Heroes of might and magic 5 review. Review of the game Heroes of Might and Magic V. A new fairy tale in the old way

The past May, friends, will be inscribed in golden letters in the tablets of history. For it was in this month that all reasonable humanity finally waited for a miracle that they had been waiting for at least three years: the world saw Heroes of Might and Magic V. And as we know, it is this game that is destined for a difficult mission - the revival of the entire "heroic" series, which ordered to live for a long time exactly on the fourth part.

We have repeatedly published detailed materials about Heroes of Might and Magic V, closely followed the progress of work on the project, visited the developers' office and generally kept our finger on the pulse. It would seem that we have told everything that is possible about it, and each of you, probably, long before the release of the final version, imagined how it would all play and look like. So right here and now, we'll just take a close look at final version and sum up the many months of work of the Stakhanovites from " Nivala».

The Return of the Heroes

As you know, after Ubisoft acquired with giblets the rights to the "hero" series, her brightest minds decided to radically change not only the universe, but also the style of the entire series. Simply put, old world ruthlessly thrown into the dustbin of history, and not only new heroes appeared on the stage, but also a completely different universe.

The plot starts off very fast. No sooner had the noble King Nicholas got married to his beloved Isabelle, when hordes of villainous demons swooped down on the country, obviously gathered not to eat salad at the wedding. Now the forces of light will have to forge an alliance to take out the invaders feet first. True, in the end, everything will turn out to be far from being as simple as it seems at the beginning: almost every participant in the conflict pursues its own goals and wants to snatch a fatter piece under the guise.

We have, as before, in order of strict turn to play for each of the six races, looking at the events from all sides and snatching all the fat pieces. Note that the story is quite fascinating and intriguing, so it is very curious to follow its intricacies. Alas, now the whole plot is presented through introductory screensavers and voiced dialogues, and text messages, which abounded in the past parts of HoMM, have modestly receded into the background. Stepping towards progress, HoMM V still lost a piece of the charm inherent in the early "series". So it remains to be content with only story clips that appear at strictly defined moments.

Familiar heroes

Of course, you already know that the developers built HoMM V on the basis of HoMM III - the best part in the entire "heroic" series. And this basis was manifested in the fact that we have in front of us almost the same third "Heroes", wrapped in colorful 3D graphics. The gameplay here is so familiar that if you've ever played HoMM III, you'll be comfortable here almost instantly.

At the beginning of each campaign, under your strict guidance comes the main character, who must be protected in every possible way, provided with artifacts and, of course, lovingly pumped, increasing his characteristics. As before, with each new level, the character gets the opportunity to learn some skill or ability. In total, a hero can develop in four areas. The learned skills directly affect the specialization, making the ward either a powerful sorcerer, crushing opponents with the help of destructive magic, or a warrior capable of sending the strongest enemies to the next world with the power of simple iron. The set of character abilities remained generally the same as in the previous parts, but now each side of the conflict has two unique skills that are not available to heroes of other races.

However, do not expect to make a walking terminator out of your ward, because from now on, on each map, the ceiling for the growth of the hero's level is very low. Even a very highly pumped character deals weak damage to enemy soldiers and is only suitable as a support for the main forces of your army. Plus, now the heroes roam exclusively one by one and do not unite in groups, so build strike force from several heroes, with a mighty movement of the collective shoulder, turning a powerful enemy army into dust, it will not work.

Pay attention to the fact that from now on only the plot hero passes from mission to mission, and secondary characters lost somewhere along the way along with all the artifacts found. So you have to start each new mission with a completely empty inventory and a lone fighter. This approach, of course, is strange, but it allows us to maintain a kicking balance and saves us from the long pumping of several heroes or collecting all the artifacts on the map - in any case, they will disappear.

Otherwise, as already mentioned, everything is familiar. We roam the map, fight against evil neutral monsters, capture mines, collect resources, rebuild our cities and, of course, do not forget to create a powerful army, with the help of which we knock out feathers from the villains. Unlike the previous parts, many units now have special skills that are very useful in combat. For example, griffins can soar into the sky and fall on the enemy's head like a stone, destroying several times more soldiers than usual. This skill is especially effective against units that fight at a distance, as they are always difficult to reach. And demons, for example, can be transported almost instantly to any point on the battlefield. Do you know how fun it is to send a couple of hundred hellish Cerberus behind the impregnable city walls and destroy the enemy defenses from the inside? Proper use of such cunning tricks makes it much easier to win and, most importantly, turns the battle into a much more exciting experience.

