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Heroes of Might and Magic seriesHeroes V?(14 posts)(14 posts)
(14 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 20, 2011
I'm going to be honest:

I actually really enjoyed Heroes V.

I know it gets slagged off a lot in the Heroes community. I can see why, too.

They completely butchered the game world. The universe that we all knew and loved, that tied in so well with the M&M series (who can't love being able to explore key sites from H3 like Steadwick and the Contested Lands in M&M 7?), was destroyed. Gone. Replaced with some generic fantasy setting. Kreegans became just your normal demons. The storyline felt a bit like a poor man's Warcraft 3. The factions I loved from H3 simply by virtue of their uniqueness - the subterranean Dungeon and the swamp-dwelling Fortress - were replaced by standard fantasy fare - Dark Elves and Dwarves.

And yet.

And yet it's gameplay was nonetheless incredibly compelling. I had all these issues with it, but I couldn't help but have fun with it. It wasn't as good as H3, but it was still fun. I mourn for the fact that one of the greatest and most distinct franchises of the fantasy game realm suffered from a miserable reboot, but I couldn't help but log all sorts of hours into it. The gameplay was fundamentally similar to H3, but with enough new elements added in to make it interesting (I liked the town-unique abilities, especially Alchemy and Gating, and I really liked the alternate upgrades, which I thought added a lot of new options to the game).

So I know the game was a monstrosity in some ways. I hear you. I agree with that. But I think it was still a blast to play. Will it ever take the place of H3 or H2? Never. It was a step sideways at best. But I don't regret buying it for a second.

So what are your thoughts on it?
Posted November 21, 2011
I wish I could have some thoughts, but unfortunately on my MacBook it suffers from the blurry textures bug. That makes it nigh unplayable for me. It really stinks.
Posted November 21, 2011
I've had some fun with it. Not as much as 3 or even 2, for that matter, but in all honesty, I can see some merit in it.

If they hadn't completely butchered the game world as badly as they did, completely ignored a lot of great advances that NWC made in regards to character development in 4, (I know people will probably disagree with me about 4, but I actually loved that game,) I'd say it was a solid addition.

For me, the uniqueness and difference of the factions in 3 was what made it so awesome. In 4, they kinda threw the baby out with the bathwater and started over in a lot of ways, but the mechanics alone, I thought made that game. It definitely was NOT about the storylines or the shitty campaigns. (Storywise, not gameplaywise.)

I know I'm a weird minority, but eh...I like what I like. (I had the same problems with this game that I did with Disciples 3, a game that I was highly disappointed with.)
Posted November 21, 2011
Barring the things mentioned in the OP, the game feels like overpriced Heroes 3 remake with a few upgrades - the skill system is nice, for example. Or the alternative upgrades, if they are equivalent instead of one "must buy" and one "never buy it" upgrade.

But why should I play wannabe Heroes 3 (even poorly optimised - AI turns are PITA) when I can play Heroes 3 instead? And with lots of user-made maps to choose from. Heck, the Academy faction is just a copy&paste work, but with Rakshasas instead of Nagas lest people could accuse the devs of lack of creativity. And while graphic style is just a matter of personal taste, Angels look like anime characters and Genies are just disgusting. Not to mention many units are conspicuously similar to Warhammer Fantasy armies - honorable mention goes to Dark Elves.

Speaking of maps, there is another Heroes 5's failure: the map editor.
All before were user-friendly (however scripting in Heroes 4 required extra work), this one was user-hostile. And it was even missing in the game until some patch (1.3?).

3d camera in the underground (or in general) was annoying too, mainly the need to rotate it.

I've purchased the gold edition when it was in a bargain bin, because I wanted to give it a chance. I was unable to finish the campaigns because I disliked them.

