...I myself am not thrilled with the anime-style elves with half-meter-long ears, Ents that resemble overgrown, bark-covered troll-shamans from Warcraft 3, and dwarves that seem to have come from Disciples. But the thing is that... today, they have to be like that! If in those "good old" days, when the third game was being created, elves and dwarves were still somehow associated with the Might & Magic universe or the unforgettable Tolkien, now they are "those guys from Lineage and WoW"! Hence the change in the game's setting and the banal plot...
Yes, I partially agree with you, and I believe that the guys from Ubisoft and Nival Int. thought the same way. After all, it's a reincarnation of the game; they couldn't afford to fail, so they chose this approach. Yes, but I (and I think I'm not the only one) expected something a little different...
I think that many of us have also played Warcraft. Do you remember the transition from the 1st to the 2nd, and then to the 3rd... into the 3D world?! It was a breakthrough; it was new and fresh (although Warcraft 2 is forever!). Yes, there were debates, many debates... you can't do without them. So, I got carried away. The graphics and models were successful; they didn't contradict the legacy (debatable, but that's how it was), and we were happy. And we praised Blizzard to the heavens. So, with HoMM V, I expected the same kind of transition as from Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3 (now I'm talking exclusively about the graphics). You'll say that I expected too much? Yes, maybe, but I did. I expected a complete overhaul (and not a clone), that there would be greater continuity. I don't think that in our time, it's so difficult (difficult, but not as it used to be) to create a new engine and develop a more unique look for the models. And, I'm sorry, but Warcraft is Warcraft; everything that worked for it won't be as successful for another game (and the same applies to other games). In HoMM V, I expected different models and different graphics. They didn't want to experiment; instead, they followed a successful, well-trodden path, adapting it to a specific direction – that's their choice, and they had good reasons for it.
P.S. And despite everything (whatever I might have expected), I am grateful to them for the game.