Completely different heroes

If the comrades from Nival did not particularly experiment with the gameplay, then they did a great job on the graphics. Transferring the game to full 3D allowed the developers to create an amazingly beautiful and vibrant world. You look at the map - the soul rejoices. Obelisks shimmer with all conceivable colors, crystals sparkle so that it hurts the eyes, hard workers saw logs at sawmills, gold is mined in mines. The animation is excellent, the special effects make you click your tongue admiringly. At the same time, such a similarity of the game with an elegant Christmas tree does not create any inconvenience. Believe me, despite all the splendor here, you will never pass by a strategically important sawmill and miss a valuable artifact. But the most relish begins when the battle boils. Each fight here is not just an incoherent brawl, but an epic spectacle

Cities are worth mentioning as a separate item. When you rebuild all possible buildings, the settlement of people (for example) will look like a real fortress, where any inhabitant can hide. But the dwellings of the demons simply exude rage and chaos: all around is lava, smoke and the city of evil itself hangs over the abyss. It inspires, you know. In general, HoMM V turned out to be a stylish and very picturesque game. God alone knows how much the artists and designers of Nival have invested in this beauty, but what happened justifies all our wildest expectations.

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As we expected, the developers made a 100% right decision, not changing something that didn’t break anyway. They have gone down the right path and revived the series, giving the most classic gameplay ever, magical graphics and a handful of small improvements. Moreover, “our” craftsmen did not just wind up wild technological chips, but drew the world of a real fantasy fairy tale, where paladins dressed in sparkling armor ride powerful war horses, evil fiery demons literally exude rage, and long-eared and stunningly beautiful elves send clouds of arrows at enemies. Visually, HoMM V is so good that there is simply nothing to complain about.

Summing up the many months of work of the Nivalians, we can safely say that they turned out damn good game, which revived from the ashes (no matter how pathetic it may sound) forever, it would seem, the dead series of Heroes of Might and Magic. Well, besides, this is definitely the best turn-based strategy in recent years.

replay value-Yes

cool story-Yes

Originality-No

Easy to master-Yes

Justified expectations: 90%

Gameplay: 9.0

Graphic arts: 8.0

Sound and music: 9.0

Interface and control: 7.0

Did you wait? Now we can safely say that the revival of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic series has taken place! To tears, familiar and familiar gameplay, gorgeous graphics and a fascinating story at your service. You can't miss it, as you can imagine.

Do you know what happens when a revolution fails, and the right ideas die in street fights with financial turmoil? A crumbling bunch Might and Magic/HoMM buried 3DO under its rubble, and those who got hooked on "heroin" were waiting for a severe breakdown. Ubisoft's "crisis management" has seized on the brand so popular in snowy Russia with the grip of a hardened capitalist. Further - as in textbooks: the original universe is replaced by a bunch of fantasy clichés, elves have grown donkey ears, and the plot is served by rollers on the engine (in 99% of cases - without a hint of lip-sync ... it looks wild). That's it Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft are sold and are landmarks of a new era.

An old fairy tale in a new way

The funniest thing is that the game mechanics of the 1999 model are hidden behind the external gloss. AT HoMM 4 it was full of punctures, but still successful ideas prevailed, and the denial of her achievements is strange. However, to name HoMM 5 stomping on the spot does not turn the tongue. It's just another branch of the series.

The most serious novelty - the turn-based combat system is diluted with an important "initiative" parameter. Understanding the principle of its operation and making tactical calculations is not easy, and there is no need. It is enough to know: high initiative is great, low initiative is bad, and then the turn order panel will tell you. In addition to the confusion (how long do my spells last?), the innovation greatly enlivened the battles and put a fat cross on slow-moving zombie-type troops; while they hobble the cells measured out to them, the arrows will fire 2-3 volleys.

The rest of the fights proceed according to a memorized scenario. Restored in the rights of "exchange of blows"? Hexagons replaced by squares? Instead of divination, the hero can hit the reptile with a sword on the back of the neck (bypassing the walls, like Tamerlane from the movie "Day Watch")? Bash on bash. It is better to pay attention to the opportunity that has appeared for everyone to arrange an army before the battle (in the Russian version - "reconnaissance" (sic!), In girlhood - tactics mode) and a solid "quick combat" that allows you to replay "bad" results manually.

The promised six dissimilar parties to the conflict are on alert. The style was maintained in almost everything: light-religious people, matriarchal and petty dark elves, their romantic and nimble forest brothers, demons with a fiery engine in their chests and terrible necromancers... You believe in their sincerity, forgetting about the assembly line origin. Designers gave free rein to their imagination only when “designing” wizards, and it is no coincidence that avatars of Arab-Indian nationality are applied to the hookah without rest. How to relate to their "zoo" and its "star" - the gargoyle? And to the castle soaring in the sky, going for an emergency landing during the siege? However, the architecture is generally epic to the limit. Whether you like it is a matter of taste, and it will definitely not work to determine at a glance whether there is a desired building in the chosen city.

