Rough start to a rough sequel (Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (PC))

Member Name: MaestroRage

Product:	Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (PC)
Date:	12/09/08 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great music, great village visuals

Disadvantages: glitchy system, generic story

Heroes of Might and Magic. An infamous franchise whose cult following simply couldn't support it anymore. After 3DO sold the company and game rights to Ubisoft HoMM5 was the result. Though i'm a big fan of Ubisoft's work, this time around they completely missed the mark.

The biggest flaw was step one. The game was released way before it was ready. Messy and often lethal glitches, horrific screw ups and with those glitches carrying over to online play, a rather sour experience the first time around, which likely failed to bring in lots of new fans to the franchise.

The second mistake was the 3d take on the game. The 2d lush sprite work which is an already severely lacking and dying quality in today's games ruined the feeling of fantasy with somewhat generic looking models. The units were decently balanced and the races available were true to the franchise. The missions were a bit more complex then the others, but with that said, they were also very linear. Unlike the first 4, HoMM5 had a very weak storyline.

By weak I don't mean it was bad. No, by no means was it bad. But it WAS generic. It was a well told generic story which leaves little to no impression on the player. Even now, just having played it a couple months ago, I remember close to nothing other then the fact it meant nothing to me. The vivid and expressively written story that felt like playing a book in the first 4 was all but abolished by ingame acted cinematics and decent voice acting.

The combat system admittedly IS more complex, in both better and worse ways. Better because it felt like playing a chess board game, allowing you to make calculations better then you'd be able to in the fourth, and all the heroes of the game could use special scrolls or runes or something to buff up their soldiers.

The only thing they did absolutely right in my opinion, is the music. Paul Anthony Romero glistens with inspired talent and musical prowess in this title like the fourth. The human town theme was absolutely gorgeous, and elven town theme not far behind. And though there were some weak titles in the game's score, many of them were memorable and I listen to them regularly.

Summary: Failed to achieve memorable status.