heroes of might and magic V
For a very long time, that feels like the end of another life, I spent an entire summer in a friends small extra house outside their summer place. He typed furiously down some rules for a new RPG game that we were making and I scribbled illustration after illustration depicting fights, armours, swords, monsters and heroes. When we felt that we couldn't get through to the next set of rules or my hand and mind was empty of ideas for illustrations we bought some cheez doodles and then played Kings Bounty on his Macintosh LC2. Yeah this was far away, some 15 years ago or so.
Except bringing back memories like an avalanche, I felt something last evening as I played Heroes of Might and Magic V, I can already tell you that I haven't played any other games int he series and am hus not a die hard, that same feeling as i did with Kings Bounty. A full circle. Kings Bounty was for several years a game with whcih I compaired alot of them. There has been some that is alike but most of them turned into RTS games. Well I bought HOMM V a few days after that UBISOFT declared that the rumours were true - They would not use Star Force on the game. Already had this game gotten to my attention since they had on fans notion, prolonged the development phase and now this. Being a very strong NO-DRM person and without hesitation have I thrown myself into the battle - not on "pirates" side, nor the developers or the distributors side, but for the true side: The paying customars side. We who get screwed by all the others, and on our expance do they both thrive. After so vigilantly as I have battled this I decided to buy this game out of sheer principles and well hope that the game was good. It was. It is far from revolutionary, it is far from best strategy - but it is in a genre that is so loving and so much in right side of "just one turn more" that few can match.The game is starting up with a glorious high-fantasy setting and we are off into a story that is brought on and looks awfully close to Warcraft III and then the mayhem begins. In the beginning it feels like Warcraft III as well but that passes. The game is all about getting your heroe up in levels and raising armies to battle the enemy. The maps on which you do this have several resources that you use to build up your home town. Enemies and neutral forces running around and magical shires etc. No fantasy stone unturned simply. The battles are played like a sort of highly detailed and moe strategic and complex chess. Movement, spells, abilities and strengths are to outwit the enemies. The game let you battle out a huge war from different sides in different chapters with new maps and new races. Not far from WarCraft III.
All in all, this is a good game and if you don't believe me, download the demo and try it out. It may not be your kind of game, but if it is, then you definately will like this one. To be watchful for however are some really booring bugs that make some quests really difficult to solve. Cudos to Nival for finally make a "check for updates" button, and a DANTE for not removing the collection of player info program. *SIGH* when will these companies learn to ASK us before they screw us over?
-Wolfgir-
Good:
- Fun and esy to pick up and hard to let go of...
- Nice graphics and also nice that they have widescreen resolution support for laptops!
Bad:
- A bit too damn hard with some enemies!
- FIrst agreeing to make it better, then to remove StarForce but then completely ignorant include a watchdog anyway! Dante for this!
Grades
sound: 7
gameplay: 8
stability: 7
controles: 8
Joyometer: 8
Dante: 1
Get an eggclock for this one. Unlike CIV IV they don't have a nifty alarmclock builed in..