Reviews
- by Angelspit
There is a fairly brief review of version 1.5 of the Mac version of Heroes of Might and Magic V at Macworld. After a plot summary and a general description of the gameplay, the article focuses mostly on the pros and cons of the Mac port and the Cider technology (which prevents the game from running on anything but Intel Macs).
"It’s perhaps worth considering that Heroes of Might & Magic V was TransGaming’s first public effort to “ciderize” a Windows game, so there has been a learning curve involved—it hasn’t helped that the earlier build of HOMM V was plagued by bugs that affected the Windows version, and that obviously affected the Mac version too."
Six months after the release of the Mac port, we can wonder if the Hammers and Tribes expansions will ever get ported to this platform. Doubtful I'd say.
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- by Angelspit
A few days the publication of the Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword review (the title is describes as a great expansion), GameSpy's Heroes specialist Allen Rausch posts a preview of the Tribes of the East expansion. He tries the Shatter ability and wonders what kind of impact it will have on the game's balance:
"As Orc leaders level up, they'll gain access to special "Shatter" abilities that weaken or even altogether block certain kinds of magic. Enough money and sacrificial victims on the altar and I had enough "Shatter Magic" levels on my hero that I was able to run over a bunch of powerful human mages like they were just a group of old guys in silly robes. The problem, of course, is one of balance. Factions that rely on suppressing others' abilities often become either unstoppable or road kill, so it should be interesting to see how the team at Nival deals with the Orcs."
Also of interest is the fact that the Orc town is once again called "Bastion" in the article (GameSpot did the same thing if I remember correctly), and GameSpy mentions September 25 as the release date. Now that the major previews are done with, I guess there are only a few weeks left before the last Heroes V expansion goes gold.
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- by Angelspit
On GameDaily you can find the first of what is probably going to be a series of previews about the Tribes of the East expansion this Summer. The author explains to a general audience what the new features of the game are, without going into the details -- therefore, anyone who kept an eye on this page won't learn anything. Unless you didn't know that Tribes will be a standalone game:
"Many expansion packs to strategy games end up so large they could be considered entire games, and Tribes of the East looks like it fits that bill. Ubisoft and developer Nival must have realized this, as they decided to make the game a special form of expansion in the vein of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Tribes of the East will be both a stand-alone game which can be purchased and played by itself, or an expansion to an existing installation of Heroes V. This gives newcomers a chance to get a feel for the game and its new additions before deciding to purchase the entire Heroes V chronicle."
Of course, the Shadow of Death was packaged this way as well, back in 2000.
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- by Angelspit
There is a new book featured in Marzhin's little book club. The Sea of Mist was published exactly one week before the September 11 attacks, and marked the end of the Might and Magic novels. Marzhin provides a detailed plot summary and tells us what he thought of the book.
Finding the book in a brick and mortar store is very difficult. You could try Amazon
instead.
- by Angelspit
Former Celestial Heavens contributor Erica Marceau (Harukaba was her pen name here) reviewed the Mac version of Heroes of Might and Magic V for Applelinks. While the final score is positive (four stars out of five), she warns the readers that the game might not appeal to everyone and expresses her concerns about the expansions that might not be ported to the Mac. According to her, Heroes V is the best game of the series for a newcomer to get started. Here is the bottomline:
"Heroes of Might and Magic V is a fun game and a worthy addition to the series. For those who don't usually play turn-based strategy games, I can think of no better game to get them started on the genre, and those who do probably already have their copy by now. Until the v1.5 patch is released it's going to be a bit frustrating considering the stability issues, so it might be best to wait to get your copy until they're fixed. Once they are fixed, HoMMV will definitely be a worthy addition to anyone's gaming library."
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- by Angelspit
The official Might and Magic site includes screenshots of the Tribes of the East expansion Sylvan alternative upgrades, along with some statistics and special abilities. The new upgrades are the following: Dryad, Bladesinger, Sharpshooter, High Druid, White Unicorn and Rainbow Dragon. For an image of the Anger Treant, you need to switch to the French version of the site. All screenshots can be enlarged.
It's been a long while since we last saw anything interesting on the official site. Let's hope we'll get to see the upgrades of the other towns during the next weeks. What do you think so far?
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- by Angelspit
Round Table member Richard Hallas wrote a review of the Intel-powered Mac version of Heroes of Might and Magic V for Inside Mac Games. With a full page for each major components of the game, the article is very detailed and thorough. The games gets a 7.75 out of 10, with high grades for gameplay and graphics and lower scores for sound and value.
"Heroes V is not without its flaws and drawbacks, but the bottom line is that it's a wonderful game. However, I think it's fair to say that it doesn't reveal its charms quite as quickly as its predecessors in the series. For example, one has to progress deep into the campaign missions before many of the game's secrets are revealed; it even takes a very long time before you get to see all six town types. There's more to this game than meets the eye, but that fact is not at first apparent, and you have to spend a very long time playing before you really start to appreciate the game's finer points. That's not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but the upshot is that there may be a vague sense of disappointment with the game, initially at least."
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- by Angelspit
You may remember Kevin Sung's summaries of the Heroes of Might and Magic V plot to which I linked to earlier this year. While recovering from a major jaw surgery (check out the day-to-day pictures in his archives), Kevin took the time to review all tracks from the Heroes V score. Here is his take on the swamp theme:
"In the past games, swamps have been associated with very morose melodies. Here, the composer breaks the mold by turning the song into pure dissonance. And yet, it works. The tolling bells and background howling do well in reflecting the mood of the necromancers who have taken up residence."
He does a good job of finding the bits and parts that are reused from one track to another, and the central melodies Romero and King have used as the core of their very cinematic score. Nearly a year later, what do you think of the music from the latest Heroes game?
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- by Angelspit
Because a few years ago having more than one review for a Heroes map seemed a very unlikely event, the map database currently supports only one review per map. For that reason, two reviews written by Psychobabble overlap with existing articles by The Qurquirish Dragon. I'm publishing them in the forums for prosperity, hoping we will have a multi-review system someday. Read what Psychobabble thought of The Keymasters and Triple Trouble here.
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- by Psychobabble
Angelspit has kindly uploaded all the reviews I put together, with input from the other judges, of the map contest maps. The easiest way to see them all is to go down the bottom of the contest page where each of the entries is listed.
Click on the Read our Review button in the map database results to display the associated review article.
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