Heroes Of Might and Magic V (Mac/DVD)

A turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy world of 'might and magic', where you play your heroes with varying armies, built up in the castles you own - or conquer. Armies come in six flavours (elves, necromancers, humans, etc.). Castles start out pretty basic, but with the resources you collect (wood, iron, gems, etc.) you can gradually build them up to produce more developed armies, up to dragons, the most powerful units; or magic, or defensive structures...This is the 5th instalment of the series, so by now the system is well worked out, the graphics are 3D and slick, the gameplay smooth. With over 90 creatures/armies and six campaigns (each with a series of sub-games) this will keep the solo player occupied for weeks and months; and there is multiplayer for endless diversion, too.But the main thing - is it fun to play, does it keep your interest/ Well, as a personal opinion - yes. I find HOMM5 pretty addictive, and (at 'hard' level) pretty tough going - some scenarios I have to play several times before I manage. There is the occasional rather boring interlude, while you have to build up your town to build your forces to a size you can attack with; or the frustrating time-limited scenario where you keep on losing! But I am playing this for the second time all the way through now, and it is eating my evenings...

A fun way to waste away hours and hours alone or with friends, plotting, scheming, strategizing, ambushing...Visually the game looks more like Warcraft than did Heroes IV, that is when you're out about the map. The battles are almost identical to Heroes III which takes some getting used to for those of us who've lived and breathed Heroes IV for a long time. When attacking a city, though much like Heroes III and therefore very annoying in the beginning, actually grew on me very quickly and I now think it's... dare I say more realistic?... than Heroes IV.The game looks great. Enough new features to make it new. Enough of the old to keep it familiar. Good old Heroes of Might And Magic is newer, bigger, better.I truly enjoyed the game and would recommend it to anyone. Yes, even to those who've never played this type of game before.

The graphics are very good but this comes at the expense of game play with can be a bit boring and on my iMac has frozen the computer more than once. Only 3 stars due to unreliability