You have to constantly visit the construction menu. With luck, you will quickly find a button that opens the development tree. Or you will blindly struggle with an inconvenient interface and inexpressive icons. The honor of "Nivalu" makes a noticeable difference in the "technical progress" of the six races, the artificial limitation of "financial" or "military" breakthroughs (in order to build advanced buildings, it is necessary to raise the general level of the city, but the order of architectural exercises is close to arbitrary) and unique structures. Sorcerers change the souls of creatures for artifacts of given proportions, knights retrain peasants into archers, archers into swordsmen, etc., rangers train to inflict critical damage on hated enemies.

By the way, about the heroes. The local “pumping” is the best in the family HoMM, because the most sensible elements of the fourth part have leaked into it, and the excesses have undergone merciless cuts. Skills are the first to increase, many of which (logistics, leadership, luck) have already become a symbol of the series. Each of them carries several abilities with them. In addition, there are racial and specialization-related skills. The branches of development differ in the types of heroes and contain almost no passing skills. What is missing is a detailed help explaining the nuances and growth prospects on the fly.

The magical sciences have changed especially organically. The number of spells has been reduced to forty (popular ones are retained, and mass effects are now tied to "abilities"), plus spell-related "free" abilities. Obeying the philosophy "hero = unit", you can do magic only in his turn, and here the question is not when, a what apply. Techniques that directly deprive of health turned out to be very ineffective (this does not apply to a meteor shower that hits a huge area), and blessings and curses decide the outcome of the battle. Dumb warriors who have not even mastered the basics of sorcery are again in short supply.

"Mezhdumordie" with a scar

HoMM 5 is a very ambiguous game. The undertakings of the creators are like a selection, one is more useful than the other, but the implementation sometimes leaves a bitter aftertaste. heavy sins, fours There were congestion and protractedness, and they were dealt with mercilessly. Useless windows went under the knife, the unchanged "panel on the right" disappeared. There is a commendable desire to facilitate the interface by driving functions into a radial “flower” menu. In the name of noble goals, for some reason, they also slammed the summary information on the kingdom. As compensation - the hero data screen, with five tabs and no "doll", but with a lot of unused space and poor ergonomics. Yes, and "chamomile" is convenient only in half of the cases; sometimes it leads to uniform rabies. Hotkeys are good medicine, but not a panacea. For example, "M" is responsible for the transition to the market, and not for the usual "buy the maximum." So far, no one has died from unnecessary cursor movements, but spoiling comfort is much easier than achieving it. More blunders offhand: it is impossible to exit the battle to the main menu; after the “zoom”, you have to press on the “arrows”, since the mouse is powerless to move the virtual operator even by a millimeter; There is no "kruglyash" for the "Wait" command, although much more space is allocated to the usual "Defend".

Fortunately, unpleasant little things will not be able to ruin the work done. The game sped up noticeably, with "quick combat" enabled, a move rarely lasts longer than a minute. The camera does not cause any complaints either, but in the dungeons it needs to be active. Multiplayer fans should rejoice loudest of all, because Heroes 5 may become the first mass online TBS. Will it happen? Now it is impossible to say for sure. We promise: as soon as a stream of “heroins” pours into the open doors of the servers, we will study the balance, try the “Ghost mode” on the tooth, study a dozen maps, spend a night or two playing duels and share our thoughts. In a separate article.

A new fairy tale in the old way

The task of the "single" (in the absence of the editor), obviously, is to conduct a tour of the new world of the Might and Magic universe. Methods are appropriate. The non-campaign solo maps come with 'history quotes' and cutscenes, and if you don't want to miss a glimpse of the fresh setting, you'll have to split them up. The campaign itself is not dramatic; a person who is more or less familiar with fantasy can easily figure out “unexpected” plot twists. The vaunted shades of gray have turned into a trivial confrontation between good and evil, but this is unlikely to upset anyone. The presentation is very good: colorful images of the pragmatic necromancer Markal, burning (in every sense) the archmage Zehir and the old faithful dog Godric's crowns will be remembered more than the empty content of the briefings. For those who do not dare to order English Heroes 5, and will be limited to a ten-dollar jewel, - greetings from the standard "Nivalov" voices from "

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The line between conciseness and banality is thin. Yes, few liberties in style Wake of Gods. Yes, sometimes we are led by the hand, and the final chord is a chain of eight battles without saving. Having looked at the screensaver, transparently pushing for the purchase of the upcoming Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and once again weighing the impressions, you understand - these are just spots in the sun. No matter how many mistakes Heroes 5(and, unfortunately, there are enough of them), the game saved the spirit and crazy “drug” of the series, giving it a charge of vivacity. After sighing about the few innovations and swearing at the interface, everyone will play it. Without exception.

