Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate (PC) (gamespy)
- gamespy -
Back in May when we reviewed Heroes of Might and Magic V, a few basic criticisms were laid out: not enough content, a weak campaign, spotty AI and buggy multiplayer. Despite these issues, and thanks to the core gameplay, the game proved itself to be a fun, if flawed, homage to the classic turn-based strategy series. It's six months later, and now Ubisoft and Nival are back with the first expansion, Hammers of Fate.
The expansion is a bit tough to rate because several of the upgrades included in Hammers are already available for free via the latest patch files for the original game. A huge problem with Heroes V was the lack of any editing capability, but that was resolved as Nival released an editor, and fan-made content is being churned out at a steady clip; of nearly 40 skirmish and multiplayer maps, 15 or so are new. There's also a random map generator, which is pretty basic and could use more options but works as advertised. A lack of content is no longer as much of an issue with Heroes V.
The expansion introduces a new town type: the Fortress, which brings the grand total of towns to seven. Fortress is basically a different way of saying "the Dwarfs." You get all of the basic trappings of any town, plus a few unique abilities such as Rune Magic, which is the Dwarf way of casting spells and uses resources rather than mana points. Some of the Fortress units are pretty unique, though, and not just your basic short, bearded fellows toting axes.
Back in May when we reviewed Heroes of Might and Magic V, a few basic criticisms were laid out: not enough content, a weak campaign, spotty AI and buggy multiplayer. Despite these issues, and thanks to the core gameplay, the game proved itself to be a fun, if flawed, homage to the classic turn-based strategy series. It's six months later, and now Ubisoft and Nival are back with the first expansion, Hammers of Fate.
The expansion is a bit tough to rate because several of the upgrades included in Hammers are already available for free via the latest patch files for the original game. A huge problem with Heroes V was the lack of any editing capability, but that was resolved as Nival released an editor, and fan-made content is being churned out at a steady clip; of nearly 40 skirmish and multiplayer maps, 15 or so are new. There's also a random map generator, which is pretty basic and could use more options but works as advertised. A lack of content is no longer as much of an issue with Heroes V.
The expansion introduces a new town type: the Fortress, which brings the grand total of towns to seven. Fortress is basically a different way of saying "the Dwarfs." You get all of the basic trappings of any town, plus a few unique abilities such as Rune Magic, which is the Dwarf way of casting spells and uses resources rather than mana points. Some of the Fortress units are pretty unique, though, and not just your basic short, bearded fellows toting axes.
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The Dwarfs can recruit spear throwers, vicious bear riders, rune priests, and fire and magma dragons. Pretty cool stuff. The units follow the same basic premise as all other town units (the "defender" being similar to the Haven peasant, and so on) but it's the details that make the units unique. The Blackbear Riders, for example, have skills such as Paw Strike, which can literally move an enemy after bashing it, preventing a retaliation strike. The Thane/Warlord unit can teleport and is immune to all lightning attacks. So while the Fortress units do not radically change the pattern of town retinues, they do add their own flavor to the game. The advanced units also look pretty darn cool.
The downside is that you cannot use the new Fortress heroes on any of the old game maps. This makes absolutely no sense and Nival has in fact stated that this is a bug that will be fixed; it's a shame that something like this wasn't noticed (or at least left unaddressed) before the game shipped.
In addition to the Fortress town, the expansion adds the obligatory new artifacts, a few new neutral map monsters (Mummies, Manticores), new skills, and brings back the Caravan feature from Heroes IV. Unfortunately, there are no new spells outside of the addition of Rune Magic. It would have been nice if a few new toys were thrown at the other town types.
The campaigns in the Heroes series have always been more of an afterthought to many fans. The lifeblood rests with the user-made content and one-off scenarios, and Hammers of Fate is no exception. There are three mini-campaigns of five missions each in the expansion, and it's clearly the game's weakest link. In fact, the first campaign doesn't even deal with the Dwarfs; it's a continuation of the weak campaign in the first game. You're controlling Haven units for several missions and even when the Dwarfs show up, the missions don't get any better. There is way too much tedium and map-puzzle solving in the campaigns; you are much better off just sticking to the individual scenarios that ship with the game and downloading some of the user-made maps.
The campaigns are not helped by the completely cornball cutscenes. This is another unfortunate carryover from Heroes V. The dialogue combined with the over-the-top animations are almost painful to watch. It would be a lot better if each mission was prefaced by a simple dialogue box telling you what is going on rather than watching these rough exchanges.
The game's AI is still hit-and-miss, but it appears that the AI is much worse in the campaign than in the individual scenarios. In a campaign mission, enemy heroes will attack you, but tend to ignore resource mills and other map goodies. In a one-off scenario, the AI will at times show brilliant tactical behavior. In one scenario, the AI emerged from an underground entrance, captured a city that was undefended, took over all of the nearby resources, bought up all of the castle units, and then played cat and mouse with my hero, daring me to try to take back the castle. So while the AI in the campaigns offers little to no resistance, the map missions are much more of a challenge.
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Previous game patches cleaned up multiplayer to a certain extent, but the expansion brings back simultaneous turns, which was sorely missing from the original. A turn-based game such as this is nearly impossible to play without being able to move at the same time, and while there are still a few connection kinks here and there, this is a much better multiplayer experience.
In the end, Hammers of Fate isn't a revolutionary step for the series (like the Dark Crusade add-on is for Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War). The forgettable campaign and the Fortress hero bug are both huge annoyances -- but the Fortress town itself combined with the new scenarios, random maps, and other goodies make it a no-brainer for die-hards of the series; it makes the idea of going back to the original unthinkable, which is the mark of any good expansion.
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