Even if you haven't play the previous four HOMM games, the fifth installment of Heroes provides fun and a good challenge
In the fifth installment of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, the Demons of Kha-Beleth are at it again. In the opening cinematics, a band of Archdevils crash the royal Griffin wedding, forcing King Nicolai to fight them, and Queen Isabel to flee with Lord Godric. This is where the story really unfolds. Each of the six campaigns: Haven, Inferno, Necropolis, Dungeon, Sylvan, and Academy; contain five challenging missions; some can be easy for the average players, while others can be very challenging and take hours to complete. You'll start with Queen Isabel and the Knights of the Griffin Empire, then you'll take control of Demonlord Agrael, followed by Markal the Necromancer and his Undead Horde, Raelag and the Dark Elves, Findan and the Sylvan Elves, and Zehir of the Mages of the Silver Cities.
It may take even those who are veterans of the HOMM series to learn the gameplay of the fifth installment. As it is a turn-based RTS/RPG game, the turns rotate between the various players involved in the scenario. Your hero has a certain amount of movement points to move about in the map, which can not only contain the surface, but also the Underworld. As with any turn-based games, you must capture and build cities, take resources and hidden treasures, and crush opposing armies with your army, might, and magic. When doing battle, the field of battle is set up into a rectangle of square tiles. Depending on your hero's abilities (more on this later), you can place your unit stacks in any of the available placement tiles before you start the battle. From there, it's pretty much a fight to the finish or until one of the heroes flees or surrenders. You can use learned spells from your hero to boost your armies or soften or crush opposing armies or siege the city walls and towers. The key is to know when to do battle, and when it is best to retreat and fight when ready.
In some scenarios, there are obelisks that can provide clues to a hidden Tears of Asha. It takes a hero and a full day of movement points to dig at a certain spot on the surface map to find it. Once found, that hero must take it to a friendly city to provide it with a major boost in income and boost in unit abilities. An opposing hero can take out the hero carrying the tears to put it out of play. In other scenarios, you are put under a time limit, so you must think carefully in your battle plans.
The graphics aren't much to write home about, but the spell effects are wonderful. You'll find that the groves of trees are of various sizes; some of them covering a section of open pathways that you must rotate the camera at times to find treausres and resources you didn't find under the default view. The views of a city are nice, watching it grow and fortify as you build it to its fullest possible potential. However, you can only designate one of them as your capital which can provide the maximum daily income of 4,000 gold, and you can build various buildings to receive resources, put up defensive walls and towers when under siege, bring war machines with your heroes, and upgrade basic units to more advanced units. Most of the cutscenes are decent, but there isn't much animation from the heroes. Otherwise, some of them are noteworthy in this review. Archangels fly around and can swing their holy swords to slay their foes or resurrect a stack one time per battle. Succubi Mistresses can launch a fireball that chains to foes adjacent to the targeted one. Vampire Lords teleport around and sap life as they hit an opponent. The Dark Elven women wear very high stiletto boots and have very long hair. The War Dancers of the High Elves of Irollan have tattoos and dual-wield swords. The Titans of the Mages look ready to blast opponents with lightning attacks.
The Role-Playing aspects of this game come with that you can choose a certain build for your main hero or for a hero you choose in multiplayer. For instance, you can take advantage of your hero's inherent ability and setup abilities centered around it. Other times, you'll want Expert Logistics and Pathfinding for your hero for maximum movement points and to get around fairly quickly, especially on that hero's favored terrain. There are some that are most useful, especially in the Single-Player Campaign. One very useful ability is Resurrect from Expert Light Magic and a lvl 5 magic guild in a city. Another very useful ability are specialty in war machines. By specializing in war machines, your catapults and ballista can attack twice, and with an Ammo Cart, as long as it's up, your ranged units will have infinite ammo. Perhaps the most useful school of magic, especially at the end of the Single-Player campaign, is Summoning Magic. With it, you can summon units from your city to a traveling hero, town portal quickly to the nearest city, summon an available ship on the map, or Banish summoned stacks. Whatever your gameplay is, there is something for every warlord.
While the graphics are decent enough in HOMM V, the sound isn't very noteworthy although the sounds of battles are nice. The voice acting isn't very good, and the BGM can get very redundant, especially in long, challenging missions. Multiplayer is decent. You get to choose a race and hero of your choice, then do battle with others until someone is the last warlord standing.
However, there are a few issues with this game. The main culprit is that the game can bog down in heavy battles or in huge maps, especially on systems that barely meet the minimum requirements. Another issue is the camera angle. In areas and battle where precise movement is required, it can be a task to put your units or armies at the right spot. The last major issue is the pathfinding. By default, your hero will use the safest and fastest possible path to get from one point to another. However, this can be an issue, especially if you know your hero's main army can cut through a blocking neutral or enemy force to reach their destination much quicker.
Despite all these issues, HOMM V provide hours of gameplay with most people going through the Single-Player scenarios in at least 100 hours. Multiplayer also provides hours of fun with up to 8 players at a time. With its immersive battles, a decent single-player story, and plenty of hero builds and the luck and morale of the hero's army, HOMM V is fun, and challenging.