Heroes of Might & Magic V

You need to be logged in to track this game

Heroes of Might & Magic V promises a more mature experience, benefiting from the features and characteristics that established the franchise while offering many new innovations such as a highly immersive scenario, advanced factions, cutting-edge 3D visuals, a revolutionary tactical/combat system and a story driven campaign mode.

Format: PC

Release 19 May 2006

Developer: Nival Interactive

Publisher: Ubisoft

Players: 1

PEGI Rating: NUL

Heroes of Might & Magic V boxshot on TotalVideoGames.com

Toggle Related Articles on/off

Latest Previews

Midnight Club: Los Angeles - Hands On
Icon

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Hands On
Icon

Too Human - Hands On
Icon

Raven Squad - First Look
Icon

Quantum Of Solace - First Look

Toggle User Reviews on/off

User Reviews

There are currently 0 User Reviews for Heroes of Might & Magic V

Write your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.

Click here to register

Heroes Of Might & Magic V - First Look Preview

Jon Wilcox

19/04/2006

TVG takes a first look at the forthcoming instalment in the multi-franchise fantasy series...

The story of Heroes of Might & Magic V is almost as turbulent as the tale that it will tell upon its eventual release on May 19th. Originally owned by the now defunct publisher 3DO, the Might & Magic IP was bought Ubisoft in 2003 after 3DO filed for bankruptcy. Handing over development responsibilities to Nival Interactive (who'd previously worked on Blitzkrieg for German publisher CDV), Ubisoft finally announced production on the fifth Heroes of Might & Magic title at the end of March 2005. But that is far from the end of the story.

In January 2006, Ubisoft released an open-beta of Heroes of Might & Magic V, but with a high number of reported bugs and the original early April release looming the decision was made to delay the release by six weeks. There are reports however that the reason for Ubi's decision to delay the game had more to do with mass protests from within the Might & Magic community, who felt that Nival wouldn't have the time to rectify some of the key bugs cited during the beta.

Over the course of the last twelve months, since they first announced the game, Ubisoft has been releasing titbits of information including confirmation that six factions will feature in the game across thirty missions. Described as a mix between Arthurian Britain, Victorian England, and the Spanish Inquisition, the Haven faction are a race of humans that form the Holy Griffin Empire and are said to be 'inspired and guided by angels.' In severe contrast, the Inferno faction are an evil and destructive group trapped in between worlds by the Seventh Dragon who try to find a way to escape their current state of limbo and wreak havoc onto the land. Ubisoft has also announced a new Dungeon faction for HoMMV; formed by rogue Dark Elves who've made a pact with the so-called Faceless and have made the underground cave systems of the world their home. Little is currently known about the Stronghold and Necropolis factions, although it's been confirmed that long-standing Heroes of Might & Magic faction the Academy, will be making a reappearance in the fifth instalment of the series. It's also worth nothing that back in September 2005 when Ubisoft announced the Dungeon faction, the Academy was also to be joined with the Sylvan as a second returning faction.

HoMMV will be the first instalment in the series to be full 3D, with scalability that allows players to zoom right into the heart of the action. For many RTS veterans, or many gamers in general, such an addition may not seem like that much of an advancement in the genre as a whole, and to an extent that is the case. However, the move is a significant step in terms of the franchise, which experienced a similar 'leap' in the last full instalment from 3DO in the form of fixed view isometric 3D environments back in 2002. For those hard-core elements within the already hard-core HoMM community, the move should be a welcome one since it brings their franchise up to date with other RTS franchises - at least that's something that Ubisoft hopes.

In a recent demonstration of the game, TVG was presented with the Hero character of Isabel of the Griffin Empire, which has become invaded and overrun by demons. So far Isabel is the only known Hero character to be confirmed as appearing in the game, though Ubisoft has announced that each faction will have its own Hero. During this first mission, which describes events after the first demon attack that disrupt Isabel's wedding to King Nicolai, players are gently introduced into the world of Heroes of Might & Magic. Gameplay is split into to distinct areas: Adventure Mode and Tactics Mode. Most of the action, certainly at this early stage of the game, takes place in the Adventure mode, which is best described as an RTS/RPG hybrid. With bright and colourful environments, at this stage at least, HoMMV isn't quite as foreboding as it perhaps could be. In addition to the almost 'Shire-esque' visuals, the all-encompassing fog of war is so definite that it gives the impression that players are experiencing the game whilst looking through a keyhole, which certainly focuses the attention onto that specific area in the gameworld.

