With the birth of the successor to the fame of the famous game series, it’s probably not a bad idea to remember where it all began. Remember the grandiose King’s Bounty, its logical continuation Heroes, hurricane Heroes 2, Heroes 3, which is generally not called anything other than “heroin” in the gaming environment, it is so exciting, and Heroes 4, one of the most controversial pages in the history of the series. But I think that the excursion is not quite what you expect from me, dear readers. Let’s not put things off and, jumping up and down with impatience, let’s open the box with Heroes of Might & Magic 5.
We are going to the city of Emerald along a difficult road.
Path HoMM 5 the modern user’s hard drive was long and thorny. 3DO, The mother-and-father of all “heroic” toys, unfortunately, went bankrupt, and the true reasons for the collapse, perhaps, would not be established even by an experienced necromancer, like those created by the imagination of the developers. The fate of the upcoming sequels remained uncertain for a long time.
And here is a French company Ubisoft condescended to gamers bitterly mourning the likely death of their favorite game series (in fact, we, of course, understand that to caress such a significant title under the warm wing is the dream of any publisher), and graciously deigned to buy the rights to the Heroes trademark.
The development of the fifth part was entrusted Nival Interactive, though under constant control from the French side.
Heroes. I’m lovin’ it!
So what is it Heroes 5 inherently? As before, a unique mixture of turn-based strategy, turn-based tactics and role-playing game. However, the latter was always just a spicy seasoning rather than a full-fledged ingredient of the dish. The main tasks of the gamer are still the development of their own settlements, training of troops, exploration of territories. But the main thing is the conduct of hostilities.
“Heroes” is the quintessence of battles; they embodied everything that so attracts those interested in the history of wars: incredibly spectacular, although at first a little sketchy, battles, dozens, hundreds of formations with various skills and abilities, boundless tactical and strategic possibilities. The fifth part, fortunately, did not change the traditions of the series. Let’s see who will get us victory, not sparing the belly.
Workers of the sword and ax.
The fourth part was accused by https://casinoplaymillion.co.uk/ many of stealing a brilliant idea from a much less popular one Disciples – troop selection concepts. By choosing, say, the crusaders, we were deprived of the opportunity to train monks in the city. However, if in Disciples it was thought out to the smallest detail, balanced and entertaining, but in “Heroes” for some reason it looked clumsy, clumsy and out of place.
Rejoice, friends! The thinkers from Nival made a Solomonic decision – to return to the model of the third part and open access to all possible troops. There are six castles in front of us – all as if by choice. In each of them you can train 7 types of troops and improve them. Improved fighters boast not only improved characteristics, but also special abilities. For example, Imperial griffins fly away from the battlefield exactly one turn, only to then attack their enemies with redoubled strength and fury.
Haven (Life) – a castle of knights, brave warriors and priests, a stronghold in the fight of the civilized world against hellish filth and the dead, and it is also one of the “long-livers” of the series. From game to game, the “heroic” world was mercilessly swept along by waves of reforms, but Haven, oddly enough, managed to elude change and changed very little. It happened here too. Instead of spearmen, peasants are offered, who are now capable of not only scurrying from the battlefield, showing their shining heels to their enemies, but also standing, gathered in mighty bands, for their native land.
Inferno (Hell) – antagonist of Haven, a gathering of demons, devils, devils and other infernal personalities obsessed with the unhealthy idea of capturing large living spaces, which, according to the traditions of fantasy games, are occupied by good people. In the fourth part, this castle was removed altogether, but then such a hail of indignant letters rained down on 3DO that Nival’s team returned Hell to its rightful place first of all. It has not undergone any special changes, except that the place of the shooters is taken by demoness succubi, and the gogi-magogs retired.
The most original castle is next – Dungeon, refuge of the dark elves. These comrades seem to have stepped out of the pages of R’s books. Salvatore, at least the surroundings are appropriate, the characters are just as disgusting, the tactics of warfare are identical. The inhabitants of the dungeons have a matriarchy, so do not be surprised that the majority of your charges will be women.
Academy – traditional castle of magicians, spellcasters and wizards. This castle is served by magical creatures such as genies, titans and rakshasas (cats who skillfully chop enemies into shawarma) and magically animated creatures. The inhabitants migrated to "Heroes" straight from eastern mythology. In general, a slight nod towards the East has always been characteristic of the Academy.
The second super-popular "regular" of heroic games – Necropolis (Necropolis) – definitely in stock. The necropolis, as many years ago, is ruled by necromancer sorcerers, who have gathered a huge army of the dead under the banners of darkness.
And finally, the last candidate for public favorites – Sylvan (Sylvans), natural-vegetable castle. This faction in its current state has not appeared in the battle arenas, but the fighters are well known to everyone: well-aimed elf archers, druids, dendroids. Perhaps the closest Sylvan came to Nature from the fourth part.
Carried along by the train of the plot, the positive races must unite under the leadership of Nicholas, Emperor of Men, and repel the forces of evil bent on taking over the world, despite the eternal failures in this noble endeavor.
The Motherland ordered to build.
The important process of settlement development is organized more than traditionally. The Town Hall and its descendant the Capitol, like the Mint, regularly churn out clean money. Forts protect cities from aggressive neighbors and serve as district military registration and enlistment offices. Magic towers teach spells of five levels: the fifth is the most powerful, the first and second are publicly available, but no less useful. In the market, you can exchange surpluses of some resources for those that the faction especially urgently needs; in the tavern, you can hire heroes and send a clever scout to your opponents, who will sniff out what’s what and tell you about the state of things. The forge can again build a medical tent, a ballista (a powerful siege weapon) and an ammunition cart for archers and other shooters.
