Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 Bundle includes Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 and its two expansions: Tribes of the East and Hammers of Fate.
Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 is a turn-based strategy game in which you can build cities and besiege them, train troops and slaughter them, and explore new lands...
Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 Bundle includes Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 and its two expansions: Tribes of the East and Hammers of Fate.
Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 is a turn-based strategy game in which you can build cities and besiege them, train troops and slaughter them, and explore new lands – and crush them under your iron heel. You directly command your armies on the battlefield and aid them with your character’s abilities as well as your own strategy skills. With six unique factions to choose from, each with its own set of buildings and creatures, Heroes of Might and Magic® 5 provides gamers with the strategy and detailed graphics that the series has been known for. As you progress through the game your character gains levels of experience that allow him to learn new spells and abilities. All this is set in the magical and enchanting setting of the legendary Might and Magic® universe.
Typical scenario, you chase an enemy hero to it's castle. The hero has almost no troops, and you were in the castle a couple days before, no troops to buy. Enemy hero enters castle then leaves, with a huge amount of high level troops of multiple castle types. This situation happens over and over with troop feeds to enemy heroes. The devs admitted to doing this, saying the ai was too bad to have any challenge to the player other than these troop feeds.
Just not fun to play. The Tribes of the East is the only one worth playing as it is more fair and balanced.
As I was unable to find a review that would give enough prise (IMO) to this game I decided to write my review for it (a bit late I admit :D but better later than never :)
I'm playing the series since well.. first King's Bounty if to consider it through HOMM1, 2... 5 Tribes of Eeast. We enjoyed ourselves playing the second and the third installment with my friends at home. I was very happy when I was sick and could play the whole day :) I loved every part of it. But the third, fourth and fifth are the best each in its own niche. Among them the fifth with Tribes of East add-on is my choice for the last 5 years. To let you probably better understand my preference I should tell you that I'm always playing on the hardest difficulty (the least resources/gold initially) without saves with my friends hot seat or solo vs PC custom game. I completely ignore campaign, and I also think that playing on easier difficulties absolutely trashes initial development tough choices and race balance (example: Wizards have problems with having the very first town hall upgrade requiring city level 5 for it. Thus they have tougher initial budget. But they have more town income later in the game than most other races thanks to the Treasure cave giving 500 gold extra. If you remove tougher initial leveling you will get only late game bonuses)
The main reason I consider this one the best: the abundance of meaningful choices, intricate balance and game diversity.
Pros (mostly compared to the 3rd one):
1. Skills rework in Skills/Abilities result in intricate in-direct way to affect Hero Development. Tough choice between taking several useful skills like Logistics, Offence, Defence versus having better chance to achieve specific ability (like embued ballista for rangers)
2. Massive diversity of skills/abilities with no skills feeling useless (maybe only barbarian magic suppressive ones) with only some abilities being questionably useful but often leading with very powerful advanced abilities. Example: scouting ability in logistics leads to swift mind which means your hero will have bonus 25% initiative for the first turn. That for instance might mean that you're guaranteed to prepare counter-spell before the enemy or cast mass haste in-time
3. Race specific abilities and buildings. To me - they are absolutely amazing and make every race play very differently.
4. Hero specialities feel way more defining and powerful. For instance having very though start on hardest difficulty might stress your choice between Wizard having fireball and effective spell power boosted for it with every x levels (way easier start) VS a Wizard that makes magic mirror ability redirect enemy offensive spells to his own creatures more often than to yours one (which might absolutely define mid game fight outcome)
5. Initiative. There are so many intricate ways to interact with it. To me it's way more interesting and strategic than having fixed turns. Separately to mention separation between speed and initiative, with significantly less ways to modify speed
6. Magic schools and nerf-rework of specific spells that used to feel to me way more useful that others in the 3rd part. Now everyone has access to short-range campaign teleport and town gate spell. No need to ALWAYS go for the earth magic to have town portal.
7. Alternative upgrades. They are superb with most choices either being meaningful alternatives (will u take Griffons with single target Double Dive power or Griffons diving along the line with now friendly fire but only once per combat and 0.75 against each target and having cumulative multiple retaliation bonus damage), early vs late game alternatives (like faeries that can heal-resurrect treants being obvious late game choice vs faeries with limited spell casting abilities), or mid-game-take both (djiins that grant curses/blessings can be combined in one army with djiins granting luck buff/debuff). The best part - you can change upgrade at any time in your town for non-significant amount of money
Now about the cons, non-pros:
1. Many people were upset by initial problems the game had with bugs and increasing memory consumption throughout prolonged gameplay. Most of it were solved and the game now very rarely crashes (for me at least)
2. Graphical art: I personally love both approaches, but some people dislike the change
3. The only real problem for me: is turn waiting time. That is definitely not fun especially on the largest maps
Overly to me the game seems like an improvement in pretty much every way (gameplay wise) over the 3rd part it's most compared with.
70% from Heroes 3, 30% from Heroes 4, and a lot of improvement. Didn't like it at launch. Quickly changed after I read about the game mechanics online. It was amazing and still a well designed Heroes of Might and Magic today. Can't count how many hours I've sunked into it. Love Heroes 3, and Heroes 4. Love this game even more.
After playing HOMM2 and HOMM5, I went to HOMM3 expecting it to be the ultimate bridge between the two, especially after so much hype. After all the time spent playing HOMM3, it is without a doubt in my mind that HOMM5 has superior options for customizing your party. You actually have choices in HOMM5, whether it is the type of upgrades your army will have versus the path you chose to level your Hero. As the names of the games imply, there really is a choice between going might or magic. It is pure fun, and the graphics and music support this. Keep in mind I like all games in the HOMM series.
Now onto HOMM3. Once you reach higher difficulties at the game, there are just way too many consequences for missing a single archer in week 1. The metagame is too focused on punching above your army's weight by spamming archers and kiting them around the map. It can be very, very boring to play. I still love both games, but if you are like me and enjoy the music, battles, and customization of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, I urge you to try HOMM5. It is a true successor to HOMM3 in every aspect. This game earned 5 stars, because I have yet to read an argument other than "HOMM5 is not made by 3DO so it's not really a 'true' Heroes game." To them I say, objectively, HOMM5 is a fantastic game. Period.
Heroes of Might and Magic is a very memorable franchise that has left a mark on the gaming industry and in the hearts of her fans. The fifth part was quite well remembered by me due to the variety of castles, their win back, uniqueness. Good graphic component and memorable campaigns.