The first part, which appeared in 1995, competed with Master of Magic and Warlords. The second - developed everything good ideas, showing itself more ambitious, balanced and thoughtful. It was already a 100% hit. The third was awaited with great impatience, and it was a real explosion! Almost all gaming publications in March 1999 came out with the same cover. In the spring of that year, the main occupation of most people with a computer was "playing Heroes." Having snatched off a bunch of awards, it took its rightful place in the pantheon of the best games of all time.

Over time, two add-ons came out, which aroused no less storm of delight among the playing public than the original. Then there was a misunderstanding called Heroes Chronicles. part 4. And it appeared in 2002, becoming one of the most controversial events in the world computer games. One part of the gamers admired, the other spat, disputes on the topic “Heroes of Might and Magic 4: is it good or bad?” did not subside for a long time, but still the fact remains - the fourth clearly did not reach the popular love for the third part.

And then, having finally released two mediocre add-ons and the no less mediocre Might and Magic 9, 3DO went bankrupt and ceased to exist. This day has become truly black for all fans of the cult series. But in 2004, Jesus, Allah and all the rest had mercy on sinful gamers, and Ubisoft commissioned Nival to make the fifth part. The Russian studio set to work, and now, a little over two years later, we have the result of their work. Well, it turned out great! But first things first.

New world

The first thing I would like to pay attention to is the game world. The universe of Might and Magic, of course, was huge and detailed, because we must not forget that it has developed over a period of more than ten years. But, on the other hand, her story turned out to be very confusing, and, apparently, the developers simply did not want to understand all the intricacies. Thus, a new fantasy world- moderately banal, moderately heroic, well thought out, but without pretensions to something special. Although nothing of the kind was required of him - after all, we play Heroes for other things. By the way, I recommend reading the history of each of the factions on the Nival website - and then the events taking place during the campaigns will become more understandable.

Campaigns, in the amount of six pieces, are connected by a single storyline. An approach is used that is well known to the players from before: we start playing for the “good”, then for the “bad”, and then - as it turns out. The following video introduces us to the course of events: King Nicolai decided to marry Lady Isabel, but, as you might guess, nothing came of it. Evil demons attacked the Sacred Griffin Empire exactly on the wedding day. At the same time, the most agile of them made his way into the church in which the newlyweds were getting married, and jumped straight out of the altar, like a devil out of a snuffbox, frightening all the guests to horror. Only Nikolai did not lose his head. He drew his sword with the clear intention of killing the reptile, not forgetting, however, to order the faithful Godric to hide the bride away from danger.

So, we start the first mission in the Summer Palace. Lady Isabella, worried about the bad news from the front line, sends diplomatic missions to the elves and magicians, and she hurries to the aid of her beloved. The plot is quite predictable and naive, but, on the other hand, this is exactly what you expect from the next part of one of the most famous series. As they say, under the beer will roll.

Who will we play?

There are now six factions - Academy, Sylvan, Dungeon, Haven, Inferno and Necropolis. The developers have thought through each of them well, thanks to which the parties differ not only in buildings, heroes and trained troops, but also in a certain worldview. For example, the magicians from the Academy fully support the English philosopher Francis Bacon in that "Knowledge is power", and the elves from Sylvan are typical druids who love nature and harmony.

The main innovation in terms of factions was the appearance in each of them of some opportunities (Racial Abilities) that are not available to rivals. For example, the heroes of the city of Haven can train monsters, as a result of which they increase their level by one. Necromancers have the ability to resurrect some of the dead after the battle, returning them to the ranks of the undead army. Magicians from the Academy construct certain artifacts with which they make the warriors of their army stronger. Representatives of the Inferno faction during the battle can call for reinforcements from the demonic world. Druids from Sylvan can choose which enemies their troops will fight against. increased strength. And, finally, Warlock "and from Dungeon harms the enemy with his spells, even if he is protected from the effects of magic. To use these features, the heroes need to pump the appropriate skills. Assessing the above innovations, I would like to note their positive impact on the variety of gameplay for different cities.

Let's talk a little about the monsters that cause certain associations with their counterparts from the third part. Units can be called differently, but, in principle, it is clear that Champion from HoMM 3 and Paladin from are practically the same thing. Personally, I liked this approach - despite new world you immediately feel at home. Most of all, Dungeon differs from its prototype in the third part - now it is a settlement dark elves, and representatives of this race occupy a place of honor in the local army. All other cities, in principle, are the heirs of certain factions from HoMM 3, and the composition of the armies differs not so significantly.