Each castle was given one completely unique structure that provides certain benefits. For example, in a knightly stronghold you can retrain peasants into champions, and academic mages can leaf through old notes and learn how to exchange the souls of creatures for artifacts.
Experienced players will instantly understand the economic system. Of the seven resources, three (gold, wood and iron ore) are used for the construction of all buildings, hiring military units and various expenses; the remaining four (sulfur, mercury, crystals and gems) can be used to build the most advanced buildings and hire the most powerful warriors.
The character leveling system was mercilessly cut. The limit of skills that a hero can master is six. The magic component has undergone serious changes. There are only forty spells left, but their possible lack is partially compensated by “perks” that are similar in effect to enchantments.
We are marching in a long line to take the capital.
The game has moved to full 3D, but in this day and age it’s so hard to surprise. It’s a little unusual to contemplate “Heroes” in three dimensions at once, but otherwise there is nothing outstanding in the implementation of this technical idea. Nothing but cards. The maps are an example of design art, elaborate and detailed, we have no doubt that many sleepless nights were invested in each of them, and the result is obvious – you simply don’t want to leave these magnificent locations.
The main new feature is the "initiative" parameter. It determines how often units will attack. The less initiative, the less often the warrior contributes to the overall victory. The more, the more often it attacks. Shooters, for example, have extremely high initiative, and they manage to stuff melee combat luminaries with their shells, like a cushion of pins.
Special thanks to the developers for the added ability to replay the bad results of the Silicon Moron when choosing a “quick battle”. Sometimes it was simply impossible to trust the computer to control your pets, but now you are allowed to correct processor errors yourself.
The heroes were forbidden to enter into a brawl; their destiny was to sit behind the cordon and rain down assorted spells on the heads of their enemies.
Where, where have you gone, golden days of my spring??
The first blow below the belt awaits us almost instantly. “Heroes” has undergone a thorough redesign, the design style has completely changed. A dashing video in the start menu, showing a battle of a monk with the devil to the death, but quite the opposite, hurricane gameplay, fleeting, furious battles, after which you will not immediately get away from the action. Hmmm, parallels (maybe idolatry, but?) With WarCraft 3 so obvious that they hardly tried to hide them from the tenacious eye of meticulous players. I don’t argue that Heroes 5 looks considerably rejuvenated and rested from the labors of the righteous, but this fresh, original stream seems to have irreversibly washed away some of the fabulousness and fantasy inherent in the early games of the series. What can you do – a green orc is in fashion, with a proud roar “Zag-zag”, blowing the head of a light paladin to the Nerub Mother. It’s just a shame that this “tribute to fashion trends” now reigns supreme in the gaming industry.
Nival Interactive messed up the interface again. Answer me, dear developers, is it really difficult, having the professionalism and skills sufficient to create games that are good in all respects, to kick out the team that cut out interfaces with a jigsaw? Blitzkrieg 2, Operations: Silent Storm and hire neat workers? One must think that it is difficult, since “Heroes” suffer from the same problem – it is simply impossible to understand unclear buttons, strange icons and wonderful menus without alcohol-containing products. The main font of the game was unpleasantly surprising. Yes, it’s quite nice, but it’s completely standard – Monotype Corsiva, which every Windows XP user has. For a project of this scale, I would have liked more.
The artificial intelligence was also a little disappointing, it somehow doesn’t always work at full capacity. Either the enemies, growling and cursing, rush at full speed towards our battle formations, forcing us to spend the entire battle in extreme tension, or else they lie belly up in the sun and sunbathe, completely forgetting about the need to bruise the sides of the player. If a live player is emulated in this way, which is not immune to errors, I take my hat off to Nival. Otherwise, I’ll throw another brick into their garden.
And there are also bugs. Such fattened, arrogant fat bugs, missed by testers’ raids. There are no descriptions of items, the "Wait" button (don’t be alarmed, the W key works, thank God), scripts behave in an incomprehensible way, in the elven campaign half of the players, including yours truly, are stuck due to a failed trigger. It’s scary to even think what we could have seen if Ubisoft hadn’t moved the release date to May.
These eyes opposite, on the windowsill.
The developers copied not only the dynamics WarCraft 3, but also visual design. Say hello to bright, bold, cartoon-like graphics. In addition, they also saved on videos, most of which were created using the game engine, so the overall impression of the video remained ambiguous. On the one hand, I realize that there is and cannot be anything bad in the “Warcraft” graphics, but on the other hand, it’s the same as Half-Life 2, shining with all the colors of the rainbow. The atmosphere is ruined? No, no, completely recycled. Time will tell how justified such a rework will be; personally, I consider it more of a disadvantage.
The sound is good enough not to distract from the gameplay, but is significantly inferior to the excellent compositions from previous series. But there are a lot of tracks, according to the principle “if not quality, then at least quantity”.
Final comments:
I have two news: good and bad. I’ll start with the bad: the development of the series did not work out. Nival Interactive took all the best developments of the third and fourth parts, threw them into a large vat, filled them with graphics “a la WarCraft”, did not forget to add bugs to taste and served the resulting vinaigrette on the table. Good: these are still “Heroes”, the way we love them. This partly explains the high final score.
Plot. The story of the confrontation between the Beaver and the Donkey is present, but is entirely optional. The main thing in Heroes 5 is the action that takes place on individual campaign maps.
Graphics. Rainbow-bright, beautiful and juicy. Suitable for children’s arcade games, humorous adventure games and WarCraft 3. "Heroes" is not suitable.
Sound. Average voice acting. It’s a pity that the composers didn’t try a little more, because in games of this kind, the atmosphere is 50% created by high-quality melodies and background effects.