As I was playing the Heroes 5 demo, I was struck by a few things about the maps which I felt I could comment on from a map-making perspective so I thought I'd write some map reviews. These obviously aren't proper reviews, as the game is a brand new one to me and the maps (and the game itself) isn't in its final stage - they're just my initial thoughts on the demo maps. So please take them in that spirit and I hope you find them interesting.

The Fall of the King

Design: 7
Graphics: 8
Story/Concept: 8
Overall: 8

SP: 5
MP: 0

Pros: You felt like you were under siege, decent challenge.
Cons: Risk/reward balance a bit uneven, starting instructions unclear.
Overall: A solid, small, map which integrates story with game play well.

Comments: This is a brand new game for me, but I'm happy to report that the fundamental rules of Heroes map-making still seem to be relevant. I’m also happy report that this map gets pretty high marks on the most important of those map-making rules – create a concept and implement it through complementary map design. The concept of this map is simple, but shifting. After the introductory town capture/hero rescue sequence the story (which is full of generic fantasy clichés, terrible writing and poor voice acting, but hey) shifts to a siege narrative. Two days later the signs of the approaching siege come onto your screen with an enemy hero running up from the area you began your quest at.

The difficulty levels of these early siege battles was extremely well controlled in my experience. I played first through on normal difficulty and then on hard when I had gotten the hang of the game and both times I felt a distinct but not overwhelming pressure from these attacks. Getting the balance of your forces right between adventuring and defending in this early stage of the game was an important and enjoyable strategic decision. Once you had beaten back a few town attacks, the game shifted into a find the oracle hunt which was a good idea.

Unfortunately in implementing this exploring phase of the map one of the other rules of map-making was routinely violated – the risk/reward balance. With the exception of the oracle in the centre of the map, the oracles were very poorly defended. This was in contrast to the all important 3 piles of random resources to be found in some areas of the map (far upper right, centre-right) which were defended by stacks of tier 6 or 7 neutral creatures. When I take on stacks like that I expect to get some good lewt in return, and when the map goal relies on me finding some oracles I expect more than some tier 2 creatures to be guarding them. This issue wasn’t fatal to the concept of the map, but it did indicate room for design improvements.

The graphics were the hardest part of the map for me to judge so I haven’t really bothered to. This is a brand new game, I am totally unfamiliar with the map editor’s capability and this is the first map of the game I’ve played so I’ve got no standards by which to judge the graphics. I gave them an 8 cause they look technically proficient, at the very least.

All in all, this was a solid map and a good one to open up the demo with in my opinion. As the story shifts, so does the game play and there was enough challenge there to keep the player interested and to force them to make interesting strategic decisions.

Errors: None noticed

Date of review: 18 May 2006

The Betrayal

Design: 9
Graphics: 8
Story/Concept: 8
Overall: 8

SP: 6
MP: 0

Pros: Very well integrated chase story, good design.
Cons: Somewhat unclear objective and small size.
Overall: A nice little taste of what Heroes V can give in the ‘pseudo-RPG’ map genre.

Comments: One of the things I and many others liked about Heroes IV was that the hero-in-combat system allowed for RPG-style maps to be created in addition to traditional Heroes maps. This map seems designed to catch that RPG flavour and it does a reasonably good job of it, even if it is a bit weird that you have a couple of hundred demons following you around as you dash from sanctuary to sanctuary to escape detection by your pursuers.

The premise of the map is a bit unclear at the start but it soon becomes clear what you’re meant to be doing – running for your life! There’s no way you can take on the army bearing down on your heels but luckily by the time it’s about to catch up you there’s sure to be a well placed sanctuary for you to hop into. You apparently become invisible in these places because if you wait for a day or two your pursuer will be far enough away that you can continue looking for your ultimate escape route. Soon enough you find an underground tunnel and a few battles against neutral creatures later, you’ve won the map.

All in all, this is another fun if small map, which shows that there is some variety possible in the Heroes V engine.

Date of review: 18 May 2006

Falcon’s Last Flight

Design: 6
Graphics: 8
Story/Concept: 7
Overall: 6

SP: 4
MP: 0

Pros: Good challenge.
Cons: Poor concept and design.
Overall: Not a great map, there’s simply no strategic potential or real enjoyment to be had with it.

Comments: The basic setup of this map is fine. You’re an invader coming up from the dungeon to face a well prepared and thus stronger enemy. Unfortunately the map poorly designed and strikes me as by far the weakest of the demo maps. You notice one minor annoyance right up. There are a number of creature dwellings within 3 days ride of your town but you have no tavern to hire a secondary hero from. Thus, if you actually want to get the creatures from these dwellings you have to ride your hero on a one-week loop, picking up the creatures. This isn’t my idea of fun.

But there is a more serious problem with the map in that you simply don’t have any strategic options. There is one path to your enemy but it doesn’t really matter how fast you go along there because they already have their army and town built up to a very strong level. I played through the map twice, once I took my time and when I broke through the AI had conquered most of the neutrals above ground. The second time I went much faster and it hadn’t captured much at all. Each time their army was approximately the same strength.

Now, I knew there was a to-be-fixed error in the map in that the enemy would never re-capture the town, making an easy win possible, so I didn’t do this. Instead I tried to take on the main army. This army is very strong. It has a bunch of upgraded level 7 creatures and 1000+ marksmen, which make short work of your army. There’s simply no way of taking on this army if you attack it straight away. The problem is that you have no legitimate way of closing this army gap. The enemy has a fully upgraded town to hire creatures from and you can’t take enough of their mines away quickly enough to cause them any major resource shortages. They also have approximately the same number of external dwellings as you do. So I can’t see how it’s possible to beat the map if you just hire all your creatures for a couple of weeks and then go attack, and even if you could that’s not really my idea of fun.

So what I did was corner the (much stronger) computer army in a dead end and thanks to the wonderful strategic map AI it didn’t attack me. I gated in creatures every week for five or six weeks until I was strong enough to win the final battle. This also wasn’t much fun. The final battle was quite enjoyable, but the whole map seemed a bit silly. I’m not sure what else I was meant to do (I played it twice to try and figure it out, with no success) so in the end I’m just a bit confused as to why this map was included in the demo, really.

Errors: None noticed.

Date of review: 18 May 2006