Monsters have stats such as attack, defense, speed, hit points, ammo, and damage. There was also one new, very important characteristic- initiative (about it - below). Those creatures that can cast also have a certain amount of magical energy. Many types of troops have special abilities - the already mentioned Paladins hit harder if they were dispersed before that, Horned Overseer can explode, causing harm to the enemies surrounding them. There are few neutral monsters - four elementals and well-known to us from the previous parts death knight and Phoenix.

Among the most powerful units, Black Dragons dominate, which cannot but please the admirers of these winged creatures. By the way, the animation of the warriors looks good. And it's nice, because the "disabled with a mace, suffering from hemorrhoids" from the fourth part haunts me in nightmares for many years.

Taking the role-playing system from HoMM 3 as a basis, "Nival" finalized it, making it deeper, giving more freedom for the development of heroes. There are four permanent characteristics, as before. The hero is also characterized by indicators of morality, luck and mana. I think there is no need to explain anything here, and everything is clear. But with skills and abilities it turned out much more interesting. All skills have three levels of development, with the exception of those that allow heroes to use Racial Abilities. For them, in addition to basic, advanced and expert, the ultimate level is provided. We get a total of 12 skills plus one unique for each class of heroes.

Each of the skills allows you to learn from four to five abilities (Abilities). Moreover, if the first three are the same for all factions, then the fourth and fifth differ, and also require the hero to fulfill certain conditions. For example, to learn Dark Renewal, which allows you to get all your mana back if the spell fails, you first need to master the Master of Mind and Weakening Strike skills, the latter of which itself requires the knowledge of Mark of the Damned. In addition to this, each hero is endowed with an additional ability inherent only to him (although, I’m lying, some of them are found in two different characters). In addition to standard specializations, as a result of which the characteristics of a certain type of troops are increased, there are also quite interesting options. For example, one of the necromancers has Soulhunter, as a result of which friendly ghosts appear in the place of each dead squad.

In total, we get just a huge amount of Abilities (for each class, of which there are only six, there are more than sixty of them available). It does not make sense to describe everything here, I will only note that when we get a level, we choose what to learn for the hero: one of the two proposed skills or one of the two skills. Given the fact that at the end of a campaign or scenario, the most strong hero gets to about level 25, players need to clearly think through the development of the character for many moves ahead, setting as the ultimate goal the achievement of a series of Abilities of the highest order.

The abundance of skills and abilities gives great opportunities for strategic planning, and also diversifies the game for different cities. The role-playing system is clearly a success, being the most ambitious and thoughtful in the history of the series. Top score, for sure.

Now how to cast ...

The concept of magic hasn't changed much either. Four schools of spells are available for study: Destructive Magic (specializes in causing damage by elemental forces), Light Magic (this includes all kinds of spells that increase the characteristics of warriors plus one attacking spell against the "dark"), Dark Magic(curses and corruption plus an attacking spell that only affects living creatures) and Summoning Magic (the most diverse school of magic: summoning elementals and phoenixes, attacking spells, increasing performance, destroying castle walls). There are also four Adventure Map Spells that do not require any knowledge of magic. To learn them, the hero must have a certain level. Among them, the most useful is the Town Portal, which allows you to instantly move to the nearest city.

There are five levels of spells in total. To master a spell of the third level and above, you need to know the skill of the corresponding magic school (basic - for the third level, expert - for the fifth). Abilities, on the other hand, allow you to strengthen a certain group of spells (example: the Master of Wrath ability provides a mass effect to Righteous Might and Haste spells, while increasing their cost by two times). The balance between might and magic is well maintained - you cannot defeat the strongest army with magic alone, but magic is the most important element of battles, often deciding the outcome of the battle.

global map

On the global map, everything is the same as before - we explore the territory, collect resources, look for artifacts, capture mines and replenish the army in outposts. It will not be superfluous to visit local educational institutions in order to raise characteristics, master skills or learn spells. Well, do not forget about the search for Tears of Asha, an analogue of Holy Grail. Naturally, the action takes place on two levels (in the dungeon and on the surface), connected by transitions. There are also various teleports for faster movement around the map.

There is only one innovation - three-dimensionality. It’s beautiful, of course, and it’s comfortable to control the camera, but sometimes you don’t notice something useful behind the next tree. Yes, and navigate in space is not always convenient (especially in dungeons). However, you get used to it pretty quickly, and after a couple of days you don’t even remember that the previous parts were in 2D.

When the fight starts...

But the main thing in "Heroes" is, of course, battles. And the developers approached this component of the game with the greatest responsibility. Was taken as a basis combat system from all the same Heroes of the Might and Magic 3, reworked and improved with some interesting finds. The most important innovation is related to the initiative. It determines not only the order of moves, but also their number! Now it is not uncommon for one of the monsters to act several times more often than the other. And units with low values ​​of this parameter have time to walk only two or three times per battle (only the Haste spell can help here). Morale now does not give the unit an additional attack per round (there are no more rounds), but increases the initiative when calculating the next turn queue. In order for the player to know who will act and in what order, the interface combat mode Active-Time Battle Bar was built in, where everything is clearly visible.