Oh, and Gryffin eternal!11!!!!1ELEVEN (yes, this deserves special mention)
Posted November 23, 2011
Heroes V is not related to Heroes of Might and Magic Universe (which ended with Heroes of Might and Magic IV: Winds of War expansion, the last title released by original Developers - New World Computing).
After New World Computing collapsing in 2003 the 'Heroes of Might and Magic' trade mark was sold to Ubisoft. Today Ubisoft under the 'Heroes of Might and Magic' name produces third-party games from different developers. These developers do not understand what is the Heroes of Might and Magic and what they should be!
Heroes V is a pure crap. Heroes V is Etherlords-like Nival game but not a Heroes of Might and Magic!
Posted November 24, 2011
avatar
KingCrimson250: I'm going to be honest:

I actually really enjoyed Heroes V.

I know it gets slagged off a lot in the Heroes community. I can see why, too.

They completely butchered the game world. The universe that we all knew and loved, that tied in so well with the M&M series (who can't love being able to explore key sites from H3 like Steadwick and the Contested Lands in M&M 7?), was destroyed. Gone. Replaced with some generic fantasy setting. Kreegans became just your normal demons. The storyline felt a bit like a poor man's Warcraft 3. The factions I loved from H3 simply by virtue of their uniqueness - the subterranean Dungeon and the swamp-dwelling Fortress - were replaced by standard fantasy fare - Dark Elves and Dwarves.

And yet.

And yet it's gameplay was nonetheless incredibly compelling. I had all these issues with it, but I couldn't help but have fun with it. It wasn't as good as H3, but it was still fun. I mourn for the fact that one of the greatest and most distinct franchises of the fantasy game realm suffered from a miserable reboot, but I couldn't help but log all sorts of hours into it. The gameplay was fundamentally similar to H3, but with enough new elements added in to make it interesting (I liked the town-unique abilities, especially Alchemy and Gating, and I really liked the alternate upgrades, which I thought added a lot of new options to the game).

So I know the game was a monstrosity in some ways. I hear you. I agree with that. But I think it was still a blast to play. Will it ever take the place of H3 or H2? Never. It was a step sideways at best. But I don't regret buying it for a second.

So what are your thoughts on it?
You made a good point, in terms of gameplay it was fun, good lucking, the ability system was really improved over predecessors so overall I loved to play the game.
Posted August 20, 2012
Heroes 5 was my favorite of the series, by far. I think I had an advantage because H5 was the one I played first. This prevented any preconcived notions about the earlier HoMMs. My objectivity also couldn't be affected by any changes to the previous universe. I loved the H5 story, especially Relag. I have played the earlier ones now. They are nice, but not comparable to H5. Also, I didn't play H5 until 2009, so it was fully patched before I played.

I say H5 'was" my favorite because I do think H6 is better. Even though I played about 200 hours in the 2 months after release, when it was the buggiest, it was still enough better I didn't want to play H5 much anymore. At the moment H6 is on hold for me until they finish patching it. I am not waiting for any specific bug fix (it was already fun, and many bugs I played with are gone), I just want them to be done fiddling with it so I can learn it and the interface and balance won't change.
Posted August 21, 2012
avatar
LiquidOxygen80: I've had some fun with it. Not as much as 3 or even 2, for that matter, but in all honesty, I can see some merit in it.

If they hadn't completely butchered the game world as badly as they did, completely ignored a lot of great advances that NWC made in regards to character development in 4, (I know people will probably disagree with me about 4, but I actually loved that game,) I'd say it was a solid addition.

For me, the uniqueness and difference of the factions in 3 was what made it so awesome. In 4, they kinda threw the baby out with the bathwater and started over in a lot of ways, but the mechanics alone, I thought made that game. It definitely was NOT about the storylines or the shitty campaigns. (Storywise, not gameplaywise.)

