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| Heroes of Might & Magic 5 | 
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| From: Ubisoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $4.11
You Save: $15.88 (79%)
New (13) Used (20) from $4.11
Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 1362
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Windows Xp
ESRB: Everyone
Media: CD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 1.3
MPN: 100722
Model: 68292
UPC: 008888682929
EAN: 0008888682929
ASIN: B000BYQJC8
Release Date: May 23, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ships out next day, click expedited for faster shipping
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| Customer Reviews:
 Surprisingly good November 24, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Heroes of Might and Magic franchise used to be the best of the best when it came to fantasy turn based strategy games. But after the release of Heroes of Might and Magic III, the series has been going down hill rather quickly. With New World Computing, the developer behind the series, going out of business, the future of the Might and Magic series was in question. But then Ubisoft announced that it secured the rights to the Might and Magic series and that Nival Interactive would be developing a sequel. Most people seriously doubted whether or not Nival could actually breathe new life into a series which most already considered dead and buried. So expectations were not exactly high for this sequel. The good news is that Nival surprisingly managed to resurrect Heroes of Might and Magic from the dead and bring back its charm it had lost over the years.
If you have played either Heroes II or III, then you should know exactly what you are getting into in this game since it shares a lot in common with both of those. You start off most games with one hero and a low level castle. From there you must build up your armies to crush your enemies. But to do that you must go exploring, fight enemies, and build up your castle. The amount you can move is based on a daily allowance. Once you have moved all you can, you must end your turn. This moves the game ahead one day, allowing you to rest and giving the other players a chance to make their moves.
The maps are filled with resource to collect, artifacts to find, enemies to defeat, dungeons to explore, towns to capture, and much more. Capturing mines will put them under your control, giving you a set amount of that particular resource per day. But many of the resources on the map are guarded by neutral creatures, so you will have to fight to control them.
Battles take place on a grid with one army on the left and another on the right. Both sides take turns moving their creatures. A unit with a number on it represents a "stack" of that many creatures and will behave as a single unit. The amount each unit can move depends on its initiative, with faster units attacking first. The amount of damage they do depends on the creature's stats as well as how many units are in that stack. Many units have their own special abilities that they can use in combat. Also, heroes can directly attack units as well or cast spells with their turn comes up. There are over 100 different unit types in the game, giving a good amount of depth to the combat system. Knowing what units to attack and when to attack them is extremely important, as is positioning your troops on the battlefield and effectively casting spells. The AI does a pretty good job playing smart and will keep you thinking during these battles.
When you win, your hero will gain experience that you can use to learn new abilities. There are tons of different skills that you can gain, way too many to list, but they range from having your troops take less damage from melee attacks to being able to move greater distances each turn. No two heroes will have exactly the same set of skills, making each of them somewhat unique.
With all of the resources you collect, you will be able to upgrade your castle. There are a few different types of structures you can build. Some of them will allow you to recruit new types of units for your army while others, such as the mage guild, will teach you new spells. Some buildings will add defenses to your castle like turrets and others will increase the population growth of all your creature dwellings per week. The buildings you can create are listed in a tree diagram, which is similar to some RTS games. Many buildings have requirements that must be met before you are allowed to build them. Building your structure that gives you your best units before your opponents get theirs will give you a pretty good advantage in battles.
The single player game in Heroes V consists of six different campaigns, each of which consists of five separate missions. The storyline in the game is actually decent and is told through various in engine cutscenes. While the storyline and voice acting isn't anything special, it is good enough to keep you interested. Each mission has multiple primary and secondary objectives to complete in order to finish it. All of the missions are pretty well designed too, with lots to see and do. Most of the missions take multiple hours to complete, making Heroes V a pretty long game.
The game also features a few stand-alone missions as well as a few multiplayer maps. You can play the multiplayer maps over the internet, a LAN, or in hot-seat mode where you and a few friends take turns playing on a single PC. Multiplayer missions end when you destroy the other player's hero and capture his castle so he can not recruit another hero. This can take a pretty long time, meaning online matches can easily take a few hours to complete. Also, waiting for other players to take their turns can be pretty boring, making the online multiplayer not very appealing.
If the game's storyline doesn't suck you into the world, the games fantastic graphics probably will. Heroes V is the first game in the series to make the jump into a fully 3D world. The game features a pretty good art style. Everything in the world is beautiful with a good amount of detail in their textures. All of the trees and water animate, as well as many of the buildings, which makes the world come alive. The combat animations, especially those of spells, look pretty cool. Although, it is a bit annoying that the characters mouths don't move when they talk during the cutscenes. Also, sometimes you will have to rotate the camera around to see past buildings and trees. But overall the games 3D graphics is a great addition to the series.