As for the hero's participation in the battle, the ability to move around the battlefield has been lost. As in the third part, it is located in the upper left corner of the screen, however, in addition to being able to cast and use some abilities, it can also directly attack enemies. A pumped character is able to kill a dragon or other strong monster, although, of course, spells higher levels do much more damage. Except standard mode, in the settings you can enable dynamic mode. Its meaning is that each unit is given 10-20 seconds per turn. Maybe it will suit someone, but personally I prefer to play without time limits.

Sound and color...

The graphics are good. The textures are beautiful, the models are made with love (although, of course, more polygons could have been stuffed into them). The effects of spells are made on a solid five. But the greatest delight is contemplation global map. So, probably, a fantasy world should look like - beautiful, lively and colorful. True, there is one catch: to enjoy the picture in the standard resolution of 1280x1024 for most LCD monitors in high quality and without brakes, you need a video card with 256 meters of memory. And if the resolution is reduced to 800x600, we get, of course, not at all the same ...

The music did not let us down either, for each faction their own compositions were written, made in a good fantasy style. The sounds emitted by monsters also do not cause any complaints. That's just the voice acting of dialogues during scripted videos that promote the plot is not always happy.

Time to play...

Heroes are back! And they returned victorious! Despite the rather naive plot and some other minor flaws, the game has everything to become a hit, winning the hearts of gamers. Thoughtful role system, interesting battles, great graphics - the developers did their best!

All the campaigns have already been completed, and now the players are hard at work on the maps in Custom Games. This coming weekend I have a Hot Seat game scheduled with former classmates with whom we worked diligently in the ninety-nine in the third part. And I already feel sorry for the students who will fly out of universities without passing the session, and the graduates who will not go anywhere. But agree good game worth some sacrifice.

Despite the abundance of parts, add-ons, variations, and so on, in our time, the expression "let's play Heroes" refers precisely to the third part of the great series of turn-based strategies. Even though I agree that I'm 150% great, is it worth it to sit on the same game forever? If you agree with me, then the next review is especially for you - we meet!

However, in fact, there is not so much of the very same, which is a series of ancient RPGs of varying degrees of class. they did not step into the dangerous swamp of the official canon, and simply rebooted the entire universe so as not to suffer. The world of Ashan resulting from such manipulations has its own long and relatively well-developed history, is inhabited by approximately the same races as Enroth ... Well, in general, this means only one thing for you and me - it's time to look for new characters dear to our hearts!

And there is someone to look for: the plot of the game, which develops over six campaigns for each of the available races, is bursting with an abundance of heroes and villains, defectors, traitors, neutrals and similar personalities. As usual, everything revolves around the local kingdom of people who were attacked by evil demons, and not someday, but right during the wedding of the King of the Griffin Empire (I don’t know how they do it, but the local empire is ruled by a king, not an emperor . Oh well) on his beloved Isabelle. Everything goes to hell very quickly (sometimes in the literal sense of the word), and the conflict instantly covers the rest of the factions. And while the tone of the story is mostly pretty fairy tale, things don't always go well...

From myself I will say that I personally liked the campaign very much in terms of plot. The characters are quite well written, they have their own motivations and delusions, and their morality is not always strictly defined. The story is usually conducted with the help of cutscenes on the game engine, however, due to some of its imperfections (more on that later), they do not look very nice. Although maybe I just miss the sheets of text that gamers were fed not only in plot moments, but in general always. Found an artifact? A little story about a find. The obelisk that opens the Grail card? There was a small description of him. There are no such things here for the sake of some acceleration of the gameplay (because neophytes are not used to imagining something in video games, but are waiting for a direct feed with a beautiful video).

Yes, yes, the gameplay, I remember. Well ... Most of the innovations, from which one half of the planet cursed, and the other fought in, sorry, ecstasy, were cut out, leaving the classic "three" gameplay. There are changes, yes, but they are of a kind of "subcutaneous" nature. For example, units have a huge number of skills and features. Classic swordsmen, for example, can now move their shield before attacking an enemy so they don't get hit back, and wights can touch the enemy with their hand, removing all buffs and killing exactly one squad member. These abilities can be activated randomly or manually, or even be passive bonuses, but their knowledge can greatly change the course of the battle, especially if the hero is trained in a certain way.

