What do you mean, but modified for the 5th game! And everything (c) belongs to the publisher!
The modification lies in using Granny libraries!
But at the same time, the effects (particles) are native Nival effects! ;)
Hmm... in the alpha version, they are used for everything except effects, and Granny is also used in Blitzkrieg.
I looked at the water in the 5th game, and it seems that it really uses a normal map. You just need to figure out how this particular object receives information about the light. I suspect that it is somehow related to the global lighting set on the map.