Heroes of Might & Magic 5

Heroes of Might & Magic 5
Studio	Nival Interactive
Publisher	Ubisoft
Erstveröffent- lichung	May 18, 2006
platform	Windows , Mac OS
genre	Turn-based strategy game
Subject	Fantasy
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
control	Keyboard , mouse
system advantages preconditions	OS : Windows XP / Vista CPU : 1.5 GHz RAM : 512 MB Graphics card : 128 MB Storage requirement (HDD) : 1.5 GB
medium	1 DVD-ROM , download
language	German
Current version	1.6
Age rating	USK PEGI

Heroes of Might & Magic 5 is a turn-based strategy game by the Russian developer Nival Interactive for Ubisoft . The game was released in May 2006 for Windows and Mac OS . It is the first in the series developed under Ubisoft.

action

The young King Nicolai wants to marry the young Lady Isabel, but a demon interrupts the wedding ceremony. Nicolai calls to arms and begins a campaign against the forces of evil. The game includes six factions, each with its own campaign: Haven, Inferno, Necropolis, Dungeon, Sylvan and Academy.

development

Work on Heroes of Might & Magic 5 began at New World Computing shortly after the release of the fourth part. However, due to the bankruptcy of the parent company 3DO in the summer of 2003, the product was never completed. The rights to the Might & Magic series were auctioned and acquired by Ubisoft for $ 1.3 million.

From 2005, Ubisoft entrusted the Russian development studio Nival Interactive with the development of the fifth part. The unfinished work of New World Computing was not taken into account. Instead, they turned to the fans and took their suggestions on board. As a result, Heroes of Might & Magic 5 is based more on the third part preferred by many fans and many changes to the fourth part, such as the heroes integrated into the army, were not included again.

The release was originally planned for March 2006. After massive criticism of the beta version of the game at that time, the release date was postponed to the second quarter of 2006. The final release date was May 18, 2006. A demo version had previously been published on April 13, 2006 . It contains two of the six campaign parts of the full version and a single player card. The playable factions are limited to Haven and Inferno. Six out of 18 heroes can be tried out in the new "Duel" online mode.

Fan manual

Since the documentation of Heroes of Might & Magic 5 is rather poor, a fan manual was written by several internationally distributed fan sites in cooperation with the developers, which describes the game including the expansions in great detail.

reception

Heroes of Might & Magic 5 was good although restrained Ratings ( GameRankings : 78.93%).

Ratings

• 4Players : 86%
• GameStar : 86%
• PC Games : 81% (single player) / 85% (multiplayer)

Add-ons

Hammers of Fate

In November 2006, the first add-on for Heroes of Might & Magic 5 appeared with the subtitle Hammers of Fate . The most important new content is the new faction of the dwarves and their special rune sorcery. The single player campaign is expanded by 15 missions and continues the story of the main game.

In addition to five new single-player and ten new multiplayer cards, it also includes a random card generator.

Tribes of the East

On October 10, 2007, the second add-on called Tribes of the East was released, which is supposed to complete the story of the Heroes 5 series. The most important innovations are among other things the new faction of the orcs as well as an alternative upgrade option for units. It is fully playable without the main game.

expenditure

The basic version of Heroes of Might & Magic 5 was delivered in several different editions:

• in normal edition with the game on DVD-ROM and manual;
• in a limited edition for the North American market, which in addition to the game also includes the third and fourth part of the series, three additional scenario cards and a bonus DVD with extras such as a soundtrack. In the game itself, the player has an alternative hero aura available, but this has no effect on the course of the game, but is only of an optical nature.
• in a deluxe edition with the aura and the three additional cards from the limited edition, an artbook, a unit reference card and a version of Heroes of Might & Magic 2 optimized for Windows XP .
• in a Super Collectors Edition , an edition limited to 4000 copies that was only available through the Ubi shop. This was the deluxe edition, which was packed in a larger black box and contained a cloth bag with a silver coin. As a competition, Ubi hid a gold instead of a silver coin in one of the 4,000 copies. The buyer of the gold coin edition won a PC.
• Heroes of Might & Magic Complete contained the normal edition as well as parts 1 to 4 including their expansions, but no further extras.

Together with the expansions, some game bundles were also released that combine the main game with the expansions:

Silver Edition

In spring 2007, the Heroes of Might & Magic 5: Silver Edition was released , which contains the basic game in the unpatched retail version and Hammers of Fate.

Gold Edition

On November 8, 2007, the Heroes of Might & Magic 5: Gold Edition was finally released , which contains the basic version, Hammers of Fate, Tribes of the East and a bonus DVD with various trailers, a developer diary and other extras.

Complete Edition

After both expansions for Heroes 5 were released, the Heroes of Might & Magic Complete Edition came out in an oversized box. Like the Heroes of Might & Magic Complete mentioned above, this contains all parts of the series with their expansions, but this time including those of the fifth part. There were also a few extras such as the Gold Edition bonus DVD, a T-shirt, tarot cards and more.

Web links

• Official website of the Ubisoft Might & Magic franchise
• Heroes of Might & Magic 5 at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rob Fahey: Namco, Ubisoft and MS carve up 3DO assets ( English ) In: Gamesindustry.biz . Gamer Network . August 18, 2003. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/heroes-of-might-magic-5/test/heroes_of_might_magic_5,34633,1461918.html
3. ↑ Link to download the demo
4. ↑ Heroes V Demo - Heroes of Might and Magic 5. Accessed December 31, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Link to download the manual ( Memento of the original dated May 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/927207-heroes-of-might-and-magic-v/index.html
7. ↑ http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/PC-CDROM/Test/3273/4559/0/Heroes_of_Might__Magic_5.html
8. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Heroes-of-Might-und-Magic-5-PC-58860/Tests/Heroes-of-Might-und-Magic-5-472740/
9. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Heroes-of-Might-und-Magic-5-PC-58860/Tests/Heroes-of-Might-und-Magic-5-Mehrspielertest-479160/
10. ↑ Announcement of the add-on Hammers of Fate