Heroes of Might and Magic V Updated Hands-On - Single-Player, Story, and Adventuring

Some of the greatest strategy games of all time are predicated on taking turns to carefully think out your next tactic as part of a larger strategy. So, if nothing else, the Heroes of Might and Magic fantasy strategy games can claim to hold some common ground with such classic games as go and chess. Fortunately, the series doesn't need any hokey analogies to stand on its own, since its much-loved combination of highly accessible gameplay, deep strategy, and colorful high-fantasy imagery has made it a favorite of some extremely loyal fans across the globe. We recently had a chance to try out an updated version of the next game in the series, Heroes V, and are pleased to report that the future's looking promising for fans of Heroes and fans of strategy games in general.

Even though Heroes V takes the drastic step of using 3D polygonal graphics for a series known for using whimsical 2D sprite and rendered art, from what we've seen, the game seems to stay true to the colorful, distinctive look of the previous games by using stylized, exaggerated character models and beautiful 3D landscapes. The landscapes themselves seem extremely vibrant and have a ton of moving parts, while military units look highly detailed and your heroes' towns are vast 3D domains, rather than the previous games' static, flat town portrait that would gradually be supplemented with new buildings.

Like fans of the series have come to expect, Heroes V's single-player games can be played in two different ways: one-off scenario maps (though we were unfortunately not able to try any of these) or story-driven single-player campaigns. The campaigns in Heroes V are built on the brand-new lore and fiction that Nival and Ubisoft have created for the Heroes series (so there will be no mentions of Erathia, Armageddon's Blade, or Sandro the Necromancer in the new game), and they tell the tale of a world at war. In the version of the game we played, successive campaigns are locked until the earlier missions are completed, though the game doesn't seem terribly demanding at the lowest (normal) difficulty setting.

Heroes V's gameplay seems to include equal parts exploration, town development, and tactical combat. Exploration happens on huge overland maps, just like in previous Heroes games, though the new 3D landscapes can now be rotated and zoomed to be viewed more closely--and as we saw, you'll be rewarded for tweaking this perspective, since groves of trees and other obstructing scenery conceal treasures that you can't quite see from a fully zoomed-out view. The overland still houses treasure chests containing caches of gold that can either be converted to experience points for your active hero character or stored away in your coffers for later use.

Your primary use for gold and other resources, such as wood, stone, and gems, will be developing your town. Towns that you own and those you later capture can be expanded with a new building once per turn. Like in previous games, more-advanced structures can't be built until you purchase basic buildings that precede them; the game has a handy overlay chart that shows the hierarchy for unlocking different buildings.

From what we can tell, at least with the human "castle" town, which commissions knights, squires, and peasants, you'll still be making the same basic choice to develop either the economic backbone of your town, by building up structures that increase the town's gold output, or building up creature dwellings that produce units--though you'll also want to continue to be mindful of other miscellaneous structures, such as a marketplace to exchange one resource for another or a blacksmith to create siege weapons for your heroes.

Hero characters can do just about everything they could in older Heroes games, and then some. You'll still need them to lead war parties of peasants, skeletons, demons, or whatever you've commissioned, and they'll still grow in power as they gain experience levels. Hero characters will gain access to new powers and skills, such as the game's schools of magic, as well as various combat abilities such as counterstrike, which affects how much damage your troops do in battle when retaliating, and miscellaneous abilities, such as diplomacy, which lets you hire bonus units at any unit-producing camps you happen to capture in your travels. And like in the more-recent Heroes games, hero characters can carry specific items in their inventories, such as magical weapons, armor, and artifacts, as well as siege equipment, into battle. In fact, heroes can be a true deciding factor in battle in Heroes V.

The new game's tactical battles take place on a 3D grid that vaguely resembles a chessboard, but as we've mentioned in our earlier coverage, Nival and Ubisoft have tweaked combat in a number of ways. For instance, combat is now preceded by a tactics mode that lets you prearrange your units within a limited area, similar to the tactics skill from Heroes III. In addition, the interface has been tweaked, so you can either view a row of icons along the bottom of the screen that indicates which creature will act next or an archive of messages that keeps track of which army attacked which, how much damage was dealt, and what special effects are in play.

The most special of all effects are those that hero characters wield, since heroes get a turn in combat, not only to cast a spell from a school of magic they know, but also to attack on any enemy they choose without any fear of retaliation. If you decide to build up your hero character with combat skills and artifacts that give combat bonuses, you can end up with a very heavy-duty character that can deal free attacks to the enemy--though you can also choose to build up other aspects of your heroes' abilities, such as their ability to cast spells or to bestow positive, morale-building effects on your units.

The creators of Heroes V appear to have carefully added the game's new tweaks and additions, such as its colorful new 3D graphics, its additional hero tweaks, and its new interface options, with painstaking caution and complete respect for the basic gameplay of the Heroes series. There's a great deal of core Heroes gameplay that has more or less remained intact, and if you're a fan of the series (and even if you've never played the series before), that's a good thing, since the game's exploration, decision-making, and tactical battles seem as enjoyable as before, if not better. All things considered, Heroes V seems like it will offer a new and improved version of the classic strategic game that so many fans have come to know and love. The game is scheduled for release in May.