Heroes of Might And Magic V

GAME SNIP
Genre: Turn Based Strategy
Developer: Nival Interactive
Publisher: Ubisoft

Pro's: Immersive Gameplay, lots of units to choose from, varied races, beautiful world

Con's: Races aren't really varied enough to impact strategy, sound is mediocre, campaign lacks depth, camera problems (especially underground)

HOMM V is the latest in the long and famous Heroes of Might and Magic turn based strategy games. While mixing some RPG elements in, it's only in a limited fashion, and the game makes no real effort to cross over into the RPG domain. This is probably a good idea in the long run. While the game makes no real effort in innovation, it also does not make the mistake of biting off more than it can chew by trying to overcomplicate things.
Gameplay wise, it’s a pretty standard turn based strategy game in a fantasy setting; it plays it safe. The armies are still stacks of units, just as they were in the previous HOMM games, and the races are pretty standard as well. The units look nice and varied from race to race, but in reality, each race has basically similar units that mach up against each other.
The new 3d graphics are a nice step for the series, and the game looks great, though they really don’t find a way to make good use of it other than highlighting attacks from units some of the time. The camera, however, is not as well done. It's very limited to start with, and when underground it's actually quite often difficult to click on where you want you're hero to move, as the graphical additions include overhanging rock walls in the underground caves, which actually block you from selecting units that are under the overhang without rotating the camera first.

The sound and voice acting in the game are pretty lackluster. A few years ago they probably would have been more acceptable, but given that many developers these days put more emphasis on believable voice acting, it’s more obvious. Also, unit effects and spells that seem like they should have more presence, sound wise, simply do not.

Overall: 68% - A fun game, really fun and it has good graphics to boot, but slow paced, with lackluster sound, and doesn't even try to innovate. If you're a fan of the genre, worth a look, and if you're a fan of the series, then you probably already own the game.