This is where the biggest change in gameplay lies - the level system has been completely redesigned. From now on, the knight or elf or sorcerer you lead can learn less skills, but each, except for the level, also has special "skills". Example: Isabelle can learn Light Magic so that the next time she levels up, she will either increase her skill or take a skill that allows her to cast some spells in one fell swoop on the entire army. Moreover, the ability to get especially powerful things depends on what kind of hero you have, and what set of skills and abilities he has already acquired. Do you want your units to be lucky? always(if anything, a successful attack deals double damage)? And this is possible, although you will have to make more thoughtful decisions with level-ups. And finally, the developers did their best and made every acquired ability useful - the time has passed when, due to the vicissitudes of fate, your hero lost a skill slot in vain, having received "Navigation" on the map without water at all.

Finally, each race also has its own "native" feature. For the undead, this is traditional necromancy, which raises the percentage of those who died on the battlefield in the form of skeletons, but, say, for wizards, the ability to make mini-artifacts for their troops. In general, elves can invent deadly opponents for themselves, who will be threshed with special fury, and people (with an impressive investment) can retrain peasants into archers, monks, horsemen, etc., up to angels. These skills are very strong, as you might guess, but they also require appropriate time-resources.

Another new feature is the "initiative" parameter, which now shows who moves earlier in battle. It came out a little ambiguous in my opinion, or it is not explained well enough in the game itself. The meaning is this: the higher the initiative of the squad, the earlier its turn comes. Starting from a certain size and depending on the composition of the enemy troops, the squad can even start moving twice in one battle round. And so that the player does not have to memorize a hundred dynamically changing numbers, a special bar has appeared in the battle interface that displays the order of actions of the units. Extremely convenient addition, even I miss it now.

All together, this forms a rather pleasant gameplay, very variable when there are no outsiders and leaders. They obviously worked on the balance for a particularly long time, and there are almost no misses (well, almost none). Many things have been smoothed and arranged for greater efficiency and speed, which is important in multiplayer (those who played Heroes online know what it means to wait for your turn in a battle for 8 people. And if it was also Heroes III WoG... ). By the way, in addition to normal modes there was also a kind of "duel" - a 1 on 1 battle without any strategy, with a set of troops at will before the battle.

Of the bad things, the main one, I think, can be called serious problems with computer opponents - on low difficulties they look like idiots who hardly figure out where they are at all and what to do, but on high ... It turns out the same thing, only with considering that AI gets a bunch of concessions in the form of resources out of thin air. Thus, sometimes games against the PC turn into fights with cheaters, and they, as you know, are not very pleasant. And yes, they are monstrously brake.

According to the old hero tradition, players for the undead are hated with all their heart and soul, because necromancy allows you to have a stack of archer skeletons at the time of serious skirmishes that will be scary even for black dragons, but in recent patches this was fixed by a total and exorbitant nerf of this ability . Of course, I'm for balance and all that, but it's a little insulting. Here.

Well, to end on a positive note, I'll talk about the visual presentation of the game. She is gorgeous. We could end here, but I’ll explain: usually, no one succeeds in moving from 2D to 3D the first time, but it happened to do so. Yes, the style has changed radically. Yes, it has become more fabulous. But is he bad? Look at the human units, especially the improved ones - what beautiful and massive armor adorn them, protecting them from any danger! Or demons, burning with eternal flame and inspiring awe with their troops. And the point is not only in the form, but also in amazing animation! It is so good that it is not a shame to use an active camera showing especially beautiful moments in battle. Separate praise to the developers for the titans, which are corny enemies kicking for their size, and for the pretentious liches with their volumes of forbidden magic on chains, too proud to touch opponents with their bony hands. But here's one minus, okay: if you decided to sculpt such an abyss of cut-scenes, why didn't you at least make mouth animations for the characters? They look like chess pieces in them, damn it!

The musical style chosen by the composers perfectly suits the mood of the game - to the best of epic, to the best of speed, vocals in a couple of convenient places ... To be honest, I didn’t like the soundtrack the first time I went through the campaign, but in my subsequent “heats "In the world, I found my amusing and melodic themes, which are very, very pleasant to listen to. This cannot be said about the voice acting, because Russian actors sometimes have notable inconsistencies in intonations with what, where and when they pronounce. Strange, considering that - the Russian firm.

In general, that's all. A worthy continuation of the series, albeit doing it in neat steps, capable of delivering pleasure for many months of playing. will take pride of place in the line of turn-based strategies with its head held high, and you and I can expect the continuation of the saga, both in the form of both add-ons and full-fledged sequels.

Genre: step-by-step strategy
Release date: May 2006
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Nival Interactive
Multiplayer game: there is

Introduction

I think to introduce you to a series of games Heroes of Might and Magic c (colloquially just "Heroes") makes no sense. Only the most ardent hater did not play these games turn-based strategies. For the rest, the word "heroes" is associated with weeks continuous play, diligent passage of complex maps. Basically, I don't have to tell you. I'd rather tell you about the freshest heroes - about the fifth part. Let's get acquainted, .

