Heroes of Might & Magic V

Picked up the limited edition yesterday. It plays very similar to HOMM III, but with a major graphics upgrade. It looks pretty, but the new graphics do sometimes make it tough to find things on the world map. The AI seems OK (which is a huge improvement from HOMM IV), but not great. A few minor quibbles:

- I much prefer scenarios over Campaigns. I find that campaigns in TBS games tend to be way too 'puzzle' oriented (you have to find the exact way the developers intended the map to be played), which turns me off. Problem is, there are a grand total of 9 scenarios, and a few of them just simply aren't any good. There is also no scenario editor included, so we can't expect anything from the community. I would kill for a Random Map Generator (a la HOMMIII), but that likely won't come until the expansion.

- The documentation is pretty poor. You'll be left guessing or experimenting with a lot of powers and items because it's not clear exactly what they do.

- The difficulty is all out of whack. You'll cruise through 3 campaign levels, then get blindsided by something that takes a dozen tries to get through. Again, the puzzle aspect that bugs me.

- The music - as in all HOMM games - is fantastic. But the 'soundtrack' that is included with the limited edition is only playable from a DVD player. That's rather irritating, considering that's really the only reason I picked up the limited edition.

Overall, I'd say if you liked HOMM II or III, then give this one a shot. It's fun, and hopefully they improve it with patches and expansions.

Jam it back in, in the dark.