The latest expansion pack has been released. Now, certain things are clear.

Regarding the discussion above. The Heroes series has transitioned to 3D. This is why they look the way they do. Nowadays, a lot of attention is paid to graphics in games. If before, a game captivated players with its deep internal content, now a lot of time and money is spent on external polish. Essentially, it's a transformation from an interactive book (with pictures) into an interactive movie. Warcraft 3 took this to a new level, which is why we now have these "in-engine" cutscenes, interludes, lots of video, and little text. I think the fact that Heroes 5 looks graphically similar to many fantasy 3D games is a problem inherent to fantasy 3D games. Certain canons have developed, dictated by the evolution of graphics. And what you call "cartoonishness" is one of the necessary elements. Either you make a game with it, with a large dose of it, or you change something, experiment with something new. Ubi and Nival weren't going to experiment, and they couldn't, it's too risky. I hope they will do this in the sixth installment. After all, you want the game to have its own unique face. For example, Disciples 3 now looks like a dark fantasy-medieval setting in its Asian representation. There is also "cartoonishness" there, but it's difficult to find an animated film for children that uses similar elements. And in general, "cartoonishness" is what makes it unlike reality. If we're not talking about pure 3D graphics, but about something closer to parts 1-3, then the graphics of the fourth installment were a shock to me at the time. Now I think it's excellent, striking, fantasy-like, and unlike anything else. It really was a breakthrough.