all the more saturated in colour. Despite the somewhat amalgamation of genres, there is something definitely unique about the structure of the game, mainly down to the cyclical nature of the turns and the chess-like combat sequences of the Tactic Mode.

Exploring the land presented within separate missions, players can travel across most terrains although crossing rougher ground limits the distance a party can move within a turn. Throughout travelling players will come across up to seven different types of resources from the scarily abundant Gold through to some of the more unusual resources such as Mercury and Gems. The latter two are more rare, although capturing various settlements such as mines allows a regular income of them to develop over time. For much of the Adventure mode players will find themselves trying to accomplish a number of objectives, which are updated throughout the course of a mission. A standard and permanent objective is that the Hero character survives the mission, whilst others are more varied from the gathering of a certain number of units, resources, or even the capture of a town/city within a set period of time (based on the number of turns rather than real-time).

Such a gameplay structure will be familiar to both players of RTS and RPG games, yet at times HOMMV felt all too repetitive especially when it was a bit of a struggle to build an army with a certain number of a type of unit (for example '100 Archers'). For a game that's already not exactly the quickest paced title, such repetitiveness bogs the gameplay down further and unless you're a real fan of the series it may be a bit too much to ask to play HOMMV for hours on end.

Dropping the sci-fi elements of the previous HOMMV titles, Nival has focused on creating a solely fantasy world, and as such magic plays a key part. Carrying a spell book that gradually fills with a range of different spell types as players progress through the game and learn from Magic Guilds, the wealth of magic at their disposal grows to encompass most areas of gameplay. Forming a key part of a Hero character's development, the ability to cast spells sits alongside other aspects of the their progression including skills and abilities, which evolve as their Experience Points build up. As with any RPG-styles game, experience is accumulated through combat, and thanks to the generous amounts of combat early on in the game it doesn't take much to get up to and beyond Level 10 in the first couple of missions. Coupled with the turn-based time system, there's really a sense of character development over time, something that can sometimes be lost in other titles.

An important facet in the Adventure mode is the capturing and developing of towns. Whilst a sizeable army can be required to accomplish the task, the rewards can be significant (even if the only reason you do it is to complete a preset objective), and necessary when the Hero characters face up to some of the more challenging opponents. On occasions where players have to destroy a town's walls, Heroes can call upon a catapult to allow units to begin battle. In a slightly confused idea, players will sometimes have to destroy a settlements defences and take control of it, before its armies agree to fight on the side of the Hero. Couldn't a little bit of bribery or diplomacy work instead? Actually there is diplomacy in the game, but it seems more closely tied with bribing local militia into joining a player's army.

Developing a town is very much like character progression, with its 'Level' calculated by the number of strategic buildings (like blacksmiths and forts) it contains. Essentially a hub for army development, towns provide a lynchpin to a Hero's success with the buildings providing everything from war machines, new Heroes, and further military fortification. As with the character development, there's a real sense that towns develop over time as they become stronger and more populated with essential buildings. Towns are also where players can learn new magic skills, providing that a Magic Guild is based there, with its evolution complete if the player brings back the Tears of Asha artefact, a non-essential item but one that can help make completing missions easier to achieve. Like the rest of the game, there's no resource micro-management that detracts from the main objectives or combat situations, instead it all goes on developing strong enough armies to fulfil the overall campaigns.

Moving onto the second gameplay mode, the combat driven 'Tactic Mode', players will find themselves sitting across a grid, with their military units positioned in the first two rows. Obstacles such as rocks or logs can block the route towards enemy units, which are situated on the other side of the grid in a style similar to chess. Once combat has begun, the turn-based gameplay of RPGs sees players first move their units and then (if possible) attack their opponents from up to eight different angles. A breakdown of potential damage inflicted and whether the enemy will retaliate is also given, which can influence whether an attack will go ahead. Hero characters can also join in the combat and have the advantage of being able to attack from anywhere on the board. Ranged units such as archers can also attack from distance though town walls and other obstacles can block their strike.

What the grid setup does, is allow the standard turn-based RPG combat system to develop into something more strategic, thanks to the ability for units to move around the board and amend tactics as the battle progresses. Stacking the unit types so that for instance 120 peasants appear as a single unit on the board not only simplifies matters (after all how big would a battle grid have to be to accommodate such a figure), but also allows their offensive success to be shown easily as their numbers decrease during the course of the fight. It's a really good way of recreating battlefield sequences and tie them into RPG elements, with players developing a sense of being an 'armchair general' as their strategies and experience develop.

Despite a fairly clean HUD, there's actually a wealth of information available to players within a couple of mouse clicks that can breakdown everything from troop numbers to Hero biographies, and spells. It's always going to be difficult to judge the balance between the depth of information and maintaining a gamer-friendly interface, and despite some initial feelings of getting lost amongst the web of icons within icons and hidden screen, the end result is fairly successful in accomplishing this. The problem does seem to stem from the RPG elements built into the game, which further complicates the amount of icons and details for players to absorb, that said there is some information (such as biographies) that aren't as essential as others.

HOMMV also features a number of Multiplayer mode, which provide a respite from the lengthy campaigns provided in the single-player mode. The four-player Hot Seat mode, based on the turn-based structure of the main game, allows players to take part in a number of objectives such as capturing a town with the winner being the first one to complete the mission. Players can also take part in multiplayer missions via a LAN connection or through Ubi.com, which allows for team play and alliances to occur. Despite these options, the main reason to buy Heroes of Might & Magic V lies much more with the single-player campaign, which at least allows players to play for as short or as long a time as they have. Not only do multiplayer games fail to have any sense of instant action, instead providing players with something of a drawn out slog of an experience, but they probably wont be the domain of casual HOMMV gamers.