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Yesterday, I finally bought Heroes 5 for myself. The game is undoubtedly unique and original. Praise to Nival; they provided the possibility to play on weaker machines than they themselves specified in the requirements. For me, it ran almost without lags. When exiting a castle, there is some stuttering while rotating the camera, but after the image is cached, it completely disappears. As for the game itself, the best parts of Heroes 3 and 4 have been taken and brought to life by the Nival programmers; the graphics are simply stunning. But there are some nuances. Now, in more detail.
1. The graphics, without a doubt, deserve a big, bold plus.
2. Finally, during battle in the game, you actually have to think about how and with whom it is best to move. After all, in earlier versions, you could play almost without thinking—if your army was stronger, you would win. In 5, it is possible to prove the opposite.
3. The system of buildings in towns has changed in an original way. In every castle, buildings not only require different amounts of resources, but the build path is also different. In previous versions, everything was quite monotonous, and after achieving full success in developing one castle, developing others was not interesting.
4. I am pleased with the additional abilities of some units, such as, for example, the lobbed shots of the marksmen from the Castle and so on.
5. An interesting fact—whether you noticed or not—is that there are many narrow passages on the maps, which means it will be difficult for heroes to pass each other. This means the AI will stop buying 15 level 1 heroes, fighting whom is simply boring but necessary, and will instead use a few properly leveled ones.
6. A pleasant point for me was the absence of the so-called FOG OF WAR. After all, the developers of Heroes 4, specifically the company 3DO, brazenly shoved in this so-called feature, without even bothering to let the player disable it somewhere in the settings.
Now for the downsides.
1. It seems that the developers lacked the strength and patience to develop a large number of maps for cooperative play, or for hot-seat, for example. I have only 9 or 10—I don't remember exactly—but it is definitely too few. What, am I supposed to buy add-ons every week now? What infuriates me is that I read there would be an option for map generation, like in Heroes 3, but I couldn't find it; if anyone already knows how to do it, please tell me. And the maps themselves are a bit small. Take, for example, the largest map with a Dungeon and you'll see—it just doesn't measure up to an XL map from Heroes 3 in terms of size and scale! Not at all.
2. The choice of difficulty levels is limited to 3 options, not five as in Heroes 3. Honestly, it will be very difficult for a beginner to play even on the easiest level. Note that I started three different maps on the easiest level, and ALWAYS ALL resource mines are already guarded by some monsters, even the wood and stone ones, which didn't happen in the third game even on medium difficulty (or if it did, only in very rare cases). And, by the way, looking at the number of monsters guarding the mines, one is forced to conclude that the developers are unfamiliar with words like FEW, SEVERAL, COUPLE, GROUP; mostly it's MANY or CROWD. In short, a beginner will have their first successful (I emphasize the word successful) battle somewhere at the end of the second week, if not the beginning of the third; and since the map is very small, as mentioned above, for these two weeks the player will be forced to circle around their castle, not venturing far.
4. While constructing new buildings in castles, those already built, those yet to be built, and those that can be upgraded are not very clearly separated; at the start of the game, you get a bit confused and have to check every time whether you have built that building or not. When playing alone, it's fine, but if you are playing with three people at one computer and waiting for your opponents to review all their buildings, build something, and finally end their turn, it's, you know, gentlemen, a bit irritating.
5. I can't understand where all the artifacts are?! Believe it or not, yesterday I played one map for 2 hours(!) and didn't encounter a single artifact. Where did the mana wells go, for goodness' sake? I'm tired of running back to the castle to refill mana. And what's with the monsters' lack of manners? I approach a mine, wanting, you understand, to pick up some lumber lying nearby, and the mean monster guarding the mine, instead of making sure he doesn't lose it, attacks me. Now this is just unacceptable; in Heroes 4, you could at least set monsters to be stationary and take what was lying poorly right under their noses. But here, you can't even approach; it immediately starts a fight, and I didn't even want to grab the mine, just take a little bit of the lumber lying nearby.
6. Why did they take away the Orc castle? It feels unfair; after all, they have been there since the first part and played a significant role in the campaigns, by the way. It's a good thing they left the Necromancer, otherwise I wouldn't even know who to play.
But, despite the downsides, the pluses are still more and weightier, so I strongly recommend all gamers to add Heroes 5 to their game collection.
P.S. The opinion expressed above is a purely subjective point of view, and I apologize in advance to everyone who does not share it. Believe me, offending someone is the last thing on my mind.