Heroes of Might and Magic V [Game Discussion]

It's a pity that they abandoned the sixth installment; there's no interest in playing it. The only thing that might be appealing is going through the campaign, as the plot is great (in my opinion), maybe even better than in the fifth game.

          The behavior of fans of the most popular turn-based strategy series can serve as a clear demonstration of the "duckling syndrome" – the **Heroes** games that a player encountered first are declared the best and the only correct ones. Fans of the third installment are especially zealous in defending the superiority of their favorite: they say that the orcs are greener there, the "fireballs" are brighter, and in general, **HoM&M** in 3D is heresy. There's no need for changes; they should have made it like in the "third" game! However, all this does not prevent fans of the series from waiting for the release of the next installment, secretly hoping that this time, everything will be done like in that very, true second/third/fourth part.
  In all the games of the series, the atmosphere has always been important – all that intangible feeling, made up of some small details, creating a sense of a fairy tale, magic, happening on the screen. The animated tavern screen from the third part, where the innkeeper could share rumors, the magnificent music in HoM&M 4, the funny descriptions of artifacts, the sound of a waterfall on the global map… All this slightly brightened up the routine that I mentioned earlier, even if most of the fairy tale had to be imagined by the player. After all, imagination is richer than any, even the most high-tech picture.
     The fourth part could not afford such luxury. I say this not because I prefer HoM&M 3 (although the orcs were indeed greener there) – many will agree that a map drawn to the last blade of grass in full 3D left no room for fantasy, and the artist's vision did not always coincide with the player's opinion.

The fifth **Heroes** game looks noticeably different. It's not a remake of the third game on a new engine, as many would like. Yes, much has been taken from previous games in the series, but all of this has been rethought and reworked to suit the desires of... probably, the developers, rather than the fans. As a result, an original product was created with its own advantages and disadvantages. Fortunately, there are more of the former.

Pros: original plot with interesting dialogues; convenient and visually pleasing interface; many options for hero development
Cons: imbalance between mages and warriors; this is not HoM&M 3.