Heroes of Might and Magic V is one of those few games that no matter how good they are, they will always be criticized just because one of its predecessors has been so popular. And I'm referring here of course at Heroes 3, a complete and long-lasting game.

The 5th part of the series seemed to be a failure from the beginning in the eyes of the fans. The producer was Nival (company responsible for some excellent games) and not 3DO, and the public beta had so many bugs that the fans shouted so loud that Ubisoft had to delay the game for some extra polish. Well done. The final product is way more elaborated than the beta version even though there still are some technical problems, plus a quite light multiplayer.

Game has been graphically updated, transposed in full 3D from the 2d in part 3, it modifies some on the castles, skills, heroes and interface. And that's about it. We can't talk of any fundamental change on any chapter of the game.. This is a good thing in my opinion. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Especially when it comes to Heroes that is a cult game for most.

The map looks like the one from part 3.The same dreamlike colors, plenty little details, monsters, treasure quests, abandoned mines, mermaids in the water, castles, everything you could expect. Far from the kitsch in Heroes 4. It all looks beautiful, detailed and..fantasy.

The castles have been a bit modified, meaning that now every one of them has a main building plus the upgrades, and the other buildings. Anyhow, people who have "drawn" the castles, buildings and the adjacent setting are artists for sure. The map seems a bit bigger than the usual dimensions in Heroes. Afterwards, when you put your hands on some faster unities, the map decreases rapidly. The dragons and the riders get to the opposite line of one single tour. The griffons can be launched into the air (personal skill) to reach the selected area one tour later, on any point of the map. The Blood Maidens attack and before the enemy gets a chance to retaliate, they run back towards the location where they came from.

The hydras, especially the upgraded ones damage all the surrounding unities, the elves's archers shoot two times, which added to the new Luck skill and the double damage given by the classic rainbow that appears sometimes over the unity when attacking..and so on. The demons can bring backups on the battlefield through an up gradable Gating skill, which summons in the next tour half of the troupes selected for skill, that disappear when the battle ends plus lots of other details.

Most of the unities have a personal ability totally different from the equivalent of the opposite castle, which makes the battles a more strategically experience than we had until now.

This kind of knacks can point a victory or a defeat in a major battle.

Its also important to know that the Hero is the playable unity during the battle which means that he whether attacks with the bow or the sword when his turn comes.

The fight is beautiful and it should last a while until you learn what each unity does, what are your skills or your sorceries.

They also added a bar down the screen that shows the order in which the unities are going the attack.

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