System requirements

The game can be safely classified as a category of games with high resource intensity. Of the features - 6Gb of hard disk space and installed DirectX 9.0c.

Heroes 5: Gameplay

It would be logical to compare the new heroes with the previous parts. But usually the differences are "one, two and counted", so let's just take a sober look at modern heroes and evaluate them according to what the developers have come to today.

Of course, the first (and most significant) surprise is the excellent 3D graphics. But we will talk about its positive (and negative) sides a little lower in the corresponding part.

The intuitive interface became the second surprise for me personally. Not that it would have been very difficult to play before, but I got used to the new interface in a matter of minutes. Of course, the new design not only makes a pleasant impression for the player, but sometimes complicates the process of getting to know the game a little. This is where everything goes just fine.

Let's move on from surprises to everyday life. As usual, on each card, the most expensive for you is main character, whose killing will result in defeat. You can also lose if you lose all the cities and do not have time to win back at least one in the next week.

The hero still has a highly developed leveling system that allows your hero to be useful in battle. To do this, you need to choose basic skills (up to 5), each of which will allow you to learn three more resulting skills. For example, the skill "Defense" will allow you to learn a "magic shield" that reduces damage from magic. Each of these skills has several stages, so it can take a very long time to level up a hero.

The city interface is made conveniently. On the right are the main control buttons (building, buying troops, etc.), and on the left are additional functions (purchasing resources, hiring heroes, etc.). To protect the city, you can leave the hero, under whose control the entire garrison will pass.

Well, the most frequent occupation in the heroes should be called battles. In the settings, you can activate the function of constant auto-battle, but for true strategists, this function will be superfluous. After all, we need to constantly prove to the computer that we are smarter than it.

I practically did not use auto-combat, but even those times it was enough for me to once again be convinced of the superiority of human thinking over computer - there were much more deaths on our part than in the case of manual combat.

Let's look at the combat mode. At the bottom in the middle is a strip of moves, which displays the sequence of moves of the troops. The thing is very useful, it allows you to develop the right strategy and avoid unnecessary sacrifices. In case of loss of troops (or deterioration of morale), the strip adjusts to the new conditions. In general, an irreplaceable thing.

But sad was the lack of a "wait" button. It turns out it's not all that bad. You can switch the army to defense mode using the shield button, and you can make it wait using the button on the keyboard ("W" key). Therefore, for those players who have always had enough of one mouse to play, this will not seem like a strong omission.

During some attacks, the camera moves closer to the troops and allows you to enjoy the battle in a new way. After all, it is very nice to look at how the hero makes a wave of a magic wand and a block of ice falls on an enemy warrior. or how a stone gargoyle beats his enemy with a large block. It doesn't look as colorful from a distance as it does up close.

An interesting feature is the trace that remains for some time on the path of the hero. After the magician there are clouds of smoke, after the devil - fire. Nothing special, but it looks nice, allows you to take a little break from the game.

Depending on the key skills of the hero, unique operations can be performed in the city. For example, you can turn living warriors into dead ones of the corresponding class and rank. Or you can create special pendants (or spheres) from resources that provide individual troops with various bonuses (for attack, defense, etc.). A trifle, but sometimes very useful.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of going through campaigns in such games, but still played a little, and I liked it. So everything is fine with the campaigns in the game. And for lovers of free cards, there are about a dozen of them in the game. And of course, we don’t forget about the expanses of the Internet, where, if desired, you can find a whole mountain of maps. My only advice is you first base maps pass ;)

Heroes 5: Graphics

As I said, the graphics in the game are fully three-dimensional with excellent rendering of details. To make sure of this once again, look at the following screenshots.

Only now 3D graphics entails some negative points. For example, tall trees cover smaller units (neutral troops, treasures). Of course, the camera can be easily rotated in different directions, but this is a waste of time. Personally, I think that such a drawing for turn-based strategies is a bit redundant. Beautiful - of course, but if it leads to any discomfort, then this is no longer good.

Heroes 5: Sound

The sound design in the game is simply excellent. And okay, there is background music, but you really plunge into the battles with your head. The blows of each warrior are individual, and the magic is simply mesmerizing. With the right skill, it will be possible to generally determine by ear who struck whom and what kind of magic the enemy has now used. Five with two pluses.

conclusions

Fans can rejoice. In the fifth part, they received not only excellent 3D graphics (albeit with some negative consequences), but also a great sound. Of course, the game has a "new" spirit of battles, which will allow you to once again dive headlong into this fascinating world.

This game should definitely be in your collection. And if she has already found her place there, then buy more and give to the best friend he will be very grateful to you.