Movement in the Adventure Mode isn't quite the typical RTS free-movement, instead HoMMV follows the more Civilization-like turn-based structure, so that Hero characters can only move a certain number spaces before the end of the turn. Similar to board games, it's difficult to see how this limited movement helps gameplay as it certainly didn't seem to have any real requirement during the course of the demo.

With the task of recruiting an army to face off against the demonic invaders, Isabel travels through this initial map, confronting peasants and low-level soldiers to join the Griffin cause. Along the way various resources, especially Gold, can be found in piles along the route, which certain come in handy when players come across so-called Special Buildings such as Barracks where they can purchase more soldiers. Other special buildings include Peasant Huts dotted throughout the colour-saturated gameworld that increase the speed of 'peasant' development, enabling players to recruit more man-power, and Windmills that provide a small amount of a random resource on a daily basis.

Building up her army, players can only view the breakdown of the force by clicking on Isabel herself, which enables them to see view every attribute of every unit type including the Hero(ine) character herself. Whereas the wandering search for an army takes place in screens that would be recognisable to any RTS gamer (including tallies of numerous resources such as mercury, gold, and wood to collect in the game), these character screens wouldn't look out of place in an RPG title. A complete breakdown of stats and attributes from Experience Points and Mana Points through to Spellpower, Knowledge, Morale, Luck, Attack, and Defence Points. In short, there seems to be the potential for an engrossing title for both RTS and RPG fans.

Scattered throughout the gameworld are a number of artefacts, which aid the hero characters through their campaigns much like in an RPG title. Artefacts are usually pieces of armour such as helmets and cuirasses, weapons, or even spells. Though exact details of every artefact would ruin the game, Ubisoft has confirmed a couple such as the Turban of Enlightenment (which increases the level of a character's experience by 20%) and the Trident of the Titans (which increases the level of damage caused by a player's attack by 50%). A further breakdown has also been given regarding the different types of spells that can be cast in the game, including Combat Spells, Adventure Spells, Destructive Magic, Dark Magic, Summoning Magic, Light Magic, and Special Abilities though the spell book was certainly very empty during the course of the demo.

As if the breakdown of attributes wasn't comprehensive enough, the game goes further with players also able to keep up to date the various skills of their characters. For instance at the beginning of the game, Lady Isabel two primary skills in Basic Counterstrike, a unique skill of knights, and Advanced Leadership, which increases the moral of all creatures in the hero's army by two. The latter skill also enables Isabel to learn new skills at a later stage of the game, in recruitment, estates, and diplomacy. Finally the character screens also provide a biography of the characters, just in case you wanted to know the finer details of a character's past.

Combat obviously plays an important part in the gameplay of Heroes of Might & Magic V, with the integration of a Tactics Mode allowing players to battle the various enemies that they encounter along the way. Shifting to a grid-drawn battlefield strewn with impassable obstacles such as boulders, the gameplay feels more like a game of chess with each group of units moving against an enemy. Players also get to decide upon the angle of attack, which seems to open an enemy unit up to the chance of attacks from multiple forces. Hero units can also take part in the game, but since a key objective in pretty much every mission is to keep the Hero character alive an aggressive stance might not be the best tactic to use against some of the more high level enemies.

Obviously Ubisoft has every intention of satisfying the hardcore fan base of the Might & Magic franchises, especially as it goes about creating whole new series within the M&M universe later in the year (Dark Messiah of Might & Magic), and hopefully they'll manage to do just that. There certainly seems to be a lot of depth in the gameplay reflecting the heritage of the series to date, although questions may have to be raised has to how popular the game will be outside of the community.