I know I'm a weird minority, but eh...I like what I like. (I had the same problems with this game that I did with Disciples 3, a game that I was highly disappointed with.)
I agree with you 100% (except for the bit about Disciples 3, which I haven't played). Even though I'm a huge fan of HOMM since #1 and have spent hundreds of hours with this franchise, I was never all that attached to the storyline. I just love the gameplay. And like you, I loved 4 and was sort of sorry they didn't continue in that vein. I frankly didn't even notice the change in factions all that much in 5. I suppose I'm just not a purist.
Posted December 19, 2012
avatar
Tarnum: Heroes V is not related to Heroes of Might and Magic Universe (which ended with Heroes of Might and Magic IV: Winds of War expansion, the last title released by original Developers - New World Computing).
After New World Computing collapsing in 2003 the 'Heroes of Might and Magic' trade mark was sold to Ubisoft. Today Ubisoft under the 'Heroes of Might and Magic' name produces third-party games from different developers. These developers do not understand what is the Heroes of Might and Magic and what they should be!
Heroes V is a pure crap. Heroes V is Etherlords-like Nival game but not a Heroes of Might and Magic!
Frankly, not everyone cares about the game world. The game is so insanely better than heroes III that i'm clueless as to why people fail to see it.The gameplay is much smoother, the graphics are much better and it doesn't hurt my eyes like heroes 3 did. I still play heroes 2 but not 3 because it's ugly and dumb. Ok, the factions were good and the gameplay was balanced. So what ? It's balanced in V as well and this game adds so much to the series that it's a shame more people prefer the third instalment.
Nival did a great job at retrieving the game mechanics and feel. So what if it's not the same game world ? Who cares about those in a strategy game ? They're secondary and since there's nothing they could do (because they COULD NOT include previous game world as ubisoft don't own that), i'd say they did a heck of a job on this game.

Now i could understand such bashing on Heroes IV that in my opinion shouldn't even be a part of the series with it's fighting hero, but not on Heroes V that is one of the best there is. Ok, it might not replace III in the heart of nostalgic gamers (yeah, that's mostly nostalgia and you did spend a lot of hours on Heroes III because there were fewer games at the time) but it's still a great game and doesn't deserve to be called "crap".
Posted December 25, 2012
My opinion? Skip Heroes 5.
3 is the "classic" of the series, and some of the stand-alone expansions like the Chronicles are art alongside a brilliant game.
4 they remade a lot, which had a lot of people very upset, but still had a few of your old favourite characters popping up in storylines (barbarians anyone) or just as a "hero". This is easily my favourite of the series, by miles.
5? As people have said, its a remake of 3, but for me, the graphics are actually more of a hindrance than an addition to my enjoyment, and the campaign stories lack the charm of the ones in 3.
6, I've had a crack at, back when it was super buggy. This irritated the heck out of me in itself, and almost makes me want to tell people not to buy it so that developers who release buggy as heck games start hurting financially. That said, I like 6 over 5, because 6 brings in the dual-upgrade system (I think an expansion for 5 may have had this?), as well as neatening a lot of annoying edges, and it actually feels like a step forward rather than an attempted re-release.

Overall? Don't get V. Rest of the series is good though.
Posted December 25, 2012
V had much better character development and skill system than III. So it's worth it for that alone, despite its faults.
Posted December 27, 2012
Heroes V is an "okay game", but it fell far short of my expectations in many ways. I haven't played 6, but between 1-5, 5 is the worst by far to me. I would actually go as far as to say it isn't worth buying if you want a Heroes-game. Skip it.
Posted January 03, 2013
I bought HOMM5 when it first came out. Unfortunately it's the worst in the HOMM series so far. The new developer just didn't understand what made the HOMM series great.

HOMM6 was also terrible, as the demo worked great, but the Uplay DRM on the final version I bought made it crash constantly. Ubi wasn't able/wasn't interested in fixing my issues with HOMM 6. Then Uplay was discovered to be a rootkit, and that was the end of HOMM6 on my PC.

HOMM3 is still the best for me.

HOMM3>HOMM4>HOMM2>HOMM1>HOMM6>HOMM5
Posted January 03, 2013
I haven't played HoMM4 yet and will probably never play HoMM6, but I'd rather the ones I've playe thus:
HOMM3>HOMM2>HOMM5>HOMM1>

HOMM3 with the artwork of HOMM1 (I really liked those large animated units) and the skill system of HOMM5 would be purrfect.
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Heroes of Might and Magic seriesHeroes V?(14 posts)(14 posts)
(14 posts)