Overall, Heroes V feels like an updated remake of Heroes III, which is great considering that many feel that Heroes III was the best in the series. The combat and tactics are as solid as ever, and the 3D graphics and interesting enough campaign make the game extremely fun to play. If you consider yourself a turn based strategy game fan, Heroes V is a game you should seriously consider picking up.
 Heroes of might and magic V November 11, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've played all the HMM games and was really looking forward to this one too. I was extreamly disappointed with it. I did not like the new graphics, they seemed too cartoony to me. They did away with caravans which I enjoyed in HMM4. I enjoy playing the side quests more than I enjoy the Main quests and HMM5 didn't have very many of them. An OK game but not worth $49.99. If you're a HMM fan - wait for the price to go down.
Take the time to learn your Hero! October 20, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
To really write a review of this game I had to think about the previous versions of the game and remember how I adapted to changes to the new versions. In the earlier versions I rolled from version 1 to 2 with no problem, and then onto 3 and found more reasons to love Heroes. It was Heroes 4 that I had difficulty with the transition. I found myself scrapping the game for awhile, the replay of Heroes3 is great. But one day I tried out Heroes 4 again, and worked thru the new interface. I found that it actually is a great game. I have been battling thru it ever since till the release of Heroes5.
When I loaded up Heroes5 I was excited, but quickly crushed by its difficulty to navigate and changes to the game, I was a little let down. But knowing my personal history to the new releases to the game, I gave it a whirl. I played a few of the scenarios before jumping into the campaigns. After some game play, the interface became easier, and I was able to jump into a campaign.
I do agree with "snootch". The game is Heroes3 3D. Not a bad thing. But after playing heroes4 for so long, I began to immediately miss some of the changes that Heroes4 had implemented. Such as caravans. That is something that I adore from Heroes4. Also, the ability to have more then one hero in your army.
I am mixed on the idea that they "dumbed" it down a little. I liked the complexity of Heroes4, but I can see the need to expel some of the traits of it. Heroes5 goes back to basics, and is an easy game for NEW players to jump in and enjoy. I would have never attempted to ever try playing Heroes4 if I had not played 1-3.
I play on a 2.26ghz with 2gb ram and an older GeforceTI4600. The game runs average. There are a few qwerks, but the game is playable. I see now with this release, I may need to update my hardware. I played it on my Dell XPS Laptop, I could use a little more ram. Just a little choppy.
As far as the code goes, I waited to buy this game for two reasons. First was that it was made by a new company, and Second was that reviews here were not so great. I read them and made a decision to buy a used copy. After my initial learning curve, I jumped into the campaign. I was a little dismayed that the 1st campaign is basically a tutorial. I was also a little perturbed that I was unable (so far) to keep other then my main hero into the continuing campaign. I even in the latest release patch found bugs, one that is a campaign stopper. My mission is to receive an artifact, but when I completed that mission, the artifact was not in my possession. The ledger says I have completed the mission, but I am unable to complete the scenario, due to the missing arti. And the game got shelved.
All in all I give it a 4 out of 5. Reasons are -1 for bugs, and that some of the traits are gone. But I give it +4 for being a great game and easy for new people to enjoy. (I know a contradiction, but I cannot just think for myself!) I say, give it more then a 5 min try. These are inherently long games to play, so give it some time.
Game is way too slow with addition of 3D views October 19, 2006
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
argh... I love HOMM series and played every one of them. Also played the entire series of Age of Wonders.
Heroes 5 has got to be the worst possible candidate to have 3D worldview. I kept moving around trying to click the heroe to touch an object of interest and missing it because the damn 3D view is never accurate. And it runs slow as a turtle on my Dell 8600 notebook.
My recommendation is to skip it. The 3D worldview is as useless as it gets and Ubisoft does not get it for some reason. They also made Scrabble 3D and it is so damn slow and crappy that I rather play a free version with nothing more than lines and letters than their version. Stuff like that just boggles the mind. Why make something so pretty and but unplayable and adds no value?
SKIP this game and get Age of Wonders or whatever else is out there. Maybe Ubisoft will finally get it right one of these days.
 Fun Game But Also Hard October 11, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Heroes 5 is defintaly a fun game but it is really hard, i was on the last level for the first campiangn (sorry about the spelling) and i was at the last level and i could never beat it i thought about selling the game but i downloaded patch 1.1 it has a easy mode but it was still kinda hard but i beat the level :) The graphics would be a 4 out of 5 because it does have great graphics but when characters talk most of the time you never see there mouth move. The music is really good, and i hope this helped people out. Overall this game is really good (YAY!!! i'm on the second campiang on the second last level!!!! :)YAY)
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