Jason
chasing a bee
After dealing with the twin humiliations of Fileplanet and Starforce, I had a chance to play the recent beta for Nival's Heroes of Might and Magic 5, published by Ubisoft. Unfortunately, it was strictly multiplayer. As we all know, multiplayer is only good for Koreans and child molesters. So I explored the outlands of the internet and found a fix that unlocks the single player portion of the beta, thanks to some guy named Maximus.
The first thing I noticed about HOMM 5 after loading it up is that it looked somewhat purty. The art style was a bit too bright and exaggerated, but it was nowhere near as bad as World of Warcraft or most Japanese games. Unfortunately, it also ran like shit on my mid-range computer. It was still fairly choppy even after setting the texture quality to "Very Low" and the resolution to 800 x 600.
The main campaign wasn't available in the "modified" single player component, but the Hot Seat option was. I started a new 2 player match playing as the Inferno faction against Heaven. For my hero I chose Lord Jazaz, Flagbearer of Darkness. He was also a cross-dresser.
Lord Jazaz started his unorthodox lifestyle on the world screen. From there he could gather piles of gold and claim ore mines in an effort to quickly build his stunning new wardrobe. He could then switch to the city screen to recruit new life-partners and plan his city's expansion. The choices for an Inferno city included a Town Hall, Mages Guild, Hell Gate, and other fine establishments. He could pay a visit to the Tavern to hear uninteresting rumors and hire new heroes if need be.
Back on the world screen, Jazaz would occasionally encounter haters and have to engage in turn based tactical combat. This took place on an eighty square grid. Each turn, the peons could move or attack one of the other peons. I could decide the angle of a peon's attack, but that's about it. There didn't seem to be very many options, at least at this low level. Jazaz stood majestically outside of the grid, aloof to the turmoil within. He could attack any of the enemy peons or cast a spell (if he had any). The enemy peons could not attack Jazaz, but some could steal bits of his mana. Despite being invincible, killing Jazaz's peons would cause him to lose the battle and flee the scene permanently. I would have preferred it if he could be damaged or killed in battle instead of just running away when the peons were wiped out. As it was, it felt very anti-climatic and unsatisfying.
Eventually, the unthinkable did happen. Lord Jazaz lost all his life-partners and he fled like the timid little queen he is. I had the choice of hiring a new hero at the Tavern, surrendering to Heaven, or quitting to the desktop. I couldn't imagine replacing Lord Jazaz or surrendering, so I quit to the desktop.
As you can probably tell from the screens, the game still has a way to go before it can be called a finished product. The recent delay has bought Nival a few months at least for plenty of fine tuning. Lets hope they spend that time on improving the iffy tactical combat and not on spell animations or new city expansion tweaks. If they do it right, Lord Jazaz may one day rise again.
The first thing I noticed about HOMM 5 after loading it up is that it looked somewhat purty. The art style was a bit too bright and exaggerated, but it was nowhere near as bad as World of Warcraft or most Japanese games. Unfortunately, it also ran like shit on my mid-range computer. It was still fairly choppy even after setting the texture quality to "Very Low" and the resolution to 800 x 600.
The main campaign wasn't available in the "modified" single player component, but the Hot Seat option was. I started a new 2 player match playing as the Inferno faction against Heaven. For my hero I chose Lord Jazaz, Flagbearer of Darkness. He was also a cross-dresser.
Lord Jazaz started his unorthodox lifestyle on the world screen. From there he could gather piles of gold and claim ore mines in an effort to quickly build his stunning new wardrobe. He could then switch to the city screen to recruit new life-partners and plan his city's expansion. The choices for an Inferno city included a Town Hall, Mages Guild, Hell Gate, and other fine establishments. He could pay a visit to the Tavern to hear uninteresting rumors and hire new heroes if need be.
Back on the world screen, Jazaz would occasionally encounter haters and have to engage in turn based tactical combat. This took place on an eighty square grid. Each turn, the peons could move or attack one of the other peons. I could decide the angle of a peon's attack, but that's about it. There didn't seem to be very many options, at least at this low level. Jazaz stood majestically outside of the grid, aloof to the turmoil within. He could attack any of the enemy peons or cast a spell (if he had any). The enemy peons could not attack Jazaz, but some could steal bits of his mana. Despite being invincible, killing Jazaz's peons would cause him to lose the battle and flee the scene permanently. I would have preferred it if he could be damaged or killed in battle instead of just running away when the peons were wiped out. As it was, it felt very anti-climatic and unsatisfying.
Eventually, the unthinkable did happen. Lord Jazaz lost all his life-partners and he fled like the timid little queen he is. I had the choice of hiring a new hero at the Tavern, surrendering to Heaven, or quitting to the desktop. I couldn't imagine replacing Lord Jazaz or surrendering, so I quit to the desktop.
As you can probably tell from the screens, the game still has a way to go before it can be called a finished product. The recent delay has bought Nival a few months at least for plenty of fine tuning. Lets hope they spend that time on improving the iffy tactical combat and not on spell animations or new city expansion tweaks. If they do it right, Lord Jazaz may one day rise again.
